Stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan perform together with actors in Beijing, and enjoy remote real-time views of the beautiful scenery... With the strong support of XR (extended reality) technology, these once "whimsical" ideas are now becoming a reality. As XR technology becomes more mature, XR application scenarios such as "cloud" activities and virtual worlds have begun to enter public life in recent years, expanding new consumer markets. Data shows that the market space of the global XR industry has exceeded 20.4 billion US dollars.

Perform together "Thousands of Miles Away"

XR technology is extended reality, which is the collective name of VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and MR (Mixed Reality). Through wearable devices and computer technology, XR can bring a combination of real and virtual, human-computer interaction to the audience.

On this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala stage, the application of XR technology was a blockbuster. Through the "cloud stage", Jay Chou and Andy Lau, who could not be present, "appeared" on the Spring Festival Gala stage "thousands of miles away". In order to achieve a better visual experience, the XR technology applied on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala is not a simple extended reality, but a complete set of workflow, which needs to be completed with the cooperation of the director, director, cameraman, actors and other teams familiar with the XR workflow.

In the program, the director team created 4 virtual modeling scenes with a strong sense of space for Andy Lau's performance through the application of XR technology, which not only allowed the actors to sing in the traditional building with tenon-and-mortise structure, and interact with each other in the magic space built by the gift box. The robots dance together, and they can also swim in the scene of "fish" every year, and interact with the live actors in the air.

Xia Yu, deputy chief director of CCTV's Year of the Ox Spring Festival Gala, said that it is precisely with the support of XR technology that characters, props and virtual reality scenes have achieved a perfect interaction and combination. For example, through the simultaneous XR remote shooting, Jay Chou conducted real shooting in the Taipei studio, combined with the real and virtual scenes of the Beijing scene and the XR studio, bringing an unprecedented audio-visual enjoyment to audiences across the country.

Immersive "cloud" experience

Affected by the epidemic, although a long-distance trip cannot be "just go", the fantasy journey of "traversing ancient and modern, roaming the world" is at your fingertips due to XR technology.

The Unilumin XR Experience Center, located in the Youth Palace of Bao'an District, Shenzhen, recently created a "digital technology XR journey" for citizens. Through the deep integration of XR technology and on-site LED display scenes, aerospace technology enthusiasts can "come to" space tens of thousands of kilometers away from the earth, get close contact with satellites flying in orbit, and uncover the mystery of the vast star sea. Jungle adventurers who love to explore nature can travel back to the Jurassic period and face prehistoric beasts in a vibrant rainforest for a thrilling journey.

"Those immersive scenes are deeply imprinted in my mind, as if they are really exploring and playing in another world." Mr. Zhang, a tourist, said that with the help of XR technology, he can not only observe the aircraft and tanks up close, but also "personally" Get in a helicopter and feel the thrill of a pilot chasing battle in the air.

At present, XR technology has been integrated into the application scenarios of smart tourism construction. In Yunnan, "cloud" tourism based on XR technology has become a fashionable way for people to "visit" mountains and rivers. According to the person in charge of Escher Technology, a provider of XR smart tourism solutions, XR technology can create space-time telescopes, tourist guides and other systems for tourist attractions, and present them to tourists through terminals such as VR/AR glasses, mobile APPs and browsers. "Compared with offline tours, the scene experience after the 'reset' of XR technology is more colorful."

Smart upgrade and new possibility

As a new thing emerging in scenes such as film and television stages and online travel, the future of the XR industry is full of infinite possibilities just like the "X" in its name. The "catalyst" that can stimulate its potential is the rapidly developing 5G communication technology. 5G+XR will not only bring new opportunities to the industry, but also bring people a new way of life.

In January this year, Henan Zhengzhou Mobile and Xidigang Shopping Center successfully built the first 5G+XR commercial complex in Henan. By setting up 5G+XR innovative applications such as 5G+VR games, 720° panoramic live broadcast and VR scene display, the shopping mall provides consumers with 8K-level controllable online interactive shopping live broadcasts, allowing consumers to fully experience the online shopping brought by 5G+XR. The online and offline integration of immersive shopping and entertainment experience injects new impetus into the digital upgrade of commercial complexes.

The first 5G+XR large-scale offline theme park in Liuzhou City, Guangxi, Xiangyun SoReal Snail Park, has also been put into trial operation a few days ago. The park combines Liuzhou's "snail powder" culture with 5G+XR technology, and provides large-scale XR high-tech innovative immersive experiences with "snail" as an element, such as XR roller coasters, ski simulators, and interactive light and shadow shows for tourists. At the same time, the park has also broken through the limitations of traditional business formats, empowered by XR technology, opened up the closed loop of online and offline modes, and greatly improved the operation efficiency of the playground.

It is reported that China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom have all released 5G+XR development strategies to seize the opportunity in the track of overcoming technical difficulties in the integration of 5G and XR development and formulating industry-related standards. Industry insiders said that with the continuous advancement of 5G large-scale deployment and application innovation, the 5G+XR model is giving birth to a large number of new application scenarios including social networking, office, entertainment, exhibition, education, etc., which will provide a broad development for the XR industry. space.