Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and Alibaba teamed up to provide broadcasters with speedy, secure access to live feeds over the public cloud

Multi-camera replay systems for frame-freeze slow motion replays during the Games

Rights holding broadcasters were able to access live feeds via the public cloud during the Winter Olympics, following a collaboration between Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and Alibaba’s cloud technologies.

The cloud distribution was aimed at increasing broadcasting efficiency, offering a more agile option at a much lower cost compared to other transmission methods such as telecommunications and satellite.

It’s the first time the public cloud has been used in this way in Olympic broadcasting.

During Beijing 2022, more than 20 broadcast organisations used ‘Live Cloud’ to receive live feeds of the Games in either UHD or HD via OBS Cloud.

Alibaba says the low latency and high resilience offered by cloud distribution means that content transmission via the cloud is “on its way to outperform other methods of distribution when it comes to expandability, flexibility, and cost.”

“The stability, elasticity and worldwide agility of cloud also ensures the quality of broadcasting, even during a surge in demand for livestreaming of the most popular events,” adds Alibaba in its press release.

As part of its collaboration, OBS and Alibaba also deployed multi-camera replay systems for frame-freeze slow motion replays during the Games.

Live multi-angle footage of the Curling and Speed Skating was captured and compiled via the edge cloud for real-time processing and editing before the chosen moments were shared as a replay through the multilateral feed.

It only took seconds to get the content ready in the cloud and integrated as part of the live coverage. For the less time-sensitive coverage such as daily or event highlights, the footage could be further processed in the cloud to generate high-quality 3D representation of the sports scenes in 4K quality.

Yiannis Exarchos, OBS chief executive officer, said: “Amid the backdrop of Covid-19, our partnership with Alibaba Cloud has continued to transform the way we broadcast the Olympic Games. OBS Cloud is one of the most profound technological changes to our operation: it not only offers broadcasters unprecedented efficiency, but also enables endless opportunities for innovation and to seamlessly deliver the excitement of the Olympic Games to the widest possible audience.”

Selina Yuan, general manager of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, adds: “Transmitting live content through cloud is a particularly useful resource for broadcasters who cannot attend the Olympic Winter Games in person or afford the heavy upfront investment of on-premise infrastructure.”