AI brings transformative power for audiences, broadcasters and athletes

Chinese table tennis teams, as was expected, topped the medals table at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games, while Chinese tech firms are also wining medals in artificial intelligence applications in table tennis, or ping pong, one of China's most successful sports with billions of supporters.

Table tennis, serving as a prime example, is showcasing the transformative power of AI, the tech industry's Holy Grail, in sports. The AI techs can track and analyze high-speed, small-scale balls, capture motions of athletes to generate visualized results and bring multiple and customized viewing angles for enthusiastic fans of elite athletes and gold medal winners, like Chen Meng and Fan Zhengdong.

Chinese tech giants like SenseTime, Migu, and Alibaba demonstrate how AI can enhance the viewer experience, provide valuable insights for athletes and coaches, and potentially redefine the sport itself. They localize specific demands, creating value for audiences, broadcasters and even athletes and coaches.

AI empowers streaming and improves viewing experience

SenseTime and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) developed the InnoMotion broadcasting solution for the Paris Olympics, with 3D motion capture capabilities to achieve multi-person, large-area, and multi-angle coverage of various sporting scenes, without the need for wearable devices, like the expensive Apple Vision Pro. The technology is particularly suitable for large-scale and complex sporting events at the Games, the companies said.

The system can accurately track and analyze high-speed, small-scale targets such as table tennis balls and arrows. The audiences can experience these details through augmented reality (AR) visualizations on their screens, showing the exact landing point and spin of a table tennis ball, to enhance their viewing experience. It can automatically generate real-time visualization of the speed, direction, trajectory, and impact location of a table tennis ball.

China Mobile's Migu, one of the major streaming platforms for the Paris Olympics, uses AI to enhance image quality, offering multiple angles and various commentary channels, including AI avatars, based on China Mobile's own 10-billion-data AI models for culture and sport events.

Migu's AI Table Tennis channel, which made its debut at the Paris Games, reviews the real-time collection of table tennis ball landing points, trajectories and speed data with automatic categorization and statistics, to achieve a variety of forms of data visualization. Therefore, audiences can understand table tennis more scientifically and deeply as well as get acquainted with the technical and tactical strategies of the Chinese "Dream Team" of paddlers.

Another Migu spotlight is the AI Starlight feature, which can capture the dynamics of favorite players, helping fans to "follow the stars" with one click. Relying on AI image recognition and intelligent tracking technology, AI Starlight can detect, track and identify all the athletes in the live broadcast and viewers can get selected player's location information, ball number and other statistical data.

AIGC and various sports AI applications

These AI applications prove again that AI has revolutionized various industries, bringing changes and opportunities, with researcher Mordor Intelligence expecting AI applications in the sports industry to generate a market of US$6 billion this year, which will more than triple to US$21 billion in 2029.

Alibaba Cloud is providing AI-enabled multi-camera replay systems in Paris. They are deployed at 14 Olympic venues to cover events in 21 sports, including table tennis.

AI-generated content is also trendy at the Games, with AI commentary, digital avatars and AI-generated exciting moments like gold medal point performance.

Meanwhile, AI-generated analysis and results are being used to improve athletes' performance.

SenseTime, now a strategic partner of the Chinese national basketball team, has integrated AI technologies into the team's training and competition routines, with advanced data analytics and strategic optimization to enhance the players' training regimen.

By constructing detailed 3D models of the basketball court and using motion capture algorithms, AI can provide real-time insights into each player's movement and ball handling, offering data-driven consultation for improving competitive strategies or making them more effective.