The Technologies Altering How You’ll Watch the 2026 Winter Olympic Games

During the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, 5G and 4K have been the main applied sciences out there to many viewers. There was some AI, but it surely was principally used for athletes’ profit. For the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games there will likely be extra know-how than ever, for each athletes and followers.

Much of that know-how has by no means been used on the Games earlier than, says Yiannis Exarchos, the managing director of Olympic Broadcasting Services and govt director of Olympic Channel Services. The two organizations are answerable for producing a lot of the tv, radio, and digital protection, and content material on Olympics.com. “In Milano Cortina, people will have unprecedented experiences,” Exarchos says.

Here’s every little thing you could know.

Drone Views of Athlete Performances

One of the massive applied sciences coming to the Milano Cortina Olympics are first-person view, or FPV, drones. These radio-controlled plane transmit pictures from their onboard cameras in actual time to “offer dynamic perspectives on the race tracks,” Exarchos explains.

This yr’s Games may even be the primary to supply 360-degree real-time replay. Offered as a part of a collaboration with Alibaba, the system makes use of multi-camera replay methods and stoboscopic evaluation to ofter multi-angle views, freeze frames, and slow-motion pictures of athlete’s unimaginable strikes.

Another first is a brand new monitoring system for curling stones. “It will be possible to view the path, speed, and rotation of each stone in real time,” Exarchos explains. Suspended rail cameras and ice-level views will assist viewers perceive the sport higher, as will detailed stone trajectory graphics and real-time information.

The Olympics’ New AI Tool: Olympic GPT

Got a query about this yr’s Games? Olympic GPT is right here to assist. The bot focuses on producing content material for the Olympics.com web site. It’ll supply real-time outcomes and knowledge on sport rules, and, for the primary time, could have the power to work together with questions concerning the outcomes of ongoing competitions.

“Artificial-intelligence-based article summaries on Olympics.com will give fans a quick and clear overview,” Exarchos says. “They highlight key points to help users decide what to explore further, while also improving accessibility and reading from mobile devices.”

Virtual Video Production

For the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, a number of the video manufacturing will likely be shifting to the cloud. Virtual exterior broadcasting (OB) vans will assist decentralize the method of getting pictures from occasions to followers’ screens. Using digital cloud infrastructure, organizers say, helps scale back power consumption by some 50 p.c and allows distant manufacturing for occasions like curling and velocity skating.

Everything will likely be managed via a completely cloud-based grasp management room not too long ago examined on the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January. There, house financial savings have been 75 p.c over the earlier championship, whereas power consumption was lowered by 65 p.c.

The Olympics’ Big Data Moment

For this winter’s Games, Olympic Broadcasting Services can also be testing an automatic description platform to assist groups handle the large quantity of video coming in dwell throughout their occasions. “Artificial intelligence breaks down broadcasts into searchable clips, suggests shot descriptions and keywords, and helps users quickly find highlights, making storytelling faster and easier,” says Exarchos. AI will then analyze real-time visitors spikes on Olympics.com and establish probably the most beneficial moments for followers.

This story initially appeared in WIRED Italia. It has been translated from Italian.