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Facility

The 2016 Summer Olympics Are Swimming in Technology

VR broadcasts, live streaming, wearable technology and an 8K experiment in Japan highlight the innovation in Rio.

August 10, 2016 D. Craig MacCormack 1 Comment

In another cool innovation for Olympic athletes, Marcelo Blois Ribeiro, a professor and researcher in software engineering and smart systems for General Electric, developed an app for the Brazilian canoeing team that connects with sensors in the boat to measure the athletes’ strokes and progress throughout the course. It can also reveal when athletes lose focus.

GE dispatched drones to Rio for the Olympics and will broadcast daily on its Facebook Live page with “stories of everything from energy, healthcare and lightning behind the Olympic venues in Rio.”

LiveU will have more than 80 international broadcasters with LiveU equipment in Rio to cover the Olympics. The company is expecting about 15,000 live video sessions to take place during the Olympics using its technology.

Coverage will come via LiveU backpack and camera-mount IP-bonding devices such as the LU500, LU200, and LiveU Solo live streaming bonding solution; the LU-Smart mobile app and the Xtender external antenna; and LiveU cloud-based MultiPoint distribution service, which will allow customers to simultaneously share up to 100 concurrent live feeds.

LiveU’s support team will be at numerous Olympic venues, offering onsite 24/7 support in multiple languages throughout the Games. LiveU will offer multiple dedicated Wi-Fi hotspots near the two main stadiums in Barra and the Maracanã, as well in the International Broadcast Center (IBC).

LiveU will also have a special correspondent on the ground in Rio sharing updates on how its customers are using the technology to go live from the Games.

LiveU will be bringing the 2016 Summer Olympics to its fans and followers. Visit during the Games to see our daily updates, photos, and videos.

NHK will broadcast parts of the Rio Olympics in 8K—well, more accurately, 7680×4320 resolution or “Super Hi-Vision” as the company calls it.

Viewing an 8K broadcast will be rather difficult, even in Japan, since none of the equipment required to receive and display the 8K signal has yet been commercially released. Instead, NHK has set up two special 8K viewing theaters in Tokyo and Osaka, where it will broadcast the signal via satellite.

While the Olympic excitement is just beginning in Brazil, four years after hosting the 2012 Games, London has transformed part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into one of Europe’s largest technology clusters over the past four years, including the recent approval of a new, 68,000-square-foot innovation center that could open next year.

The London facility is designed to support businesses of all sizes “looking to revolutionize sport, health, fashion, design and the so-called Internet of Things.” It will have room for about 500 people, and officials hope “it will act as a sort of melting pot for industry experts, engineers, designers, students and businesses.”

It’s expected to include access to business-accelerator programs, entrepreneurship education, prototyping facilities and a technology lab. Companies will also be able to draw on an undisclosed amount of funding from client fund DV4 to help them scale nationally and internationally.

There’s no telling whether Rio will see that same economic and technological innovation by 2020, but London’s plan could serve as a model for future Olympic hosts on how best to repurpose the space set aside for the biggest event in sports.

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D. Craig MacCormack
D. Craig MacCormack

Craig MacCormack is a veteran journalist with more than 15 years experience covering local and national news and sports as well as architecture and engineering. He joined Commercial Integrator in January 2011. Follow him on Twitter: @CraigMacCormack.

Tagged With: Corporate, Integration

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  1. Technology in the Olympic Games: Dive and Swim – Site Title says:
    April 6, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    […] Another way olympic swimmers, such as Michael Phelps, now train is by wearing analytic high-tech sport bracelets which not only track heart rate and steps but also how close they are to potential injury and what level of training is appropriate for that athlete (https://techdecisions.co/facility/the-2016-summer-olympics-are-swimming-in-technology/). […]

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