We are just four days away from the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, which falls on Tuesday this year. That also means the annual Spring Festival Gala on China Central Television is near. The now four-hour extravaganza first began in 1983, and has been a staple on New Year's eve since. New details about this year's event have been unveiled, and the use of advanced technologies is among the highlights. Shen Li reports.

The 2019 Spring Festival Gala is embracing today's hottest technologies, like virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G, as organizers continue to inject new blood into the show that has been an annual fixture on China Central Television, or CCTV.

This year's event will be the first since the establishment of the China Media Group last March. The group is now the parent company of CCTV, CGTN, China National Radio and China Radio International. For the gala, the group is rolling out a '4K+5G+AI' strategy by taking advantage of big data and AI.

For the first time in China's television history, the gala will be broadcast live in 4K high-definition through a 5G network with 5.1 surround sound. That means viewers will be able to enjoy cinema-quality broadcast on CCTV's 4K Ultra HD channel.

CHEN LINCHUN DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CCTV PROGRAM CENTER "This 4K broadcast will be the beginning of a new era, as we'll embrace more technologies on both television and internet terminals. Also, VR and AI will be applied to numerous shows to bring a visual feast to the audience."

In January, the China Media Group, China Mobile and Huawei successfully tested the delivery of 4K footage through 5G.

The plan is to use 5G to send 4K footage from sub-venues back to Beijing to be edited and broadcast.

4K UHD images are smoother, more lifelike and appear more natural, delivering an in-person immersive experience to audiences. Such video transmissions require high bandwidths and low latencies.

Advanced technologies, such as AR, will be featured in all studios to create a new experience for more than a billion viewers.

Shen Li, CGTN.