Chinanews.com, Shanghai News, April 21 (Xu Mingrui) As one of the world's three major sports events, F1 has its own charm and passion, attracting the attention of fans around the world. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, and a number of 'firsts' have added to the spectacle – the return to Shanghai for the first time in five years, the debut of China's first driver, Zhou Guanyu, and the introduction of a new sprint race.
According to incomplete statistics, nearly 200,000 fans came to the Shanghai International Circuit to experience the long-awaited roar of racing engines. At the same time, nearly 1.5 billion fans around the world really felt the real version of "Fast and Furious" through F1 direct broadcast, which once again triggered a ratings boom!
As the most data-driven live broadcast of international events, F1 Live involves massive data collection, signal transmission and distribution, processing and broadcasting. So how is such a complex process carried out, how much team cooperation is behind it, and how much black technology is blessed, let's find out today.
Ensure data collection and transmission ThinkStation escorts the whole process
As we all know, the first and most critical step in F1 live broadcast is the acquisition of massive images and audio signals. According to statistics, nearly 500 pieces of hardware will be deployed in each F1 race, including more than 120 camera positions, including more than 90 on-board cameras, 28 track cameras, etc., to capture images from different perspectives. There will also be 147 custom-built microphones around the track to provide spectators with high-quality stereo audio for each car.
In addition, there is also the capture of the score and timing system and the data collection of 20 vehicles and 10 fleets. In particular, the image data acquisition and transmission of the scoring and timing system is the top priority in F1 direct broadcasting. As we all know, the competition between F1 drivers is fierce, and the difference between the two cars is often only milliseconds, and the real-time updated scoring and timing system can help fans better understand the situation on the field, and the collection and transmission of these signals requires powerful equipment to support it.
联想thinkstation P3 tiny
With its compact size of 1L and aerospace-grade quality, the Lenovo ThinkStaion P3 Tiny can be placed in the center of the track to assist front-line engineers in capturing the screen of the F1 timing and scoring system. At the same time, the ThinkStation P3 Tiny is equipped with 13th generation Intel ® Core ™ processors and has a capacity of up to 2X2TB of storage, which can provide powerful computing power support for data storage and transmission, and transmit the images of the F1 timing and scoring system to teams, FIAs, broadcasters and commentators in real time and accurately to ensure the smooth operation of F1 direct broadcasting.
Improve the efficiency of image rendering and help the F1 live broadcast experience to be great
Signal acquisition and reception is only the first step in F1 live streaming, and the next signal processing and directing is the most important thing to provide fans with an immersive viewing experience.
The first is the director, as mentioned earlier, there will be more than 120 camera positions in a race, which provides different perspectives such as the driver's perspective, aerial perspective, and control perspective, presenting the audience with a more immersive picture. Lenovo ThinkVision professional monitor, with ultra-high-definition 4K resolution, rich external interfaces, ultra-wide large screen design, supports ETC's direct broadcast team to achieve multi-screen connection monitoring, helping F1 production personnel in more than 100 camera images, real-time switching of the most suitable lens to M&TC.
In addition to the director, in order to enrich and engage the audience with the content of the F1 live broadcast, the F1 production team will use professional graphics and video processing software to add a variety of visual effects, including race scoreboards, athlete information, real-time statistics, replays, slow motion, etc. In addition, in order to more clearly display data such as the speed, position, distance, and tire wear of the car, as well as the contours and colors of the car, the production team will also use AR technology in the broadcast.
Whether it's rendering or using AR augmented reality technology, it needs to be supported by powerful computing power. In response to complex post-production challenges, the ThinkStation P620 leverages its powerful GPU graphics processing capabilities to support two top-of-the-line professional graphics cards through an industry-leading 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes, greatly reducing rendering and compositing time, ensuring delay-free fusion of images and data, and bringing a more diverse viewing experience to the audience.
In addition to F1 live streaming, high-performance workstations such as the ThinkStation P620 are also empowering the live streaming industry. In recent years, full-link 4K live streaming is gradually becoming the standard. Lenovo ThinkStation P620 has a hardware codec unit, which can encode and compress massive amounts of data, using leading encoding technologies such as HEVC to reduce the amount of data while maintaining image quality. In addition, up to 1TB of 8-channel 3200MHz memory enables more reliable mass data throughput, which is not only a prerequisite for 4K HD live streaming, but also ensures low-latency transmission.
The ability to deeply empower the live broadcast industry stems from the powerful hardware configuration and stable data processing capabilities of Lenovo ThinkStation workstations, which provide a stable and reliable operating environment for the production team and ensure the efficient operation of the whole work. In the future, Lenovo will continue to innovate to help improve the productivity of design, development and other professionals, and empower thousands of industries. (ENDS)
Editor: Xu Mingrui