When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is inaugurated on Friday 23 July 2021 (yes that's right), its unique in that events will be held without live spectators in the venues, as Japan has declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The world's top class sports event held every four years is thus going to miss the excitement and camaraderie of the stadium and other venues, hooting spectators and high-decibel ovations.
But that makes it all the more a telecast event, with viewers all over the world possibly including the tens of thousands who would have watched, absent the pandemic, the event live in respective venues. That also explains the impressive numbers about the extensive telecasting machinery IOC has provided.
Overall there will be 9500 + hours of content provided by the official broadcaster Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS). Out of this 3800-4000 hours are estimated to be live content, which marks 30% increase over the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A workforce of 8100 plus OBS staff will be deployed to produce Olympics from 33 venues, of which 35% will be from Japan.
Cameras: An estimated 1500 cameras are being used for bringing Live action to homes. This includes 210 slow motion cameras, 250 minicams and 1050 camera units. That's not all. There will be 3600 microphones to capture and convey all the noise, ambience at different venues.
All that put together, the beaming will cater to viewers in over 220 countries around the globe through 130 + broadcasters.