OBS challenges ahead of The Olympic Games Paris 2024 UHD HDR, 8K and 5G, at the 4K HDR Summit

• Olympic Broadcasting Services will provide full UHD HDR coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, along with more athlete-centric coverage and behind-the-scenes content, and a wide range of innovative technology solutions.
• It will increase its output compared to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, offering nearly 4,000 hours of live sport and ceremonies and more than 11,000 hours of content in total.
• Three sports, in addition to the opening ceremony, will also be captured in 8K.

OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services), the host broadcast organisation for the Olympic Games will once again participate in the 4K HDR Summit, which will be held from 13 to 16 November at the Digital Content Hub in Malaga and will address some of the technological challenges of broadcasting the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

This edition will feature Isidoro Moreno, OBS Head of Engineering, and Guillermo Jiménez, OBS Director of Broadcast Engineering, who will provide an insight into OBS’s technical plans and the complex infrastructure for the upcoming Olympic Games.

OBS’s ambitious goals for Paris 2024

The Olympic host broadcaster will provide the coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in UHD HDR with immersive 5.4.1. audio, using more than a thousand camera systems, including new cinematic lenses, twice the number of additional multi-camera replay systems compared to Tokyo 2020 and other specialty equipment. OBS will deliver the content in a variety of formats and methods, for the first time,  with love cloud distribution acting as the main method of distribution for the first time.

OBS will provide approximately 4,000 hours of live coverage (sports and ceremonies). Overall, more than 11,000 hours of content is expected to be produced by OBS including pre- and post-competition athlete and coach interviews, behind the scenes content, social media content, features, etc. “This means that during the Games, we will be producing more hours of content in 17 days than many TV channels produce in a year. It’s quite significant,” Isidoro Moreno explains. In addition, “three sports, in addition to the opening ceremony, will be captured in 8K“.

Isidoro Moreno, OBS Head of Engineering

They are also focusing on another of their key objectives: sustainability. According to the organisation, they have reduced their overall broadcast footprint, as well as their power and consumption requirements at the IBC and the venues, “at the IBC, for example, we are reducing our power requirements by approximately 44%. We are trying to do more, smarter and more efficiently” says Guillermo Jiménez.

Another major challenge for the host broadcaster is the increasing demand for more content and faster turnaround, as consumption of the Olympic Games is no longer only via standard television, but today also through digital and social media platforms. Therefore, OBS continues to develop  their cloud-based online platform introducing social media short-form content such as vertical formats, as well as live streams of all the sessions, interviews, and additional athlete and sport features. “We estimate that for Paris 2024 there will be more than 1,500 users pushing this content to the Media Rights-Holders (MRHs) digital and social media platforms, where we had around 600 in Tokyo,” says Jiménez, Director of Broadcast Engineering.

Guillermo Jiménez, OBS Director of Broadcast Engineering

Similarly, OBS continues to use super-fast 5G wireless connectivity for part of the live broadcast feeds, with 5G-connected POV cameras to be deployed for the coverage of sailing for instance, helping bring viewers into the on-board action from the athlete’s point of view.

Finally, the host broadcaster is also promoting gender equality in the sector through different initiatives by increasing the number working both in management and production roles as part of its broadcast team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The conferences of the 4K HDR Summit 2023 can be followed through Medina Media Events’, ‘The Observatory’. On this platform, attendees will also be able to schedule video meetings with other participants and speakers, as well as visit exclusive online demos. This ninth edition will be held on 13 and 14 November, in person, at the Digital Content Hub in Malaga, and from 15 and 16 November, virtually.

The ninth edition of the 4K HDR Summit is supported by the City Council of Malaga, the National Digital Content Hub, the Digital Agency of Andalusia, ATEME, Canal Sur Radio and Television, Axión, Fraunhofer, Mediakind, Synamedia, EVS, Telefónica, ADM Group, AJA, Hispasat, Cellnex, Eutelsat, Rohde & Schwarz, Canon, SONO, Hurí, UHD Spain and Europa Creativa Media Desk Andalucía.