How will AI and cloud tech transform Olympic broadcasting for Milano Cortina 2026?

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AI and Cloud Technologies Set to Revolutionise Olympic Broadcasting for Milano Cortina 2026

Alibaba Cloud is partnering with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to deploy advanced cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. These innovations aim to significantly enhance the global audience viewing experience, improve the operational efficiency of broadcasters, and establish novel methods for capturing, managing, and preserving Olympic content at scale. Building on previous deployments at Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022, this collaboration signifies a continued transition towards cloud-based and AI-enabled broadcasting within the Olympic movement.
Enhanced Immersive Replays and Visualisation Tools

For Milano Cortina 2026, upgraded Real-Time 360º Replay systems will offer immersive viewing experiences, characterised by fluid camera movements and stroboscopic visual effects. These systems, powered by AI algorithms capable of separating athletes from complex backgrounds like snow and ice, can reconstruct key moments into three-dimensional replays in as little as 15-20 seconds, making them suitable for live broadcast integration. Beyond the established BulletTime effects for freeze-frame and slow-motion views, the platform will introduce a new Spacetime Slices capability. This feature visualises multiple phases of an athlete's movement within a single composite image, providing viewers with a more profound understanding of technique and performance across sports such as ice hockey, freestyle skiing, figure skating, and ski jumping.
Accelerated Content Processing and Advanced Searchability

The Automatic Media Description (AMD) System, currently in early development and powered by Alibaba's Qwen large language model, is set to revolutionise content processing. This system will automatically identify athletes and significant moments, generate event descriptions, and tag video assets within seconds, drastically reducing manual effort. OBS teams will be able to retrieve information almost instantaneously using natural-language queries, such as "find the figure skating gold medal performance." This enhanced searchability will significantly improve OBS teams' ability to locate, develop, and distribute Olympic stories across various platforms.
Cloud Broadcasting as the New Distribution Standard

Cloud-based broadcasting is set to become a core distribution method at Milano Cortina 2026, building on its expansion since Tokyo 2020. The OBS Live Cloud platform will support 39 broadcasters, delivering 428 live video feeds, including 26 in ultra-high definition, alongside 72 audio feeds. This shift from traditional satellite links and dedicated transmission lines to cloud-based delivery promises reduced costs, faster setup times, and greater flexibility and resilience. Furthermore, the OBS Olympic Video Player (OVP) will leverage Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure to deliver high-definition live streams, offering professional-grade broadcast capabilities to smaller broadcasters without substantial upfront investment.
Expanded Digital Content and AI-Powered Archiving

Milano Cortina 2026 will feature the largest volume of ready-to-use digital assets in Olympic history, with over 5,000 short-form pieces, including behind-the-scenes footage and highlights, distributed via OBS Content+. This cloud-based platform, powered by Alibaba Cloud, includes an advanced discovery tool for efficient content management globally. Concurrently, Alibaba Cloud's Sports AI solution, an upgraded cloud-based media archiving system, will incorporate AI tagging, video search, and conversational search functionalities. Managing over eight petabytes of historical Olympic media, this system uses AI algorithms for automated tagging, categorization, and multimodal search, with new conversational search capabilities enabling users to retrieve specific clips using spoken or written commands, transforming decades of content into a searchable knowledge library. The IOC is also introducing "Olympic AI Assistants," its first large-language-model-based system, powered by Alibaba's Qwen models, to enhance fan engagement through multilingual conversational support on olympics.com and improve internal operations for National Olympic Committees.

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How will AI and cloud tech transform Olympic broadcasting for Milano Cortina 2026?

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