On February 4, the “virtual bird’s nest” of the National Stadium was presented for the first time at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, bringing a visual feast of ultimate enjoyment to hundreds of millions of spectators around the world. This is also the world’s first large-scale application of 8K technology to broadcast the opening ceremony and report on key events.
When talking about the opening ceremony, Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening and closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, said in Zhihu’s Q & A that in the past, we didn’t have hundreds of people lined up in a neat and uniform manner. It seems that we would say “bad performance”. Now, we dare not to “show our muscles” or show off our skills. We are not limited to whether it is good or not, but to think about what can move people most. “As a creator, I usually don’t want to score myself, but I want to score 100 points for the team at the opening ceremony last night!” Zhang Yimou said at a news conference.
With the support of technology, the Winter Olympics created an ethereal and romantic sense of modern science and technology when there were only 3000 participants on site. Artificial intelligence, 5g, AR, naked eye 3D, cloud computing, 8K display, digital twins and simulation technology were widely used in the opening ceremony performance.
the “technical power of light and shadow” behind the rise of the Fifth Ring Road
At the opening ceremony of this winter Olympic Games, the “Yellow River water” flowing straight down, the “ice cube” condensed in an instant, the magic snowflakes on the ice and the five Olympic rings constituted the first climax.
“The director has been asking us to find the confidence of Oriental Culture in the content of light and shadow.” Wang zhiou, director of visual effects at the opening and closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, said.
Taking the formation of water waterfall as an example, in the process of creation, Wang zhiou’s visual team not only looked for a lot of data to analyze and learn water, but also used image processing algorithms to machine learn a large number of traditional Chinese ink paintings and establish ink texture feature models, so as to create the artistic conception of “the water and the sky of the Yellow River”.
Then, when the water of the Yellow River slowly froze, an “ice cube” nearly three stories high was formed, and the symbols of the previous winter Olympic Games were carved one by one with the laser carving knife.
\u3000\u3000 “This time, we made the world’s only 360 degree naked eye 3D digital device, and also did a lot of virtual digital rehearsals, so that we can feel the luster of the rising water cube. In laser engraving, we need a point information, and we give the digital content to the laser console to make it fully synchronized, which requires tens of thousands of pictures. Finally, through digital programming and The program developed by ourselves has transformed all laser points in the ice cube into digital information. ” Wang zhiou wrote in Zhihu’s Q & A that these pictures that used to require lighters and laser engineers to conduct physical proofreading overnight have now become a direct digital engineering information to ensure that the envisaged laser and human tracking can be perfectly presented in the ice cube at the first time.
In order to make the ice breaking of the ice cube more accurate, the long march Tianmin development team responsible for the stage support of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, under the condition of limited space, accurately controlled the motor to drive four sets of synchronous transmission units composed of 16 chains and 16 steel wires, so that the lifting and positioning accuracy of the ice cube with a total weight of about 400 tons and a lifting weight of 180 tons can be controlled within ± 1mm.
In the design of stage machinery control system, the above team added digital simulation software and hardware equipment used in aerospace system product research and development, optimized design of control algorithm, and conducted hardware in the loop simulation test. Compared with the general rocket flight test, nearly 100 ground tests need to be carried out, and nearly 1000 ground tests have been carried out for the stage system of the Winter Olympic Games.
In addition, in order to make the stage floor achieve dazzling effect, the stage floor of the opening ceremony adopts the largest 8K UHD ground display system, which is provided by Chinese screen enterprise BOE. The ground display system uses a total of 40000 LED screens, and the total length of cables used in the whole site exceeds 20 kilometers, setting a Guinness world record.
“snowflake” shaped main torch platform: the combination of virtual and reality
At the opening ceremony, the most eye-catching giant “snowflake” shaped main torch platform glittered with crystal clear light and slowly took off. Nearly 100 virtual snowflakes with the names of the participating areas also began to gather together. With the lighting of the flame, the atmosphere of the whole opening ceremony was pushed to a climax.
Zhang Yimou said that snowflakes are like an “undercover”. From the countdown to the children singing “thousands of snowflakes opening up”, snowflakes have been. “For the first time in the history of the Centennial Olympic Games, there is such a main torch. The names of all participating countries and regions are on it. It is composed of the whole world. No matter the size of the fire, it is the fire in our hearts. Different snowflakes from all over the world gather in Beijing and become a common snow flower of mankind.”
In order to realize the creative concept of “diamond like brilliance” of the torch platform, the main creative team of the opening ceremony applied some digital visual programming methods to the design and production process. “A snowflake is woven with Chinese knots and olive branches. The snowflake device is 14.899 meters wide. There are 96 small snowflakes with Chinese knots inside, surrounded by six olive branches, each of which is a light-emitting device.” Wang zhiou said that mapping the digital programming algorithm into the snowflake device can make its light completely different every second, with both the blooming feeling of snowflakes and the romance of olive branches.
There are more than 550000 LED light beads embedded in the whole torch platform, and each light bead is independently controlled by a single channel of the driving chip.
At the same time, the flowing wind and snow dissipated in real time at the feet of skaters, and more than 500 children laughed and played on the stage like glittering snowflakes. Behind the technology are 3dat computer vision and motion capture technology provided by Intel and AI real-time video special effects technology provided by the teacher and student team of sound School of Beijing Film Academy.
Intel said that through the AI algorithm, the whole venue of the Winter Olympic Games is covered by four cameras, and the actors can interact with the large screen laid on the scene in real time. In terms of transmission efficiency, it takes less than tens of milliseconds from image acquisition, recognition, detection and processing.
At the moment when the torch was lit, the giant snowflake screen radiated from the center to the four sides, shining a wave like bright light layer by layer. Behind the fast changing display screen, the Boe Technology Group Co.Ltd(000725) IOT technology system and the self-developed synchronous / asynchronous compatible messaging system are adopted. The asynchronous centralized control can quickly distribute large-scale video content in a very short time, Synchronous centralized control ensures that 102 double-sided screens achieve millisecond response. In addition, the high redundancy control system of “main circuit + loop” backup ensures the ultra-high reliability of the broadcast control system of the flare station.
In Zhang Yimou’s view, the biggest feature of the opening ceremony is innovation. It has many creative points. Its scale is not the largest and its performances are not the most, but the creative concept shows the warmth of mankind in a difficult time.
