Correction! The whole network thanks the "Cheetah" for winning the gold medal in short track speed skating, but it was actually the "Flying Cat" who made the contribution

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Compiled by New Media Editor Lai Tianying

When watching the Olympic Games, have you ever wondered how such fast-paced competition scenes were captured?

In the men's 1000m short track speed skating final at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 7, the Hungarian athlete who crossed the finish line first was disqualified due to a foul penalty, and Chinese athletes Ren Ziwei and Li Wenlong won the first and second place respectively. When the whole network was boiling, many netizens launched the "Thank you 'Cheetah'" campaign. In a Winter Olympics competition, the camera on the sidelines "accidentally" became the protagonist!

So, what exactly is a "cheetah"?

First, let me correct a small mistake made by many netizens. The camera system used by the Beijing Winter Olympics short track speed skating final venue, the Capital Gymnasium, is the "Flying Cat" instead of the "Cheetah" that the whole network is thanking. What is going on? Let's read on.

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Speed ​​skating's eagle-catching expert

Cheetah

"Technological Winter Olympics" is one of the key words of this Winter Olympics. "Cheetah" is a dazzling "new technology" in the "Ice Ribbon" of the National Speed ​​Skating Oval of the Beijing Winter Olympics. It is also an indispensable "contributor" on the road to the Chinese team's first gold medal.

In fact, the cheetah is not an animal, but an "ultra-high-speed 4K track camera system" developed by China Central Radio and Television over a five-year period. It is a huge device consisting of a gyroscope, a track car, and a 360-meter-long U-shaped track, installed on the outermost side of the track at the National Speed ​​Skating Stadium. You can even catch a glimpse of it flying by during the live broadcast of the event.

▲Cheetah at work (Photo from CCTV News)

If the athletes are eagles on the ice, then the "Cheetah" is like a mysterious falconer. In the speed skating competition of the Winter Olympics, the speed of athletes can reach 15-18 meters per second, which is about 50 kilometers per hour, while the design technical standard of the "Cheetah" is 25 meters per second, which is about 90 kilometers per hour.

▲Cheetah (Photo from CCTV News)

It also has 4K high-definition capture capabilities, which can clearly show the athletes' all-out efforts and the excitement of crossing the finish line during the competition. It has the characteristics of low latency and high quality.

▲The "Cheetah" runs faster than speed skaters (Photo from CCTV News)

Zhao Wei, head of the "Cheetah" R&D team and a senior engineer at the Special Equipment Department of China Central Radio and Television, also said in an interview with the media that there is currently only one "Cheetah" system installed in the "Ice Ribbon" venue. Its development makes up for the defect that live cameras in short track speed skating competitions cannot track and shoot quickly. It can track the positions of athletes in real time and capture live scenes.

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The “eagle eyes” of short track speed skating

Flying Cat

The photography system used in the short track speed skating final venue, the Capital Indoor Stadium, consists of an array of 40 4K ultra-high-definition cameras plus three 8KVR cameras, also known as the "Flying Cat", which made a significant contribution to the competition.

▲The "Flying Cat" at the short track speed skating event (photo from CCTV footage)

Many short track speed skating events focus on tactical coordination between team members and the "corner game" between players, so it is more reasonable to choose the "Flying Cat" with a multi-camera ultra-high-definition camera array. The "Cheetah" that netizens talk about is actually located in the speed skating competition venue - the "Ice Ribbon".

It is worth mentioning that "Flying Cat" is different from "Cheetah" in that it is not a specific name for this camera system, but a synonym for "cable camera system technology". Therefore, we can hear the name "Flying Cat" in football matches, concerts or other large-scale cultural and artistic programs, but this "Flying Cat" is not the same as that "Flying Cat" and cannot be confused.

▲ "Flying Cat" video equipment (Photo from CCTV News)

The "Flying Cat" system camera can achieve full-view coverage. In addition to broadcasting images, it also plays a role in assisting penalty judgment. In the short track speed skating final, the hidden fouls of Korean and Hungarian athletes were exposed, thanks to the "eagle eyes" of this set of high-definition cameras.

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The "clone technique" of freestyle skiing women's big air

Time Slicing

In addition to "Cheetah" and "Flying Cat", my country's technical team has also developed an AI image processing system for the 8K live broadcast system, allowing the wonderful moments of athletes' competition to be presented in the form of "time slices".

"Time slicing" is to cut the few seconds of athletes flying in the air into several pieces of content, and show the wonderful moments of athletes flying in the air to the audience in the form of frames. This technology can not only be appreciated by the audience, but also provide assistance to anchors, commentators and referees to better evaluate the performance of athletes.

▲Time slicing demonstration (picture from CCTV.com)

During the broadcast of the women's freestyle skiing big air final in which Gu Ailing won the third gold medal for the Chinese delegation, with the help of the "time slicing" technology, the audience could intuitively see through video playback that Gu Ailing seemed to have the "ability to clone herself". From take-off to landing, the aerial trajectory composed of multiple postures was frozen in the same picture.

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Snowboard men's slopestyle high speed freeze frame

Bullet Time

The movement during high-speed sliding suddenly freezes and can be viewed from multiple angles and in all directions. This is called "bullet time".

In traditional live broadcasts of sports events, multiple cameras are often used to shoot the game scenes from different angles. These signals are transmitted to various TV stations via satellite, and then the TV station director directs the switching of different angles to form the sports broadcast that the audience sees. It was not until recent years that the "bullet time" of sports broadcasts, which can be paused at any time and replayed in 360 degrees, appeared.

▲Bullet time (Picture from CCTV News)

In "Bullet Time", dozens of shooting angles will form dozens of 4K high-definition signal contents, which will be synchronously transmitted to the edge servers deployed in the venue and the remote cloud servers. At the same time, dozens of angles and signals are transmitted to the cloud, and with the support of intelligent algorithms, fast 3D modeling is performed on the cloud, bringing a smoother viewing experience.

For TV viewers, although they cannot be present at the event, they can still feast their eyes. For the TV broadcast of the curling competition, more than 60 360-degree panoramic cameras, commonly known as "bullet time", were set up on site to capture and replay the athletes' wonderful moments.

In the men's snowboard slopestyle qualifying competition on February 6, China's post-00s young athlete Su Yiming made a perfect jump and advanced to the next round with a huge lead in the qualifying competition. In this competition, 360-degree panoramic shooting technology was used to reproduce Su Yiming's high-quality 1980 moves in 360 degrees with super cool "bullet time" special effects, permanently freezing this highlight moment.

▲360-degree panoramic shooting technology "Bullet Time" (Picture from Baidu News)

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Immersive opening ceremony

Augmented Reality (AR)

The theme of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is "Building a Snowflake". Each virtual snowflake is produced in real time using AR technology and played on a large screen at a rate of 50 frames. This allows us to see the millisecond moment when "the Yanshan snowflakes are as big as a mat."

▲AR technology used to create virtual snowflakes at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony (Photo from CCTV Video)

In the men's 1000m short track speed skating Group A final of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese athlete Ren Ziwei won the gold medal. In the studio, Winter Olympic champion Wang Meng and her partner Huang Jianxiang gave a commentary that was "professional and humorous". The studio where the two were commenting was also full of technology and a sense of the future.

▲The studio scene of AR technology (picture from Tencent)

In the studio powered by AR virtual technology, the scene can be changed at any time according to the live broadcast content, making people feel as if they are always in the ice and snow stadium. And through VIZRT (Vis Virtual) technology, adding a tactical analysis system will further enrich the dimension and depth of the event commentary and increase the watchability and professionalism of the live broadcast.

For audiences around the world, these photographic techniques have resulted in more lifelike details and richer colors.

As for the competition scene, these technologies have also helped referees solve the game errors that are difficult to identify with the naked eye, thus avoiding the possibility of misjudgment. Various technologies including trackers and quantum timing continue to emerge and are used in sports events. In addition, new technologies such as AI referees and computer vision tracking are also constantly empowering sports competitions.

According to the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and its partners have invested more than 660 cameras to ensure the broadcasting technology, including 148 special cameras, 13 track camera systems (Cheetahs), 11 cableway camera systems (Flying Cats), 10 bullet time replay systems, 33 virtual reality cameras and 25 ENG cameras.

Technology to support the Winter Olympics is a key step in achieving sustainable development of ice and snow sports, a green Olympics, and universal participation. I believe these new technologies will be able to serve and drive more people to participate in ice and snow sports in the future!

(Source: CCTV Video, CCTV News, Tencent, Beijing Evening News, The Paper, Meike.com, etc.)

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Beijing Science and Technology Media

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