Immersive viewing of the game from a free perspective makes the audience "immersive"
◎Reporter He Liang
March 5 is the first match day of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics. The Paralympic ice hockey event kicked off at the National Gymnasium.
In China's first show against Slovakia, the audience in front of the TV saw a different broadcast screen-free viewpoint (bullet time) playback of the wonderful moments during the game.
This broadcast effect comes from a free-view video system deployed in the "Ice Sail" venue of the National Gymnasium.
The system consists of 60 broadcast-grade ultra-high-definition cameras and several servers and network equipment. It moves the "bullet time" from the post-production effect of the film to the real-time broadcast of sports games. The audience watching the Paralympic ice hockey event in front of the TV has a brand-new experience. watching experience.
Customize an exclusive personal match broadcast
The "Free Perspective" video system is an innovative achievement of the national key research and development plan "Science and Technology Winter Olympics" key project "Interactive Multi-dimensional Game Experience Technology and System for Ice and Snow Projects".
Project leader and Peking University professor Chen Baoquan told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the "bullet time" effect in TV broadcasts is only one aspect of the system's application. If the broadcast is placed on a mobile terminal, the audience can customize it by swiping directly on the screen of the mobile phone. An exclusive personal match broadcast.
"The interactive 'free-view' video system can help the audience to continuously change the viewing point and choose their favorite angle to watch the same event." Chen Baoquan said that the reason why this system can achieve interactive free-view viewing is that Because the previous three-degree-of-freedom video generation has been upgraded to six degrees of freedom at the technical level, "it is equivalent to bringing the audience's eyes to the sky above the field, allowing the audience to watch the game from any position and direction."
Realize 360 degree broadcast without dead angle
From the collection of venue image data to the real-time viewing of audiences at any surrounding viewpoints, intelligent algorithms are required to achieve seamless linking of viewpoints in the entire field.
The project team configured a "smart brain" for the system.
First, the synthesis of new viewpoints becomes possible through 3D reconstruction, and then adaptive coding and transmission technology predicts the next trend according to the user's intention to change the viewpoint, and performs targeted calculation and data transmission.
Chen Baoquan said that the project team realized the image generation of new viewpoints through 3D reconstruction, avoiding the jumping feeling caused by the roaming of the audience's viewpoints due to the gap between the cameras on the scene, and inserting enough virtual viewpoints at the same time, and finally realizing a silky free view of the game. experience.
In order to allow the audience to independently find the best viewing angle in the follow-up promotion and application, Chen Baoquan's team also designed the "VR Winter Olympics twin deduction and audio-visual language creative design software", which can set different lens plans in the system for different events. Just like having a live director, let the audience not miss every exciting moment.
(Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, March 5th)