2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Lighting and Display Technology Revealed!

On February 4, 2022, the much-anticipated Winter Olympics officially kicked off. The fusion of various technologies and creativity at the opening ceremony brought surprises to countless audiences. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is led by Zhang Yimou as the chief director, Cai Guoqiang as the visual art designer, Sha Xiaolan as the lighting art director, and Chen Yan as the art designer. With the concept of carbon environmental protection and sports health, we will present a romantic, beautiful and modern event to the world.

The highlights revealed by director Zhang Yimou in the interview have already satiated the appetite. When the opening ceremony officially met everyone, the effect did not disappoint at all, bringing countless surprises. Today, let's review these technical surprises and reveal the principles behind this excitement.

As the soul symbol of the Olympic Games, the five rings of the Olympic Games have attracted everyone's attention, and the process of gradually appearing from the Ice Cube in this Winter Olympics is really amazing. While admiring this amazing scene, it also makes people wonder how this is done.

Leyard, a high-tech enterprise in Haidian that undertakes the production and installation tasks of the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony ground screen, ice waterfall, ice cube, north-south stand screen and playback system, revealed the secret. Li Jun, chairman of Leyard Group, said: "The vision of "carving" is produced by the combination of laser and IceCube 3D visual effects.
Ice Cube is 22 meters long, 7 meters wide and 10 meters high, and is composed of LED screens. The fifth ring itself is also an LED screen. When it was unveiled, the laser located on the 4th floor of the grandstand irradiated the Ice Cube to "carve" the Ice Cube. "Carving", the five rings at the bottom slowly rise, and 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 three aspects are perfectly coordinated, and the five rings are "sculpted" little by little. out visual effects.

In addition to the Ice Cube, there are also 11,626 square meters of ground screens and a 60-meter-high ice waterfall, which are also composed of LED screens.
The secret of the black technology of the "snowflake"-shaped main torch platform

As the most suspenseful ignition ceremony in the interview by director Zhang Yimou, the technical content it contains is also surprising.
The main torch platform of the opening ceremony has a diameter of 14.89 meters. It is composed of 96 small snowflakes and 6 olive branch-shaped LED double-sided screens. It adopts a double-sided hollow design and is embedded with more than 550,000 LED lamp beads. The lamp beads are independently controlled by a single channel of the driver chip.
After the torch is lit, the giant snowflake screen spreads out from the center to the surrounding. The BOE AIoT technology system and the self-developed synchronous/asynchronous compatible signaling system are used behind it. The asynchronous centralized control can quickly transfer large-scale video content in a very short time. The synchronous centralized control ensures that the 102 double-sided screens can achieve millisecond-level response; in addition, the "main circuit + loop" backup high-redundancy control system ensures the ultra-high reliability of the torch broadcast control system.
The stage floor of the opening ceremony is currently the largest 8K ultra-high-definition ground display system, with an overall area of ​​10,393 square meters. Using multiple 8K+ resolution image fusion technologies, the ultra-large-scale optical correction algorithm can perform pixel-level optical correction on each display screen, which can present 100,000:1 ultra-high contrast, 3840Hz ultra-high refresh rate, and 29900x15096 Ultra-high-resolution ultra-high-definition gorgeous pictures.

From the screen, this kind of effect seems to be a real change. The ground screen can capture the actor's trajectory in real time, realizing a seamless response between the screen and the action.

The Dove of Peace segment is performed by hundreds of children holding luminous dove props, combined with the tracking technology of the ground screen.
From the perspective of overall presentation, the design team hopes to suppress the lighting of the basic surface to a very weak state, and only rely on the light emitted by the handheld props themselves to match the overall environment and atmosphere. However, due to the normal operation of the tracking system, the lighting needs to be illuminated. On-site illumination is too low to ensure stable operation. The design team controlled the illuminance to a very reasonable balance after continuous and meticulous adjustment. It not only meets the needs of the tracking system, but also does not affect the overall atmosphere. During the whole process, it presents a beautiful artistic conception.
Design Themes Revealed

Coinciding with the beginning of spring, the opening ceremony incorporates the elements of spring to welcome the new spring together. This design, which symbolizes hope and vitality, also brings a touch of warmth in the cold winter.
In this lighting design, adhering to the design concept of "transparent connotation, shadow description extension", according to the structural characteristics of the bird's nest site, the main body adopts multi-level annular lighting, and a large number of methods such as "internal light and external transparency" are used to realize the relationship between light and dark, perspective Relationships, the shaping of spatial relationships. Strive to be complex and simplified, simple and qualitative.

In the early stage of the lighting design work, the full-case design software Depence2 was used to complete the site restoration and lighting preview, and to display the whole stage and the final lighting effect. By simulating the basic light level, effect light level and ambient light level, problems existing in the scheme can be found in the early stage and improved in time.
In the lighting design scheme, the expression of art form is emphasized. It integrates the freehand expression in Chinese art works with the realistic expression in Western art. Think about the presentation logic of lighting effects, think and judge from perception and intuition, integrate with creativity and planning, and then highlight the color performance and modeling vocabulary of lighting. Concrete and abstract representations are carried out through subjective and objective expressions, and the connotation of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games is extended, and then the design concept of "transparent connotation, extension of shadow" can be interpreted.

The design team installed floodlights on the top of the bird's nest and between the membranes to project the structure on the top of the bird's nest. Overlooking the bird's nest, the steel structure is rendered and segmented by lights, showing the effect of internal light and external transparency, which further strengthens the three-dimensional and layered sense of the bird's nest.
In the setting of the basic light position, the design team analyzed the light requirements of each link of the opening ceremony, and adopted the principle of circular lighting to hoist a large number of lamps to the lower chord of the roof structure. Ensure that the lighting in each position required by the link is uniform and the projection angle is reasonable.

In the bird's nest, the huge vertical space formed from the ground to the bowl edge of the top membrane structure can bring a huge visual impact. The lighting design team rendered the vertical space color by installing lamps at the edge of the top film and on the extension platform of the auditorium on the second and third floors. The fullness of the picture is improved, and the visual impact brought by the sense of space is further strengthened.
The national flag is an important symbol of the country. After 14 years, China has once again become the host country of the Olympic Games. The raising of the national flag has a special meaning for the Chinese people. Therefore, when the national flag is raised, the lights also change to the red symbolizing China.
Beijing is the first city with two Olympics in the world. The lighting design team hopes to use the art of light to present the natural beauty, humanistic beauty and sports beauty of this Winter Olympics. Show the ethereal, beautiful, simple artistic style.