The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is drawing to a close. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, events in The Tokyo area will be held in the form of empty venues with no spectators. The global audience will be able to watch the Olympics on the cloud for the first time.
“Cloud Olympics” how to ensure the vividness of the event and the sense of the scene, shorten the distance between the audience and the stadium, capture the wonderful moments of the event anytime and anywhere? Ali Cloud as the highest level of the Global partner of the Olympic Games, support the Olympic Games to achieve the first global cloud broadcast, for the use of major broadcasters. At the same time, Ali Cloud supports the domestic top media to realize the verification of the overall process of “gathering, editing and sending” on the cloud, which provides valuable practical experience for the media to coordinate reporting across regions.
Xinhua News Agency, as China’s state news agency and a worldwide news agency, is one of the only six world-class media qualified to present the highlights of the Olympic Games in the main press center. The Tokyo Olympics was also the first time for Xinhua to act as an international news agency to cover the Olympics. Xinhua dispatched a 133-member Olympic coverage team to cover all aspects of the Games. Through cloud technology, front reporters and rear teams can cooperate closely, making the coverage more efficient.
In view of ali Cloud’s technical assistance to Xinhua News Agency’s “cloud production and broadcasting”, the realization, exploration and verification of trans-regional collaborative production and broadcasting process of “gathering, editing and publishing” can be divided into the following steps:
Remote collaboration, network first
Whether media materials and content can be efficiently transmitted back, network security is the key. Earlier this year, xinhua applied for a broadband link of 100Mbps, considering various demands for signal and video content transmission. When the reporter arrived in Tokyo in July for the field bandwidth speed measurement, the results are not ideal. The 100 mbit /s network access to domestic services, bandwidth is only KB/s level, like a return to the era of dial-up Internet.
Field bandwidth speed measurement
How to solve the problem of cross-lan transmission?
The reporter in front took out the “artifact” prepared in advance: Smart Access Gateway (SAG) of Aliyun One-stop fast Access To Cloud SDWAN.
As it has been configured and tested in China, the reporter can directly plug the reserved Ethernet into the SAG WAN port and connect the device to the SAG LAN port to automatically obtain the IP address. According to the report from Tokyo, the devices on site constitute an encrypted and secure Intranet environment with computing and storage resources configured in advance on the domestic cloud. Of course, the APP can also be installed on terminals such as PCS and mobile phones to meet the point-to-site fast access of various mobile terminals.
At the beginning of this year, Xinhua News Agency cooperated with Aliyun and Youku to conduct multiple tests and verification. SAG gateway can optimize network transmission quality to the maximum, reduce system access delay, and meet various application scenarios such as remote production and cloud production.
Intelligent Access Gateway SAG is the CPE terminal device of Ali Cloud hybrid SD-WAN solution, which can be simultaneously based on Internet broadband / 4G/5G/dedicated line and other types of links to help enterprises to securely access Ali Cloud at high speed. We give full play to the network resource advantages of Aliyun, encrypt access to POP points nearby, optimize the network quality, and one-stop achieve cross-regional, flexible and efficient branches and offline IDC interconnection and business cloud.
With the development of 5G technology, many enterprises have explored the use of 5G to access the Internet or resources on the cloud. In the first half of the year, SAG’s 5G bandwidth was up to 80Mbps (upstream) and 200Mbps (downstream) in domestic tests.
In the streaming media video transmission protocols, the commonly used streaming media protocols mainly include RTSP, RTMP, UDP, HLS, SRT, NDI and so on. For UDP, NDI and other transport protocols that only support private networks, SAG also makes transocean transmission impossible. It can realize cross-border transmission with low delay and be applied to various scenarios such as remote production and remote introduction.
In addition to network means, there are other ways to optimize speed. In the actual test, although the content sent back from Tokyo site was slow, the speed of Tokyo site access to Tokyo resources was good.
Therefore, open storage space in The Tokyo region on the cloud can meet the requirements of fast content upload, and then copy the content in the Tokyo region to the domestic storage area by cross-region replication, realizing automatic and asynchronous file replication between Tokyo and different OSS regions in China. Synchronize file changes (such as creating, overwriting, and deleting files) in the source storage space to the target storage space. Not only meets the requirements of data replication, but also can be used for remote DISASTER recovery.
Of course, not all files need to be synchronized due to temporary storage. In this case, you can selectively synchronize files based on the specified filename prefix to meet various reporting requirements.
Cloud system sowing, ruyingsuixing
Traditional program production needs to be configured as required to support 4K or HD workstations with graphics cards for editing and production, and achieve synergistic effect through networked storage access. However, for cross-border reports, large-scale network system deployment is inconvenient to carry, and can only meet the needs of local visits. Therefore, in this mobile report, cloud desktop is used to achieve more flexible access experience in multiple regions.
The service system is deployed on the cloud. For customers in various Internet environments, secure and high-quality access is the key to achieving the same effect as offline service systems.
The cloud desktop is an easy-to-use, secure, and efficient desktop service on the cloud. It can quickly build and efficiently manage a desktop environment and provide a secure and flexible access system. Users who use the cloud desktop can connect to the cloud desktop through clients, and o&M managers can remotely manage the cloud desktop in a unified manner. You can manage workspaces, desktops, policies, mirrors, networks, and storage.
The cloud provides a variety of computing resources. In the shadow free cloud desktop, you can choose CPU and GPU specifications, buy them out, charge on demand, and be flexible. Administrators can define applications and resource images, such as HIGH-DEFINITION non-coding and 4K non-coding, to quickly copy and start new machines. Security policies can be configured on the cloud desktop based on requirements to enable the upload and download functions to improve convenience, and to disable the upload and download, USB flash drive, clipboard, and network channels to prevent data and IP address leakage.
For terminals, you can flexibly choose software or hardware as required. The hardware terminal provides unified light space and is equipped with a personal cloud disk to carry data and use cloud resources according to permissions.
The cloud desktop can display the editing effect of cloud sites with low bandwidth, high resolution and high display quality. It supports a variety of non-programming software at home and abroad, and supports up to 9 layers of 500Mbps XAVC video editing.
According to the measured results, low access delay (RTT (overall delay) less than 50ms) can be achieved through home broadband, office network, hotel wifi and other wifi connection modes. When the bandwidth is less than 10Mbps (hd / 4K resolution for editing operation access), it can smoothly edit, review, color and other operations. At the same time, it can also access the color console and other peripheral devices through the external device redirection function, so as to meet better user operation experience.
The overall cloud production and broadcast network architecture is as follows:
In order to ensure the simultaneous access of Beijing and Tokyo, Ali Cloud opened the cloud desktop service in Shanghai between Beijing and Tokyo. In the case of network test in both places, the corresponding RTT value is below 100 milliseconds, which can well meet the business needs.
In order to meet the needs of different people for different non-programming software, a unified CS resource management system is deployed on the cloud to have the collaborative production capability with Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Edius, Dayang, Sobe, And Other non-programming software. Users can drag and drop the software, Drag material or point segments directly into the unedited area for editing. The user’s entire editing process is transferred in the material management system and editing software, avoiding frequent switching among multiple software.
In the material management system, the storage management of the material is defined into two ways: personal database and department database. The personal database belongs to the login personal account, and only the user himself has the right to see and manage its content. The department library belongs to the entire department, and the staff in all departments can share the materials. Users can share the materials to the department library in their personal library to realize the expansion of the department library resources.
At the same time, you can also see the collected material under the left included material catalog, which shows the video metadata information and can be previewed. In the video preview box, the video can be clicked and dragged to the non-editing software for editing. The contents being included can be combined with the non-editing software to realize editing while collecting.
The resource library can also provide BS management terminal combined with AI intelligence ability to achieve intelligent cover extraction, voice recognition, character recognition, intelligent strip stripping, intelligent cataloging, rapid management of background content, reduce the pressure of material management personnel, but also make content search more flexible and convenient.
Not only content production can be carried out through the cloud, but also scheduling, AI processing and directing switch of signals can be realized through the cloud while maintaining the traditional operation mode (switching panel, viewing habit, etc.), as shown below:
Intelligent support, one-stop service
On the cloud, through the combination of editing software providers and public cloud basic capabilities, more business scenarios can be realized, and processes and intelligentization of heterogeneous business production links can be connected.
Through the combination of BS editing application, it can meet the value-added application of business in one stop and achieve better business efficiency.
This time, in view of the demand of Olympic Games coverage, combined with the AI capability of Ali Cloud video cloud, further customized: create Olympic athletes database before the game, and conduct video analysis and content presentation immediately after the front report is stored in the database, so as to provide better and faster services for the business system.
At the same time, in the whole media business process of “collecting, editing, sending, following and reviewing”, the collaborative production of editing on mobile terminal and PC terminal can be realized through the support of AI capability, and the unified preparation and distribution of contents on large and small screens can be completed, which can not only realize the closed loop of business, but also quickly enter into the publishing process, so as to achieve a unified BS interface. Realizing one-stop service for all business processes and intelligent tools.
For the Olympic Games, various templates of sports reports were made in advance, which can be quickly combined with shooting videos to realize the rapid production and distribution of content.
The AI editorial department created by Aliyun video Cloud for the media industry is committed to implementing all AI capabilities of Aliyun in different scenes of the media industry, improving the production efficiency of content production and production, and reducing labor costs.
In the era of cloud production and broadcasting, the AI editorial department has already faced the market with the ultra-high definition content processing capability based on distributed media processing engine, in addition to multi-mode search, character library, video fingerprint, digital watermarking, all kinds of new capabilities to provide capacity support for various production scenes in the era of cloud content production. For the continuous development of the industry to provide more products and solutions.
The future of cloud production
The global Cloud Olympics has brought a new concept of “production and broadcasting on the cloud”, whose essence is the comprehensive cloud transformation of media’s complete business process of “planning, collecting, editing, publishing, following and commenting”. The core lies in the support of cloud environment for business and the realization and push of cloud into the end through shadowless cloud desktop.
Through cloud production and broadcast, Ali Cloud has realized the full cloud of media core business, completed the cloud replacement of traditional professional equipment, and solved the space limitation and equipment dependence of practitioners in content collection, production, review and release.
For the media industry, in the actual production process, because most of the historical data and content are stored in the offline system, it needs to frequently involve the import and upload of original materials, which takes a lot of time to use the Internet and affects the actual experience. At present, acquisition, compilation, issuance, storage and other services are distributed on the cloud and under the cloud, which will be a relatively long transition stage. Therefore, the import and fusion of original content and the construction of dedicated links are very urgent and important issues.
With the development of cloud technology and network infrastructure, production on cloud will be more widely used and developed. In the joint test of Aliyun and Youku, the following scenarios were verified:
Low delay remote surveillance
Cloud enhanced content production and broadcasting
Through the deployment of Aliyun video enhancement system in Youku, 4K enhancement and color optimization are carried out for HD materials, which can be used for live broadcast signal processing and video file processing, realizing low-cost 4K content production and alleviating the problem of high production cost of native 4K content and less original content in the industry. It fills the blank market space between hd production and native 4K production. It can also be used to optimize the real-time processing of content from low-quality sources.
Intelligent cloud broadcasting scheme
The cloud broadcasting vehicle scheme of 5G + 4K + AI + cloud aims to empower existing TV broadcasting vehicles with cloud production capabilities through cloud production technology, improve content production efficiency, reduce production costs and incubate new content forms.
Through the intelligent access gateway, local devices and resources on the cloud can be connected to realize the all-link solution on the cloud of local multi-channel camera signals, on-cloud guidance, subtitles packaging, coding push stream, multi-channel distribution, cloud collection, AI analysis and intelligent editing, and it can be implemented and perfected in the existing youku homemade programs.
Suitable for network media, OGC, radio and television media and other new media HD live scenes, compared with the traditional EFP production process, it is convenient, stable and low-cost, and can also complete intelligent image cutting, animation, multi-subject segmentation and other bright applications through intelligent means.
Through the practice and verification of this Cloud Olympics report, we can feel that cloud production can greatly meet the demands of existing production business. At the same time, it has greater advantages in operation and maintenance, flexibility, cross-regional collaboration, intelligent assistance and other aspects. It has deeply reconstructed the business process of “procurement, editing and distribution” and created a new application mode. The production of video content on the cloud can play a greater value in the journey of all-media communication and traditional media organizations to enter the main battlefield of the Internet.
Ali cloud with the help of the Tokyo Olympic Games on the cloud production of actual combat, but also for the upcoming National Games, the Winter Olympics to accumulate more forward-looking combat experience, in the cloud production and broadcast era, let us look forward to a better experience and a new picture of the cloud.
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