“Deeply exploring the frontiers of technology, Mango TV has more than content”-DoNews

On September 17, in Malan Mountain, Changsha, Hunan, a DoNews reporter came to the site of the second “Malan Mountain Cup” International Audio and Video Algorithm Competition Awards Ceremony and Summit Forum. At the awards ceremony, the appearance of the digital person “YAOYAO” with extremely high appearance triggered a small climax in the audience. Outside the spotlight, there is also an exhibition hall displaying the latest technology products of the conference organizer Mango TV, including the shocking 4K. High-definition panoramic sound, the hottest meta-universe motion capture at the moment, and the most advanced technology products in the long video field such as sitcoms, interactive advertisements, and cloud editing, make people feel the Mango TV that is different from the impression.

As a long-term video platform, Mango TV’s distinctive impression is “content.” Whether it is the deep impression left by the public through various TV programs of Hunan Broadcasting and Television behind it, or the completion of Mango TV’s unique broadcast to original creation in recent years, deepening its external image as a “new mainstream media group”, Mango’s “content” will always be A golden signboard. However, through on-site visits and interviews with technicians, the reporter saw the technical strength and the strong technological enterprising spirit accumulated under the content of Mango TV.

Behind the elder sister brave the wind and the waves, and the elder brother overcoming obstacles, there is 4K cloud production and broadcasting

Exquisite, this is the reporter’s most direct feeling when he sees “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves 2”. The two pictures below, on the left are the pictures produced by the 4K cloud production and broadcasting system of Mango “Rays”, and the contrast on the right can be said to be very detailed, as if the live person and the photo are contrasted.

This year’s “Brother Who Overcomes Troubles” project also used 4K production and broadcasting technology, but because the production cycle of the program was relatively loose, it did not choose the way of production in the cloud.

“If it’s other projects, every frame like this is burning money.” Hu Hongyang, one of the person in charge of the Mango TV4K project, told reporters that 4K has been used in China for some time, but it has been subject to high costs. Generally only used in large-scale events, if it is used for daily ordinary program production, even the first-line platform is unbearable. For example, a reality show requires 20 to 30 cameras at every turn. If you want to achieve high-definition production efficiency, each machine costs nearly 300,000 yuan, and the hardware cost alone is nearly 10 million yuan.

“But many of our programs are also large-scale productions. The content is excellent. The audience will watch them repeatedly. It is worth using the best technology to produce.” In this case, how to complete 4K recording cost-effectively has become the focus of Hu Hongyang and his colleagues. direction. In 2020, with a new 4K OB van, Mango TV will introduce the experience of past TV series production to reality show production. A total of nearly 500 terabytes of material shot in programs such as “Sister 2” are uploaded to Huawei Cloud and then passed. The high-definition agency produced offline has realized rewinding and grading on the cloud.

“4K’s requirements for high computing and high bandwidth are all completed on the cloud, so the offline workload is very small.” Hu Hongyang said that the project was about 500TB of material and completed seven or eight hours of filming, and the production cost It only cost 200,000 yuan. “According to our calculations, it takes only 10% of the normal cost to start the production of a 4K program, and the larger the scale, the greater the profit.”

It is understood that, as the first full 4K program produced by Mango TV, “Sister 2” is currently online on all terminals of Mango TV. In terms of production specifications and quality, it is significantly better than variety products on other video platforms.

“These production experiences, or the exploration in technology, can effectively carry Mango TV’s requirements for technology, hardware, and systems in the process of ‘4Kization’. Next, we will do two more directions. One direction is to complete the productization of the entire technical process, which is the most important, and the other is to complete the integration of the engine for 4K refinement and rendering.” Hu Hongyang told reporters that through this successful 4K Cloud production and broadcasting attempts. In the future, Mango TV’s large variety shows can be produced in 4K, so there will be no burden on the later projects.

The replacement of ordinary channels by high-definition channels has taken about ten years, and 4K channels have existed for about three years. Hu Hongyang predicts that in the next 3 to 5 years, 4K will also gradually replace HD, accounting for 20% to 30% of the entire large-screen consumer market. In addition to continuously reducing costs and improving efficiency through technological advancement, this process also depends on the construction of industry supporting policies and the run-through of business models.

“Technology investment will take the lead. After it is realized, there is a corresponding effective mechanism in the business return to achieve a positive cycle.” Hu Hongyang said that he hopes that there will be a suitable business model in the future to cover 4K production costs .

In the exhibition hall, the reporter saw Mango TV’s attempt in this direction. The mango panoramic sound screen in the picture below is placed in a separate room with speakers in three directions. After turning it on, it seems like you are in the forest. The wind blows through the leaves and rustles the entire room. The staff told reporters Introduce, this is a design version for the family, the full version will also be equipped with three speakers on the top and rear.

Deep integration of technology and business to promote user experience forward

4K cloud production and broadcasting is far from all Mango TV’s technical explorations. In the exhibition hall, the reporter also saw many novel and practical technology displays.

Algorithm engineer Tang Ye is the person in charge of Mango TV search recommendation technology. The team’s business includes video search and video recommendation. In different terminals of Mango TV, various types of recommended products have been implemented, and the technical support given by their team is behind them. “We will recommend according to users’ preferences, and will pay more attention to the quality and value of the content itself. We have made some adjustments and optimizations in terms of the main theme and positive energy.” This year is Tang Ye’s sixth place in Mango TV. In 2017, he told reporters that through continuous in-depth optimization, multiple terminal recommendation scenarios have achieved a click-through rate increase of more than 30%.

Yang Jie, an algorithm engineer from the Product Application Group of the Intelligent Algorithm Department of the Mango TV Product Technology Center, researches the application of deep learning to products, such as applying template detection, motion recognition, scene recognition and other technologies to the advertising business, and discovering videos through artificial intelligence With its own information, it can automatically find advertising spots in the video, replace the previous hard ads with more natural ads, and viewers can even interact with the ads in the video.

Talent is the future

Algorithm engineer Wang Xinying has just joined the company for less than a year, but she has an exceptionally wonderful resume. She graduated from University College London with a master’s degree in computer graphics and visual images. In the first algorithm competition last year, she single-handedly won the video point tracking track championship, and then joined Mango TV. At present, she is responsible for the research of point tracking, such as implanting advertisements in videos. The advertisements must always follow the camera. Point tracking is to make objects stick to the same position.

After the first algorithm competition was held in 2020, Mango TV has introduced a total of more than 50 first-line algorithm talents. The introduction of these talents has also brought a qualitative change in technology for Mango TV. For example, in the CVPR2021 video human body space-time positioning competition, the Mango TV team competed with teams from universities and research institutes at home and abroad, winning the global runner-up in one fell swoop. At the same time, they developed the first large-scale commercial automated 3D video reality augmentation system, which can now support billions of output value advertising revenue.

The head of the product technology center, Lu Haibo, is also a technician. At the end of 2017, he joined Mango TV as the head of the technical team of the advertising center and experienced the rapid development of Mango TV in technology. “In the three years since I came to Mango TV, the number of technicians has increased by 50%.”

Lu Haibo told reporters that the technical staff of Mango TV consists of three parts. The most basic part is the product technology center. The product technology center is responsible for the research and development of the company’s operating platform, and has developed the player, codec, and applet of the mango TV at the front end. And so on, it also provides powerful support services in the back-end, including the artificial intelligence algorithm section. In addition, each business department also has its own technical team, responsible for quick response to business needs, such as the advertising center technical team where he worked before, and finally the research institute responsible for research and development of cutting-edge technology. The research and development of 4K cloud production and broadcasting comes from the research institute , The number of technicians in the entire Mango TV technical team is about five to six hundred.

Compared with other Internet video platforms, Mango TV’s technicians are not too many. “We pay more attention to efficiency in technology and advocate a greater benefit with less cost.” Lu Haibo did not specifically emphasize the importance of technology. Instead, it emphasizes the supportive role of technology on content. “Mango TV itself is a company with strong media and content attributes. We are stronger in content creation, but this era is changing. The venues and the forms of artistic creation and presentation are different. We started from TV media. In the era, in the era of mobile Internet, the technology component will be even greater. If we cannot keep up with technology and cannot cooperate with the business, the creation of the content department will be limited.”

Mango TV is currently building a comprehensive video content platform, which means that video content from planning to production, to playback and interaction, as well as user feedback, requires full technical participation. “When a script is over, we will analyze How many people might like this script, media resources are defined by algorithms as a completely new structured thing.” Lu Haibo said with emotion.

Unlike many domestic Internet video platforms who like to benchmark Netflix, Lu Haibo appreciates Amazon’s “unrestricted” development from selling books online to becoming a global technology giant. It also hopes that Mango TV’s technical exploration will not be restricted: “Business development requires us to support, so we will do it. We need to explore the directions in this field in advance, and we also have the responsibility to explore and research. , In order to avoid that when the business reaches that situation, we have to do it from scratch. In this process, in addition to the good things we do, we will also export or even commercialize it. In fact, many of our technologies have reached the stage where they can be exported for commercial use. Maybe in another ten years, we will be the largest interactive entertainment media platform. As long as we don’t set limits for ourselves, I think we can do a lot of things.”

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