People’s Daily journalist Wang Jingyuan tests a panoramic camera at the Great Hall of the People. (Photo/People's Daily)

New technologies are contributing to the media coverage of China’s ongoing “two sessions”, the annual gathering of the National People's Congress (NPC), and that of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), as the country sees greater demand to present higher-quality information contents to the public.

An innovative live broadcast was carried out by People’s Daily in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, in which new media technologies played a vital role.

At around 8:00 a.m., a virtual reality (VR) panoramic camera set on a tripod started working on the square in front of the Great Hall of the People, recording the entrance of NPC deputies and CPPCC members into the venue as the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th NPC was about to begin.

The real-time video collected by the camera was sent to the new media center of People’s Daily via 5G network, and then presented to hundreds of millions of Chinese internet users on the People’s Daily mobile application.

The amazing part of this broadcast was that the users of the app were able to watch real-time video from different angles and get an immersive experience as long as they revolve their phones at hand.

Such live outdoor VR broadcast was almost impossible due to limited speed of the mobile internet. However, 5G network, which has not been widely applied yet, became available at the Great Hall of the People and the Tiananmen Square, making the impossible possible.

The photo shows the AR scanning feature launched by the short video app of People’s Daily during this year’s “two sessions”. By scanning relevant photos of the “two sessions” in the app, users will be able to get more in-depth contents such as live information, annotations, and visual data. (Photo/People's Daily)

Thanks to such innovative attempt of People’s Daily, Internet users could have better and more picturesque experiences.

In addition, People’s Daily also add augmented reality (AR) function to its video application to make news fresher. By scanning relevant photos of the “two sessions” on the newspaper in the app, users will be able to get more in-depth contents such as live information, annotations, and visual data.

Such innovative experience will help readers get more comprehensive and in-depth knowledge about the “two sessions”.

Apart from creating new experiences for users and readers, the new technologies and equipment are also making things easier for journalists.

The mobile phones of People’s Daily journalists are all equipped with voice-recognition software that can convert audio to text. It presents drafts with hardly any error soon after the interviews end, largely improving efficiency.

Besides, new experiences are being offered thanks to the new forms and ideas of media coverage.

The new media center of People’s Daily, through cooperation with a popular short video platform, launched an HTML5 webpage on which the users can make virtual video calls to 40 common Chinese people at different ages from different regions and occupations.

Through the virtual video calls, users can have an insight into these people’s lives and learn about their wishes. Such novel and interesting experience has successfully drawn attention from the massive internet users.