Preamble

Huanggang, Hubei: New Media Technology Empowering Innovative Development of Culture-Tourism Integration

Hu Zide, Qin Wu, Xie Ling
(Huanggang Converged Media Center, Huanggang, Hubei 438000, China)

Abstract

[Objective] Against the backdrop of recent media convergence developments in radio, television, and newspaper industries, this paper explores innovative applications of new media technology in culture-tourism integration. [Methods] Through case analysis of Huanggang's Dongpo Temple Fair, this study reveals how new communication models drive transformation and upgrading of the culture-tourism industry. [Results] With active media participation and reliance on a "technology empowerment—content innovation—industrial synergy" framework, rapid development of regional culture-tourism industries has been achieved. [Conclusion] This paper aims to provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for high-quality development of regional culture-tourism integration.

Keywords: new media; 5G applications; AI intelligence; culture-tourism integration; Dongpo Temple Fair
CLC Number: G244
Document Code: A
Article ID: 1671-0134(2025)04-29-05
DOI: 10.19483/j.cnki.11-4653/n.2025.04.005
Citation Format: Hu Zide, Qin Wu, Xie Ling. Huanggang, Hubei: New Media Technology Empowering Innovative Development of Culture-Tourism Integration [J]. China Media Technology, 2025, 32(4): 29-33.

1. Accelerating Media Convergence and Building a Fully Functional New Position

Integrating the "Internet Plus" concept into cultural tourism project development represents a new trend and innovative exploration for the advancement of the cultural tourism industry. This paper examines Huanggang's Dongpo Temple Fair as a case study to investigate implementation pathways for new media empowering innovative development of culture-tourism integration, aiming to evaluate the practical effects of using new media to promote rural revitalization and cultural tourism development.

Huanggang is located in eastern Hubei Province, at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains and on the north bank of the middle Yangtze River. The city boasts beautiful landscapes where natural scenery and cultural heritage complement each other. The majestic Dabie Mountains stretch for hundreds of kilometers within the region. The Yangtze River flows 189 kilometers through the city, while six rivers—the Dao, Ju, Ba, Xi, Qi, and Huayang—run concurrently, with hundreds of lakes and reservoirs scattered throughout. Huanggang attracts renowned talents and is abundant in historical sites. Poets such as Li Bai, Du Mu, and Wang Yucheng composed timeless masterpieces here, Su Dongpo achieved his literary pinnacle in this region, and Huangmei Opera originated in this very place. The Dabie Mountain revolutionary old district, centered on Huanggang, is one of the nation's 12 red tourism routes and constitutes the main body of Hubei's red tourism resources.

The Huanggang Municipal Party Committee and government uphold the development philosophy that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," leveraging natural and cultural environmental advantages to vigorously promote culture-tourism integration. To further strengthen the cultural tourism industry, the municipal authorities launched the "Dongpo Temple Fair" cultural tourism project in 2023. Through continuous development and innovation in recent years, it has gradually become a shining brand for Huanggang's cultural tourism.

In February 2024, Huanggang Radio and Television Station merged with Huanggang Daily to establish the Huanggang Converged Media Center. Following its establishment, the center accelerated construction of its media convergence technology platform. Building upon previous media convergence reforms at Huanggang Radio and Television Station, the center utilized cutting-edge Internet and AI intelligent technologies to construct a more efficient, intelligent, and fully functional new media platform. This platform primarily integrates broadcasting, television, and newspaper collection-editing systems, review systems, manuscript systems, signal recording, and self-media content aggregation into a unified content gathering and production platform. It also aggregates content reproduction and distribution platforms suitable for both traditional and new media broadcasting. The system architecture is illustrated in Figure 1 [FIGURE:1].

1.1 Constructing an Omnimedia Aggregation Platform for All-Media Applications

Following the merger of broadcasting, television, and newspaper operations, the new converged media platform is provided with expanded information aggregation pathways. The platform creates a multi-channel, digitalized, intelligent, visualized, and networked content aggregation system. It integrates the collection-editing systems of broadcasting, television, and newspapers to achieve convergence of audio, video, images, and text content. Additionally, by incorporating self-media participation, the platform can acquire massive content resources, enabling multi-channel collection. For content management, we have introduced visualized and intelligent content classification management tools to conduct review, screening, classification, and deduplication of collected content, providing efficient retrieval for content applications.

1.2 Building an AI-Enabled Intelligent Production Platform

For media organizations, traditional promotional content creation consumes substantial time and effort. In recent years, digitalization and artificial intelligence have developed rapidly, making digitalization and intelligence inevitable trends in media production. Therefore, when constructing the new converged media platform, we introduced AI-enabled intelligent writing, short video creation, AI photo editing, and other production tools, which have greatly enriched journalists' creative thinking, improved production efficiency, and enhanced promotional quality.

1.3 Innovating Media Asset Management Platforms

As a media organization, vast amounts of media data are generated daily. Only a small fraction of this data flow, after processing and review, is distributed, while large volumes of data remain unused in content libraries. To make data flow and fully realize its value, data must become supermarket merchandise displayed on shelves for selection. Integrating achievements from advanced IT technology, communication technology, mobile Internet technology, and information copyright protection technology, we have innovated media data asset management models to achieve cross-domain content services and applications. To provide extended support for converged media operations, we constructed an intelligent media asset management system that uses artificial intelligence technology to reasonably classify massive media data, re-catalog and archive it, incorporate rights management and network security management, and transmit media content through interface servers to websites and APP clients after transcoding, forming shared media resources for all users. This enables data to flow, generating value through exchange and purchase as browsing volume increases.

1.4 Promoting New Media Technology to Empower the Culture-Tourism Integration Stage

With comprehensive technology platform support, the Huanggang Converged Media Center established new media creation and communication teams including a Network Live Broadcasting Alliance, Self-Media Home, New Media Cultural Creation Center, and Visual Creative Packaging Center. These teams recruit citywide and even provincial live broadcasting teams, photography associations, and self-media influencers to join the converged media center's editing platform. They have planned cultural tourism short video competitions with themes such as "I Love Huanggang" and "Beautiful Huanggang, A Place of Peace," as well as online live broadcasts of Dongpo Temple Fair opera, cultural creation, and food series events. Simultaneously, in cooperation with tower companies, the center utilizes signal tower monitoring high-definition cameras for online live broadcasting, implementing "slow live broadcasting" of Beautiful Huanggang.

Since 2023, Huanggang has promoted a public cultural brand named after local characteristics—Dongpo Temple Fair—and successively held series of events such as "Dongpo Temple Fair·Returning Home for New Year" and "Dongpo Temple Fair·May Day Season." This brand is not merely a traditional temple fair gathering but has expanded into a comprehensive promotion platform covering culture, tourism, sports, agriculture, and health, encompassing city, county, township, and village cultural activity networks. Centered on the Dongpo Temple Fair, various new consumption activities themed around "delicacies, performing arts, and flower appreciation" have officially launched, presenting citizens and tourists with a comprehensive consumption festival integrating boutique shopping, authentic cuisine tasting, and temple market touring. Based on Dongpo culture and leveraging advantages of beautiful landscapes and rich cultural resources, the center has summarized and refined cultural mini-dramas, cultural creative products, and Dongpo cuisine as flagship products for integrated development of cultural undertakings and industries. Collaborating with over 150 renowned local characteristic merchants, the platform has popularized more than 230 unique products such as Dongpo tenderloin, Tuanfeng County's distinctive pork knuckle, and Macheng traditional liquor.

2. Innovating Media Communication Methods and Exploring New Paths for Culture-Tourism Integration Development

To better promote Huanggang's abundant cultural tourism resources, the Huanggang Converged Media Center continuously innovates media communication methods, fully utilizing AI technology to produce Dongpo+ cultural products, introducing 5G signal transmission to realize scenic area slow live broadcasting, and organizing cultural tourism activities such as the Beautiful Huanggang Short Video Competition and Dongpo Poetry Festival, thereby contributing to Huanggang's cultural tourism development.

2.1 Leveraging AI Technology to Enhance Tourism Cultural Influence

The development of the cultural tourism industry is closely related to the popularization of tourism customs. Promoting tourist destinations requires broad audiences to understand corresponding travel cultures to attract visitors, a process that largely depends on media effectiveness in publicizing travel customs. Compared with traditional communication tools such as television and newspapers, new media including APP clients and online live broadcasting platforms demonstrate faster communication efficiency and higher interactivity, thus exerting more significant influence in disseminating tourism culture. In the interactive communication process of new media, short videos play an extremely critical role. The Huanggang Converged Media Center fully utilizes AI video production technology to create AI works featuring Su Dongpo as a major IP spokesperson for Huanggang's humanities and scenery, such as the "AI Opens Poetic Huanggang" series and the "Peaceful Realm—Huanggang" AI single, among other tourism promotion videos. Released on new media platforms including the "Cloud Huanggang" APP, Live Huanggang Douyin account, and Huanggang Radio and Television Dongpo Cloud video channel, these works have achieved extremely high click rates and comment numbers, significantly enhancing public interest in Huanggang tourism consumption. New media promotion methods and strategies have laid a solid foundation for the enhancement and development of tourism culture.

2.2 Introducing 5G Signal Transmission to Realize Scenic Area Slow Live Broadcasting

The technical principle of slow live broadcasting is simple: using high-definition surveillance cameras as fixed lenses, video signals are converted into live streaming signals through 5G networks and pushed to live broadcasting platforms for audience viewing. This broadcasting method provides viewers with more authentic and intuitive real-time scene experiences. Applying this method to characteristic scenic areas serves to inform and remind tourists about optimal visiting times. For instance, for plum blossoms at Yiai Lake in Huangzhou, the rhododendron festival at Guishan in Macheng, the Four Seasons Flower Sea in Yingshan, and Longgan Lake, previous methods relied on flowering period forecasts to inform tourists of the best viewing times. Now, tourists can simply watch slow live broadcast videos to determine optimal timing and schedule their visits accordingly. The Huanggang Converged Media Center, in cooperation with tower companies, utilizes numerous signal tower monitoring cameras to conduct slow live broadcasting promotion of certain scenic areas, widely publicizing Huanggang's tourism resources. This slow live broadcasting approach not only expands the influence of Huanggang's tourism resources but also enables Huanggang natives working away from home to timely view their hometown, alleviating homesickness.

3. Utilizing Network Live Broadcasting Technology to Create New Brands for Cultural Tourism Activities

As a fruitful outcome of Huanggang's innovative culture-tourism integration, the Huanggang Dongpo Temple Fair serves as a shining brand for the city's cultural tourism. The most magnificent events during Huanggang's Spring Festival Dongpo Temple Fair are the dragon lantern parade and the Lantern Festival fireworks display. The dragon lantern parade generally follows two routes—south and north—each passing through densely populated commercial districts in the city, with each route establishing 4 to 6 performance nodes. The two routes converge at a designated endpoint area where synchronized cultural activities featuring intangible cultural heritage elements such as opera, martial arts, lion dancing, and acrobatics take place, alongside distinctive agricultural product exhibitions.

To expand the influence of cultural tourism activities, the Huanggang Converged Media Center conducts comprehensive pre-event publicity for different activities. For example, for the dragon lantern parade at the New Year Dongpo Temple Fair, the center released event previews in advance through the "Cloud Huanggang" App, WeChat public accounts, and short video platforms. In 2023, pre-event promotion through images and short videos exceeded 450,000 daily views. Online interactive topics (such as "Dongpo Temple Fair, Returning Home for New Year") were designed to guide user content creation. Post-production and distribution of more refined short videos allowed audiences to experience the cultural atmosphere of returning home for the New Year. At the technical level, the Spring Festival temple fair activities featured large-scale online live broadcasting, synchronized with CCTV's new media platform, achieving high viewership. In 2023, live broadcast views exceeded 18 million, and in 2025, views surpassed 19 million. Particularly, the dragon lantern parade moving through streets posed higher demands for mobile filming, signal stability, and real-time transmission, requiring more complex live broadcasting coordination. To fully demonstrate the multi-route parade effects panoramically, Huanggang Radio and Television Station used multiple broadcasting vehicles and camera positions in its 2023 live broadcast, employing 5G backpacks and other equipment. In 2024 and 2025, to better present the on-site experience and drawing on past lessons, we added wireless image transmission, high-altitude HD cameras, and 5G tracking等新技術.

3.1 Activity Process and Technical Requirements Matching

3.1.1 Multi-Camera Deployment

Based on parade route length, fixed live broadcasting positions were established at performance nodes. For example, Huanggang's dragon lantern parade divides into south and north routes, with each route setting up 4 performance nodes. Advance planning is required for signal transmission links, tracking equipment stability, broadcasting vehicle parking locations, drone flight areas, and signal coverage ranges.

In 2023, the parade live broadcast employed 18 camera positions, with one fixed camera at each node serving as a safety position, transmitting via wired network through encoders. Additionally, two tracking positions used mobile phones with gimbals for close-up filming, while one drone tracked the parade using 5G mobile image transmission. Due to battery life limitations and high-voltage power lines along the route, the 2023 parade live broadcast lacked sufficient high-altitude panoramic scenes, diminishing the grandeur of the dragon dance. In 2024, with a larger parade scale, we learned from past experience and purchased 5G signal transmission mobile encoders (5G backpacks). Simultaneously, coordinating with relevant departments, we utilized high-altitude surveillance cameras along the route, transmitting high-altitude signals through wired encoders. Throughout the event, signal transmission was more stable and visuals more spectacular, receiving widespread audience acclaim.

3.1.3 Signal Transmission

To ensure signal transmission stability, we primarily used wired network transmission along routes, supplemented by wireless image transmission. For multi-camera directing, television broadcasting vehicles and converged media broadcasting vehicles conducted real-time directing and signal return transmission, ensuring synchronized multi-route live broadcast images.

3.1.4 Team Collaboration

Technical teams, directing teams, and new media teams had clear divisions of labor. For instance, in 2023, over 50 journalists were dispatched for multi-dimensional reporting.

3.1.5 Pre-Event Promotion and Interaction Design

Pre-event promotion was released through WeChat public accounts and short video platforms, with online interactive topics (such as "Dongpo Temple Fair Returning Home for New Year") designed to guide user content creation.

3.2 Key Live Broadcasting Execution Technologies

To ensure signal stability in mobile scenarios, we adopted wireless image transmission equipment (such as microwave and 5G backpacks) to address stability issues in mobile filming of parade processions. In 2023, Huanggang achieved signal coverage through a combination of broadcasting vehicles and portable equipment. Regarding signal transmission stability, in addition to 5G wireless transmission equipment as backup channels, we enabled dual-path signal return transmission during the 2024 CCTV live broadcast to address potential network congestion: one path used 5G backpacks with mobile networks, while the other used high-altitude surveillance cameras along the route, transmitting through wired networks via encoders.

To ensure multi-dimensional content presentation, aerial perspectives employed drones and high-altitude surveillance cameras to capture panoramic scenes, showcasing parade scale (for example, the longest dragon lantern in 2023 reached 100 sections, with the parade stretching nearly 1 kilometer). For close-up shots, mobile tracking positions using mobile phones and mirrorless cameras with 5G backpacks captured dragon dance details (such as close-ups of dragon heads and intangible cultural heritage inheritors' movements). To demonstrate historical and cultural heritage, subtitles/voice-overs introduced Huanggang's intangible cultural heritage, including the history of Dingjiaqi dragons and the performance forms of lotus-picking boats. To ensure real-time interaction and traffic conversion, we embedded bullet screen interactions and real-time voting functions before, during, and after events. For example, in 2024, we established an online selection for "Best Dragon Lantern Team." To promote Huanggang's landmark products, live commerce was conducted simultaneously at event venues, with 31 anchor positions set up on-site in 2023.

3.3 Post-Event Distribution and Effect Enhancement

To expand event influence, we adopted a multi-platform matrix communication strategy, primarily promoting official platforms (such as the "Cloud Huanggang" client) while simultaneously distributing to CCTV News, Douyin, WeChat Video Channel, and other channels. In 2023, single-event live broadcast views across all networks exceeded 18 million. Post-event, short videos were edited and pushed in time segments (such as parade highlights and intangible cultural heritage technique specials) to sustain event momentum. Through data monitoring and optimization, we real-time monitored viewership, interaction rates, and geographic distribution. For example, in 2023, uninterrupted television subtitle scrolling and all-media interaction increased local audience reach, dynamically adjusting live broadcasting strategies. Through continuously intensifying promotional efforts and depth, culture-tourism promotion effects have been continuously enhanced. For instance, tourist numbers increased by 40% year-over-year in 2023, and intangible cultural heritage performance topic readings doubled in 2024.

4. Aggregating Media Matrices to Build a New Aircraft Carrier for Culture-Tourism Promotion

Currently, cultural tourism event promotion cannot rely on single media channels for effective publicity; multi-dimensional, high-density, all-media deep promotion is required. Aggregating traditional media matrices and converging self-media for joint communication represents an effective exploration conducted by the Huanggang Converged Media Center under the leadership of the Municipal Party Committee's Propaganda Department.

To enhance promotional guidance and communication influence, the Huanggang Converged Media Center established the city's Network Live Broadcasting Alliance and Self-Media Home. These two mass organizations, guided by the center, have conducted a series of collective promotional activities centered on the center's propaganda work. For example, the citywide fireworks gala beginning on Lantern Festival 2023 represents one of the most representative activities. This event unified the planning of fireworks displays across the city's counties and districts. In terms of technical preparation, we required all counties and cities to strictly follow designated live broadcasting timelines, transmitting on-site signals via broadcasting vehicles to respective converged media center studios. Studios coordinated commentary and video transmission for each county and city, with county and city studios opening intercommunication channels and connecting directing systems. In addition to completing their own live broadcasting activities, they needed to accept unified signal scheduling from the municipal converged media center, forming a tree-shaped live broadcasting system.

The entire event was coordinated and scheduled by the municipal converged media center, with one-time collection and unified distribution across all live broadcasting platforms, allowing audiences to experience different county and city live atmospheres and cultural commentaries within a single program, providing a visual feast for citizens and viewers. Achieving deep integration of cultural IP and media technology, and building a Huanggang culture-tourism promotion aircraft carrier through aggregated social media forces, helps strengthen Huanggang's culture-tourism development.

In the process of deep culture-tourism integration, new media has abandoned the centralized and one-way communication model of traditional media, instead adopting Internet thinking to rapidly expand influence through high-speed transmission, fragmented information broadcasting, content aggregation, and user interaction. From a "fast, concise, and easily understandable" perspective, it demonstrates the unique charm of news media. New media plays an important service role in promoting culture-tourism integration, relying on advanced technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality to build its service foundation in the industry. With continuous advancement of information technology and increasing numbers of Internet users, new media is increasingly integrated into the wave of cultural tourism industrialization—a transformation worthy of further attention and research.

Author Biographies

Hu Zide (born 1967), male, from Huanggang City, Hubei Province, senior engineer, research direction: radio and television engineering.

Qin Wu (born 1980), male, from Huanggang City, Hubei Province, engineer, research direction: radio and television engineering.

Xie Ling (born 1973), female, from Huanggang City, Hubei Province, engineer, research direction: radio and television engineering.

(Responsible Editor: Li Jing)