On April 25, the website of the State Administration of Radio and Television released the 2021 National Radio and Television Industry Statistical Communiqué. The communiqué mentioned that by the end of 2021, there will be 985 national high-definition TV channels, 8 4K ultra-high-definition TV channels, 1 8K ultra-high-definition TV channel, and the Central Radio and Television Station and 25 provincial-level TV channels have basically achieved high-definition.
Television, the entertainment center of chinese families
Seeing this communiqué, I can't help but feel a lot of emotions. In the 1980s, television began to enter the homes of ordinary people, and the rapid development of the radio and television industry is almost accompanied by the entire process of reform and opening up. Television from black and white to color, from thick to thin, from small screen to large screen, from blur to high definition, from thin sound to three-dimensional, television has become the epitome of China's national strength, but also witnessed the change of Chinese family living standards.
More importantly, in the growth trajectory of the post-80s and post-90s generations, television has become a Chinese family life and cultural entertainment center, carrying almost all the winter and summer vacations of the two generations, and a large number of high-quality content provides the public with knowledge, broadens their horizons, and dedicates laughter. How many people remember that in order to catch up with a TV series, the whole family will wait by the TV on time, and there will be a scene of thousands of empty alleys for a while? How many people remember the noise when the whole family sat around watching the Spring Festival Gala? How many people remember those who will replay "Huan Zhu Gege" and "Journey to the West" every winter and summer vacation?
Although with the development of the Internet, the emergence of a series of electronic products such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, etc., the proportion of television in people's lives is declining, but even mobile phones still cannot shake the huge screen occupying the center of the living room. After all, whether it is brushing variety shows or chasing dramas, where is the small screen of mobile phones and tablets that is more enjoyable to watch with a giant screen of 70 or 80 inches? Obviously, 2K screens can't match the sharpness of 4K.
However, in the face of cross-border competition from up-and-coming stars such as smart phones and tablets, the TV industry has not stopped moving forward. In addition to olED, MiniLED, QLED and laser and other new display technologies in the ultra-large screen, ultra-high-definition resolution occupies the "geographical advantage", embracing intelligence is also a collective choice of the TV industry.
The wave of TV intelligence
Internet TV is the first wave of the TV industry to embrace intelligence, just like the intelligence of the mobile phone industry, the system injected into the TV can use a variety of application software, relying on Tencent, Aiyiqi, Youku and other content providers, consumers can choose the content they want to watch. Whether it is a TV series, an old movie or a new variety show, you can freely choose what you want to watch, which episode and which part you want to watch. Compared with live TV dramas, which need to stay next to the TV set on time, online on-demand video can chase more than a dozen episodes in one go, which is obviously more able to meet the needs of consumers. With the addition of AI assistants such as Sharp's Xiaoxia AI and Xiaomi TV's Xiao Ai Classmate, all you need to do to see is to move your mouth and talk to the TV.
The second wave of intelligence in the TV industry began with the "smart screen" brought by Huawei. Smart screen can be said to be a new concept in the TV industry, it has the function of TV, and not only TV, the added camera makes the TV have the function of video calls, but also with the TV fitness, play games and so on. It has led to the imitation and follow-up of traditional TV manufacturers. For example, Samsung and Hisense have also begun to enter the "smart screen" track. At this stage, tv is not only the entertainment center of the family, but also the target is the control center of the smart home.
As for the third wave of intelligence in the TV industry, it is naturally inseparable from the main force of intelligent technology at this stage - AI computing power. This time, the TV industry has focused its attention back on the performance of sound and picture, after all, this is the core competitiveness of TV products.
On April 28, at Huawei's terminal product launch conference, Huawei released the smart screen V Pro and proposed the concept and technology of computing picture quality and computing sound quality. Not only will the TV's super AI computing power be applied to the intelligent experience of the software, but also the AI will be used to help the sound and picture experience to achieve a comprehensive improvement. Sony's XR cognitive chip, Hisense's Magic picture quality engine Pro, etc. are also working in this direction.
Computing power is the watershed for high-end TV
From the perspective of display technology, Huawei's smart screen V Pro released this time is still Huawei's self-developed Honghu SuperMiniLED precision matrix backlight solution, the technical route is to choose the mainstream development trend of the display industry Mini LED technology, can achieve ultra-high density backlight partitioning, combined with clear light control PRO technology can achieve precision backlight control, according to each frame of the image for real-time partition brightness adjustment, improve contrast, to achieve more transparent light and dark details.
And its emphasis on the Honghu computing quality, based on the wisdom screen's own neural network processor (NPU) super AI computing power, real-time analysis of the objects in the picture, due to the experience of massive data deep learning training, it can be like the human brain, the picture seen for intelligent perception and dynamic optimization, intelligent reshaping of low-resolution picture texture details, repair the edge outline of objects and text; so that the SDR content of the picture light and dark contrast is stronger, the color is richer, the color transition is smoother.
This concept is somewhat similar to the current public has become accustomed to computational photography, now when you take a photo and look back, you will find that the picture has a short process from blur to clarity, that is, the mobile phone's NPU processor is calculating the picture, and finally can make the color of the photo more natural.
On the basis of conventional super-resolution technology, The Computing Quality can enhance the picture detail and edge outline for low-resolution content of 1080P and below, greatly improving the clarity of the picture and enjoying the quality performance of nearly 4K resolution. It can also dynamically enhance the color of the picture by intelligently identifying the picture scene, so that the picture color is more saturated and bright. Especially when users are watching some old movies, because of the development of technology, there were only 720P and 1080P resolution videos at that time, and they could enjoy clearer picture quality by using Huawei's smart screen V Pro. Therefore, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's terminal business, dared to say at the press conference that "good TV does not pick the source of the film".
In terms of acoustic effects, Huawei Smart Screen V Pro also uses the technology of computing audio, through the NPU of the smart screen can calculate and process the audio content in real time, and the 2.0-channel audio and video content is processed by the analysis and processing of the AI audio engine, obtaining the sound object and extracting the object characteristics, mapping the sound object to the multi-channel sound unit, and realizing the 5.1.2 surround sound and audio effect.
Previously, the INTRODUCTION of smart assistants into the TV in the TV industry is just the icing on the cake, making the TV more convenient to use, and this kind of smart assistant is not difficult for the current level of technology, it is easy to do people have me, can not open the gap. However, the industry's use of AI computing power to improve audio and picture performance this time is a charge towards the core competitiveness of television. Just like today's mobile phone industry, if there is no NPU processing unit in the mobile phone, it cannot be optimized with AI capabilities in core functions such as signal processing and photography, and it is not dare to say high-end, and TVs with AI computing capabilities can make a differentiated advantage in the industry that no one has.
In the stage when competition in the TELEVISION industry is becoming more and more homogeneous, components such as panels, backlight modules, PCBs, audio units, and even the main chip used that determine the lower limit of TV sound and picture quality are easily similar. Only the unique technology that determines the sound quality of the TV of major manufacturers is the magic weapon for each product to stand out. Whether it is Sony's XR cognitive chip, or Huawei's smart screen V Pro's "computational image quality", "computing audio" technology and even the more famous "Huangcai technology", "picture quality enhancement engine", "U+ super quality engine" in the industry, etc. have the same magic, if you want to perform more outstanding sound and picture quality, computing power must have a place, and when the hardware level converges, computing power will become a watershed dividing high-end and low-end in the development process of TELEVISION.
Standards cannot be ignored
The wave of intelligence of television is aimed at the development law of television itself. Moreover, the TV we talk about every day refers more to the narrow sense of television equipment. However, when the eyes are opened, television in a broad sense is an industrial chain, as well as the process of shooting, production, transmission and so on of television programs. If you really want to improve the quality of sound and painting, you need the joint efforts of the whole industry chain.
In order to improve the production process of the entire film/TV industry, a complete set of solution technologies has been introduced in the industry. It is for uniform specification and consistent display performance, but also includes a unique high dynamic range (HDR) technology technology. Especially in the era of 4K and 8K resolution, the visual improvement brought about by the increase in resolution alone has been very limited, and high dynamic range (HDR) technology can achieve greater exposure dynamic range, better extract and display highlight and shadow details, and enrich color and gradation, including the well-known Dolby Vision and HDR10/10+.
However, as with most standards, Dolby Vision and HDR10/10+ as the key basic technical standards in the field of high-definition video, only a few foreign companies can provide, in the long run, there is a risk of "card neck", but also is not conducive to improving the mainland's position in the ultra-high-definition audio and video industry chain.
On January 30, 2022, the State Administration of Radio and Television organized domestic industry-university-research institutions to carry out scientific and technological research, achieved technological breakthroughs, and issued the "Technical Requirements for Display Adaptation Metadata for High Dynamic Range Television Systems" (GY/T 358-2022) industry standard, filling the domestic gap. The core technology of the standard has realized the end-to-end layout of the whole industry chain in the production, encoding, reception, decoding, display and other aspects of ultra-high-definition video content, and carried out industrial promotion under the name of "HDR Vivid" its own brand.
As an early practitioner of China's independent ultra-high-definition audio and video standards, HDR Vivid adheres to the principle of "advanced, open, shared and safe", and uses the three core technical principles of dynamic metadata, tone mapping and saturation adjustment to intelligently optimize color, brightness, contrast and other picture elements, accurately matching the processing scheme for each frame of the picture, bringing more realistic colors. Fuller light and shade, richer layers, and more accurate contrasts ensure the faithful restoration of high-quality videos, and the most direct embodiment is to significantly improve the delicacy of the character's skin and weaken the "sense of smog".
Huawei is the first practitioner of hdR Vivid technology standards, at the same time, Huawei is also the main contributor to HDR Vivid technology standards, and many experts of Huawei have participated in the formulation of new technology standards.
Audio Vivid is the world's first AI-based audio codec standard released by the World Ultra HD Video Industry Alliance, which supports mainstream 3D sound coding, compatible with mono, stereo, surround sound, 3D sound, providing Hi-Res encoding, sound can be accurately placed and moved, providing the ultimate immersive listening experience. It is also compatible with the ADM international standard and flexible expansion through an advanced metadata system. Huawei holds a large number of Audio Vivid certifications, and the blessing of this certification will also help improve the sound quality of Huawei's new smart screen products. Huawei also supports the Audio Vivid standard with many patented audio technologies.
Huawei's Smart Screen V Pro is the first mass-produced product to pass the dual certification of HDR Vivid and Audio Vivid.
Every time Huawei enters a new industry, it will bring a new direction to the industry. Huawei's smart screen is an important chess piece of Huawei's all-scenario strategy, and it is also a "pioneer official" leading the development of the TV large-screen industry. Huawei's smart screen V Pro is equipped with a new generation of picture quality technology, practicing domestic certification standards, and can also play a demonstration role, promote the participation of more TV manufacturers, promote the maturity of the domestic high-definition audio and video standard ecology, and accelerate domestic families to enter the ultra-high-definition audio and video era as soon as possible.