Huawei Zhang Wenlin： Digital technology accelerates the transformation and upgrading of media industry.
On May 20th, the 2021 China International Intelligent Communication Forum, with the theme of "Intelligent Communication in the New Era", hosted by the Central Radio and Television General Station and the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, kicked off in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Vice Minister Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Central Radio and Television General Station, Shen Haixiong, Deputy Secretary of jiangsu provincial party committee and Governor Wu Zhenglong attended the opening ceremony of the forum and delivered speeches. Huang Qin, secretary of Wuxi Municipal Party Committee, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, and Du Xiaogang, deputy secretary of Wuxi Municipal Party Committee and mayor, delivered a keynote speech. A number of industry experts and scholars, entrepreneurs and representatives of Chinese and foreign media gathered in Wuxi to talk about the new future of intelligent communication. Zhang Wenlin, President of Huawei’s Strategy Department, attended the main forum and delivered a keynote speech entitled "Digital Technology Accelerating the Transformation and Upgrading of Media Industry".
Zhang Wenlin, President of Huawei’s Strategy Department, delivered a keynote speech on "Digital Technology Accelerating the Transformation and Upgrading of Media Industry" in the main forum.
First, the era of ultra-high-definition video has arrived, and it is accelerating towards 4K/8K and richer experiences.
On March 1, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Central Radio and Television General Station jointly issued the Action Plan for the Development of Ultra HD Video Industry (2019— 2022). The overall goal of the action plan is to vigorously promote the development of ultra-high-definition video industry and its application in related fields in accordance with the overall technical route of "4K first and 8K second". In September, 2020, HDRVivid, the key technical standard of ultra-high definition video industry in China, was officially announced. In the Spring Festival Evening of 2021, the world’s first 8K ultra-high-definition TV live screen was fresh in memory. The era of ultra-high definition is coming. The penetration rate of family 4K TV in China has exceeded 70%, and the number of families with 4K receiving ability has reached 200 million.
Technological changes have driven the development of the industry, and the requirements for efficiency, quality and computing power in film and television production have been greatly improved. Driven by the demand for accelerated remote collaboration in the epidemic, it is accelerating the overall cloud. Taking film and television works as an example, from Avatar in 2009 to Alita in 2019, the number of special effects shots doubled, and the requirements for calculation and storage increased by more than four times; There are also super variety shows, the number of shots is increased by 10 times, the quality is required to start at 4K, the production time is required to be shortened, and the parallel computing is required to be improved by 10 times. Starting from supporting the efficient production of content, AI will completely change the future creation and production mode, from the production end to the consumption end. There are a lot of pain points that need to be solved by AI intelligence in the whole process of current content production, and the changes in the future film and television industry need innovative technical support.
Second, the ultra-high-definition industry will be scaled up to promote technological innovation and industrial transformation.
Throughout the 14 th Five-Year Plan, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, and the deep integration of virtual reality technology and digital technologies such as the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and 5G is having a profound and extensive impact on the economic and social development process. In recent years, the policies and plans of the General Administration of Radio and Television and the Film Bureau have clearly put forward the requirements for technology and industrial development, and the core points to four aspects: open innovation, deepening development, all-round promotion and industrial upgrading.
Huawei is deeply involved in video media technology and continues to innovate: In the past 25 years, from multimedia communication to video products serving radio and television/operators, it has gradually built the video development capability of the whole process and industry, and through in-depth and comprehensive research on audio and video basic technologies, it has been actively contributing to and promoting the formulation of open and innovative industrial standards and international standards with innovative technologies, and promoting industrial upgrading.
The key basic technology of ultra-high-definition video is firstly HDR. Since the release of the HDR standard by the Ultra-high-definition Alliance, the HDRVivid industry has become increasingly mature: commercial products in all sectors of the industry have been fully launched, and all mainstream manufacturers in all sectors will launch products and contents supporting this technical standard during the year, greatly enhancing the visual experience of consumers; Then there is DRM, the key guarantee technology of ultra-high-definition industry: multilateral enterprises in the industrial chain jointly build a trust center DTA, creating an open standard, transparent and credible service model for global multilateral cooperation; Domestic and foreign manufacturers have participated in it, and the ecosystem has become increasingly mature, escorting the security of ultra-high-definition content.
At CCTV main station ‘ 5G+4K/8K+AI’ Driven by the strategy, the whole industry is accelerating the comprehensive technological upgrading and transformation such as IP and cloud. The ultra-high-definition video production and broadcasting platform built by CCTV will form an ultra-high-definition program production capacity with an annual output of 10,000 hours (including new media and TV terminals), which will greatly promote the large-scale application of ultra-high-definition content, and then promote new business models such as live broadcast of ultra-high-definition TV theaters, support unified distribution for various end users, and accelerate the development of industrial integration.
Three, industrial change to stimulate technological breakthroughs, business innovation chain reaction
With the advent of the 5G era, the audio and video industry will realize digitalization, networking and intelligent upgrade. The access of 5G technology will bring new changes to film and television shooting. Media shooting can be made directly on the cloud. Since the National Day military parade of CCTV in 2019, the technology of 5G back transmission after shooting has taken the lead. At present, the technology has gradually matured. Huawei can provide more than 500M of stable bandwidth through 5G super uplink capability, and at the same time, it can provide 1G uplink capability next year, which can be widely used in all kinds of media shooting and live event scenes. By shooting the production scheme on the cloud through live broadcast, the cost of single live broadcast can be reduced by 60%. At the same time, because the live shooting brought by 5G jumps into the cloud, virtual shooting will redefine the shooting mode: by constructing a three-dimensional digital twin space of film and television content, the background of the calculated content can be combined with the physical image of the real shot, which will greatly improve the manufacturing efficiency in the early and late shooting. AI drives motion capture/voice/digital twins/light/spatial positioning and other functions to comprehensively improve the efficiency and quality of film and television content creation.
The key to upgrading the 4K/8K content production and broadcasting is IP transformation. The media matrix will lead the IP transformation of TV station production and broadcasting, and support 2000 channels of 4K/8K content production and broadcasting in the traditional SDI mode, which requires 32 cabinets and 4 tons of heavy copper cable. The MediaFabric jointly innovated by Huawei and CCTV can complete the same task with two cabinets and about 100 kilograms of optical fiber, and support flexibility and scalability, and support future-oriented evolution.
The application of technologies such as 5G, IP, cloud and AI in the process of ultra-high definition has contributed to the chemical reaction of business innovation. For example, the free viewing angle in the ultra-high-definition field is becoming a bright spot and hot spot in the industry. The Spring Festival Evening "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" has a high-quality image quality and a full-time 4K free viewing angle, bringing a new viewing experience and rich application scenarios.
Fourth, cloud-based technologies and services have brought about changes in production, processing and distribution models.
There will be three revolutionary services on Huawei Cloud:First, digital content is fully produced on the cloud, and various tools such as modeling interaction are efficiently scheduled and operated on the cloud through large-scale flexible computing power; Huawei and its eco-partners are steadily advancing the innovation of cloud production process services, which were officially released together with their partners at the Shanghai Film Festival in June this year. The second is the production on the 4K variety cloud. Based on the production practice of "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves", Huawei Cloud can realize the simultaneous editing and processing of hundreds of video streams through mature technologies such as real-time processing of proxy files and original files, which greatly accelerates the production efficiency in the later stage of variety. Third, making real-time generation services on the digital people cloud, which will produce film-and-television digital people with anthropomorphic characteristics and real digital twin figures, will be applied to the field of TV variety for the first time, and more innovative scenes such as lifelike digital twin program hosts will greatly enrich the content creation mode. There will be a famous host’s digital twin in the year, so please look forward to it.
The mature services on Huawei Cloud are also constantly innovating and promoting the development of ultra-HD industry;Intelligent repair function, with accurate AI algorithm to help high-quality, efficient content repair and quality improvement, while improving video quality, enhance users’ willingness to watch. More than 500 films and videos have been restored.
Explore a new mode of publishing on the cloud;Support the film distribution field to quickly enter the digital service era from the hard disk mailing era. In the field of distribution, there are still many difficult problems in the distribution of the film industry. At present, the distribution for urban cinemas still adopts the mode of hard disk delivery, which is high in cost, easy to damage, low in security and unable to be flexibly scheduled. The cloud service based on timely error correction and security guarantee of Huawei Cloud greatly improves the flexibility, timeliness and security of film distribution.
5. New market space: integrating innovation and providing the ultimate experience for more users in a timely manner.
The second live mode is about to provide services in a normal and large scale. It is expected to provide users with more and better enjoyment in cinemas, theaters and various venues that can provide the ultimate experience of film and television content.
The new home theater will create the second largest cinema market. Through revolutionary experience upgrading, convenient and flexible installation and civilian price, it provides a brand-new video business experience for home users. The AiMax business operation practice of Huawei video and smart screen proves that high-quality home theater experience will stimulate three times the viewing volume, increase the willingness to pay by two times, and incite huge commercial value.
Generally speaking, under the general trend of the accelerated development of ultra-high-definition industry, various technologies have been iteratively developed, which has spawned various business innovations and business model innovations, and constantly opened up new markets. This will promote the chain reaction of innovation in all aspects of the industry, which requires the joint efforts of the entire industrial ecological partners and the government to provide necessary conditions and convenience for the cluster development of the industry. In this process, Huawei will focus on technological innovation, join hands with partners, actively promote the development of ultra-high-definition technology and industry, and create full-process technological innovation with the support value of 5G, IP, cloud and AI to help the digital transformation and industrial upgrading of the film and television industry in the ultra-high-definition era.