After the International Olympic Committee launched the youth reform, the "youth culture" of the Olympic Games is becoming more and more intense. The "Paris eight minutes" session of the closing ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games begins with the performance of cycling skills by young people in extreme sports, reflecting the current youthful vitality of Paris, a historic city. The new events such as rock climbing, surfing and skateboarding in the Tokyo Olympic Games are the representatives of youth sports culture.

     These newly projects joined the Olympic family also strive to bring a refreshing experience to the audience. For example, rock climbing, its TV broadcasting uses a newer means of expression to show a more dynamic, younger, more urban style.

Explain the details of rock climbing competition with 3D virtual subtitles.It is the technological innovation provided by Chinese enterprises for the official broadcast of the Olympic Games.

Question: how to show the difficulty challenge of rock climbing route?

     Since rock climbing sport confirmed its entry into the Tokyo Olympic Games a few years ago, Olympic TV RHB OBS began to think about how to do a better express and spread this project.

     Olympic rock climbing is an individual all-around event, which is divided into three small events: speed race, stone climbing and difficulty competition, each of sub-item uses a different rock wall.

Olympic rock climbing field

From the right: speed race, boulder race, difficulty race rock wall

     The speed race is like the 100-meter sprint of rock climbers, the 15-meter track and rock spots are immutable, and the fastest runner to the top is the winner. The rock wall of the climbing race is about 4 or 5 meters high and undulating, the time to complete each climbing route is 4-5 minutes. The route of the difficulty race is on a 15-meter high wall, and the contestant who climbs to the highest rock point in the shortest time will win. Unlike the speed race, the route of each rock climbing and difficulty race is specially designed by the line-setters and will be announced before the race. The Olympic rock climbing event lasts four days, and the line-fixers of the International climbing Federation will consider and modify the route of the day in the early morning of each day, even up to two hours before the start of the race.

      For TV broadcasting, it is hard to tell the story of difficulty and climbing competitions, especially the the latter. After the route of the competition is announced, the athletes have a certain time to observe the rock wall and meditate on the climbing plan. Some athletes can quickly climb to the top of a route, while others climb up, fall, think, try and fall again…

The moment of athlete fell off the climbing wall

How to show the difficulty of these challenges and what are the athletes thinking? What should the audience watch in the process of climbing or falling? How to bring the audience closer to the event through the screen? How to make the young audience feel the coolness of this competition? These are all the problems that the Olympic rock climbing TV broadcasting wants to solve.

Solution: "Real+" virtual 3D subtitle image

     Two years ago, after several rounds of communication and strives with OBS, a Chinese company took on the task of exploring the innovation of rock climbing broadcasting at the Tokyo Olympics.

     Since the 2008 Olympic Games, the concept and technology of Olympic TV broadcasting have had a profound impact on China's sports TV industry. The job opportunities for the TV broadcasting of the previous Olympic Games have cultivated batch after batch of excellent employees in China and accumulated a great deal of experience.

     Beijing Momenta Media is a company that has grown up from this background. the core team comes from BOB, the RHB of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In League of Legends S7 provided large-scale and difficult e-sports production in 2017, which was the first in the industry; CISM World Games in Wuhan achieved high-definition remote production in 2019; and undertaken the diving project public signal production services at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Real+ adds a virtual distance line to the rock climbing broadcast image

     After undertaking this innovative task, it can described as” two years for a sword” for Momenta team from the idea to the actual landing, and then to the final meticulous presentation in the Tokyo arena. Momenta has given this innovative technology a very international name "Real+".

    "Real+" is a virtual 3D subtitle image (Virtual 3D Graphics) solution, which is based on a virtual picture and text model, but shows a more refined than the reality captured by the camera.

    The Real+ solution provides a high-precision 3D rendering of rock walls and rock points, and the effect is even more detailed and amazing than that of a 4K camera in many situations. Through the in-depth analysis of the various angles, distances, shapes and other details of the rock wall and the rock point, the Real+ picture makes the audience feel as if they are in the scene, as if they can touch the rough or smooth rock point, and can also pull the line of sight to the bottom, side and other unusual angles of the rock point to take an ultra-close or panoramic view of the rock point and the rock wall.

Interpretation of the starting Point of B3 Route in Men's rock climbing final

 This 3D virtual model, through AR technology, calibrated with real rock faces and rock points one by one, so as to show what athletes see and want in their minds through virtual technology. At any time, the broadcasting can be switched between the live environment and the virtual world, quickly narrowing the distance between the audience and this brand-new event. AR technology can also make a more straightforward data presentation of distance analysis, angle analysis and other details. All this is carried out in the live broadcasting, which brings unprecedented shock to the audience.

Response: China's scientific and technological innovation is praised by professionals

      Real+ technology made a stunning appearance in the live broadcasting of Olympic rock climbing. In the media guide of the Tokyo Olympic Games, OBS specializes in the column "Science and Technology to enhance the experience of watching events" to introduce the application of Real+ technology in rock climbing.

Introduction of rock climbing live broadcasting technology in OBS media guide

       The Real+ effect not only amazed the audience in front of the screen and the referees and coaches at the game scene, but also provided a large number of explanatory information references for TV commentators, and was supported and affirmed by the International climbing Federation. The International climbing Federation gave the green light all the way to the implementation of this program, and the scene also participated in the discussion many times, hoping to promote this event to the global audience through innovative television performance and enhance the charm of rock climbing.

      The TV broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games is not only comprehensive, large-scale, but also creative in the application of new technology. Various technologies to enhance the viewing experience were used at the production, including multi-camera slow motion playback (4D Replay and Intel TrueView), 3D athlete tracking and data analysis (provided by Intel and Aliyun), analysis of archers' heartbeat through biotechnology (Panasonic), etc., as well as virtual 3D subtitle technology from China.

Every rock point and route analysis requires repeated confirmation by

The Real+ team and the location clerk at the scene

      In recent years, the development of China's scientific and technological innovation has amazed the world. In such a background, it may be a coincidence that Chinese power has entered into the innovative exploration of the TV broadcasting of the Olympics, and it is hoped that it will be the opening up of the new track.

      In the long process of polishing the Real+ program from creativity to landing, Momenta team has received a lot of help from its domestic counterparts. The CMG team that made the climbing public signal for the Tokyo Olympic Games offered a lot of advice on the details, and partners such as Hui Zhiyun and Dinglian Technology also provided a lot of support. At the Tokyo Olympics, rock climbing showed hundreds of millions of viewers around the world in a creative and cool image, and the innovation from China finally had a chance to enter the stage of Olympic broadcasting technology.

      Continuous innovation is the pursuit of the media industry. We hope that on the track of scientific and technological innovation in sports broadcasting, Chinese enterprises can work side by side with the global scientific and technological team to do more landing applications.