Icefall, five rings of ice and snow, lighting of the main torch... the technological power behind the most beautiful moments of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony

||||

Written by reporter Zhao Ling, Photo and text editor Chen Yongjie

New Media Editor/Fang Yongzhen

11,600 square meters of high-definition LED display screen, image recognition and tracking based on artificial intelligence technology, and real-time rendering based on interactive engine technology, the world's first real-time tracking and interaction of more than 600 actors on a ground of more than 10,000 square meters...

The opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics brought many beautiful moments, and behind them was the use of technology to fully display the romance of the Chinese people. Let's take a look at what technological means are behind these wonderful programs.

▲Opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics (Photo source: CCTV Video)

The world's largest LED display presents "The Yellow River flows from the sky"

Upon entering the Bird's Nest, the audience will first be attracted by a super-large LED screen. It is spread out in the center of the Bird's Nest and extends all the way to the runway. It is about 11,600 square meters and is the world's largest LED display screen built so far. It contains more than 40,000 LED modules. It can not only perfectly present various special effects, but also be used in combination with virtual reality technology. It completely subverts the traditional performance stage space structure and can be transformed into a multi-faceted convex screen to extend the picture, increase the sense of space, and create a digital high-end performing arts visual effect. It is a high-resolution and high-refresh rate floor screen display project tailored for this opening ceremony.

According to the official microblog of @京方BOE, the glittering and luminous stage of the opening ceremony was provided by BOE. BOE uses multiple 8K+ resolution image fusion technologies, and the ultra-large-scale optical correction algorithm can perform pixel-level optical correction on each display image, which can present an ultra-high contrast ratio of 100000:1, an ultra-high refresh rate of 3840Hz, and an ultra-high resolution of 29900x15096 ultra-high resolution. At the same time, by carrying the ultra-large-scale display module control and synchronization system independently developed by BOE, it can also capture the actor's movement trajectory in real time, realizing seamless interaction between the image and the actor.

▲BOE uses multiple 8K+ resolution image fusion technologies (Image source: CCTV Sports)

Perpendicular to the ground screen is a nearly 60-meter-high and 20-meter-wide LED screen called Icefall. During the opening ceremony, a drop of ink dripped down, and Zhang Yimou explained that it was like "the water of the Yellow River coming from the sky", covering the entire venue, presenting a picture with Chinese aesthetics, which was amazing.

▲BOE uses multiple 8K+ resolution images and technologies to present “The Yellow River Flows from the Sky” (Image source: CCTV Sports)

Liu Jijun, the deputy manager in charge of the performance installation, said that erecting such a large screen on flat ground is not an easy task. The first challenge is the strong wind. When the icefall was built, it was autumn and winter, and the wind speed in the venue was enough to tear the screen apart. There is no foundation under the icefall, and the tower frame cannot take root. Will such a large screen be blown down?

Safety is the top priority. Liu Jijun's team began to study how the wind blows in the Bird's Nest, recorded one or two hundred wind conditions, and set up simulation experiments. Finally, considering the impact of wind, the width of the screen was adjusted from 30 meters to 20 meters, and a ventilated grille screen was used.

▲The giant "snowflake" surrounded by olive branches at the opening ceremony was also provided by BOE (Photo source: CCTV Video)

Thanks to the team's meticulousness and rigor, the final presentation of the icefall is very eye-catching. Perhaps in a few years, when we recall the Spring Festival in 2022, the first image in our minds will be the icefall falling from the sky.

Laser and 3D visual effects "carving" ice cube

For many viewers, the most eye-catching thing at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was the appearance of the five ice and snow rings.

A drop of ink in the air condensed into ice, and an ice cube rose from the ground. 24 lasers reviewed the 24 Winter Olympics on it, and finally stopped in Beijing. Six ice hockey players hit the ice quickly, and with the help of laser engraving, a five-ring ice shape finally appeared. It can be said that when the "Ice Cube" was slowly "carved" by the laser into a crystal-clear five-ring, it ignited the scene and the passion of the audience in front of the screen.

▲The combination of laser and Ice Cube 3D visual effects (Image source: CCTV Video)

"Is the sculpture real ice or fake ice?" Some people started a heated discussion on Weibo on this topic.

Haidian high-tech enterprise Leyard undertook the production and installation of the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony floor screen, ice waterfall, ice cube, north and south stand screens and playback system. According to Li Jun, chairman of Leyard Group, "the visual effect of 'carving' is produced by the combination of laser and ice cube 3D visual effects."

The Ice Cube is 22 meters long, 7 meters wide and 10 meters high, and is made up of LED screens. The five rings are also an LED screen. When it is unveiled, the laser on the 4th floor of the stand shines on the Ice Cube to "carve" it. As the top cover of the Ice Cube turns down, the five rings at the bottom slowly rise in coordination with the "carving" of the laser. The LED screens on the four sides of the Ice Cube slowly descend while playing the three-dimensional visual effect of ice slag splashing. The perfect coordination of the three aspects creates a visual effect of the five rings being "carved" bit by bit.

▲The "Ice Cube" was "laser-carved" into the Olympic five-ring logo (Photo source: CCTV Video)

3D tracking technology interacts naturally with the ground

In the programs "Tribute to the People" and "Snowflakes", we saw that the wind and snow special effects and the athletes coordinated seamlessly. Wherever the athletes went, the "wind and snow melted". We saw new pictures appear on the big screen on the ground as the performers moved. We also saw snowflakes following the children, accompanying the children to move freely on the stage... A question arises: Why can the ground interact with the performers so naturally?

▲3D athlete tracking technology (Image source: CCTV Video)

Yang Jiandong, the technical innovation manager of the National Stadium team, said that the application of 3DAT technology (three-dimensional athlete tracking technology) is a key. The operation process of this system is roughly as follows: the entire system roughly includes a camera system, a server system for computer vision and artificial intelligence processing, and a rendering system for back-end rendering. During operation, the technical team covers the entire stadium with four highly detective cameras installed on the 6th floor of the Bird's Nest stand to collect images of the actors on the field, determine their positions, and then feed back the position information and action information to the rendering system. The rendering system then performs real-time on-site synthesis according to the artistic effect set by the director, combined with the actors' positions, actions, and postures.

Generally speaking, 3DAT technology is mostly used in athlete training to help coaches organize and propose scientific training plans and professional strategies. "This system is the first time in the world that Intel's 3DAT technology has been used in performances." Tong Lei, Dean of the School of Sound at the Beijing Film Academy, and He Yuxin, Intel project manager, said, "The difficulty of this system lies in its real-time nature. Such a long chain has to pass through several sets of servers, and the delay of the whole process is about 100 to 200 milliseconds, so visually, the rendering effect seems to follow the actors, which gives directors more room for artistic creation."

Aerospace technology helps light the Winter Olympics torch

Before the opening ceremony, director Zhang Yimou said in an interview, "There is an important reform in the lighting and torch this time, which is different from the past 100 years", which whetted the audience's appetite.

When the snowflake-shaped main torch was lit under the watchful eyes of the public and automatically rotated 360 degrees, conveying the low-carbon and environmental protection concept and China's cultural confidence to the world in a unique and romantic way, one cannot help but sigh that this highly innovative and technological lighting ceremony will surely leave a strong mark in the history of the Olympic torch.

▲The torch is lit (Photo source: CCTV Video)

Although the main torch ignition ceremony seems simple and short, it has undergone half a year of verification. The Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation uses mature spacecraft test and verification technology to ensure that every aspect of the ignition ceremony is reliable and smooth.

In order to ensure the effective lifting height and load-bearing requirements of the main flare, the Fifth Academy 508 selected the 40-meter-high, 25-meter-long, and 15-meter-wide impact test tower in the spacecraft recovery and landing test site as the main test device, and adaptively modified the mechanical structure and power system to meet the installation and test requirements of the main flare and its hanging mechanism. The test tower is usually mainly used for landing impact tests, rope impact tests, parachute opening tests, etc. of spacecraft recovery and landing systems, and has the characteristics of high strength, high reliability, and convenient operation.

During the test verification process, in order to more realistically simulate the indoor application environment of the main torch and reduce the impact of natural wind and light in the outdoor area, the 508 Institute project team combined more than half a century of experience in the development of spacecraft parachutes and selected special flexible materials with special properties for spacecraft. They were made into three-sided protective nets with a total area of ​​approximately 3,000 square meters, which were hung and fixed on the west, north and east sides of the test tower respectively.

▲Rendering of the three-sided protective net (Source: 508 Institute)

As the flexible material itself is not rigid enough and is affected by wind, the protective net may sway with the wind and affect the test. The project team ingeniously used parachute design technology to add radial and latitudinal belts around the protective net, and used ropes with small expansion and contraction as mooring ropes to ensure that the protective net maintains stable tension and reliability even in strong winds.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics adheres to the Olympic hosting concept of "green, sharing, openness and integrity", combines green development with green Olympic hosting, and creates an ecological and environmental protection concept of "greening", "low-carbonization", "intelligence" and "digitalization". The fuel of the main torch is hydrogen, and the safe storage of hydrogen cylinders is also an important part of the test process. To this end, the 508th Institute fully utilized the explosion-proof spacecraft propellant filling room in the test site, added a strong exhaust system, and regularly exhausted the air. A dedicated person was responsible for daily inspection to ensure that the storage and use of hydrogen cylinders were safe and controllable.

It was under the guarantee of the aerospace spirit of strict quality control that the splendid and world-renowned main torch lighting ceremony was finally presented.

3D simulation technology builds the "brain" of the opening ceremony performance

Before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics amazed the world, it had been rehearsed countless times on a platform developed by the Beijing Key Laboratory of Digital Performance and Simulation Technology of Beijing Institute of Technology.

Ding Gangyi, director of the laboratory and professor of the School of Computer Science at Beijing Institute of Technology, is already familiar with the procedures of the opening ceremony. After all, the team of more than 40 people has been busy for a year and a half for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

He knew exactly what would happen every minute. Before that, his team would immediately make corresponding changes on the platform for every change and adjustment after every rehearsal.

On this amazing platform, you can get the best and most comprehensive view of the opening ceremony.

▲Opening ceremony system interface (Photo source: Beijing Institute of Technology)

You will enter a virtual world that replicates the National Stadium, where all elements related to the opening ceremony are located. You will see the auditorium, light strips, main stage, and the stunning super-large LED screen; you can also see the wonderful images flowing on the floor screen and vertical screen; you will see the fireworks rising and the five rings rising; you can even see how the actors of different programs in the opening ceremony enter, perform, and exit the stage, and see the exquisite and complex scheduling of the entire performance. Those shots that will not appear or will not be emphasized in the TV broadcast, you can see them all here.

▲Simulation of the Bird's Nest (Photo credit: Beijing Institute of Technology)

It can be said that it is a projection of the opening of the Winter Olympics, which can achieve the integration and fusion of all elements, all processes and all businesses of the performance.

The key technology of the integrated service platform for intelligent creation, arrangement and rehearsal of large-scale performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics is one of the projects of the Science and Technology Winter Olympics, and was completed by a team led by Ding Gangyi.

It integrates event planning and intelligent creative systems, training and rehearsal plan generation systems, performance preview systems, equipment collaborative control systems and simulation broadcasting key technologies to form a new generation of full-process performance technical solutions. In fact, advanced simulation technology is also a key technology in the now popular "metaverse" concept.

The platform is the brain of the performance. It can disassemble and refine the creative ideas of the director's creative team, and extract them into training manuals through simulation data to guide training. It can guide the rehearsal of performance elements such as actors, robots, and video projections to ensure the consistency and accuracy of the performance in time and space, and help the director observe the postures and formations of actors and props in real time. Actors can also quickly adjust their movements and quickly familiarize themselves with the performance plan in real time.

The preview system uses a visual interface and multiple data output carriers such as drawings and videos to present the real effects of various performance plans in three dimensions, assisting the director in making decisions and improving the performance plan and determining the final plan.

This technology can also provide technical services for shooting, broadcasting, and live streaming, simulating the shooting effects of different camera positions at different time points.

▲Multi-camera lens simulation effect when the five rings are displayed (Photo source: Beijing Institute of Technology)

Ding Gangyi believes that the smooth progress of a performance or ceremony depends on the coordination of sound, actors and images, the matching of time and space, the key points of multiple elements, and the advancement of the entire process. Virtual simulation technology has greatly improved the rehearsal efficiency of large-scale performances.

The program "Beginning of Spring" in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics was impressive. The performers used the long light poles in their hands to create a scene of the earth returning to spring and all things growing.

Yan Dapeng, a member of the team, said that at the beginning, no one could imagine what the effect of the show would be and how expressive it would be. The long pole is soft, and when it is swung, it will form a natural arc depending on the strength of the actors. When dancing with the long pole, the movements should be neat, but also relaxed; they should be loose, but not chaotic. Moreover, the visual presentation of this dance must also take into account the perspectives of different audiences. Therefore, under the guidance of the director and the joint efforts of the choreographers, the team used algorithms to simulate a variety of combinations of formations and swing methods. "We came up with hundreds of plans and spent more than half a year adjusting them."

▲System interface (Image source: Beijing Institute of Technology)

All the repetition and restart are completed in the virtual simulation system, without the need for actors to conduct repeated experiments.

"We just want to solve problems," Ding Gangyi repeatedly stressed. No matter how advanced a system is, it must meet real needs. Their platform is both "high-end" and down-to-earth, and can also serve as a "mediator" for many conflicts.

A large-scale performance involves dozens of departments or teams. With different perspectives and positions, disputes often arise due to the pursuit of better performance effects. For example, when a show ends and the next show is about to start, there are only four entrances and exits to the Bird's Nest. How should the actors on this side exit and those on that side enter? Should you go faster or should I go slower? At this time, the virtual simulation system can simulate the flow of people and provide an optimal solution for the different departments in conflict, and let them see the effect of the adjustment on the system.

The opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics are another "real battle" for the digital performance and virtual simulation team of Beijing Institute of Technology. They have provided technological support for many large-scale events: the "beating drums and singing" at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, the "Beijing Eight Minutes" at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the virtual simulation drill for the 2019 National Day celebration, the simulation modeling and on-site service for the 2021 Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China, and the digital stage simulation of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala from 2010 to 2022...

The team is already a leader in the field of digital performances, with technology at the leading international and domestic level. They also hold a number of core patents: a series of patents involving crowd behavior planning and crowd behavior simulation methods, core technology for crowd simulation for large events, a series of patents involving virtual camera and live broadcast simulation, and a series of patents involving virtual stages...

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics has ended. It showed the romantic aesthetics of the Chinese people and will surely leave a strong mark in the history of the Olympic opening ceremony. Next, let us turn our attention to the Olympic athletes and wish them to win glory for the country and open a new chapter in the Chinese Winter Olympics.

(Comprehensive from Xinhua News Agency, Beijing Daily, Freezing Point Weekly, Science and Technology Daily, China Academy of Space Technology official account, etc.)

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

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

Welcome to share to your circle of friends