I’m hooked on the Winter Olympics and have the games on whenever I can. I’m now considering taking up speed skating and, perhaps, curling. One thing that has enhanced the coverage is the use of drones filming the events.
The devices follow skiers down the course, speed skaters as they hurtle around bends, and luge pilots careening down the ice. They help give an insight into what these amazing/mad athletes are really doing. These drones are run by Olympic Broadcasting Services, the footage deployed by the TV companies. In the UK, that is the BBC and TNT Sports. The latter is showing every minute. Commenting, Scott Young, Executive Vice President, WBD Sports Europe, explained:
We work closely with OBS on every Olympic Games to how we innovate the coverage. One of those forms of innovation is how we take an audience closer to the field of play and get them closer to the action. The introduction of drones across many sports at these Games has been, frankly, a game changer.
He added that the coverage needs to “take people on a ride down the sliding centre – behind anyone – whether it’s Luge or Bob, or Skeleton. Going down the mountain in men’s and women’s racing as you see in many of the World Cups – it’s an extraordinary opportunity. Ordinary human beings could never do what these athletes do, and yet, when you follow down with a drone, you really feel you’re on that ride with them.
‘Young also said that “the drone pilots chasing the speed skaters around a venue, like we have done on track cycling for years, just takes you on a journey and makes you really understand the complexity of the sport – and takes you closer to the action drawing people into the screen, and they stay glued for longer. I think there is a real wow factor about what our athletes are doing, thanks to these drones.”
I agree, and understand there has been a huge amount of interest in how the technology is being used. No doubt it will only get better and use by other sports in the future.