Kuaishou's black technology 'Bullet Time” empowers AFC broadcasting and creates a new smart viewing experience

The 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou is not only a top international sports event, but also a wonderful Chinese technology feast. In this Asian Games, Kuaishou StreamLake cooperated in depth with Hangzhou Telecom to jointly create a new smart game viewing experience. In the broadcast of fencing events, Kuaishou StreamLake's six-degree-of-freedom technology was fully applied, and "bullet time" was also used in fencing events for the first time. Top international competitions.

Rui Jie, leader of the intelligent Asian Games team of China Telecom Hangzhou Branch, said that relying on Kuaishou StreamLake's self-developed 4K 3D virtual mirror video technology and China Telecom's 5G/all-optical network, through the 4K professional cameras deployed in the stadium The high-definition competition video collected by the array in real time achieves "bullet time" ultra-high-definition rendering in the cloud, and the exciting moments of the competition are output within 3 seconds, reaching industry-leading levels in terms of image quality and timeliness.

Picture: Screenshot of the "Bullet Time" special effects in the women's team foil final broadcast

This is the first time that black technology has been applied in an international fencing competition. "Bullet Time"

In fencing competitions, athletes' reaction speeds and body movements are extremely fast, and scores are scored in a split second. In addition, due to problems such as the angle of the broadcast camera, it is often difficult for the audience to see the details of the competition clearly. Replays of key moments of the game are essential. In order to allow the audience to see and understand the fencing competition clearly, during the Asian Games, the fencing project used "bullet time" technology for the first time in an international event.

"The final landing effect exceeded the expectations before the game." Sheng Xiaojie, the technical director of Kuaishou Six Degrees of Freedom, said that during the pre-game evaluation, the technical team considered that the fencing venue was small and worried that it might not be possible. Give full play to the advantages of the 3D virtual mirror movement of "bullet time". Fencing is called "the ballet of fighting". The outcome of the game often depends on a flash of lightning. The players' fighting skills, physical flexibility, and fighting spirit are all condensed and released in this moment. In order to better present the fencing event, After the hard work of the technical team, the actual performance far exceeded expectations.

The use of "bullet time" technology helps the audience see the details of the game more clearly and promotes the popularity of fencing. In the past, it was often difficult for the audience to see clearly at the moment of scoring, so it was necessary to restore the game through slow play and replay, especially in some cases where the sword was controversial and both sides hit almost simultaneously. With the support of "bullet time" technology, the key moments of the game can be better restored, allowing the audience to clearly see who hit first and which part was hit

For example, in the live broadcast of the Asian Games women's individual foil competition, Kuaishou's "bullet time" technology brilliantly restored every fighting moment of Chinese player Huang Qianqian as she passed through all the obstacles and finally won the championship, especially in the semi-finals and finals. , her key sword move to win the game was frozen in 360 degrees, allowing the audience to experience the gold-winning moment in an all-round and immersive way.

Tailor-made exclusive plan Comprehensively enhance the Asian Games viewing experience

In the 2022 Winter Olympics and "Village BA" "After waiting for sports events, Kuaishou applied "bullet time" technology to the broadcast of the fencing events of the Hangzhou Asian Games this time. In order to meet the differentiated characteristics of the competition site and live broadcast effect requirements, Kuaishou has carried out customized planning to comprehensively improve users’ viewing experience at the Asian Games from multiple aspects such as machine deployment and technological breakthroughs

For this year’s Games For the specific scenes of the Asian Games fencing event broadcast, the six-degree-of-freedom technology has achieved customized upgrades. According to Sheng Xiaojie, first of all, the server space is small and the solution is lighter. Due to the relatively small space of the TOC room in the fencing venue, Kuaishou adopted a lightweight solution this time. Only one on-site server can complete the full-link signal production, which greatly reduces the requirements for the production site.

Secondly, the machine deployment scale is small and the location is flexible. In the past, ordinary technology required hundreds of cameras to be deployed in the field, while six-degree-of-freedom technology only required more than 30 cameras. In the Asian Games fencing hall, Kuaishou deployed cameras on the second floor of the auditorium based on the actual conditions of the venue. Through 3D virtual mirror technology, it can cover the "bullet time" to the main track and two sub-tracks at the same time, ensuring that While blocking the audience’s line of sight in any direction, it avoids any impact on other operating functions in the venue.

First of all, the clarity of this Asian Games has been significantly improved. Compared with other international competitions, Kuaishou uses full-link 4K 3D virtual camera technology to make the overall production clearer and smoother. The application of this technology makes the effect presented on the large screen clear and smooth, reaching the level of clarity required for international competition broadcasts

On this basis, Kuaishou also focused on breaking through a major technical difficulty in the live broadcast of fencing events - the 3D modeling problem of fast-moving small objects. Take the foil fencing as an example. The diameter of the foil is only a few millimeters, and it moves very quickly during the fencing process, resulting in motion blur in the shot. Before the start of the competition, the Kuaishou technical team specially purchased two swords to test and optimize the algorithm effect, and finally solved the modeling problem well, ensuring the image quality of the final output high-definition rendering, and making the details more clear.

Fourth, the effect is smoother and smoother. Kuaishou 3D virtual mirror movement technology uses 3D reconstruction to construct a silky smooth movement of virtual cameras in space. Compared with the camera correction and splicing scheme commonly used in the industry, on the one hand, it can reduce the number of cameras by more than 50%, and on the other hand, the overall operation The mirror effect can also be smoother and smoother.

In addition, this time Kuaishou also used cloud rendering links to put a large number of complex 3D reconstruction and rendering work into the cloud for calculation. While ensuring the timeliness and clarity of production, there is no need for a lot of local calculations. With the assistance of force, the efficiency is significantly improved.

With the passage of time, the popularity of niche sports continues to expand, and the application of technology has played a positive role in promoting it

Kuaishou StreamLake six-degree-of-freedom technology is being used in more and more sports event live broadcast scenarios. At present, six degrees of freedom technology is mainly widely used in football, basketball, gymnastics and other sports, while its application in fencing-type events is relatively limited

"We were also very surprised during the initial test. For venues like fencing, For events with a relatively small space, six degrees of freedom technology also has a lot of room to play, and more applications are possible." In Sheng Xiaojie's view, each sport has its own unique characteristics, and six degrees of freedom technology, as an "all-rounder", has a very wide coverage , clearly captures offensive and defensive actions, can present a 360-degree perspective, and can also freeze microscopic details for 0.01 seconds.

The eternal theme of sportsmanship is superb skills and fierce fighting. At present, six-degree-of-freedom technology has realized effects such as bullet time, virtual camera movement, and free-view interaction, and supports 3D space editing creation. The Kuaishou StreamLake technical team expressed the hope that by using technologies such as six degrees of freedom, it can better demonstrate the competitive level and fighting spirit of athletes, enhance the excitement of broadcasts, and help popularize relatively niche sports such as fencing

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