Samsung S24 Ultra: using smartphones to cover the Olympics

Through the Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphones installed on each boat, Olympic fans experience the thrill of the sailing competition as if they were there.

Samsung used the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to show how its smartphones could be used for a global coverage of the event.  This followed other marketing actions from the company, which included new product updates enabling you to keep up with major upcoming events including the 2024 United States Presidential Election through Samsung News. The company has also delivered new sports programming from LALIGA to soccer enthusiasts across the country.

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 allowed the company not only to strategically place its smartphones at the event locations but to offer, through Samsung News, curated editorial content from Olympics.com, the official digital platform of the International Olympic Committee. The update is currently available on all Galaxy devices in the U.S. and will feature content for the Paralympic Games in August.

A first-of-its-kind footage

While much of the coverage made with Samsung smartphones could be done with other type of cameras, one event made the Galaxy S24 Ultra shine: the sailing competition held in the French port city of Marseille, as part of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Through the Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphones installed on each boat, fans experienced the race as if they were alongside their favorite athletes — battling the elements together in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

Samsung implemented optimized software and technology to support filming and transmitting this first-of-its-kind footage in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and other Olympic partners. The initiative is part of a project that underscores the company’s commitment to leverage mobile innovations to bring consumers closer to global events.

A whole new set of challenges

For the sailing competition in Marseille Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphones were installed on the boats used in the sailing events. For kitesurfing and windsurfing, Galaxy smartphones were attached to each athlete’s shoulder and buoys in the water. With this new viewing experience, sailing fans never missed a beat.

This presented a whole new set of challenges and months of research, development and testing — in close collaboration with the OBS and other Olympic tech partners — to guarantee video quality and connectivity performance across various bodies of water and weather conditions, which can be really windy with huge waves or extremely hot and sunny. Samsung and its partners addressed these challenges by leveraging the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Optical image stabilization (OIS) features, increasing transmission power and installing relay towers on chase boat to ensure a seamless livestream experience for viewers.

The resulting images, some of them shared here, clearly demonstrate there is a place for smartphones when covering events as the Olympics.