In these days the 31st Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are taking place: this global event, kept every four years, unites the Countries from all over the world under a global sport spirit, and it is dedicated to equality, participation, loyalty and solidarity values.
Sport is a universal language that allows to climb over physical and mental barriers, to convey strong emotions and unanimous approval, regardless to cultural differences. This is why the Olympics, more than any other event, is a moment where participation and engagement are at their peak, both for athletes and for tele viewers, who watch every competition since the initial ceremony.
Olympic Games: the origins
The modern Olympic Games are an event that sees different sport competitions between athletes from all over the world. They were founded by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894, when he established the International Olympic Committee, with the purpose to bring back the ancient Olympic games that were played in Ancient Greece in Olympia. The purpose was to approach in a more engaging way young people to sports instead of war and violence, taking advantage of the fascination brought by the recent archaeological discovery in the public opinion.
The first edition of the Olympic Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and were a huge success. Since that moment on, the Olympic Games are held every four years in a different Country, except three editions that were suspended due to the war conflicts.
The Olympic Games: a history of innovation
With the passing of time the audience became very fond of the Games, and the event became for broadcasters an opportunity to experiment new ways of sharing the sport content. Stepping beyond their own limits is not only a sport characteristic, but it also is of technology and media. The Olympics history saw a lot of innovations in communication:
- Paris 1924 were the first edition of the Games transmitted via radio
- Berlin 1936 was the first event in history to be broadcasted live in television
- in Tokyo 1964 it was the time of color filming, two years before BBC
- Los Angeles 1984 were a flourishing experimentation field for high-definition TV
Today this innovation trend continues, in order to create new fruition experiences.
The first mobile camera in history at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Source: Wikipedia
Virtual reality and super hi-vision
Olympic Games represent an ideal test for new technologies effectiveness and to fit users behaviors and needs. In Rio 2016, with the same purpose as always to offer the audience a new way to experience the Games, augmented reality and super hi-vision – among other innovations – will be experimented by the main broadcasters. Thanks to 360° shooting and to virtual reality viewers, people from all over the world will be near to the event so much that they can actually feel to be there.
The official Olympic broadcaster, more, will be the first in history to shoot in 8K, thanks to super hi-vision technology, which allows an unheard-of amazing definition. Unfortunately, for the moment only Japanese broadcaster NHK can support it.
Virtual Reality at the Olympic Games. Source: Summer Olympics 2016 Rio
The Olympic Games online and on social media
In 2016 the most important and engaging innovation, however, appears to be online live streaming. Users watch more and more video content online, and this has brought traditional broadcaster, like BBC, to cancel the TV channels dedicated to the Olympic to substitute them with the same experiences online.
This is not the only way to watch the Olympic Games, anyway: Google unleashed its potential to offer new ways to inform people, from the Google Search extension with the schedule, the competition results and the medals available on the browser to the Google Street View service in Rio de Janeiro, to the influencers involvement to live stream the Games on Youtube.
Other social networks are taking advantage of the Olympic event to improve their services, such as Facebook Live, which released customized filters Olympic-themed, allowing to access exclusive content on its platform thanks to an agreement with NBC, the official broadcaster.
Facebook is not the only social network with news dedicated to the Olympic Games:
- Twitter has launched new emojis appearing next to the official hashtags, like #Rio2016 and the sport name.
- Instagram recently launched Stories, a tool – similar to Snapchat – that allows users to share the moments of the day via photo or video
- Snapchat, lastly, is NBC official partner, and it will stream dedicated Live Stories, opening to sport fans the opportunity to participate to the Olympic atmosphere together with athletes.
