The 2016 Olympics are nearly at a close and people all over the world have been tuning in to watch their favourite sporting events and superstars compete on the world stage. This year’s summer Olympics hosted in Rio, Brazil, will have a total of 31 different events ranging from indoor sports like badminton and boxing, water sports including swimming and canoeing, and of course outdoor events which include archery, cycling, football and the most popular, track and field in the athletics.
Since the modern Olympic Games began in Athens, the games have since been hosted every four years across the world. It wasn’t until 1936 where the Berlin Games became the first sports event to be televised live, and since then fans have been wowed, not only with the impressive opening and closing ceremonies and athlete’s incredible performances, but also by the mind blowing footage and live coverage that technology has been able to provide as it’s developed with modern day society.
It’s funny to think that it wasn’t until the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 that we were blessed to be able to watch the Games in colour. How times have changed! Even more mind boggling to some, it was the 1984 Los Angeles Games that were the testing ground for high-definition television!
This brings us as swiftly on as Usain Bolt to Rio de Janerio. As already witnessed by many of the Reels team, we have been in awe of some of the live coverage and montage footage the BBC have brought to our screens over the last week. The high tech camera and audio equipment used at these 2016 games has captured action, emotion and sheer sporting passion like never before!
Panasonic has been the Olympic Games official host broadcast equipment supplier for many of the previous Olympic events and their involvement began in 1984 for the Los Angeles Games where they supplied the large video display and sound system in the main arena. This year, we are now able to enjoy all the action from 2016 in a variety of different ways and at the highest quality possible!
The eyes in the sky!
Drone cameras have been around for a few years now. Since the London Olympics in 2012, there has been an explosion in aerial technology used for TV broadcasting. This year’s games will experiment with the airborne technology to capture some of the most specular aerial shots over numerous events. What Rio doesn’t want a repeat of is the near drone collision that Marcel Hirscher came close to in Alpine Skiing World Cup in 2015. The Austrian was only seconds into his run when the drone came crashing down out of the sky missing him be a whisker!
Extraordinary Enhanced Vision
We have all heard of ‘4K’ which is the newest advance technology to be hitting our television sets, bringing a new dimension to viewing pleasure at home. Well, organisers for this year’s Games have taken things to a whole new level and recorded 130 hours of 8K (that’s right, you’re not seeing things) 130 hours of 8K footage to amaze and excite viewers this year. There is one slight problem though… Unfortunately, consumer televisions are not yet compatible with 8K. You’ll need to book your flights over to Japan where this super high definition footage will be aired to the public in broadcasting centres around the island in East Asia. Small price to pay for some delicious 8K!
V to the R
You’ll all be pleased to know that you won’t need to jump on a flight over to Japan for an Olympic virtual reality experience. The Olympic Broadcasting Services and the International Olympic Committee body will be filming virtual reality footage from various events throughout the Games this year. The footage will include the athletics and beach volleyball which will be made available to international broadcasters including our very own BBC. The Beeb will make the footage available through a special Olympic app and viewers will be able to watch their favourite events using the Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard. This, yet again, will bring a whole new viewing experience to the Games in Rio which you can experience from the comfort of your own home. Just watch out for those javelins hurtling towards you!
No need to miss any action
When we hosted the Olympics back in 2012 in London, the BBC had dedicated 24 hour HD channels so viewers could always keep up to date with the action. This year although the channels aren’t available, the BBC haven’t let us down. Much like the coverage for Glastonbury and Wimbledon, we can log onto BBC iPlayer where viewers can watch all the major events live or catch up on sports they may have missed through the wonderful world wide web.
We hope you are all enjoying the Games as much as we are and fingers crossed we can bring home a few more gold medals! GO TEAM GB!!
