Alibaba Cloud highlights sustainable experiences as Olympic Winter Games Beijing close

The digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group set the benchmark for the future of digital transformation of the international sporting event

The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 produced a further move to cloud-based services, reducing the time and cost investment in IT infrastructure, hardware and associated management. Photo: Alibaba ClShow more

As the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 concluded in February, Alibaba Cloud set the benchmark for the future digital transformation of the international sporting event by displaying technology innovations to provide sustainable, inclusive and efficient audience experiences.

With immersive digital experiences becoming the norm against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group showed that the future of global events will be redefined by the evolving adoption of cloud technology innovation.

The Middle East has been a core focus for enhancing visitor experiences at events across the region with sustainability and technology being key themes at Expo 2020 Dubai, the Leap Conference in Saudi Arabia and the Fifa World Cup, which will take place in Qatar in November and December 2022.

Alibaba Cloud introduced many new and innovative cloud computing technologies to drive the digitalisation of the Olympic Games to benefit athletes, fans, broadcasters and operating staff.

To begin its activities at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, which took place from February 4 to February 20, Alibaba Group, a Worldwide Top Partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), unveiled Cloud ME, an innovative cloud-based technology powered by its real-time communication solution.

Cloud ME facilitates social interactions for people keen to explore bona fide meeting experiences during the Olympic Winter Games, enabling them to meet and enjoy real-time conversations with each other via life-sized, true-to-life projection. By stepping into a pop-up studio in the Cloud ME booth, participants will have their full-body image projected realistically into a remote booth, in which their projected personas will be displayed to meet and greet others.

After the launch of Cloud ME, Alibaba Cloud introduced another first-of-its-kind innovation for the Games when it unveiled the virtual influencer Dong Dong. A 22-year-old from Beijing, Dong Dong was created to interact with fans around the world, sharing fun and informative Olympic-related facts. Dong Dong proved popular with younger fans through livestreaming and was viewed by more than two million viewers and has a fan base of more than 100,000.

The third announcement by Alibaba Cloud was its collaboration with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), where its cloud technologies were used during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 to increase broadcasting efficiency while bolstering coverage of the Games.

For the first time during the Olympic Winter Games, rights-holding broadcasters (RHB) received live footage through the public cloud infrastructure. Leveraging Alibaba’s leading-edge cloud solutions, global sports fans could experience immersive viewing of exciting competition moments from a wide range of optimal angles.

As part of the OBS Cloud, an innovative broadcasting solution brought together by OBS and Alibaba, Live Cloud was introduced as a standard service to RHBs during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Before this technology breakthrough, broadcasters had to rely on dedicated and more costly international telecommunication optical circuits and spend a considerable amount of time to set up the equipment, to send live footage halfway around the globe back to their home countries.

To wrap up its coverage at the Games, Alibaba Cloud announced that the Olympic Winter Games Beijing had successfully migrated its core Games technology services to bolster its digitalisation efforts.

The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 realised a further move to cloud-based services, reducing the time and cost investment on IT infrastructure, hardware and associated management. With the advanced cloud-based capability to analyse real-time intelligence, the planning and management for Beijing 2022 was further streamlined and improved for more seamless user experience.

With Paris the next host nation for the Olympics in 2024, we anticipate more innovation to further enhance sustainable, inclusive and engaging experiences for broadcasters, sports fans and athletes.