DAM systems: The secret heroes behind 2026 Winter Olympics publishing workflows
The Olympic Games is a thrilling live event watched by millions around the world as the action unfolds in real time. To make sure that spectators, media, publishers, and digital platforms receive top-quality visuals instantly, Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems play a crucial role by streamlining the distribution of these images to the right channels as the moments happen.
DAM’s role for media publishing at the Olympics
At the Winter Olympics, Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions are essential for handling the massive amounts of visuals generated throughout the event. With thousands of images captured across multiple venues every day, DAM platforms ensure that such files are managed efficiently and delivered without delay. Their reliability is vital, as any system downtime or lag could result in missed opportunities for real-time coverage and engagement.
For organizers and media professionals alike, a robust DAM solution forms the backbone of seamless content operations during such a high-profile event.
Read more: Why Digital Asset Management is essential for Publishing
Fotoware Veloz stands out as a leading DAM solution tailored for the demanding environment of the Winter Olympics. Its high-performance architecture supports rapid, high-volume photo ingestion, allowing photographers to upload images instantly from the field via FTP.
Advanced tagging capabilities enable quick image prioritization and enrich each asset with detailed metadata, making it easy to categorize and locate specific moments.
And powerful search tools ensure that media teams can quickly retrieve the right images, which allows journalists and broadcasters to respond to breaking stories and highlight key athletes without delay.
Read more: How Time Out transforms publishing workflows with Fotoware Veloz
— “Our customers are primarily looking for reliability and performance in ingesting, indexing, and searching through huge volumes of photos during events such as the Olympic Games. The strength of Fotoware Veloz is its ability to handle and process these high volumes of photos during these intensive, short periods without changing the infrastructure of their system.”
The significance of streamlined sport photography workflows
The sheer volume of images and the pressing need for speed, makes sports photography a unique use-case within the world of DAM. During events like the Olympic Games, hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of photographers are tasked with capturing every moment with high-resolution images. The competition is tough, not just between the athletes, but also between the photographers themselves and the agencies they’re representing, competing for the best visuals published in the shortest amount of time.
This results in millions of images being captured, indexed, and evaluated, all in search of those perfect moments, that are again marked and shared with a global audience. However, no matter how amazing a photo is, it loses its value drastically as time goes on, and speed is of the essence when it comes to its success.
Today’s sports photographers rely on complex workflows to ensure that the best images are ingested, tagged, selected, sometimes also enhanced, and then distributed and published at top speed. For this, media houses and agencies rely on DAM solutions to streamline every single step. Because if just one of the given phases is disrupted, a great image risk becoming outdated before it’s even viewed.
Read more: How to streamline sports photography with AI and metadata - an example
30+ years of Olympic Games photography
Fotostation, a prominent tool within the Fotoware product suite, had its debut at the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer. Back then, the photography workflows were much slower and the concept of evaluating and tagging countless images in so short time was unheard of. Over the past decades, a lot has changed in the world of both media and tech, but Fotostation is still a fan favorite amongst professionals wanting to index, select, tag, enhance, and distribute visuals at top speed.
Read more: 30 years of DAM - Fotoware employees reflect on the journey
— “At Fotoware, we have a long history of supporting media houses and agencies in their daily work. When it comes to sporting events like the Olympics, the pressure is enormous, and our customers rely on our software to offer top-level reliability throughout every workflow - from camera to distribution. Sports move fast, content should too, and I'm proud to say that our products are world-class when it comes to speed and metadata capabilities.”
