European Athletics Championships: Eurovision Sport on the Road to Rome tech initiative By George Bevir
Friday, June 14, 2024 - 09:56
Print This Story
2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome (credit: European Athletics)
The 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome, which concluded on Wednesday (12 June), provided Eurovision Sport with the opportunity to introduce technology from sports technology startups during the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) host broadcast of the event.
Eurovision Sport - which manages a range of media rights on behalf of EBU members - launched a search for pioneering sports broadcasting tech in partnership with innovation accelerator Hype Sports Innovation in November last year.
Eurovision Sport senior project manager audio and innovation Christophe Pasquier said the Road to Rome initiative aimed to harness innovative technological solutions to enhance the broadcast and overall experience of the Rome Championships.
He said: This initiative emerged from a collaboration between us at Eurovision Sport and Hype Sports Innovation, focusing on integrating cutting-edge technologies into sports broadcasting to improve production quality, digital streaming, AI-driven data analytics, and event management systems like ticketing.
This is the first time we have partnered with Hype Sports Innovation; however, we have worked on additional projects involving technology in sports events.
In June last year, the EBU explored the practical use of AI in sports broadcasting with a voice cloning project during the European Athletics Team Championships in Poland.
This project used AI to replicate live blog content and create audio versions with the cloned voice of a former athlete, Hannah England, providing fans with more dynamic content across multiple platforms, said Pasquier.
Read more Inside the EBU's AI voice cloning project at the European Athletics Team Championships
For the Road to Rome initiative, the selection process was split into four parts: applicants submitted their solutions, followed by a proposal review and validation of concept.
After meeting with the Road To Rome board, we compiled a solutions shortlist before the selection and implementation phase, said Pasquier. When we launched the search, we specifically looked for tech founders ready with innovative solutions that could impact the European Athletics Championships 2024 in Rome, particularly in production and engineering, digital streaming and OTT, athlete AI and data analytics, or metadata production.
2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome (credit: European Athletics)
A cloud-based mixer was highlighted by EBU ahead of the Championships in Rome. Pasquier explained: The cloud-based mixer allowed for unilateral feeds, enabling rights holders to produce customised content. Rights holders responded positively to this technology, after successful deployment during the Championships, and appreciated the flexibility and efficiency it provided in producing tailored content.
With the Rome event now concluded, Eurovision Sport will evaluate all of the initiatives based on their performance and feedback from stakeholders. It is anticipated that the names of the individual suppliers will be announced in the coming weeks.
We aim to analyse the PoC effectiveness and impact of these technologies to determine their suitability for future events where we act as the host broadcaster, said Pasquier, who added that the EBU plans to run similar projects in future.
We want to emphasise the importance of leveraging new technologies to enhance the delivery and experience of sports broadcasts, he said. Within the EBU, we have an incredible Technology and Innovation department that helps us identify and implement the best AI-based solutions, such as EUROVOX.IO, an open toolkit for transcription and translation. We anticipate future collaborations with Member broadcasters and Federations, aiming to implement innovative solutions across various competitions.
Read more European Athletics Championships: EBU provides comprehensive coverage and technology debuts in Rome
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
European Athletics Championships: Eurovision Sport on the Road to Rome tech initiative By George Bevir 
