The NovaStar story behind the Spring Festival Gala
This scene is an operational battlefield for NovaStar’s technical engineers. Customer satisfaction is achieved here… Product value is reflected here… The sweat and tears of NovaStar’s engineers is shed on this floor. The stage of the Spring Festival Gala is a star‐studded and complex scene that presents a unique set of challenges.
NovaStar has provided LED display technology support for the gala stage for four consecutive years. Behind each of the amazing things shown on this stage lies the innovation and hard work of NovaStar’s people.
Preliminary Preparation
How many times have you participated in the Spring Festival Gala's resident work?
Chuangye Lin: This is the second time for me to be in the Beijing main venue. I didn't go home during the 2019 Spring Festival Gala, but we had Lixiang Ge and Shenjin Pan to be our resident inspectors this year so that I can go home for the Chinese New Year. I appreciate their hard work.
Jinbo Lin: It was the first time I've been involved in such a sizeable live support event. To be honest, I was pretty nervous to face such a large challenge. That said, these challenges coexist with an amazing set of opportunities. My family supports me very much as well. This task is a sign of people's confidence in me, and I have no reason not to do it well.
How long have you prepared for the Spring Festival Gala?
Lixiang Ge: It took three months to prepare, mostly spent on technical issues. First of all, the main venue stage adopts module splicing, the space of the whole matrix is tiny, and the cylindrical screen with different heights and the banner under the cylinder are both pretty complicated, which requires more work in the early stage to facilitate the on‐site installation.
Shenjin Pan: The preparation started at the end of October. The plan for the main venue of the Spring Festival Gala in Beijing was rather complicated, requiring the daily docking of drawings, entering and being stationed in the assembly plant, constantly debugging samples and guiding customers to install screens.
Site Work and Background Story Have you encountered any problems since you entered and were stationed at the site?
Shenjin Pan: During debugging, we encountered the problem of the high failure rate of the RJ45 connector, and the solution was solved by utilizing both main and backup devices to work in cooperation. Secondly, the cylindrical screen cannot contain all the network cables. Therefore, the optical fiber transmission and optical port replication scheme were adopted to reduce the wiring difficulty and debugging workload. At the fourth rehearsal, during the lifting process of 120 flying matrix screens, we encountered the problem of some screens having flashing black issues. Due to the urgent time, we were also under tremendous pressure. Fortunately, all these problems were solved after an overnight investigation, and the live broadcast was finally guaranteed to be perfect.
Yang Guo: In addition to some technical issues, the Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macao branch venue also has a special environment. As the stage is on the Hong Kong‐Zhuhai‐Macao Bridge, the daytime high temperature and light intensity also brought some challenges to the daytime debugging. In addition, due to the significant temperature difference on the sea, we've been living a life of winter at night and summer at noon.
Did anything interesting happen backstage?
Shenjin Pan: On the night of the live broadcast, I watched the live feed on my phone while ensuring everything went right backstage. I was sitti ng in a corner when suddenly Chinese movie star Wu Lei, who was in the waiting area, came over and picked up my phone and watched the live feed with his friends. He made a funny face to me as well. Sadly, I was shocked and didn’t react to him. What a pity that I missed my best chance to get an autograph!
Hongfan Zhang: When we first went to the artificial island, we didn’t know much about the situation there, and we weren’t getting back to the hotel until 3 or 4 in the morning. The first night I checked the surveillance equipment at 1:00 am, and when I came back to the rest area, many people were eating instant noodles. The smell was so delicious... We went to the island unprepared, so we just watched them eat, and that made our mouths water so much.
Is there any difference between watching it on-site and compared to watching it at home？
Jinbo Lin: You can see the wonderful panorama without the camera clipping on the TV when on‐site. We were all very excited, but to be honest, the actors look better on TV (LOL).
Shenjin Pan: I was excited but also nervous to watch it right there. I was afraid something might go wrong.
However, I also felt very proud looking at the magnificent stage effect. After all, I also contributed to that.
Review
What have you gained from participating in this Spring Festival Gala?
Chuangye Lin: My impression of this project is two parts. First of all, we have a pleasant sense of teamwork. Different departments such as R&D, FAE and Project Manager worked hand‐in‐hand, efficient communication and performed their respective duties throughout the whole project. Secondly, you can clearly see the progress of all the other individuals. Shenjin Pan and Lixiang Ge followed up on the entire process after
taking over the task. The process was arduous, but they never complained. After many days and nights of debugging, we finally ensured the perfect completion of the project on‐site.
Hongfan Zhang: In fact, it is not just this Spring Festival Gala. I have been in the Nova family for more than one year. From a young man just entering the industry to now in charge of a small team, I couldn’t do these things without the help of many people. Meanwhile, it also helped me significantly improve my time management skills, energy allocation ability and self‐motivation.
The greatest gain is to feel the warmth of family in such a large enterprise with these people, which makes me feel very lucky and happy.
The Spring Festival Gala, like any on‐site work, represents both opportunities and challenges. Behind every project, there are the joys and sorrows of NovaStar’s people. Although the pandemic is still present, spring will come eventually. We believe that there will be more NovaStar people in the future to bring more value to our customers and bring ever‐more extraordinary achievements to the visual world.
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