The spectacular gala event is broadcast annually on the eve of Chinese New Year by state-run China Central Television (CCTV). It is estimated that this year's show, held on 13 February, captured some 96% of the Chinese television viewing audience on the mainland and had more than 700 million-plus viewers worldwide, including large numbers of people watching the show live via the internet.
The CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which has grown into a genuine cultural phenomenon since its inception in 1982, runs more than four hours and features a colourful assortment of diverse entertainment, including pop songs, dances, crosstalk, stage comedies and drama, acrobatics and other folk arts.
For this year's show, CCTV deployed a High Definition LED backdrop as the show's centrepiece. The LED backdrop, measuring 18 x 9m, has a physical resolution up to 2952 x 1440 pixels, while utilizing 820 Barco ILite 6BK tiles, which is the largest indoor LED display in China today. The ILite 6 BK is a 6mm black LED display with the contrast and modular design allowing to build up displays in nearly any shape and size. Moreover, four Barco FLM HD20, the 20,000 lumens native HD projectors, were deployed on stage.
In contrast with previous years, HD was the de facto standard for video output in this year's gala. To realize multiple image effects throughout the evening, image processing was driven by Barco's Encore System. Enabled by five Encore processors, the live show blended performance and visual effects seamlessly and in a breathtaking manner for all to enjoy.
"We've been cooperating with Barco for a number of years now in producing the annual Chinese Spring Festival Gala," says Huang Gui Jiang, general manager of HuangKingsmark Event Engineering Co. "We have a great deal of trust and confidence in Barco products and solutions as they are incorporated into the gala; that trust is proven right there for everyone to see, as this year's event really captivated viewers, both old and young alike, in an exciting way."
"Barco solutions are the industry standard throughout the world, proving their innovation and reliability again and again across a wide range of event productions," says Deng Bu Qi, general manager of China Television Technology Development Company. "'Impressive' is the best way to describe this year's CCTV Spring Festival Ceremony. The show as a whole was wonderfully impressive. What's more, Barco products were equally impressive every step of the way."
"Each year the gala aims to creatively do better than the previous year," says Yan Fei, Managing Director of Barco Greater China. "Needless to say, this is a real challenge from one year to the next for everyone involved. Barco brings a great deal of enthusiasm and commitment to this challenge. The show's ever growing popularity and our longstanding cooperation testify to Barco's long-term commitment to the China market in general and our business partners, customers and end-users in particular."
(Jim Evans)
