Live events are more alive than ever. The industry is constantly talking about transformation, audience fragmentation and how these changes are reshaping production and distribution workflows. In this context, if there is one area that continues to demonstrate strength while driving technological innovation, it is that of major live events.

Within this ecosystem, sporting events continue to occupy a privileged position. They are the largest-scale productions, aimed at global audiences, and the environment in which broadcasters and technology providers deploy their full operational and technological capabilities. And among them all, there is probably no more demanding or representative showcase than the Olympic Games.

For that very reason, in previous issues we provided extensive coverage dedicated to breaking down the main technological innovations behind this year’s Games, both on screen and behind the scenes, as well as the vision of the host broadcaster, in this case RAI. But once the event concluded, at TM BROADCAST we posed a key question: what comes next?

In a new feature included in this issue, we wanted to go one step further by analysing the technological roadmap of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), the host broadcaster of the Olympic Games. The progressive reduction of the IBC, the consolidation of remote production, IP infrastructures and the growing role of artificial intelligence all point towards an increasingly flexible and distributed production model. In addition, this article reveals some exclusive insights into the technological approach planned for the next Dakar event.

But not all major live events are sports-related. In fact, one of the most operationally complex television broadcasts in the broadcast calendar probably is not. We are talking about the Eurovision Song Contest.

With the celebration of its 70th anniversary in Vienna just around the corner, we analyse the key challenges behind an operation capable of coordinating up to 70 simultaneous signals during the voting phase, with extremely limited rehearsal windows. To do so, we spoke with Eurovision Services, responsible for the event’s contribution and distribution, with the aim of understanding how a production of this scale is technically orchestrated.

With this combination of pre-event coverage and post-event analysis, we aim to offer a broader perspective on the direction of major live events. An approach that combines current affairs, exclusive insights and analysis to understand how these large-scale operations are structured today, and which technologies and models will define their future.