Shanghai, China / Milan, Italy | February 2026
At the curling venue of the Milano 2026 Winter Olympics, alongside the athletes’ precise stone deliveries, another transformation was quietly unfolding — one driven by Broadcast Industry 4.0.
For this year’s Winter Games coverage, the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) Technical Center (SMT) deployed a large-scale, fully IP-based lightweight production workflow. At the core of this system was a native NDI camera matrix provided by Shanghai ZowieTek, whose high-bandwidth transmission and ultra-low latency performance made it the most perceptive “eyes” of SMG’s InnoMotion AI sports production system.
Curling sheets are long and narrow, and the venue environment is technically demanding. Traditional SDI cabling is not only time-consuming to deploy but also limits flexibility in camera placement. Leveraging ZowieTek’s native NDI cameras, SMT condensed a complex broadcast infrastructure into a standard Gigabit Ethernet network:
Single-Cable Architecture
A single Ethernet cable carries 4K video, multi-channel audio, PTZ control, and PoE power simultaneously — improving on-site deployment efficiency by nearly 50%.
Millisecond-Level Device Discovery
Once connected to the network, cameras are automatically recognized by SMT’s self-developed “CUBE Broadcast System,” enabling rapid camera relocation and dynamic positioning adjustments.
High-Integrity Transmission
Powered by high-bandwidth NDI protocol, signal robustness in complex network environments is significantly enhanced, ensuring pristine live broadcast quality.
SMG selected ZowieTek cameras not only for transmission efficiency but also for their ability to provide high-quality, lossless source material for the InnoMotion AI engine.
During the curling broadcasts, AI technology transformed this “chess on ice” into a more intuitive and engaging experience:
Real-Time RPM Analysis
Ultra-high-definition close-up footage captured by ZowieTek PTZ cameras allows the AI system to calculate and display real-time rotational speed (RPM) of the curling stone during motion.
Trajectory Prediction & Deviation Monitoring
NDI streams preserve precise timecode data, enabling the AI engine to generate real-time trajectory heatmaps and predict post-collision sliding paths.
3D AR Replay Visualization
Leveraging NDI’s high frame rate signals, the broadcast system instantly synthesizes 3D reconstruction visuals, presenting thermodynamic data overlays that illustrate the friction dynamics between stone and ice.
“The NDI protocol minimizes the distance between acquisition and computation,” said an on-site SMT technical expert. “With ZowieTek cameras, end-to-end latency has been reduced by approximately 30%, which is critical for achieving real-time AI data overlay.”
As curling stones glide across the ice, ZowieTek cameras empower SMG’s technical team to present every subtle data point of this centuries-old sport in a smarter, more efficient, and more immersive way for audiences worldwide.
