Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has made a “significant breakthrough” in its use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for helping to create content that better explains sporting action to viewers.

Speaking specifically about the use of 360-degree replays for coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, OBS chief executive Yiannis Exarchos said: “There is a wide variety of sports in the winter edition, but even more in the summer edition, and while they might be popular in some parts of the world, they might not be so well known in other parts of the world. So this enhances the storytelling and explains these sports to a global audience.”

360-degree replays were tested in Beijing 2022 and then used during Paris 2024 coverage of basketball, gymnastics, tennis, beach volleyball, and rugby sevens.

“Here, we do that for the first time across all sports, but we have gone one step further because in the past 360 replays were not possible within such a short period of time,” said Exarchos.

“We have also introduced stroboscopic capture. This freezing of images shows you exactly what is going on. And there is a third layer, which is the introduction of data. So we’re doing three things at the same time.

“All these elements were very difficult to be done in the past in such a short period of time for live coverage. You could do the 360 replay, which started for the first time in football, but in the past it took days before you could render such a shot. Then it became 30 minutes, and football started using it. But by the time they did a replay, the resolution was not very good and maybe the score had changed. Here, we do it in five seconds. And this is where AI has enabled us to do that. If it were not for AI processes, this would not have been possible.”

OBS is working with Alibaba on the replay system. The AI technology helps to separate foreground from background to enable “fluid camera movements and dramatic time-freezing effects,” OBS said.

There are 17 real-time 360-degree systems at Milano Cortina, including: Bobsleigh & skeleton (1); Figure skating (2); Freestyle skiing – aerials (1), moguls (1); Freestyle skiing and snowboard – big air (1), cross (1), halfpipe (1), slopestyle (1); Ice hockey (4 in total − 2 per venue); Short track speed skating (1); Ski jumping (1); Speed skating (2). A total of more than 450 cameras are used.

OBS said that for rights holders, real-time 360-degree replays unlock “storytelling potential.”

Exarchos explained: “Stroboscopic 360 movement and also the data help with the understanding of the complexity and the detail of the activity of the athlete. And that helps us explain much better sports which are not so well known, which is very important for the Olympics.

“There are a wide variety of sports in the winter edition, but even more in the summer edition, and while they might be popular in some parts of the world, they might not be so well known in other parts of the world. So this enhances the storytelling and explains these sports to a global audience.

“In slow motion you can appreciate the movement of the athlete, the complexity of the effort, and also understand at particular points in space and time what they are doing. AI is instrumental because this is what actually helps us separate the front end — the activity of the athlete itself — from everything else, from the background. And once you do that, then you can see around, you can stop it in time.

“This is because we have this kind of separation that AI has helped us achieve. In the old days, the rendering may have taken hours, but in live sports we can do it in seconds to make it available as a first or second replay after the event has happened, because this is when the spectator wants to understand what has happened and it is when the commentator wants to explain. So this is for us a significant breakthrough.”

Curling

For its coverage of curling, OBS has also introduced AI-powered stone tracing alongside an overhead rail camera to deliver new insights and perspectives on the sport.

“In curling, later in the competition, we will be using AI to explain a little bit better what’s going on with sweeping of the ice and the spin of the stones, things that we couldn’t do until now on a live basis,” said Exarchos. “You previously needed to do them post-event, but now with AI it is starting to be possible to follow this live and show people exactly how it works.”

The stone tracker will follow the stone’s path from release to the house, displaying its trajectory, speed, rotation, and timing through live data panels. These reveal strategic elements such as ends, guards, and draws in real time, helping to make the sport’s tactics clearer than at previous Games, OBS said.

The AI system uses 12 cameras for each of the four curling sheets to track each stone’s exact position, speed, and trajectory. In addition, a new overhead rail camera, engineered to span the full length of the sheet, will capture the movement, speed, and energy of play.

Drone audio

Looking ahead, one possible use for AI could be to reduce the noise of drones that is picked up during downhill racing. Exarchos explained: “We would like in the future to see how AI can help us to diminish this noise a little bit. This noise is across many frequencies, so if you take it out, you take out a lot of the atmosphere from the event. But our engineers believe that in the future it may be possible that with AI we may be able to somehow reduce the effect.”