Tokyo Olympics: A Win For Immersive Technology?

Magnopus
XRLO — eXtended Reality Lowdown
5 min readJul 21, 2021

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The 2020 Olympic games will look very different this year, not least because they are being held in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but also because of the technologies the organisers have utilised to make the spectator experience as immersive as possible.

Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic means there will be no international travel to Tokyo for this year’s Games, and crowds will be capped at 50% of a venue’s capacity, up to 10,000. Therefore, most of us will be watching events unfold from the comfort of our own homes.

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) is pushing the boundaries of Olympic broadcasting by producing 30% more content than in Rio in 2016 and expects to produce 56 live feeds and nearly 9,500 hours of content during the 17-day event running from Friday, 23 July to Sunday, 8th August

It will be the first Olympic Games natively produced in ultra-high definition (UHD, or 4K) and high dynamic range (HDR), to bring a level of detail considerably more realistic than standard HD. As well as the high definition visuals, Tokyo 2020 is also stepping up the audio experience. All venues at the Games will deliver an immersive audio feed in a 5.1.4 format, bringing a three-dimensional feel to viewers and listeners.

The Olympic Games is not new to embracing immersive technology to level up the fan experience. Virtual reality (VR) was used at the 2016 Rio games and in 2018’s Winter Games in South Korea, but this year’s event is taking immersive experiences to a new level. Tokyo 2020 is collaborating with Intel Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), and NTT DOCOMO, Inc to showcase innovative ways of watching sports, including augmented reality experiences, by deploying 5G technology across three competition venues during the Games.

For those who are lucky enough to attend the games in person, here are some of the ways that technology is enhancing and evolving the sports fan viewing experience.

Sailing

Between 25th July — 4th August, a 50-metre wide screen will broadcast 12K resolution footage of the sailing events that spectators have traditionally watched from nearby piers with binoculars. Floating on the water of the Enoshima Yacht Harbour, the screen will give spectators the sensation of the races being held right in front of their eyes.

Swimming

The Tokyo Aquatics Centre will provide wearable AR devices to spectators in specific seats, so they may see detailed race information during events. The ultra-fast 5G technology will transmit data to the AR devices so that spectators can experience the thrill of the live venue with detailed real-time information. It is not yet confirmed what form the AR devices will take, but artist renditions suggest it may be some sort of glasses.

Golf

Spectators of the golf at Kasumigaseki Country Club will have options when it comes to how they want to watch the sport. Some fans prefer to watch from a fixed spot, whilst others may like to follow their favourite players around the course. Thanks to the high-speed, low latency of 5G, spectators will be able to individually select and watch live videos of the action at multiple locations on rental devices provided to them. A myriad of 4K cameras (between 60–80 cameras at selected venues) make up the Multi-Camits Replay feature that provides replays of the action from a multi-angle perspective, enabling fans to experience Olympic action like never before.

Live And Full Event Replays On Oculus Quest…

…but only for USA Network subscribers. On the NBC Olympics VR by Xfinity app, live and replay coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies and select sports will be broadcast alongside “additional VR features” which include watch parties for Oculus friends, and “3D VR”. Unfortunately, the majority of the reviews for the app are 1-star due to the limited availability of the content.

Intel TrueView

Olympic Broadcasting Services has partnered with Intel to bring its TrueView platform to Tokyo 2020. TrueView is a powerful end-to-end platform that delivers views traditional cameras can’t, then delivers those views via broadcast, digital, and mobile. Dozens of high-definition cameras are mounted all around stadiums and arenas worldwide. They capture massive amounts of volumetric video.

In the production suite, the team can fly a virtual camera anywhere around, above and even inside the action, delivering existing never-before-seen views of the game.

TrueView will be used for Basketball, which, according to Mark Wallace, OBS Chief Content Officer will “allow the viewer to move into the venue and make it feel like being on the field of play and part of the action, alongside their favourite athletes. This will enable better storytelling as replays will have more angles and then of course there will be more data for viewers to access than ever before.”

3D Athlete Tracking

3D Athlete Tracking, or 3DAT, is a technology developed by Intel that uses artificial intelligence to enhance the viewing experience for Olympic fans with near real-time insights and overlay visualisations during athletic events. It uses four pan-tilt mounted, highly mobile cameras to capture the form and motion of athletes, then applies pose estimation algorithms to analyse the biomechanics of athletes’ movements. The system then transforms that data into broadcast overlay visualisations available during replays of the 100M and other sprinting events.

Previous Olympic Games have attempted to incorporate immersive technology with limited success. As UploadVR points out: “The problems start with the initial capture of content, with specialized cameras and placements needed alongside computational systems that don’t exist at the scale necessary for individual sports”. However, Tokyo 2020 is definitely setting the benchmark high for a new standard of sports viewing and storytelling powered by technology.

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Magnopus
XRLO — eXtended Reality Lowdown

Uniting the Physical and Digital Worlds. We've built #Expo2020Dubai and numerous experiences with #VR #AR #VirtualProduction, and products for the #Metaverse.