Hangzhou-“Technology,” ”smart,” and “digital” are words usually used by participants to describe features of the Hangzhou Asian Games this time. 

You might still remember the spectacular moment at the opening ceremony when the cauldron was lit by a digital colossal torch torchbearer who ran across the Qiantang River and reached the stadium. The colossal digital torchbearer was formed by hundreds of millions of netizens participating in the online torch relay. That was just a small part of the high-tech Hangzhou Asian Games. 

It's the first “Asian Games on the Cloud.” Intelligence and digitalization have been leveraged in the daily life of the Asian Games, such as eating, transportation, living, registration of participants, and broadcasting of every match.

The Main Media Center of the 19th Asian Games (photo/ Mu Xuelin)

First Asian Games Core Systems hosted on the cloud

Instead of building traditional physical data centers that require sizeable dedicated space and maintenance facilities to run, the Hangzhou Asian Games is more environment friendly with the core systems, comprising Games Management Systems, Results Distribution Systems, and Games Support Systems, hosted on the cloud. According to the introduction, as the Games’ official information technology integrator and cloud service provider, Alibaba Cloud runs an all-on-cloud Asian Games, leveraging its proven track record in supporting large-scale worldwide sports events.  

For example, at the end of each match, the Results Distribution System will receive data from the timing and scoring system at the venue, which will be further integrated into the central system for distribution in different formats through different application programming interfaces, such as the results display and news feeds. All these are built on the Alibaba Cloud to ensure efficient, accurate, and stable results distributions.

First Asian Games live footage transmitted on cloud

The Hangzhou Asian Games will also be the first in the games’ history to transmit live footage through public cloud infrastructure. It’s introduced that Alibaba Cloud is expected to transmit over 5,000 hours of live footage through as many as 68 high-definition (HD) and ultra-high-definition (UHD) feeds during the event. In addition to live broadcasts, the cloud-based content platform delivers footage in HD or UHD, highlights of the Games, and news flashes for RHBs to present to the audience’s mobile or other devices.

Make a reservation to the Asian Games venue via phone (provided by Alibaba).

Asian Game Villages on the Cloud

According to the introduction, an Intelligent Operations Platform leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s advanced visualization tools enables real-time intelligence analysis to further optimize the management systems while providing a more seamless user experience for residents in the Villages. For example, a warning will be issued on a dashboard if a public area gets too crowded. For residents living in the villages, a cloud-based service program allows them to scan the QR code to access features such as venue reservations, menu inquiries, self-service requests, information queries, navigation, etc.