Tokyo Olympics Should Add a New Medal: Broadcasting

by Claudia Gioia

The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee and Olympic broadcast partners (RHBs), have also created a suite of digital tools as part of the “Share the Passion” project.

The Tokyo Olympics will feature the most Spanish-language coverage in US history. Rio 2016 had 273.5 hours of coverage while London 2012 had 173.5 hours.

In the USA, NBCUniversal will air more than 7,000 hours of coverage across TV and digital platforms – a US Olympic record, in Japan, TV coverage of Tokyo 2020 is expected to be around double that of Rio 2016 and, across Europe, Discovery Eurosport will air up to 4,000 hours of live coverage on its TV and digital platforms. This unprecedented level of content will be available in 50 territories. Five billion people across both linear TV and digital will be able to watch it.

 Furthermore, the IOC and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), working with the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee and Olympic broadcast partners (RHBs), have also created a suite of digital tools as part of the “Share the Passion” project. It will allow athletes to engage with friends and family in the venues and allow fans all over the world to be actively involved in supporting their athlete heroes.

Here are a short list of these tools:

  • Fan Video Matrix:

Allows fans to be a genuine part of the experience by sharing their reactions to the sporting action in five-second video selfies, which will be displayed as a video matrix inside the venue.

  • Cheer Map:

A virtual “cheer” button will be embedded on several broadcasters’ digital platforms. Fans can watch the broadcast feed of an Olympic event and virtually clap or cheer by clicking the button. The system collects all the cheers and renders a global map of “cheer activity.” The map is sent as a video stream to broadcasters and showcased on venue video boards.

  • Athlete Moment – Family & Friends:

At selected venues, Olympians will be able to interact live, straight after their competition with their family and friends back home through dedicated “Athlete Moment” stations.

For Tokyo 2020, OBS will again push the boundaries of Olympic broadcasting by producing more than 9,000 hours content, 30 percent more content than for Rio in 2016, in more formats, to assist the world’s broadcasters in bringing the games to the world. The full live coverage will, for the first time in Olympic history, be in Ultra High Definition (4K) HDR with Immersive Audio (5.1.4). Audiences around the world will be introduced to never-before-seen camera angles, 360-degree replays, multi-camera live Virtual Reality (VR) coverage and more analytical data processed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) than at any previous Olympic Games, including: Intel’s True View cameras, which offer, for the first time, immersive replays for all basketball matches.

True View builds three-dimensional, 360° video through an array of cameras installed high in a stadium or arena. Athlete-tracking 3D technology has been developed in collaboration with Worldwide TOP Partners Intel and Alibaba. This first-of-its-kind broadcast technology uses AI and computer vision to enhance the viewing experience with near real-time insights and overlay visualizations during the athletics sprint events (100m, 200m, 400m and 4x100m relay, as well as the decathlon/heptathlon). Viewers will be able to understand at what exact moment each sprinter reaches their peak speed and analyze the different phases of the race in detail through a full set of race statistics.

We will be able to follow the full US Team and the top representatives of Latin America and the Caribbean such as:

  • Canelo Álvarez: Boxing, Mexico.
  • Mariana Pajón: Cyclism, Colombia.
  • Monica Puig: Tennis, Puerto Rico.
  • Abraham Ancer, Golf, México.
  • Alexa Citlali Moreno Medina, Gymnastics, México.
  • Belén Adaluz Casetta, Running, Argentina.
  • Juan Miguel Echevarría Lafie: Longjump, Cuba.
  • Fernando Gaviria, Cyclism, Colombia.

Undoubtedly this year the Olympics will be different, but fortunately, due to innovation and technology, a large number of fans will still be able to enjoy it.

Related content:

 Latino US Olympic Athletes Competed Strong

Hispanic Athletes- Latino Countries at Sochi

A Recap of USA’s Latino Olympians

U.S. Latino Athletes Poised to Shine in London