Countdown to the Rio Olympics Review of the high technology behind the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics

"Big Footprint" - Digital Ignition

Do you still remember the magical "Big Footprint" at the opening ceremony? 29 huge colorful footprints composed of fireworks stepped into the Bird's Nest step by step along the central axis, kicking off the 29th Beijing Olympic Games. Digital ignition is used to ignite these 29 large footprints, which is controlled by a computer. All fireworks can be ignited in a short time and ensure that the fireworks can cross 3.5 kilometers in just a few seconds. Although traditional fireworks are still used, after digital ignition, the fireworks present a different visual effect from the past in terms of neatness.

Scroll - LED

The huge scroll slowly unfolded in the center of the venue, telling the world about the ancient and long Chinese history and civilization. How was such a spectacular scene presented? It turns out that LED contributed a lot. The extraordinary light and shadow effects laid the foundation for the success of the opening ceremony of this Olympic Games. LED, which is widely used in performances, was utilized to the maximum extent here, setting a record for the most successful opening ceremony in history. The opening scroll opens on a giant LED screen. The screen is 147 meters long and 22 meters wide. It is a huge platform with the highest technological content. It constitutes the largest stage in the history of the opening ceremony and is covered with 44,000 LEDs.

The light and shadow effects produced by LED are closely combined with the performance, transforming into various patterns, leading the audience into a dreamlike world, following its continuous changes, traveling through ancient and modern times. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, LEDs were utilized to the maximum extent. Although the entire opening ceremony took a long time, technological breakthroughs such as batteries solved the energy problem of LEDs.

The flexible "Earth" - aluminum alloy material

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, a six-story-high "Earth" with a diameter of about 20 meters slowly rose from the center of the stage. Where will such a big "earth" hide first? It turns out that this "earth" was first compressed underground. The center stage at the core of the performance is a 20-meter-diameter lifting platform hidden in a huge "pit" in the center of the stadium. The cover at the end of the "pit" can be moved horizontally. Both the scroll and the "earth" rise from this "pit."

In other words, the spherical structure must be flexible. It is elliptical when placed on the ground, and becomes spherical after being pulled up by the steel wire above. After the lifting platform raises the sphere, the actors need to perform on the facade of the sphere. Therefore, it needs to have strong stability after raising to ensure that the performance can present the desired effect under the premise of safety. Relying on high-tech aluminum alloy photosensitive materials, the "Earth" can be freely deformed.

The ever-changing nature - multimedia

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, "birds" and "whales" were swimming freely above the huge scroll. How did the dream-like scene come to be? It turns out that the opening ceremony used Wanxiang multimedia equipment, which can use computers to digitize media information such as text, graphics, images, animations, sounds and videos, and then integrate them into a certain interactive interface to create thousands of square meters of screens inside the Bird's Nest, showing clear pictures of "whales" swimming freely, instantly transforming the entire venue into a vivid natural world, conveying the Olympic concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.