EBU and European Athletics continue Gen AI journey with commentary innovations at European Cross Country Championships
Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images for European Athletics
The 30th anniversary of the European Cross Country Championships is set to take place in Antalya, Turkey on 8 December, and once again the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and European Athletics are working together to ensure an innovative and engaging production for viewers.
As Christophe Pasquier, head of audio and innovation at the EBU, explains, the longstanding relationship between the two organisations is highly valued and is a key factor behind the continuous enhancement of athletics coverage.
“In terms of partnership, we have a long relationship, actually the relationship between EBU and European Athletics is the oldest relationship we have. I think it’s at least 40, if not more, years of cooperation. So European Athletics is our oldest stakeholder in terms of federations, and because we share so many things together, we always manage to implement new things.”
Examples of this in recent years have often focused on audio, with commentary a particular area of innovation. This includes a voice cloning project during the European Athletics Team Championships in Poland in 2023, and, more recently, tests around Gen AI translated commentary.
The success of these projects align with several objectives in the European Athletics Strategic Roadmap 2024-2027, which includes a commitment to creating the best possible event for fans, sponsors, and broadcasters alike.
“We did some concrete tests during the European Athletics U18 Championships, which took place in Slovakia last July. And we managed to test a technical solution for the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima in August where we cooperated with a company called cambAI,” he adds.
In Lima, these tests saw commentary translated from French to Portuguese. In Antalya, AI-LLM supported multi-language VoD and live commentary is planned, with French commentary being translated into up to four languages.
“It’s not 100% confirmed, but we’re working hard to premiere this in Antalya,” reveals Pasquier. “By working hard on it, I want to tell you that our approach is not to pick and choose a basic technical solution, because there are plenty of technical solutions around LLMs these days, but we are really looking for a qualitative outcome. By qualitative, we mean it’s a common effort, and it’s a global strategy.”
Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images for European Athletics
One of the key areas of focus is developing a cross country glossary. He continues: “We know that things can be easily lost in translation with these tools, and the last mile, meaning the typical glossary, is key. We are working end to end with Marcel [Wakim, communications television & digital director, European Athletics] and we have identified up to four languages we are considering, and we are working on a specific cross country glossary from our source, which is going to be our own remote French commentary.”
By investing in French commentary, the event can be made available not just to French audiences, but to all French-speaking countries via digital streaming platform Eurovision Sport. Looking ahead and the option of doing the same with other languages is being explored.
“Our approach here is pretty strategic,” adds Pasquier. “We want to tackle different markets and we know that when it comes to LLMs, the big languages are pretty well trained. It’s not exactly the same with more niche languages in Europe, because the algorithm needs to be trained. So we are curious to potentially test some of these, to measure how efficient the model can be and to continue this innovative narrative, end to end with European Athletics.”
This focus on smaller, niche markets also fits into the EBU’s ethos when it comes to the ethics around AI, and Pasquier is keen to stress that human talent continues to be crucial to the organisation.
“We believe in a hybrid approach, but we will always put priority on real talent. We will consider implementing Gen AI solutions only to address niche markets, but also we want to learn by doing and not just by reading articles. There is nothing better than to test from inside, because it’s really not a plug and play solution.”
Continuing the focus on human talent, another important initiative debuting in Antalya is a project with Czech TV that will give two young female journalism students from Karlova University in Prague the opportunity to commentate on the event.
“We believe in a hybrid approach, but we will always put priority on real talent. We will consider implementing Gen AI solutions only to address niche markets”
Pasquier continues: “We will offer the opportunity to two young women’s voices because we want to use Eurovision Sport as a promotional tool to support more women’s talent across sport. It’s one of our key priorities at EBU. Czech TV has supported the university in building, developing and implementing a remote studio in their Prague campus so both will operate from there.”
While this aspect of the setup adds an element of remote production to the championship, the rest of the team will be on site in Antalya, with two OB vans called in to cover the six races and medal ceremonies. Production will be handled by EBU Member, Turkey’s TRT. While the camera plan will be finalised once the team gets on site and elements such as advertising hoardings can be accounted for, 14 cameras are expected to be utilised across the purpose-built course. This includes a super slo-mo behind the finish line to see the athletes arrive, a wide-angle lens on a crane, and a tele lens at the end of the start-finish line. Buggies and drones will also be utilised.
“We have a detailed camera plan which is a mixture of fixed cameras, and then we’re trying to follow as much as we can dynamically with a buggy and a drone. We have six races, and they will all be covered in full, live,” explains Wakim.
Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images for European Athletics
“A drone is a bit of a standard for this kind of running race, at least one is expected. It brings another layer in terms of the production plan, it’s another angle and it brings something new, so it’s nice that we have this kind of new standard,” adds Pasquier.
As host broadcaster TRT will distribute the international signal. It will then be turned around through the Eurovision Services network
Wakim adds: “Traditionally we have between 10 and 15 broadcasters that take the signal, including those European countries, such as the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, that have a rich tradition of showing it. Now more and more, we’re moving onto the digital platform, thanks to the EBU’s Eurovision player.”
The sport is also gaining traction on social media, and multi-language videos are proving to be popular content.
“There’s a 360 approach to promoting the event, from pre-event to the live event itself, and then following up with replays, highlights, and extending the visibility to the fans as much as we can. For future events, we are also testing multi-language videos again using AI, so using our commentary and then adding some languages for promotional videos or highlights right after the event. The pickup we see is really incredible. Athletics has a very hardcore fan base that is waiting really eagerly for content,” adds Wakim.
Pasquier concludes: “This is one of our last major sporting events of the season with European Athletics. For a lot of people, athletics is mainly the tier one events, such as the European Championships which took place in June, but it’s not just about that. It’s indoor and it’s also outdoor and we believe that this Championship is a good opportunity to showcase new things.”