Alibaba Cloud revolutionizes Olympic Games broadcasting with advanced cloud services

Alibaba Cloud and the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) launched OBS Cloud 3.0 combining cloud technologies and AI for the Paris Olympic Games. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

More than two-thirds of the live broadcast signals will be facilitated by Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba's cloud broadcasting services at the ongoing Paris Olympic Games, as the cloud computing platform is taking over satellite broadcasting and becoming the main content distribution method for broadcasters.

Alibaba Cloud and the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) have launched OBS Cloud 3.0 to help media outlets get images and videos of this year's Olympic Games. "OBS Live Cloud has become the main method of remote distribution to media rights holders for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, taking over from satellite which was launched during the Olympics Games Tokyo 1964," Alibaba Cloud said in a statement.

Having the benefits of low latency and high resilience, content transmission via cloud platform has outperformed other distribution methods when it comes to scalability, flexibility and cost while increasing the stability of worldwide broadcasting of the largest sports event, experts said.

OBS will produce more than 11,000 hours of content, and the streamlined approach of this cloud-based portal simplifies remote production workflows and ensures seamless content delivering without disruption during the Games.

Alibaba Cloud also provides multi-camera replay systems infused with artificial intelligence technology during the Paris Olympic Games, which will be deployed at 14 venues to cover events across 21 different sports.

These systems provide slow-motion replays of athletes' performances, allowing sports fans to access detailed information for deeper analysis of the athlete's movements. For new viewers, these replays can serve as educational tools for a better understanding of the Games at key moments.