How AI and Big Data Powered the Hit Series “The Longest Day in Chang’an”

In the drama “The Longest Day in Chang’an”, a sophisticated “Tang‑dynasty black‑tech” system is built on big data and AI, turning a death‑row prisoner into a hero who saves the city within twelve hours.

AI‑driven “Beidouxing” recommendation engine

Alibaba’s Beidouxing AI brain analyzes scripts, selects actors (e.g., Lei Jiayin), predicts audience emotional curves, and generates tailored trailers, turning the series into a “爆款”.

Interactive “Cool‑Watch” mode

Viewers can watch the drama while interacting with on‑screen “black‑tech” such as encyclopedia tips, companion characters, and progress maps. The mode uses multi‑stream same‑screen rendering, smooth switching, precise synchronization and dynamic rendering, achieving frame‑level multi‑stream playback on mobile devices.

4K/HDR ultra‑high‑definition reconstruction

To meet demand for ultra‑HD, Youku applies a two‑stage cloud‑edge HDR pipeline and a 2K‑to‑4K super‑resolution algorithm, enabling 4K and HDR playback even on devices that only support SDR.

Smart bitrate selection

Machine‑learning algorithms split video into 5‑10 s segments and dynamically choose the optimal resolution and bitrate based on network conditions, eliminating buffering.

Anti‑piracy system

Facing billions of piracy requests, Youku deploys a full‑link, multi‑dimensional anti‑piracy architecture that combines watermarking, request verification and traffic analysis to achieve near‑zero loss.

Media‑asset middle‑platform

The media‑asset platform stores, queries and searches all video assets, handling billions of API calls daily with high availability, low latency and scalable design, supporting storage, search, aggregation and computation layers.