IBC
PyeongChang is shaping up to be the most innovative Olympics
ever, with advances in 8K and 5G production and an avalanche of OTT
content.
The International Olympic Committee is no stranger to using
the latest technology to attain pinnacles of sports production but in recent
times there’s been another imperative to innovate.
The Games may be second only to soccer as the world’s most
widely enjoyed type of sporting event but compared to many other sports it
tends to appeal to an older fan base. Reaching a younger audience is the
principal driver behind fresh attempts to jazz up the Games by innovating
production technologies and distributing to new platforms.
The upcoming Winter Games to be held in PyeongChang, South
Korea is no exception, featuring a mix of tried and trusted and more
experimental techniques.
Notably this includes what is believed to be the largest
ever live 8K UHD production.
What’s more the 8K production features High Dynamic Range –
a world first on this scale. Host broadcaster Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS)
is also testing 5G to transmit video live to air – another first - and has a
new service dedicated to social media.
“There are always very high expectations about production
quality in addition to which we have to satisfy fans of niche sports as well as
reach a far wider audience,” explains Sotiris Salamouris, Chief Technology
Officer, OBS.
“In addition, Winter Games tends to feature a lot of action
driven sports which particularly appeal to the younger generation. For all
those reasons we need to do something exceptional.”
The 8K UHD coverage is being conducted in tandem with
Japanese broadcaster NHK and it’s on a far bigger scale than the single camera
8K pilot made in Rio.
This time, some 90 hours of 8K content will be captured in
HDR (BT.2020) using the HLG format devised by NHK and the BBC.
NHK leads the 10-camera three OB production on events
including figure skating, ski jumping and snowboarding.
Of course, the 8K pictures won’t be seen by many people
outside of a special theatre in the International Broadcast Centre, nor beyond
private screens in Japan which plans to start national satellite transmission
in the format by 2020.
However, according to OBS, several rights holders (not just
NHK) are taking the full 8K feed for test purposes, some with a view to
showcasing the Tokyo games in four years’ time live to cinemas or other large
audience venues.
The production serves a practical purpose too since the 8K
UHD HDR feed will be down-converted on site to provide a 4K HDR output which is
being taken by broadcasters including NBCU.
There’ll be a separate 4K SDR (BT.709) version too, but the
baseline production remains HD 1080i for which OBS is fielding over 400 cameras
plus more than 250 specialist cameras and aerial shots from helicopter and a
drone.
5G live production
There are huge expectations around 5G as the technology
moves from experimentation to commercialisation but the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) has stolen a march here too with what may well be the first
live to air 5G video application.
Small 4K fixed lens cameras have been fitted to the front of
Olympic bobsleighs (some with dummy modules of the same weight and
profile) to offer an extraordinary bullet’s eye view which will be cut into the
live production. Although the cameras are 4K the transmission output will be
HD.
“These real-time links are only possible with the low
latency (almost zero delay) of 5G,” explains Salamouris. “This is a very
important proof of the value of 5G technology not just for distribution to
mobile but for contribution links. We are very interested in exploring the use
of 5G further with a view to replacing traditional contribution solutions over
RF.”
KT (Korea Telecom) has installed the 5G network and base
stations around the bobsleigh track and at other Winter Games venues including
the Gangneung Olympic Park, home of the ice arena.
A partnership with Olympic sponsor Intel will showcase other
5G applications.
While not part of the host broadcast and viewable only by
spectators in special zones using 5G-ready mobile devices, these trials include
time-sliced views of skaters in motion and the ability to track competitors
over the Olympic Cross Country course with the ability to select different
views in real-time.
Social media Content+
One particular OBS innovation is an indication of an ongoing
shift in Olympic programming strategy. Content+ is a source of animations,
maps, analytics and a series of short 1-3 minute videos curated by OBS and made
available to publishers on a globally accessible web portal.
“The idea is that this will facilitate broadcasters to
distribute the Games better through social media,” explains Salamouris.
“It’s not just the traditional coverage that we put there in
shorter form. It’s primarily content designed to work well in social media such
as more behind the scenes video, individual stories; athletes preparing -
things that you don’t usually see in the traditional coverage.”
According to a 2017 poll of 18,000 European internet users
conducted by Ampere Analysis, 54% of those who said they enjoy the Olympics
were over 45 years old while 55% of those who enjoy soccer are under 44 years
old.
Recent decisions by the IOC to add new sports like karate,
surfing and skateboarding to the Summer Games have been made with that in mind.
The Paris Games of 2024 is even being lined up for the
introduction of eSports as an official Olympic event.
PyeongChang represents an important step on the road to
authenticating computer gaming since Intel is organising an eSports competition
ahead of the opening ceremony.
The dual branding of the Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang
with that of the Olympic rings and the parallel promoting in Korea of Ubisoft
game ‘Steep Road to the Olympics’, is a sign that the IOC is eager tap the huge
global fanbase of young eSports enthusiasts – a good third to a half of whom
are female.
On the same basis, covering the Olympics through multiple
platforms and especially online services has been considered the way forward
since before London 2012. The Ampere study shows that of respondents that took
Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services, almost 45% are under 34 years
old.
“Younger consumers are more engaged with online services and
also show higher engagement with social networks making it clear that promoting
the Olympics through those routes is important [for the IOC],” suggests analyst
Alexios Dimitropoulos.
Each successive Games becomes the most consumed online with
PyeongChang being confidently billed as the most connected Games yet by both
the IOC and rights holders like Eurosport.
The Discovery Communications-owned broadcasters plans more
than 4,000 hours of digital coverage including 860 hours of live action –
basically all of the OBS output.
Eurosport, which paid €1.3 billion (£920 million) to cover
four Games until 2024, has all but abandoned linear TV saying it will make every
minute available online via its OTT platform Eurosport Player.
This will make it the first fully digital Olympics for
Europe, it claims. To capitalise on this it has slashed the cost of access to
Eurosport Player from €6.99 a month to one Euro for the duration of the Games.
The need to reach Millennials on social media is vital to
Eurosport’s effort. It has a self-described ‘Radical Van’ on site, a
mobile facility for creation of bespoke content to Facebook Live and
other social networks.
It has also hired US-based producer Cycle to
create multi-language editorial for publication on Snapchat in Europe
as part of a wider agreement Discovery has for producing mobile-first
shows for Snapchat’s Discover platform.
In addition, it has an AR studio called The Cube for experts
to analyse key events surrounded by 3D graphics such as ski jumper frozen
at the point of take-off.
NBCU expand access
Traditional broadcasters are adapting too. NBCU, owned by US
cable giant Comcast, paid U$7.65 billion to show the Olympics on TV and online
through 2032, also has a pact with Snapchat to share clips of NBC’s Olympics
content.
In addition, Snapchat will carry coverage of the Games that
BuzzFeed will co-produce with NBC for the Snapchat Discover media hub. The Wall
Street Journal estimates that advertising revenue shared by Snap and NBCU as a
result of the deal around the Winter Games could reach $75 million
However, NBCU also knows it needs to shake up its linear
coverage after facing criticism of coverage of Sochi.
In 2014 the network live-streamed the Olympics to cable
customers but re-aired popular events during primetime leaving many viewers
susceptible to spoilers. This time around, NBC will broadcast live in all US
time zones on channels including NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network, on
NBCOlympics.com and over the NBC Sports app.
The broadcaster promises more than 2,400 hours of coverage,
the most ever it will have aired from a Winter Olympics.
The 4K HDR transmission is being used to promote the
capabilities of Comcast’s Xfinity set top box.
Along with Eurosport it is also offering 50 hours of
live virtual reality coverage produced by OBS. Intel VR rigs and picture
processing will capture 180-degree video of events including alpine skiing,
curling, snowboarding and skeleton distributed to users with Windows Mixed
Reality headsets, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream via the NBC Sports VR
app.
“We trialled VR in Rio but we had just one camera
placement,” says Salamouris.
“This time the production is much more sophisticated.
Watching sports for a long period of time in VR works less well than a ‘lounge
experience’ which is what we are deploying in PyeongChang. This is where
viewers can immersive themselves in VR as if from the venue but also come out
of that feed and look around a virtual lounge.”
