What did the Chinese athletes show the world at the Winter Olympics?

2022.02.22

With the power of technology and innovative ideas, the Winter Olympics once again made Beijing astonish the world. With the support of 5G, cloud computing, edge computing, AI, VR, AR and other cutting-edge technologies, the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games and the broadcast of the games made this winter different and full of temperature. The first commercial use of 5G at the Olympic Games Compared with the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games and Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, the Beijing Winter Olympic Games realized the large-scale commercialization of 5G for the first time. As the official communication service partner of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, China Unicom deployed thousands of 5G base stations to meet the needs of the Winter Olympic Games, forming a "one network" for the two regions and three competition areas. Through the application of a series of new technologies such as carrier aggregation and super uplink, the performance of the 5G network for the Winter Olympics has been further improved to cope with the large business outbreak in the Winter Olympics scenario. The already powerful 5G network has been further enhanced by the application of a series of new technologies, including 5G carrier aggregation, Massive MIMO, and super uplink, with peak 5G downlink rates of 1.5Gbps and 600Mbps at key venues. It is worth mentioning that by using 5G slicing technology, operators can also provide a menu of service capabilities in accordance with different user requirements for 5G network speed and latency. For example, 100M of the 200M 5G bandwidth along the Beijing-Zhanghai high-speed railway was "sliced" for CCTV's use, thus realizing the live transmission of CCTV's 5G+4K signal. The "slicing" technology ensures that the business usage perception of other users will not be affected after CCTV's resources are exclusively shared. The Winter Olympic Games set new records in broadcasting, technology and content production, and was the most watched Winter Olympic Games so far. Technologies such as ultra-high-definition signals and cloud broadcasting brought the audience a live viewing experience with a strong sense of presence. The special effects of "bullet time", which can only be seen in movies, can also be seen in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Through dozens of cameras capturing athletes' movements in 360 degrees, as well as intelligent algorithm synthesis and modeling, the audience can have a multi-angle and comprehensive playback. In addition, this Winter Olympics is the first time in history that the opening and closing ceremonies are broadcast live through 8K signal. 8K broadcast adopts the highest TV broadcasting technology standard in the world today, and the bandwidth of 8K signal is 32 times that of HD signal. With the advantages of high speed, low latency and large bandwidth, 5G becomes the "protagonist" of "Technology Winter Olympics". Immersive VR experience of the Winter Olympics "meta-universe Since the first appearance of VR technology in the Rio Olympics in 2016, the Olympic Games have also witnessed the development of VR technology. In this Winter Olympics, in order to give users in front of the screen a live viewing experience, CMCC has carefully set up VR technology-based panoramic live props in many competition venues. For example, in the Wukesong Sports Center, 60 crane cameras and 3 spherical cameras were installed to capture the athletes' exciting moments of the games in 360° without any dead angle, making VR viewing a more direct way for the cloud to participate in the Winter Olympics. Based on the VR technology equipment in the stadium, Mobile Cloud VR selected more than 40 major competitions for VR live broadcast during the Winter Olympics, covering many "top" athletes such as Gu Ailing, Wu Dajing and Su Yiming, bringing a screen-breaking viewing experience for VR all-in-one users, who can watch every detail of skating, spinning and jumping in real life. In addition, Mobile Cloud VR also uses "Sky Box" technology to realize the effect of venue simulation, so that audiences can put on VR glasses and be in the venue and experience the Winter Olympic Games in the metaverse. During the Winter Olympic Games, CMCC also brings new views of ice and snow sports such as real-time live broadcast, self-produced content and short video of ice and snow sports in all venues and scenes by MIGU video, MIBAI and the "iron triangle" of video coloring. In order to let viewers experience the ice and snow games in a more immersive way, China Mobile's MIGU Video also brings real and shocking audiovisual experience through 4K/8K, HDR Vivid, VR/XR and other ultra-high-definition technologies; in the broadcast of the games, AVS3 codec standard application, 360-degree surround shooting and other technologies are used to let users immerse themselves in the exciting moments. What is worth mentioning is that MIGU Video also provides a more humanistic viewing environment - "For You Who Can't Hear" intelligent subtitle function. This function integrates voice recognition and subtitle generation, and covers hundreds of events such as figure skating, short track speed skating, snowboarding and freestyle skiing, breaking the communication barriers. Successfully completed the communication guarantee without failing the mission In the opening and closing ceremonies of the Chinese romantic Winter Olympic Games, ensuring the smooth wireless network is the top priority. In order to ensure a good network environment in the national stadium for the opening ceremony of the Ice and Snow Festival, China Telecom started optimizing the base stations in the Bird's Nest venue in advance to ensure a dead-end and full coverage of 5G/4G signals inside and outside the venue; in addition, it also set up an intelligent analysis system for IPTV Tianyi HD video service to monitor live channels in real time to ensure smooth, clear and stable transmission of live programs. At the closing ceremony, China Telecom's professional technical engineers optimized the monitoring of wireless network signals, inspected emergency AI cameras, emergency vehicle power, base stations, optical cables, etc. The protection team was on duty for 14 hours and successfully completed the task of 4G and 5G wireless network protection. It is reported that China Telecom also provided 800MHz trunking communication service for the Organizing Committee during the Ice and Snow Festival, which truly realized the 800MHz trunking terminal precision command of "one click, one call". During the protection period, China Telecom delivered more than 5,600 800M terminals (including standby) to the Organizing Committee, including terminal services, network services and event operation protection services to meet the precise scheduling of each event. For example, during the opening ceremony, from the assembly and admission of leaders, athletes, performers and spectators, to the opening performance, fireworks show, performance broadcast, to the withdrawal of the opening ceremony, one instruction was given quickly through the 800M trunk terminals, and all the opening ceremony security personnel responded quickly and orderly according to the instructions, ensuring that the opening ceremony was carried out in an orderly manner without missing a second. In order to ensure smooth communication, China Telecom also took the lead in carrying out low temperature testing of the trunking terminal to ensure that the terminal meets the high standard of communication performance requirements such as operability, signal reception and battery life under low temperature and high cold environment.