AI may grab the headlines at Paris 2024 but OBS aims to democratise access to human stories with an inclusive approach to broadcast, digital and social engagement.
The IOC’s broadcast of the 2024 Olympic Games will be bigger, faster, leaner and more data-fuelled than ever before, no doubt reaching a record-breaking audience online and on TV too. But for all the panoply of tech tools trained on athletes, spectators and vistas in Paris, there is one deceptively simple mission for the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) - to communicate the Olympic spirit.
“Unlike traditional broadcasting, which was one broadcaster talking to mass audiences, now we also have capacity to collect individual reactions,” enthuses Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of OBS. “For me, this opportunity is fascinating because it can lead to a gradual and complete democratisation of storytelling. It can mean the virtual participation of every single person in this common human narrative. That is the Olympic Games.”
Exarchos’ Olympic journey began assisting the Athens bidding committee in 1997. He helped set up the host broadcasting operation for the Athens 2004 Games and subsequently the IOC’s own host operation, OBS, which it took in-house to better manage the sheer scale and complexity of the job.
Exarchos has long wrestled with what it would mean to the viewer experience - and the fate of...
You are not signed in
Only registered users can read the rest of this article.
Rory Peck Awards: Truth has never needed its defenders more
This year’s Rory Peck Awards was an affirmation that press freedom is in severe danger, that it has become a vicious fight to sustain that facts matter. George Jarrett reports.
Camerimage: “The time to be afraid of AI was two years ago”
The festival of cinematography remains political with the rise of AI and gender equality bubbling beneath the surface.
.jpg)
Content Everywhere: Disruptive forces in 2025, from AI to ROI and SGAI
Looking back over 2025 to date, it’s clear that AI continues to widen its role in the Content Everywhere ecosystem, and many companies are becoming more discerning about how and where the technology should be applied to streaming and video technology. Clearly, there is still much more to come, and much more to learn, but what have recent developments taught the industry to date?
Scalable broadcast tech provides backbone for Esports World Cup Festival
Tasked with producing the festival side of the 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Vanguard engineered a multi-venue broadcast workflow built on Blackmagic Design infrastructure to handle weeks of continuous live programming.
Touch the future: Immersive video will soon make its presence felt
As XR devices become more accessible and 6G wireless systems emerge, we’ll move from simply watching video to stepping inside it.
