Celebrating human achievement and technological innovation, the modern Olympic Games have become a global spectacle. For almost a century, the world has watched in awe as athletes push themselves to their limits and break barriers in their respective sports. But alongside the incredible human feats, the advancements in broadcast technology have played a crucial role in enhancing the viewing experience for fans around the world. And with the upcoming Olympic Games Paris 2024, Intel is taking the broadcast experience to a whole new level.
In partnership with Intel, the NBC Chicago editorial staff brings you an inside look at how the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will showcase the power of cutting-edge technology. From an end-to-end 8K livestreaming experience to automatic highlights generation, Intel’s AI platforms are set to revolutionize the way we watch and engage with the Olympic Games.
The first-ever end-to-end 8K livestreaming experience using VVC (Versatile Video Coding) standard will be introduced at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. This will be available to selected locations spanning four continents, giving viewers a truly immersive experience. And with the help of Intel’s AI platforms, the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) will be able to deliver an unprecedented amount of custom content worldwide.
One of the biggest challenges in broadcasting the Olympic Games is the sheer scale of the event. OBS plans to capture over 11,000 hours of content during the Paris 2024 Games, which is equivalent to 458 full days of coverage. However, with the traditional broadcast approach, it is not possible to showcase all the sports and athletes in detail. This is where Intel’s AI platform for broadcast production and editing comes in. It enables automatic highlights generation, allowing OBS to deliver customized content focused on the sports and athletes that fans in each region care about. This technology also frees human editors from time-consuming tasks, giving them more time to tell the human stories that drive lifelong engagement with the Olympic Games.
Courtney Willock, Head of Broadcast Technology at Intel Olympic & Paralympic Games Office, explains the significance of this platform, saying, “A lot of times you have to prioritize what’s going to get the most eyeballs, and that really undermines some sports from getting the coverage that they deserve.” With the automatic highlights generation platform, producers can fine-tune the system on the fly to cater to different audiences’ interests, without the need for specialized training. This means that more sports and athletes will receive the coverage they deserve, and fans can enjoy a more personalized viewing experience.
But Intel’s contributions to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 do not end there. The event will also mark the debut of 8K video technology, which offers an unprecedented level of detail. During the Tokyo Olympics, Intel’s 8K cameras captured even the smallest details, such as a lost contact lens on the tatami mat during a judo match. This level of resolution is made possible by Intel’s powerful AI platform, which is capable of compressing the raw 48 Gbps 8K stream to a manageable 40-60 megabytes per second for distribution. This technology, along with Intel’s Xeon processors and Deep Learning Boost (Intel DL Boost) technology, ensures a seamless and high-quality viewing experience for viewers around the world.
While the world is still at the beginning of 8K adoption, Intel’s AI-powered devices, such as the 14th Gen Intel Core I9 with Intel Arc GPU and Intel Core Ultra processor-based laptops, connected to 8K TVs, can decode 8K content. This means that viewers can experience the full, rich detail of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 broadcasts right now.
But Intel’s involvement in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 goes beyond just enhancing the viewing experience. It also serves as a platform for future innovations in broadcast technology. “We are using the Olympics as a gateway to solve some of the most complex challenges in the technical world,” says Ravindra Velhal, Intel Global Content Strategist. “Intel is one of the only companies on the planet that can do it end-to-end because we have data center to client to edge and everything in between to define the future of the broadcast industry.”
Sarah Vickers, leader of Intel’s Olympic and Paralympic Games Program, also highlights the opportunities that this technology brings, saying, “There’s a real opportunity to show the breadth of our technology capabilities and then take those examples and show our customers
