Panasonic technology and athlete Thomas Röhler join for the JJ. Oo. Tokyo

Olympic javelin champion Thomas Röhler relies on AV technology from Panasonic to overcome the barriers of training due to the pandemic and compete in the imminent Tokyo Olympics.

The technology of the Japanese Panasonic and the German javelin thrower Thomas Röhler have joined forces for the training of the athlete before the Tokyo Olympics, that start the next 23 July, and achieve his second gold.

Panasonic's technical teams are facilitating the preparation of this athlete for the competition in a period marked by the pandemic. To do this, the athlete uses the laser projector PT-MZ16KL from this manufacturer to simulate the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and specifically train visual orientation, in a situation as close as possible to a competition.

Thomas Röhler has been training for several months dedicated to perfecting his marksmanship in the javelin throw before the great Olympic competition. The athlete, known for having developed many innovative training methods with his trainer states that “from October to April we throw balls against a tar canvas in the pavilion. In total, are about five hundred balls per week of training. To my coach, Harro Schwuchow, he came up with the idea of simply projecting images of the competition venues on this canvas to better train the visual orientation”.

The requirements of the technology are very special to achieve this, as Röhler explains: “we train in the light of day and throw balls from between 300 grams and 2 Kg. against a canvas at high speed and pressure. However, the image has to be clearly visible so that we can orient ourselves optically”.

To respond to the requirements of the athlete, the idea of using the Panasonic PT-MZ16KL laser projector was proposed.. How the Halle team has to be dismantled after each training session, a compact device was chosen, but also powerful.

The competition light is simulated with a power of 16.000 Lumens. The projector optics were chosen after a 3D simulation, so that it was installed optimally without disturbing the start-up. The displacement of your lens is used to project the image in front of the approach path.

In the big competitions, as in the case of the Olympic Games, athletes perform very few 'test throws'’ on site before your participation in it, but thanks to the simulation with the projector it is possible that the athlete can adjust to the specific conditions foreseeable in each site.

Panasonic is also boosting a new level of analysis of releases with cameras Lumix FZ 2000 and AG-CX10, that capture videos in 4K resolution, also used by Thomas Röhler in his workouts.

These cameras allow you to capture high-resolution videos, share them immediately, play and enlarge them so that the coach can analyze the details of the movement on a TV 4K OLED panasonic, facilitating and optimizing, the athlete's workouts.

A motto: sharing the passion

Panasonic has supported the values of the Olympic Games and the transmission of live images in almost every country in the world as Official Global Partner of audio and video equipment since the Calgary Olympics (Canada), in 1988, and from the year 2006 it is also of the Paralympic Games.

As he stresses Junichi Suzuki, Managing Director of Panasonic Europe, “with the technical support of Thomas Röhler and the young athletes of his team we are building the Olympic history of the company, which has included bringing passion for sport to living rooms around the world with our knowledge and products for over thirty years. 'Sharing the passion’ it's not just an advertising slogan, but the drive and motivation to improve products and services more and more, something very similar to the work of Thomas Röhler”.

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