The Beijing Winter Olympics became the highest-rated Winter Olympics to date

Help slide, jump, jump upwards, flip backwards for three weeks plus rotate 1800 degrees, and land steadily! On the evening of February 16, in the second round of the men's aerial skills final of freestyle skiing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Qi Guangpu successfully won the gold medal with an outstanding performance of 5.0 difficult moves. When Qi Guangpu galloped and flipped on the Genting snow field, his every movement was instantly captured by the 4K/8K 360-degree cloud broadcast technology, and the live broadcast signal in the cloud was clearly presented to the global audience at multiple angles.

Since the start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, many unforgettable moments have been left inside and outside the stadium, and these wonderful scenes have been captured by cameras and transmitted to the rest of the world through broadcasting. At a press conference on the theme of "Broadcasting and Digital Media Data" held at the Beijing Winter Olympics Main Media Center on February 16, Timo Lum, CEO and Managing Director of the IOC's Television and Marketing Services, said: "The number of hours of broadcast content for the Beijing Winter Olympics, digital media and online live broadcast data have reached record highs. "Behind these records, it is inseparable from the strong support of the broadcast technology and the broadcast team."

With the support of 5G, cloud broadcasting and other technologies, the Beijing Winter Olympics has created a historical precedent for the core system "100% on the cloud" Olympic Games

Broadcasting is an important part of the Olympic Games, and through this technology, viewers around the world can watch the games without leaving their homes. In previous Olympic games, broadcasters from various countries traveled to the scene to report on the scene, which roughly required the following processes: booking venues in media centers, preparing studios, and deploying remote broadcasting technology facilities. This process is cumbersome, time-consuming and costly.

The emergence of cloud broadcast technology has fundamentally changed this traditional way of broadcasting. Before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the IOC officially released the news that the Winter Olympics will be broadcast to the world through Alibaba Cloud, bringing more than 6,000 hours of wonderful content. This is another major technological advance since satellite television broadcasts began at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

OBS Cloud, an Olympic broadcasting cloud developed by OBS in cooperation with Alibaba Cloud, was put into use for the first time at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games and underwent a major upgrade at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: by migrating information systems such as event results, event broadcasting, information release, athlete arrival and departure, medical care, accommodation, transportation, etc., the Beijing Winter Olympics became the first Olympic Games in history where the core system was 100% cloud-based.

"If we compare the Olympic Broadcast to a sports car, we are equivalent to replacing it with a new starter, which has led to a very significant change." Zhang Dazhi, head of Alibaba Cloud's Olympic program, said.

According to Zhang Dazhi, the traditional broadcast mode requires TV stations to transport satellite broadcast trucks in advance and build network special lines on the spot. With the support of the broadcast cloud, many devices can be migrated to the cloud without transportation, and technical and editorial staff can work remotely, even if no one goes to the scene, they can complete the Olympic broadcast.

Full cloud migration provides many conveniences for media workers. Relying on cloud broadcast technology, global TELEVISION stations can receive live broadcast signals in the cloud, and provide functions such as players and short video processing platforms, breaking through the limitations of previous production personnel in the production of the event site, facilitating the media to remote live broadcast, wonderful playback, production of special effects videos and content highlights, etc., greatly releasing production productivity.

"The broadcast time of this Winter Olympics has increased by 50% compared with the previous Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. OBS data shows that after the application of cloud retransmission technology, the number of people working by all broadcasters has decreased by 40%, and the latency of the entire network has also decreased by 30%. Zhang Dazhi said.

For cloud broadcasting, especially to present 4K ultra-high-definition event broadcasting, only the technical architecture of the cloud is far away

Far from enough. Especially in the Winter Olympic Games, most of the snow sports competitions are carried out in mountainous areas, the building structure of the competition venues is complex, and the terrain characteristics are not easy to lay special lines, optical cables and other communication equipment, and it is difficult to meet the standards of direct (transposed) signals of the event. How to ensure the high rate transmission of video signals? 5G direct (transcast) technology provides a solution.

"The 5G cloud broadcast application of the Winter Olympics is based on the two major carrying capacities of 5G and cloud, especially 5G, and the front-end collectors can go anywhere in real time, and the range of activities is not as constrained as the use of fixed-line private lines in the past." Liu Huaxue, deputy director of the Winter Olympic Office of China Unicom, introduced that as the official communication service partner of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China Unicom has deployed thousands of 5G base stations to meet the needs of the Winter Olympics, forming a "one network" between the two places and three competition areas.

The reporter learned that China Unicom is equipped with 200M bandwidth for the 5G network of the Winter Olympics, and individual indoor venues are deployed according to 300M bandwidth. At the same time, the application of a series of new technologies such as 5G carrier aggregation, Massive MIMO, and super uplink has further improved the already powerful 5G network, and the peak 5G downlink rate of important venues can reach 1.5Gbps, and the peak uplink rate can reach 600Mbps.

This is the largest commercial use of 5G networks in olympic history. Liu Huaxue introduced that the Beijing Winter Olympics not only achieved full coverage of the 5G network of all Olympic-related venues, but also had many large-scale commercial services based on 5G, and the 5G cloud broadcasting and 5G smart medical care used during the event were commercial projects, and China Unicom signed commercial contracts with the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee.

At the National Alpine Ski Center, on the Beijing Shougang Ski Jump, on the Ice Cube... Thanks to the application of 5G technology, spectators around the world can not only enjoy the live broadcast of wonderful events anytime and anywhere, but also enjoy an immersive viewing experience such as 360-degree free viewing and bullet time. "Through China Unicom's 5G direct (transcast) technology, customers in all industries are able to transmit real-time pictures to the background in a timely manner, laying a solid network foundation for global audiences to enjoy a wonderful winter Olympic audio-visual feast." The relevant person in charge of China Unicom said.

One museum and one policy implement the broadcast work, closely fit the design of the competition process, arrange the camera position, and fully demonstrate the power and beauty of ice and snow sports

This Winter Olympics involves the National Speed Skating Hall, Shougang Ski Jump, National Bobsleigh Center, National Biathlon Center and other 12 competition venues, different venues undertake different competition projects, venue facilities and audiences are also different focus, do a good job in broadcasting work must be combined with reality, "one hall, one policy" to formulate a work plan.

On the evening of February 5, the Capital Gymnasium held the short track speed skating mixed team relay final, and the Chinese team took the lead in crossing the finish line and won the first gold medal of the Winter Olympics. Sharp blades out of sheaths, as fast as lightning... The difference between the victory and defeat of short track speed skating is often only one thousandth of a second, and in addition to relying on the judgment of "my eyes are the ruler", there is also an accurate and fast arbitration playback system built by the broadcast team to accurately identify.

The day before the start of the short track speed skating event, the SMT Tianying broadcast team of Shanghai Oriental Media Technology Co., Ltd. entered the venue and began to steadily produce and transmit international signals of short track speed skating and figure skating events through the S1 super large broadcast system.

As a professional broadcast team, SMT has been involved in snow and ice project broadcasting since 2003. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the team's 4K UHD S1 broadcast car went abroad twice. At the Winter Olympics, under the recommendation of the International Skating Federation, SMT undertook the broadcast work of the competition site and the construction and guarantee of the short track speed skating arbitration playback system.

6 golden cameras, 2 half-view cameras, 2 broadcast signals... A total of 10 signals enter the slow motion server to achieve full-view recording of athletes and tracks, so that the referee can fully grasp the situation on the field, especially assist the referee to various dispute points. The S1 broadcast system also provides UHD, 1080P, 1080i and other formats of distribution, reaching the largest signal distribution scale, providing broadcast signals for CMG, NBC, NHK, CBC, JCTV and other world-renowned broadcasting institutions.

"Good broadcasting is precise, smooth, moisturizing silent, broadcast short track speed skating projects need to be closely related to the competition process, in line with the law of ice rink operation, reasonable wiring, layout of the camera, to ensure that both can shoot close-up shots of athletes, fully show the strength and beauty of athletes, but will not affect the intense competition process." Lin Yunchuan, general manager of the team, introduced that OBS evaluated the team's broadcast guarantee work as "quiet" and "smooth" (quiet and smooth), "We have a perfect plan and rich experience, and the broadcast ability of the Chinese team has been fully affirmed." ”

At the Genting Ski Park in Zhangjiakou, a 48-member CCTV broadcasting team undertook the broadcast task of four events during the Winter Olympics, including snow skills, aerial skills, and U-shaped venue parallel giant slalom.

According to the person in charge of the team, as early as before the Spring Festival holiday, the broadcast team had come to the venue to start preliminary preparations. Heavy broadcast equipment relies on snowmobiles to transport, and scattered parts are carried by people on their shoulders, and after repeated surveys and tests, to ensure that the facilities and equipment to be used for broadcasting are in place. During the official competition, the broadcast team successfully completed the work of director, camera, video, switching subtitles and so on.

"We set up no less than 25 shooting machines at the competition venue, from the starting area of the race to the jumping area in the middle to the final end area, and the machine settings are different, and we strive to fully present the wonderful performance of the athletes to the audience." The head of the broadcast team said.

360-degree free-view technology, 8K+ VR technology, the broadcast of the Winter Olympics has entered a new era of digital media

At the Shougang Ski Jump, the broadcast team captured the competition in real time through a multi-angle camera system deployed around the venue, and used three-dimensional reconstruction and rendering technology to calculate the viewing angle between the cameras, allowing the audience to experience the "free perspective".

"Existing technical solutions generally only allow viewers to choose a few fixed viewing angles provided by the video source, but our reconstruction and rendering technology does not restrict the audience's viewing angle selection, and focuses on improving the audience's freedom." The team staff introduced.

At the National Speed Skating Hall, the audience opened the smart competition viewing application developed by China Unicom, which can not only independently choose the camera perspective on the mobile phone, but also freely slide the interface to view from a 360-degree full perspective, and carry out various forms of on-field interaction and social interaction. The smart viewing application not only solves the problem of a single viewing experience due to the limited viewing position, but also brings an "immersive" feeling to the off-site audience.

How to create a comfortable and continuous viewing experience based on immersive viewing? The 5G broadband environment and 8K+VR transmission scheme behind the application level such as "free perspective" are the key. Compared with 4G transmission, 5G large-bandwidth transmission sends or receives more content in a wireless form in a short period of time, and in terms of broadcast screen and VR experience, the clarity will be higher, and the stuttering will be less.

"Judging from the real-time test, the delay between the on-site screen and the smart viewing APP is only 0.3 seconds, and the on-site viewing and the smart application viewing are synchronized and complementary." Liu Huaxue introduced that under normal circumstances, VR videos are distributed to the terminal as a whole, but in fact, what the audience sees in the VR device is only a part of the spherical picture, which wastes broadband resources. "Our optimization scheme is to transmit the part of the ultra-high-definition video to the audience where they want to see it, and for other parts that cannot be seen, the low bitrate video is transmitted or not transmitted, so as to save the transcoding rate to a large extent." It is estimated that ordinary 8K+VR video needs about 60M bandwidth to transmit, while our 8K+VR only needs 15M or even 10M. Liu Huaxue said.

On the basis of stable and scientific distribution of video signals, the venue broadcast team also adopts 8K+VR cloud guide system, using H.265, H.264, AVS2, AVS3 and other encoding formats, and supports the latest SRT low-latency video transmission distribution protocol and aggregation transmission technology to ensure the stable transmission of high bitrate video live broadcasting in a complex networking environment.

"In 2008, the Beijing Olympics were considered the first digital Olympic Games, and for the first time, rights holders used digital technology to broadcast the games to audiences on a large scale. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have created a meaningful historical shift between traditional media and social media. As Timo Lum said, the smart product application of the Beijing Winter Olympics will show the athletes' focused expressions, fighting postures and warm embraces in front of audiences around the world, convey the style of the Olympic era, show the beauty of the integration of science and technology and humanities, and will also greatly promote the continuous innovation of technology in the fields of broadcasting and communications.

(China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Daily)