content platforms has never been limited to content. Mango TV has understood this truth in the "throats" at the beginning of its birth. If technology becomes a constraint, even the top domestic video content creation team may not be able to win the battle often. But when the technology finally equals the "Teng Aiyou" that has grown out of the Internet, where will this "national team" in the audiovisual field go in the future?
On the second awards stage of the Algorithm Competition hosted by Mango TV this year, the appearance of the virtual host YAOYAO answered this question to a certain extent.
Virtual human technology is more than virtual idol development
Unlike the usual studio, the audience behind the awards stage is not a directing room, but a motion capture stage. Two meters away from the motion capture actor, the technical team of Mango TV Innovation Research Institute sat in a circle.
The motion capture actor rehearsal of the virtual host YAOYAO of the algorithm contest award ceremony
The scene of programmers sitting around the stage with their computers, and they have frequently attended various virtual idol performances in recent years. With the development of Mango TV, their technical team finally came to the front of the stage.
Compared with other big manufacturers and virtual idol companies in the market, when it launches its own virtual host at this time, Mango TV's actions seem a bit slow. However, in the exchange with the main creator of Mango TV Innovation Research Institute, 36 krypton also heard different answers: The main direction of research and application of virtual technology in Mango TV is not the virtual idol commonly used in domestic video platforms, but the expectation of virtual technology. Promote it to the entire mass market, make the technology easier to use, and allow each consumer to create his own virtual person.
"In the future, actions can be synchronized through the mobile phone in hand, and everyone can use their own virtual people who can pinch their faces to meet in a virtual scene." Zhang Yichi, head of the Innovation Research Institute, told 36Kr.
virtual person project team leader Wu Hong also introduced that the team is currently developing assets such as virtual scenes. Wu Hong's thinking is very similar to the current NFT thinking. He believes that assets such as virtual people and virtual scenes are also a type of digital assets, and current character assets and scene assets are also prepared for this trend. "The deeper we explore this technology, the lower the cost of using it in the future.Tool products that can also output virtual content for content creators. "Wu Hong told 36 krypton.
It is understood that the virtual scene will also be used in business scenarios such as Mango TV script killing and e-commerce live broadcast.
From the annual financial report of Mango TV's parent company, Mango Super Media, it has done so. The second fixed increase in technology has a cumulative amount of over 1 billion yuan. For example, in 2019, the Mango TV smart audio-visual media service platform project raised 500 million yuan, of which MR, AR, VR, AI, The research and development related to interactive drama technology is planned to invest 150 million.
Algorithm contest interactive exhibition area staff demonstrate lightweight dynamic compensation technology that can be completed with only four iPads
In the interactive exhibition area of the algorithm contest awards ceremony , Mango TV’s technical team also guest-starred in an exhibition hall to show off the preliminary results of these projects one by one. In addition to the lightweight motion capture scenarios that many people have tried, the research on AI algorithms for content advertising is also the focus of many people’s attention.
live "find implant" mini game, table toothpaste is AI implant
For this show, the technical team also made a "find implant" mini game, the game will actually implant the scene The elements of confusion and confusion are placed in different videos to allow viewers to find out which is the real implanted video. In the game, different forms of advertising plants such as the pillow LOGO on the sofa, the product placed on the table, the light board on the wall, etc. The input completely relies on late-stage AI technology, but these implanted materials can already be integrated with the video scene based on the relationship between light and shadow, motion trajectory and occlusion in the video, and achieve the effect of "fake the real".
is a video content born from a TV station On the platform, many people’s impressions of Mango TV may still focus on variety shows and TV dramas, and they may even think that Mango TV is a misunderstanding of carrying Hunan Satellite TV’s program content. But as an Internet company, the technical team of Mango TV has long been more than just a responsibility. The function of maintaining the normal broadcasting of videos.
"It can be said that a large part of our technological progress is driven by our business. "The product technical team leader Lu Haibo exclaimed.
A technical team good at tool development
Because of the excellent content creation,A large number of requirements from the business side are often handed over to the technical team like flooding, which also forces the technical team to develop various tools that are convenient for content creation and innovation due to special needs after solving the technology and iterative versions based on "points". product.
"In the past, our implantation was not very good, but now it is OK. I still remember clearly in "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves", there was an implantation scene in which the female guest had a few strands of hair flying over the brand, and the light and shadow effect was good I didn't even notice it was implantation." Lu Haibo told 36 krypton. According to him, compared with other video platforms where a large amount of revenue comes from traffic monetization, the proportion of content advertising and traffic advertising revenue in Mango TV advertising revenue can reach 5:5, which also puts forward the content implantation technology of Mango TV. High demands.
Mango TV automatic implantation demonstration
"We often start after the show, because the show is very popular and many brands have come one after another." Lu Haibo explained. But at this time, a part of the program has already been recorded. If you need to re-implant the advertisement, you need to retake the program group or invest a lot of effort to add it later, which is almost impossible in terms of operability. In order to save costs, there is a continuous iterative content implantation AI technology.
With the tools, in the interactive exhibition area, the audience can use the ipad to experience the ad placement process-just drag the product into the screen. After the product enters the picture, it will automatically adapt to the dimensions of the lens angle and illumination to achieve the effect of blending into the picture.
In addition to content advertising, the form innovation of content also brings many breakthrough opportunities to technology, such as the development of tools for interactive dramas.
Mango TV interactive drama editing background
"Our interactive drama editor is also very easy to use for the content team, and the presentation method not only supports click, we also support many effects such as allowing users to slide and view the scene from multiple angles. "Lu Haibo added. At the scene, the editor of the interactive drama was also displayed. This editor is like an orange game. It supports content creators to build multi-line plots and directly upload video content at different stages.
There are many other similar innovations like this: For example, the 4K cloud production and broadcasting technology developed to support the rapid editing of the Tiannan Haibei program group, the editing team using this technology reduces a lot of tedious transmission time,The requirements for editing equipment are also reduced. After the program group is recorded, it can be edited in the cloud, so that large-scale materials can be processed and sent back quickly; another example is the automatic management and editing of titles developed for media asset uploading. After this technology is developed, uploading segmented programs no longer requires a lot of Manpower. After the media team uploads the program directly, the system will automatically pick the title, and the manpower only needs to review and edit.
From technical constraints to helping content to find the next growth point
"We have caught up with other technologies in 2018-2019, and we still suffered some losses when we first established." Lu Haibo recalled.
In 2014, the video industry is still the world of Youku, Tudou, and iQiyi. At that time, iQiyi purchased the copyright of Hunan TV's variety show, which gave a number of classic variety shows such as "Happy Camp" an online broadcast channel. At the same time, Hunan Broadcasting and Television decided to develop a video platform and established Mango TV as an important strategy. Because of the contract with iQiyi, Hunan Satellite TV can still broadcast variety shows on its own network platform, which also gives Mango TV the qualification to broadcast media resources in the station.
According to the internal staff of Mango TV, at that time, Mango TV was limited by technology, and media assets were always launched later than iQiyi. For example, "Happy Camp" that was broadcast that day, iQiyi can go online a few minutes after the program ends. But Mango TV is still investing in media, and its decoding technology is not good. A few hours later, "Happy Camp" was registered on Mango TV, and the picture quality was not as clear as iQiyi.
"At that time, our website was still prone to crashes, and users complained about freezing. Unlike now, we often eat with various business departments and discuss what we can do in the future." Lu Haibo said.
Never been optimistic and finally tied the industry level, Mango TV has been around for nearly five years.
"The era is different, and the position of creation is different. We will definitely cooperate with our art creators to overcome difficulties and equip them with such tools and venues." When it comes to the future, Lu Haibo longed for it.
As for the future of Mango TV, it can be seen from the technical research direction and business layout.
In this year's algorithm competition, there is such a problem that contestants need to design algorithms so that mobile phones can detect music beats and interact.In the exhibition area, Mango TV took "Brother Who Overcome Troubles" as an example. When the mobile phone in the exhibition area uses the latest version of Mango TV APP to play a program, the mobile phone can increase the vibration and flash in real time in accordance with the content of the program.
Although this way of presentation is still limited to hardware functions (such as mobile phones), Mango TV has already added more to the interactive experience of entertainment.
M-CITY, a script-killing brand owned by Mango SuperMedia
From the current business situation of Mango SuperMedia, the parent company of Mango TV, in addition to the video content business, Xiaomang e-commerce and script-killing, escape and other offline live entertainment It has also become a new exploratory business. In particular, the script-killing business under the brand of M-CITY, as the extended business of the variety show "Star Detective" under Mango TV, currently also relies on resource collaboration and the popularity of Mingzhen Universe IP to occupy a place in the script-killing industry.
Wu Hong revealed to 36氪 that the Mango TV Innovation Research Institute has also developed a direction for MR-related technical research. In the near future, the Innovation Research Institute will also launch new MR+ script killing tools, allowing players to search in virtual scenes. Prove and experience the plot, increase the immersion of the script.
So where will Mango TV go in the future?
technology is deeply integrated with content creation, so that content is no longer limited to the presentation method of "a screen", which must be inevitable.
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