2024 AI Trend Is Coming, LED Display Helps The Sports Industry Shine

Artificial Intelligence (AI for short) is growing at an alarming rate. Following the emergence of ChatGPT around the Spring Festival in 2023, the global AI market is booming again in 2024: OpenAI launched the AI video generation model Sora, Google launched the new Gemini 1.5 Pro, NVIDIA launched a local AI chat robot... The innovative development of AI technology has triggered Radical changes and explorations in all walks of life, including the competitive sports industry.

Source: Open AI Sora sample

International Olympic Committee President Bach has repeatedly mentioned the importance of focusing on the role of AI since last year. At Bach's suggestion, the International Olympic Committee recently established an AI working group to study the impact of AI on the Olympic Games and Olympic movements. This move shows that the sports world attaches great importance to AI technology and also provides more opportunities for its application in the sports field.
2024 is a big year for sports. Many major events will be held this year, including the Paris Olympics, the European Cup, the America's Cup, as well as individual events such as the four major Tennis Opens, Tom Cup, World Swimming Championships, and Ice Hockey World Championships. With the active advocacy and promotion of the International Olympic Committee, AI technology is expected to play an important role in more sports events.
In modern large-scale sports venues, LED display screens are essential facilities. In recent years, the application of LED displays in the sports field has become more diverse. In addition to presenting sports data, event replays and commercial advertisements, the NBA also applied LED floor screens for the first time at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend basketball event. in the competition. In addition, many LED companies are also constantly exploring new applications of LED displays in the sports field.

LED floor screens were used in games for the first time at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend

So when LED display screens, artificial intelligence (AI) and sports meet, what kind of sparks will be created?

LED displays help the sports industry better embrace AI

In the past 20 years, human science and technology have developed rapidly, and AI technology has continued to make breakthroughs. At the same time, AI and the sports industry have gradually become intertwined. In 2016 and 2017, Google's AlphaGo robot defeated the human Go world champions Li Sedol and Ke Jie respectively. These two games triggered global attention on the application of AI technology in sports events. As time goes by, AI technology is increasingly used in competition venues.
In sports, real-time scores are crucial to players, spectators and the media. Some large-scale competitions such as the Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics have begun to adopt AI-assisted scoring systems to generate real-time scores through data analysis to enhance the fairness of the competition. As the main information dissemination carrier for sports competitions, LED displays have the advantages of high contrast, dustproof and waterproof, and can clearly present event information, effectively support AI technology, and ensure the smooth progress of sports events.
In terms of live broadcast of events, events such as the NBA have begun to use AI technology to edit and present game content to the audience, which makes the role of LED live broadcast screens particularly important. The LED live broadcast screen can display the entire game and exciting moments in high definition, providing a more vivid and realistic viewing experience. At the same time, the LED live broadcast screen also provides an ideal display platform for AI technology. Through its high-quality image display, the tense atmosphere and fierce scenes of the game are realistically presented to the audience. The application of LED live broadcast screens not only improves the quality of live competitions, but also promotes audience participation and interaction in sports events.
The LED fence screens located around the stadium are mainly used for the broadcast of commercial advertisements. In recent years, AI generation technology has brought huge impact to the field of advertising design. For example, Meta recently laid out plans to develop more AI advertising tools, and Sora can generate custom-themed athleisure brand background images in minutes. With the help of LED fence screens, merchants can display personalized advertising content more flexibly, thereby improving brand exposure and marketing effects.
In addition to being used to display game content and commercial advertisements, LED displays can also be used as an important part of intelligent sports training venues. For example, in Shanghai Jiangwan Sports Center, there is a specially built smart LED digital interactive arena House of Mamba. The basketball court is completely spliced with LED screens. In addition to displaying images, videos, data and other information in real time, it is also equipped with a sophisticated sports tracking system, which can assist players in intensive training, movement guidance and training based on the training programs written by Kobe Bryant. Skill challenges increase the fun and participation of training.

Recently, Shanghai Oriental Media Technology Co., Ltd. (SMT), a subsidiary of Shanghai Radio and Television Station, and SenseTime have jointly created a set of "AI empowered sports" technical solutions. This solution is equipped with the currently popular LED floor screen, using AI artificial intelligence measurement and AR visualization technology, which can display team scores, MVP data, offensive team countdown, special effects animations, various images, text, and advertisements in real time, providing services for basketball events. Comprehensive assistance.

AR visualization effect: player position + basketball trajectory + scoring prompt (Picture source: Shanghai Oriental Media Technology Co., Ltd.)

At the NBA All-Star Weekend basketball event held in February this year, the event party also used LED floor screens. This LED floor screen not only provides high levels of shock absorption and elasticity, with almost the same performance as traditional wooden floors, but also makes training more intelligent and personalized. This innovative application further promotes the integration of sports and AI, and this solution is expected to be promoted and applied in more sports venues in the future.

In addition, LED displays also play a key safety and security role in sports venues. In some large sports venues, safety issues are particularly important due to the large number of spectators. Taking the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games as an example, AI algorithms are used to analyze on-site crowd flow and provide intelligent traffic guidance. LED displays can provide intelligent safety warning and guidance services. In the future, the combination of LED displays and AI algorithms will provide guarantee for the safety of sports venues.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg in the application of LED displays in the field of sports. With the increasing integration of sports competitions and artistic performances, major sports events are paying more and more attention to the opening and closing ceremonies. LED displays with excellent display effects and technological functions will usher in greater market demand. According to TrendForce Consulting estimates, the LED display market size is expected to grow to US$13 billion in 2026. Under the industry trend of integrated development of AI and sports, the application of LED display will better help the sports industry embrace the development of AI technology.

How can LED display companies seize opportunities in the field of AI smart sports?

With the arrival of the 2024 sports year, the demand for intelligent construction of sports venues will continue to rise, and the requirements for LED displays will also increase. In addition, the integration of AI and sports has become an inevitable trend in the sports industry. Under this circumstance, How should LED display companies fight the "battle" of competitive sports?
In recent years, Chinese LED display companies have risen strongly, and China has become the world's major LED display production base. Major LED display companies have long been aware of the huge commercial value displayed by the sports industry, and have actively participated in various sports events and stadium projects, providing various types of display products. With the support of AR/VR, AI and other technologies, the application methods of LED displays in the sports field are becoming more and more diverse.
For example, Leyard used LED displays combined with VR and AR technologies to create an intelligent curling simulation experience scene at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The powerful giant-color LED display combined with infrared rays enabled human-screen interaction, adding interest. The application of these new LED displays has injected more novel and interesting elements into sports events, enhancing the value of sports events.

“VR+AR” display technology creates an intelligent curling simulation experience scene (Source: Leyard)

In addition, compared to traditional sports events, e-sports (e-sports) has received more widespread attention in recent years. E-sports will be officially introduced as a competition event at the 2023 Asian Games. International Olympic Committee President Bach also recently stated that the first e-sports Olympics will be held as early as next year. The relationship between e-sports and AI is also very close. AI not only plays a key role in improving the e-sports game experience, but also shows great potential in the creation, production and interaction of e-sports.
In the construction of e-sports venues, LED displays play a vital role. According to the "E-Sports Venue Construction Standards", e-Sports venues above Class C must be equipped with LED displays. The large size and clear picture of the LED display can better meet the viewing needs of the audience. By combining AI, 3D, XR and other technologies, the LED display can create a more realistic and gorgeous game scene, bringing an immersive viewing experience to the audience. experience.

Hangzhou E-Sports Center

As a part of the e-sports ecosystem, virtual sports have become an important bridge connecting e-sports and traditional sports. Virtual sports present the content of traditional sports in the form of virtual human-computer interaction and high-tech means such as AI and scene simulation, breaking the limitations of time, venue, environment and other factors. LED displays can provide more delicate and vivid picture presentation, and are expected to become one of the key technologies to promote the upgrade of virtual sports experience and optimization of event experience.
It can be seen that AI technology is present in both traditional sports competitions, e-sports competitions and virtual sports. AI technology is penetrating into the sports industry at an unprecedented rate. For LED display companies to seize the opportunities brought by AI technology, the key is to keep up with the progress of AI technology, continuously upgrade technical products and innovate services.

In terms of technological innovation, LED display companies have invested more resources in research and development to develop displays with high refresh rates and low latency to meet the high standards of live sports events. At the same time, integrating AI technology, such as image recognition and data analysis, can not only improve the intelligence level of the display, but also provide viewers with a more personalized viewing experience.
Product intelligence and service upgrades are two other important strategies for LED display companies to seize the AI smart sports market. LED display companies can provide smarter display solutions based on the specific needs of different sports events and venues, combined with AI technology, and provide comprehensive one-stop services, including design, installation, maintenance, and can also use AI technology for remote monitoring. and fault prediction to ensure the stable operation of the display and improve customer satisfaction.

The construction of the AI ecosystem is also crucial to the development of LED display companies. In order to grasp the development trend of AI technology, many LED display companies have begun to make plans.

For example, Leyard has released version 1.0 of the large action model LYDIA and plans to continue research and development to integrate the metaverse, digital humans and AI to build a complete ecosystem. Leyard also established a software technology company to get involved in the field of AI.

Unilumin Technology actively responds to industry changes and deeply implements the "LED+AI" technology integration strategy. On January 30 this year, it released five technologies including digital virtual human, vertical large model, cross-modal generation, spatial perception and virtual shooting, as well as comprehensive Four major application achievements include the dimensional holographic transparent cabinet, the Yuanverse ecological fish tank screen, the digital asset platform, and the light display content box.

summary

Sports is only one of the many fields empowered by AI, and application scenarios such as commercial and cultural tourism, educational conferences, outdoor advertising, smart homes, smart cities, and smart transportation are also areas for the implementation and promotion of AI technology. In these fields, the application of LED display screens is also crucial.

In the future, the relationship between AI technology and LED display will be more interactive and close. With the continuous development of AI technology, LED displays will usher in more innovations and application possibilities. By integrating human-computer interaction, brain-computer interface, metaverse and other technologies, the LED display industry is moving towards more intelligent and personalized direction of development.