Cloud computing surpasses satellites for the first time! More than two-thirds of

On the early morning of July 27th Beijing time, the Paris Olympics are about to commence. This year, cloud broadcasting is set to officially surpass satellite broadcasting, becoming the primary method for Olympic events to reach billions of viewers worldwide. It is anticipated that the 11,000 hours of live event footage from the Paris Olympics will be distributed globally through Alibaba Cloud. This marks another significant technological advancement since the introduction of satellite television broadcasting at the 1964 Olympics.

According to reports, OBS LiveCloud will be the main method for remote distribution of live broadcast signals for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with two-thirds of the remote services currently booked being processed through cloud computing. The Olympic Broadcasting Cloud, based on Alibaba Cloud's global public cloud infrastructure, will support the transmission of live broadcast signals from Paris to over 200 countries and regions worldwide, reaching billions of viewers.

A historic first! Cloud broadcasting surpasses satellite broadcasting.

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During the Paris Olympics, the OBS Cloud, a joint creation of Alibaba Cloud and the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), will become an essential infrastructure for global broadcasting of the Paris Olympics. The OBS Cloud was first used during the Tokyo Olympics, marking the first time the Olympics utilized Alibaba Cloud to support global broadcasting, seen as a significant step towards the digital era of the Olympics. Now, the newly upgraded OBS Cloud 3.0, with additional features, will support the largest-ever scale of cloud broadcasting during the Paris Olympics.

The OBS Live Cloud, co-developed by Alibaba Cloud and OBS, will be the primary method for distributing live broadcast signals for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with two-thirds of the remote services currently booked being processed through cloud computing. Alibaba Cloud's global public cloud infrastructure will support the transmission of these live event images from Paris to various parts of the world.

To meet the robust global media demand for digital content, all media content produced by OBS during the Paris Olympics will, for the first time, be uploaded in full to the OBS Content+ platform, provided in Ultra High Definition (UHD) format. Supported by Alibaba Cloud, the OBS Content+ platform will produce 11,000 hours of content for 1,500 media users during the Paris Olympics, enabling real-time video editing during live stream distribution and adding a vertical video feature. Furthermore, based on Alibaba Cloud's public cloud services, OBS has also provided rights-holding broadcasters with an end-to-end internet live broadcasting solution, OVP.

Without cloud computing, Olympic live broadcast signals primarily relied on satellite and traditional fiber-optic cable transmission. These facilities are costly and require long lead times for hardware deployment. Broadcasters could not change their plans at the last minute, and if an athlete from their country unexpectedly made it to the finals, they would miss the live broadcast. However, with Alibaba Cloud's global infrastructure, broadcasters can quickly set up live broadcasts at a lower cost, without worrying about hardware deployment.

At the Tokyo Olympics, cloud computing first supported Olympic broadcasting. That year, a rights-holding broadcaster arrived late at the venue and wished to distribute live broadcast signals for most of the events. Traditional methods would have made it impossible for this broadcaster to complete the task, but on Alibaba Cloud, they quickly set up global transmission, and the entire event broadcast was very stable. Since then, Olympic live broadcasting has increasingly migrated to the cloud. In 2022, more than 22 rights-holding broadcasters at the Beijing Winter Olympics used cloud computing to distribute live broadcast signals. This year, the Paris Olympics will see 54 broadcasters using cloud computing to distribute live broadcasts, with a total of 379 video live streams and 100 audio live streams, expected to produce over 11,000 hours of content, a 15% increase from the Tokyo Olympics, making it the most globally covered Olympic Games in history.The broader deployment of cloud-based broadcasting has further reduced economic costs and has driven the development of broadcasting production towards a more efficient, intelligent, and environmentally friendly direction.

Paris Olympics Launches Multiple AI Applications

In April of this year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released the "Olympic AI Agenda," proposing a framework for the IOC to lead the global sports sector in the implementation of artificial intelligence initiatives, joining the global trend of utilizing AI technology.

The Paris Olympics this year will adopt a brand-new multi-camera replay system enhanced by Alibaba Cloud AI, enabling a "bullet time" effect that makes watching the competition feel like watching a movie. This allows the broadcast images to achieve slow-motion freeze-frame effects like those in science fiction films, giving viewers an immersive experience with multiple angles to see athletes in slow motion, time-stopping, and other effects. Previously, this technology was tested live during the Paris Olympic qualification events held in Shanghai to ensure smooth operation during the official competitions.

In 2022, during the Beijing Winter Olympics in curling and speed skating competitions, this technology had already been applied. As the Paris Olympics, set to open in July this year, approaches, this system will feature more AI capabilities and be deployed in more competition scenarios. It is understood that this technology will be deployed in 14 venues of the Paris Olympics, and will be used in the broadcasting of events such as rugby sevens, badminton, track and field, basketball, beach volleyball, table tennis, wrestling, tennis, judo, breakdancing, BMX freestyle, and skateboarding.

Alibaba Cloud has also assisted the IOC in restoring historical footage from the 1924 Paris Olympics, such as enhancing the resolution of historical videos from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD) or ultra-high definition (UHD), and restoring the colors of black and white photos, allowing viewers to experience the intensity of the events up close.

Based on complex deep learning models and extensive data training, Alibaba Cloud meticulously analyzes each frame of black and white film, interpreting complex details and incorporating the expert opinions of historians to accurately colorize them. At the same time, the AI models can understand color, light, and context, thereby achieving greater accuracy when colorizing images. Through repeated learning, these models can achieve a high level of accuracy and realism in the colorization process.

Alibaba Cloud, in collaboration with the IOC, has created an AI platform based on cloud computing. This platform aims to enhance the efficiency of managing vast amounts of media content for the IOC through AI-supported media asset management services, offering features such as enhanced visual search capabilities, automatic classification of multimedia content, and automated production of video highlights.Cloud-based Event Management and Operations

To meet the demand for green event organization, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will adopt Alibaba Cloud's sustainable product solution "Energy Consumption Treasure" to intelligently manage and analyze the energy consumption data of Olympic events during the Paris Olympics. This marks the first time that Olympic energy consumption data will be uploaded to the cloud. The Energy Consumption Treasure will assist the IOC in integrating energy consumption data from 35 competitions. Through this solution, the IOC will be able to consolidate all relevant data for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, such as electricity usage, emergency power demand situations, venue capacities, competition-related information, and on-site weather conditions, and integrate them into an easily understandable and user-friendly dashboard.

It is understood that since 2022, Alibaba Cloud has launched the "Energy Consumption Treasure," a sustainable product solution based on cloud computing and AI, which can monitor enterprise electricity usage in real-time and thereby calculate carbon emissions online. At the same time, leveraging Alibaba Cloud's data and AI capabilities, the Energy Consumption Treasure helps enterprises optimize HVAC energy consumption through self-learning energy-saving control algorithms, achieving an average energy-saving rate of 12%.

In addition, Alibaba Cloud's public cloud services also support the official website of the International Olympic Committee, Olympics.com.