As the visual appeal of the scene, can the NBA finals live broadcast like this?

In the NBA Finals that ended on June 16, the Warriors defeated the Celtics 4-2 and won the championship! This year's NBA Finals attracted a lot of attention, and the live broadcast atmosphere of the games on major Internet platforms was also extremely warm.

How can the platform not only show professional event commentary, but also deeply interact with fans and audiences? How can the platform not only show professional event commentary, but also deeply interact with fans and audiences?

During the finals, BesTV was the only live broadcast platform in the entire network that adopted the mode of "anchor watching NBA with you". Compared with the traditional live broadcast commentary of the event, the anchors of Besv TV used the method of "chattering" to make fans Being able to participate will bring fans and friends a "zero-day, super-immersive" interactive viewing experience.

Adopting the "accompanying-watching" event commentary is an important measure of BesTV in the face of content differentiation competition. In order to bring a better viewing experience, BesTV has teamed up with Alibaba Cloud Video Cloud to create a further improvement in the quality of live events. Experience improvement.

Narrowband HD 2.0: Breaking the pain point of live broadcast image quality

The live broadcast of the competition is facing pain points.

Compared with pan-entertainment and e-commerce scenarios, basketball live broadcasts often require high bit rate streaming due to fast screen switching and strong movement. However, high bitrate live broadcasts may be affected by network quality fluctuations during cross-border transmission, resulting in audio and video freezes and delays. In order to ensure the stability of the live broadcast and a smooth viewing experience based on the playback side, Blockbuster TV chose a source stream with a smaller bit rate.

However, compared with the picture quality of the high bit rate stream, the low bit rate stream will have more obvious compression distortion, blurred details and weak texture loss. For the basketball match scene, it will cause many picture quality phenomena such as blurred text on the football jersey, blurred nets, boundary lines and text edge burrs on the ground, etc., resulting in a poor viewing experience.

In order to better balance the live broadcast fluency, stability and high-definition image quality experience, Blockbuster TV first chose a relatively low bit rate to achieve stable cross-border transmission during the broadcast of the NBA finals, and then pulled the source stream to China and then repaired it. In this process, Blockbuster TV used the "Narrowband HD 2.0" technology of Alibaba Cloud Video Cloud.

As shown in the figure below, through the adaptive brightness, contrast and color enhancement algorithms of "Narrowband HD 2.0" technology, the intensity of the softer and darker colors in the field picture is intelligently enhanced, and the overall picture color expression is enhanced for the low-bit rate source video, improving the The feeling of watching the game.

The top is the source flow effect, and the bottom is the post-repair effect

Alibaba Cloud Video Cloud's "Narrowband HD 2.0" introduces AI for self-adaptive repair and enhancement of details and colors. Starting from the human visual model, the optimization goal of the encoder is adjusted from the classic "highest fidelity" to "the most subjective experience". it is good".

• Down-coding Because the brightness, contrast and temporal distortion of the video spatial domain perceived by the human eye are discontinuous, the adaptive coding technology discards the visual redundant information, which can greatly save the bit rate without significantly reducing the subjective quality. , that is, using "narrowband HD" transcoding can save at least 20%-40% of the bit rate compared to ordinary transcoding.

• At the same time, through the automatic detection algorithm of video compression distortion degree and the optimization of the subjective experience of the encoder, the details, focus areas and regular textures that the human eye pays attention to are enhanced, and the whole picture is enhanced by adaptive brightness, contrast and color enhancement algorithms. more vivid and natural. According to the description of the relevant technical personnel of BesTV TV, after using the narrow-band high-definition technology, the contrast between the "source streaming video" and the "repaired video" on the dual-screen display is very obvious.

https://www.youku.com/video/XNTg4MjMyNzMwOA==

• Customized templates for basketball game scenarios In addition, the algorithm team of Alibaba Cloud Video Cloud has customized the transcoding template and AI repair model of live events for Blockbuster TV for basketball game scenarios, and has been specially optimized for NBA game scenarios. Enhanced the restoration and generation of basketball court floor textures, close-up close-ups of players, court boundary lines, ground advertising letters, numbers on jerseys, basketball nets and other elements specific to basketball sports events. As shown in the figure below, even under the high-speed movement of the lens and screen switching, and the details of the picture are highly enlarged, the "narrow-band high-definition" technology can still perfectly restore the details of the stadium boundary line and the ground advertising letters, greatly improving the picture clarity and quality. Overall visual performance.

The left is the source flow effect, the right is the repaired effect

The evolution of the capability of broadcasting and television-level live broadcasting

The concept of "Narrowband HD" of Alibaba Cloud Video Cloud was first proposed in 2015. After years of repeated practice in many Internet and media industries, the technology has been continuously developed and evolved to suit different scenarios for low-bit rate and high-definition experience. reconcile.

Especially today's Narrowband HD 2.0, as an important technology of Alibaba Cloud's live broadcast solution, it breaks through the upper limit of the capabilities of contemporary video encoders, upgrades and iterates the technology, and deeply optimizes the smoothness and high-definition of video playback. With the same image quality, it is more stream-saving, and has higher-definition business value and viewing experience under the same bandwidth, which doubles the satisfaction of enterprises and audiences.

At the same time, Narrowband HD 2.0 also has transcoding solutions for different industries and scenarios, such as sports events, concerts, cultural performances and other scenarios. It also supports the combination of Dolby sound to provide cinema-level audio-visual enjoyment, which is ideal for large-scale cultural events and live sports events. For an extremely smooth, visually full, and deeply immersive viewing experience.

Alibaba Cloud Live Streaming Solutions <br>On the core basis, Alibaba Cloud's systematic live streaming solutions are more comprehensive and powerful. Among them, the global 2800+ nodes and 150TB bandwidth reserve, and based on the global real-time streaming media transmission network (GRTN), can ensure high-quality viewing experience for tens of millions of users under high concurrency; full-link disaster recovery and emergency plans, and years of live broadcast The best practical experience can ensure the high reliability of large-scale live broadcasts; the cloud directing and interactive virtual studio technology brings the integrated cloud performance of production and broadcasting and a new live broadcast experience of real-time immersion and interaction; at the same time, transcoding in "narrowband HD" On top of technology, coupled with audio and video capabilities such as ultra-high-definition 4K/8K, Dolby sound, 50 frames, etc., the whole brings the ultimate audio-visual.
Everything is extreme, intelligent, high-quality and high-experience.

Based on such capabilities, Alibaba Cloud's live broadcast solution for cultural and sports has achieved live broadcast verification of a large number of top events and major events.
The 2018 World Cup has guaranteed tens of millions of concurrent, stable and smooth viewing; the opening ceremony of the China Pavilion at the 2020 Dubai World Expo will be broadcast live with zero frame loss and zero freezes; the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will help the 100-year Olympic Games to launch interactive virtual broadcasts for the first time. , to create real-time immersive reports; at the same time, it also provides end-to-end live broadcast solutions for Tmall Double 11 Gala every year, and continues to ensure the stability of live broadcasts in high-standard scenarios...

Countless experiences and innovations, Alibaba Cloud's broadcast and television-grade cultural and sports live broadcast solutions have accumulated profound technical depth and practical experience, and also allowed global audiences to enjoy high-quality first live performances for the first time.

Everything is different due to technology, and we look forward to more technical changes and experience upgrades under more exciting events.

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