Cutting-edge technology to help New Year's Eve show spring to life

The Spring Festival Gala, the world's most watched show of the year, will use advanced technologies this time around such as 5G, virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, to provide a more immersive and interactive experience for audiences across the globe.

The show will be broadcast live on Monday - Lunar New Year's Eve - on China Central Television's ultra-high-definition channel - CCTV 4K - for the first time. It will also appear on other CCTV channels. Features including surround sound will help audiences feel like they're in a cinema, Jiang Wenbo, an executive of CCTV, said at a news conference on Thursday.

The VR live transmission via the 5G network is being used to give TV audiences panoramic views, and AR technology will further enhance visual effects. CCTV will also use the intelligent speech recognition capabilities of AI to edit subtitles, which will significantly improve efficiency when producing reruns of the show, he said.