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Broadcast control system — Winter Olympics Special #001
The opening ceremony of the winter Olympics will be held at 8pm on February 4, 2022. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics will be held at 8pm on February 4, 2022. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics will be held at 8pm on February 4, 2022. When we are watching the visual feast in front of the TV, the staff of Lanjing Technology are working hard in the background. As the broadcast control system of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, the company’s Hirender total media control system presents the most perfect visual effect for the audience all over the world.
Become attached to the games
Beijing billow scene technology co., LTD. Since its inception with the 2008 Olympics and the 2022 winter Olympics main supplier of LED screen, leah group maintained good relations of cooperation, with many times military-transport will participate in wuhan, the seventieth anniversary of National Day national festival, jointly create wonderful audio-visual feast, established the deep trust each other.
Beijing Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony backstage (1)
After lyard Group undertook the projects related to the Winter Olympics, it recommended Lanjing Technology to undertake the broadcasting and control work of the series of grand ceremonies and events of the Winter Olympics. At the same time, Lanjing was also recommended by Wang Zhiou, director of visual effect of the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the general contractor of the opening ceremony, conducted field investigations in Lanjing Technology Company for many times. After careful consideration, It chose Hirender total media control under Lanjing Technology as the broadcast control system of the Opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. This is the first time that the domestic broadcast control system appeared on the stage of the Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, and Lanjing Technology was greatly honored.
What is a broadcast control system?
In the exhibition industry, “broadcast control” technology can be defined as a comprehensive control technology for “broadcast” and “broadcast”, in which broadcast is aimed at the arrangement and management of visual content, including video playback, real-time interactive content, etc. Broadcasting is aimed at the control and management of display media, including the splicing and fusion of various display devices. In short, play is for content, broadcast is for presentation, and both need corresponding control methods according to different application scenarios and business processes.
Beijing Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony backstage (2)
And the broadcast control system, is in the broadcast control process, need to involve a variety of software, hardware and other equipment composed of the system, in short, it includes video signal output source, signal transmission system, display equipment, other peripheral equipment. The Hirender total media control system often assumes the role of the output source of video signals. It can manage and arrange media resources uniformly, and then output video signals to the back-end device. In some scenes requiring unified control of peripheral devices, Hirender all-media total control system can also send control signals to these devices at the same time to achieve the effect of integrated total control; Leyard group’s LED system plays the role of signal transmission and display. It receives the video signal sent by the Hirender all-media master control system, transmits it to the LED screen and finally presents it to the audience. In actual broadcast and control scenes, other peripheral devices will also be involved according to different needs. For example, with the progress of the program, the five ice rings slowly rise, which requires mechanical equipment. As the athletes enter the stadium, the LED screen of the venue will appear water waves, which need to involve interaction and acquisition equipment… These devices cooperate together, and finally achieve perfect visual effects on the scene, they can be called a member of the broadcast control system.
Hirender operation interface
Hirender General control system topology
Lanjing original HVC video coding format
The principle and technology of broadcast control, in short, refers to the relevant technical principles of each device involved in the process of broadcast control, including operation methods and operating principles of various devices, editing of media resources and other aspects. There are a wide range of specific knowledge points to be mastered, including but not limited to: Computer principles, display equipment, signal transmission, audio and video coding and decoding, control principles, tracking technology, acquisition technology and so on.
Based on the traditional broadcast control technology, Lanjing Technology independently developed the HVC (Hirender Video Coding) Video Coding format for the performance industry. After installation in the form of plug-ins, Codec operation can be performed in Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Media Encoder.
In the exhibition industry, h.264, H.265 and HAP are the most popular coding methods for consideration of resolution, picture quality, transparent channel, video volume, coding time and other comprehensive factors. However, with the continuous development of the industry, these video coding more or less will show some drawbacks.
Common video coding data comparison
As shown in the figure above, compared with H.264, H.265 and HAP, HVC supports the highest video resolution of 16384 x 16384, yuV420/422/444, 10/12bit color depth and transparent channel (some features are under development). Tested on RTX4000 graphics card, 7680X4320 YUV420 decoded a frame of 3 ~ 4ms, encoding a frame of 6 ~ 7ms, does not occupy CPU. Encoding performance is 5 to 10 times that of libx265, decoding performance is on par with h.265 nvdec, but with lower memory footprint (1/3 to 1/2) and faster initialization speed (20ms vs 130ms). On the same graphics card, HVC can support twice as many layers as H.265; Under the same PSNR image quality, the code rate is 1/4~1/3 of HAP; The same length of video files, smaller size; HVC supports free random location, fast/reverse play and other operations, and supports the video block coding export function. When the media server on the control side needs to preview a large number of layers at the same time, the automatic switch to low resolution and other performance can support higher resolution (8K+), higher picture quality (YUV444, 10/12bit), higher compression ratio.
HVC plug-in test diagram
The birth of HVC video coding format enables The Hirender and HECoos broadcast control system of Lanjing Technology to meet more exhibition scene applications, filling the vacancy that the existing coding format of the exhibition industry cannot meet the demand, and finally achieving a more perfect effect. In the future, Lanjing Technology will continue to increase investment in RESEARCH and development to bring more technological breakthroughs and innovations.
Technical challenges during the Winter Olympics
Lanjing staff photo
The LED floor screen with a total area of 11,626 square meters, the ice waterfall with a height of 60 meters, the Ice Cube and the North and south stand screens of the Bird’s Nest are unprecedented applications of LED screens on such a large scale. Large display larger than 16K, more than 27 4K*50Hz video signal synchronous playback, which also put forward high requirements for the broadcast control system. In the face of such a complex situation, the technical team of Lanjing, relying on the past stage experience, formulated a single server output 4 channels 4K60Hz, 20 Hirender media servers output at the same time, in the important part of the ground screen to choose 2 control 14 display of the master and standby combination, withstand the pressure at the opening ceremony scene. For unexpected situations that may occur, we have made sufficient preplans. All Hirender servers responsible for broadcast control on the scene adopt the master/standby mode, regardless of the size of the stage, LAN Jing never fight unprepared battles.
In winter Olympics opening ceremony performance, we see the actors on the stage with roller skating to draw the “faster, higher, stronger and more united, in the main torch lit the children holding doves casual dance, at the foot of snow as the move following the change of the characters, as well as the opening ceremony last as people’s footsteps gradually into the picture, Intel’s 3DAT athlete tracking system is used. Hirender collected real-time interactive images of Intel 3DAT at the performance and displayed them on a large floor screen stage.
Beijing Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony backstage (3)
Less than 20 days before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, the broadcast control team of Lanjing received a notice from the director team that “Snowflake” would be the finale of the entire opening ceremony. The scene of peace doves flying freely was performed by young actors. At the same time, the original ground screen video was removed and only the interactive snowflake element was retained. This means that the broadcast control team has to upgrade the broadcast control system which has been running stably for more than 3 months. Time is tight and the task is heavy. Once problems occur in the transformation process, they will not only affect the final stage of the grand platoon, but also bring great technical risks to the opening ceremony. The technical team of Lanjing is bold and careful, and adopts the method of hot replacement, which is reformed and tested at the same time of rehearsal to ensure that the reformed server does not affect the broadcast control system in operation. We worked hard for several days and nights, successfully realized the seamless upgrade of the system, and cooperated with the director team to achieve the perfect program effect at the opening ceremony, which was unanimously praised by CMG CCTV and other cooperative units.
Current situation of Broadcast control system in China
Broadcast control technology is developed earlier in European and American countries, while China’s broadcast control technology is developed under the influence of the performance industry in recent years. With the rapid development of large screen technology in recent years, video display media has gradually expanded from traditional TV sets and computer monitors to more diversified media, including LED large screen, projection fusion system, etc. The broadcast content has changed from a single video content source to the integration of various content forms, and the broadcast form has changed from online broadcasting to offline interaction and experience.
Economic foundation determines the superstructure. With the continuous development of the country, people’s demand for spiritual culture is gradually increasing, and the volume and number of activities in China are increasing rapidly, which also greatly promotes the development of broadcast and control technology in China. Domestic broadcast control system gradually begins to emerge. The Hirender series software of Lanjing Technology can be said to be an excellent representative of broadcast control software, which is widely used in the industry. Hecoos pushes broadcast control technology into the field of all-domain production, integrates design and realization comprehensively, and redefines a more efficient program production process.
The excellent performance of Hirender in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games also dispelling some people’s concerns and doubts about the reliability and stability of domestic broadcast control system. Domestic enterprises iteration speed so fast, now in technology has no less than foreign related top products, even in many functions and technical indicators are better than foreign products, domestic broadcast control system can also according to the requirement from creative director and designer to provide customized development service, gradually broke the Europe and the United States and other developed countries for broadcast technology monopoly. A single spark can start a prairie fire. China’s broadcast and control system is developing vigorously and moving forward continuously.
Author’s brief introduction
Li Lin: founder of Beijing lanjing technology co., LTD., founder of Beijing qijing online technology co., LTD., founder of Hirender&hecoos brand and “ARTBOOK” network platform.
Beijing Lanjing Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on software and Internet product development, creating visual workflow and digital management system for digital media industry, and has a number of independent intellectual property rights in audio and video coding and decoding, real-time rendering, multimedia signal management and other core technologies. Lanjing focuses on stage performance, exhibition, film and television production, cultural entertainment and art installation and other application scenarios, providing software and hardware research and development, technical support, system design and other services, combined with visual creativity to empower the innovation of digital media industry.
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