Intel and Alibaba Cloud Sign Strategic MoU Regarding Innovative Technologies in Preparation for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022

What’s New: At the Apsara Conference 2019, Intel and Alibaba Cloud signed a strategic memorandum of understand (MoU). They announced the organizations would work closely on technology solutions in a variety of areas, including 3D Athlete Tracking (3DAT) for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, as well as 360 8K virtual reality (VR), 3D digital twinning and cloud broadcasting for both the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Intel supports these innovation areas through high-performance processors and artificial intelligence (AI) technology platforms. Alibaba Cloud brings its cloud infrastructure and services expertise to the MoU.

“The Olympic motto – Faster, Higher, Stronger – is highly in line with Intel’s innovation DNA. As a worldwide TOP Olympic Partner, Intel is committed to help bringing innovative technologies including AI, 5G and VR into Olympic Games and demonstrating how technology changes the future of Olympic Games and is relevant to consumers and businesses beyond the Games. Intel and Alibaba Cloud are long-term partners and have a common vision of translating technology into amazing experiences that excite athletes, spectators, broadcasters, media, stadium operators, hosting countries and the International Olympic Committee, enabling a more innovative Olympic Games experience.”
–Rick Echevarria, general manager of Intel’s Olympics Program

What Else is Included: In addition to these key technology areas, Intel and Alibaba Cloud will also work closely on other areas that translate leading technologies into better immersive viewing experiences and a more efficient and flexible Olympics broadcasting model; that support smarter athlete training  and smart broadcasting experiences; and that serve the Olympics movement and enable a more innovative Olympic Games experience.

What is the History: Intel has been working closely for many months with Alibaba Cloud on 3DAT for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and other solution areas  for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, including 360 8K VR, 3D cloud twinning and cloud broadcasting. With this MoU, both parties are signalling their focus to  commercialize and scale these solutions together. The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will be global platforms to fully demonstrate the outcome of this cooperation.

What Alibaba Says: “The Olympic Games are a grand global sports event and the best platform to demonstrate technological innovations in the area of cloud services and infrastructure,” said Selina Yuan, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International. “As Worldwide Olympic Partners, Intel and Alibaba Group are complementary to each other, not only in Olympic sponsorship categories, but also in total innovation development for the Olympic Games and related usage cases.”

What Technology Will This Collaboration Deliver: The strategic MoU involves one technology solution for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: 3DAT; and three areas for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022: 360 8K VR, 3D digital twinning and cloud broadcasting. All solutions are based on Alibaba Cloud’s new ECS instance powered by Intel’s 5G and AI technologies, 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors that power Intel’s scalable transcoding technology, as well as cloud services like ApsaraVideo Live, NAS/OSS, VPC and SAG.

• The 360 8K VR is an industry leading end-to-end immersive broadcasting solution that provides immersive 360-degree VR video experiences to audiences with 8K definition quality. An efficient application in the 5G environment, the solution eliminates dizziness for VR headset users and increases the bandwidth efficiency by more than 5 times.
• The 3D digital twinning solution based on 3D digital twinning modeling combines information about smart stadium applications like real-world internet of things (IoT) with a digital twinning virtual world, providing VR-based smart management methods to sports event managers and stadium operators and leveraging 3D digital twinning model and cloud rendering technology to develop track simulation, camera deployment simulation, seat viewing angle simulation, in-stadium navigation service and others, and making it possible for athletes, broadcasters, spectators, venue owners to access 3D twinning-based services through 5G.
• The cloud broadcasting solution will accelerate the digital transformation of traditional TV broadcasting. The solution moves as much labor-based production efforts into the cloud for processing, improving the efficiency of broadcasting while reducing the cost, but also increasing the broadcasting market size and enabling content creation innovation.
• The 3D Athlete Tracking solution for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 adopts deep learning algorithms and analyzes and extracts data and forms of athletes in training or competition in real time with standard cameras for the development of training or broadcasting applications. Based on athletes’ real-time performance data and forms in training, coaches can timely optimize training methods for each athlete. In broadcasting, athletes’ performance data and form can be timely overlapped on broadcasting images for unprecedented smart-viewing experiences.

What is the Significance: Since becoming a Worldwide Olympic Partner in 2017, Intel is committed to promoting the transformation of the Olympic Games and related experiences by working with partners to develop and deploy innovative technologies. The MoU with Alibaba Cloud will drive the use of many leading innovation technologies at the Olympics and offer new Olympic Games experiences to spectators, athletes and all participants.

More Context: Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (Press Kit)

The Small Print:

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) expands the boundaries of technology to make the most amazing experiences possible. In June 2017, Intel joined ‘The Olympic Partner’ (TOP) worldwide sponsorship program to bring its leading technology to enhance the Olympic Games through 2024. Beginning with the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018, Intel focuses primarily on infusing its 5G platforms, VR, 3D and 360-degree content development platforms, artificial intelligence platforms and drones, along with other computing solutions to enhance the Olympic Games. Intel will also work across the Olympic Movement and with other Olympic partners to integrate technology into many facets of the Olympic Games. Information about Intel and the work of its more than 100,000 employees can be found at newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.

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