When every brick and tile of a century-old building is reborn in the digital world, and when the details of Red history become within reach through 3D models, cultural heritage preservation and transmission find new answers. With technology as its pen and data as its ink, MGC Digital has written a vivid practice of digital artifact conservation at the Zunyi Conference Site.
Cultural heritage is non-renewable, and digital technology has opened a new path for its preservation and transmission. The digitization of artifacts and cultural heritage means transforming physical artifacts into virtual data through digital technology to achieve "permanent preservation" and "living transmission," spanning the entire chain of conservation and restoration, content mining, smart management, and activated application, and driving the creative transformation and innovative development of cultural heritage.
Following this logic, MGC Digital conducted high-precision 3D capture of Grade I cultural heritage protection buildings such as the Zunyi Conference Site, establishing precise digital archives and achieving permanent digital preservation of historical building information.
On this basis, offline interactive large screens were used to create 3D interactive display scenarios, diversifying the use of digital results and enabling a vivid and comprehensive presentation of the site's historical appearance and cultural connotations.
At the same time, relying on smart terminals to sense public visiting behavior, a distributed intelligent thermal early-warning analysis system was built to optimize the visitor experience through scientific crowd monitoring and guidance.
(I) A 3D Precision Revolution: From Millimeter-Level Capture to Full-Scene Restoration
Every detail of the cultural heritage protection buildings at the Zunyi Conference Site carries profound historical significance. To achieve high-precision digital preservation, MGC Digital created a "ground, air, and imagery integrated" capture solution to establish digital archives for the heritage buildings.
Example diagram of data capture and processing
- Ground: Millimeter-level scanning captures every detail
In the ground capture stage, MGC Digital used high-precision laser scanners to collect point cloud data at a high resolution of 25,000 pts/m². This means that even fine wall textures and traces of joints in wooden structures can be recorded with millimeter-level precision, providing a solid data foundation for subsequent modeling.
- Air: UAVs fill in "blind spots"
High-altitude structures and roof details are "dead corners" that are difficult for ground capture to cover. For this reason, the team used UAVs for oblique photogrammetry to precisely capture high-altitude forms. By aligning and integrating aerial data with ground point cloud data, comprehensive capture of the building "from roof to ground" without blind spots was achieved, fully presenting the building's three-dimensional form.
- Imagery: HDR technology restores true colors
Although laser scanning can record form, it has limitations in color restoration. The team paired it with full-frame cameras and used high dynamic range (HDR) multiple exposure technology to precisely handle indoor and outdoor lighting differences, avoid overexposure or underexposure, and faithfully restore the textures of wooden doors and windows and the historical traces on walls, making the digital model not only "shaped" but also "colored."
- From data to scene: the "compression and rebirth" of digital models
How can the massive amount of raw captured data perfectly reconstruct artifact scenes and achieve lightweight application? MGC Digital provided the answer through technological innovation.
a. Extreme compression: hundred-megabyte models contain a thousandfold level of detail
The team used advanced compression technology to reduce the original model data volume to within one hundred megabytes, achieving a compression ratio of over 99% without losing any key details. This means users can smoothly view high-precision models on web pages or mobile devices without waiting for lengthy loading.
b. Technical optimization: making digital models "more realistic"
The compressed model is not simply "slimmed down." The team regularized UV coordinates and converted triangular faces into quad meshes so that model surfaces and textures align perfectly; combined with PBR material technology to optimize textures, the warmth of wood and the weight of brick and stone are truly reproduced in the digital world. The final glTF format model can be displayed smoothly across platforms and supports 360° rotation by users, as if "visiting the site in person" to touch history.
c. Indoor-outdoor integration: building a complete digital space
To restore the overall scene of the site, the team achieved seamless stitching of indoor and outdoor models. By precisely combining surveying and mapping data to join outdoor structures with indoor spaces, and then conducting individual scans of important indoor objects such as tables, chairs, and documents and integrating them, a complete digital space "from courtyard to room" was ultimately constructed, allowing visitors to immersively experience the layout and details of the site.
Example diagram of the integrated indoor and outdoor model
(II) Smart Management Upgrade: An Intelligent Thermal System Safeguards the Visiting Experience
Digital preservation is not only about "saving" but also about achieving "activated utilization." Based on the architectural digital model and smart terminals, MGC Digital built an "intelligent thermal early-warning analysis system" to make Red venue management more scientific and the visiting experience more comfortable.
At the application structure level, the system is divided into different application layers such as a video data collection system, an intelligent analysis and decision-making system, a heat map display system, and an intelligent voice system. The visitor flow detection system is divided into front-end and back-end parts.
- Real-time monitoring: visualizing visitor flow data
Through AI monitoring equipment and intelligent analysis terminals, the system collects visitor flow data from each area in real time and generates dynamic heat maps. Managers can view data such as "current number of people in the venue," "density of each exhibition hall," and "visitor flow trends" in real time on a computer, allowing management decisions to be based on data.
- Intelligent analysis: preventing crowding and optimizing routes
When visitor density in a certain area exceeds a threshold, the system automatically triggers an alert and, combined with intelligent IP broadcasting equipment, provides voice guidance to visitors, promptly dispersing crowded areas. At the same time, based on historical heat data, the team can optimize visiting route design, allowing visitors to experience Red culture in comfort.
- Remote operations and maintenance: reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and protecting artifacts
The system adopts a cross-regional networking model and supports remote monitoring and maintenance of all equipment, greatly reducing daily operations and maintenance pressure. This design not only reduces interference with artifacts caused by on-site operations but also improves management efficiency, reducing burdens and increasing efficiency for cultural heritage protection units.
System business logic diagram
(III) Interactive Large Screen: A Smart Window for "Two-Way Dialogue" Between Digital Heritage and the Public
Based on the high-precision 3D model of the site and multi-dimensional data integration, MGC Digital created an offline interactive large screen system for visitors, serving as the core interactive carrier connecting digital heritage and the public. With a millimeter-level restored architectural model of the site as its visual foundation, the large screen clearly presents the three-dimensional structure and spatial layout of core buildings such as the Zunyi Conference Site and the former site of the Red Army General Political Department. Visitors can rotate and zoom the model 360° through touch operations and view details such as door and window textures and indoor furnishings up close, as if "piercing through time and space" to touch historical scenes.
At the same time, the large screen deeply integrates basic information and extended information about the site itself. By clicking on the corresponding area of the model, pop-ups with historical background introductions, deeds of important figures, and key nodes of the meeting can be triggered, deeply binding architectural space with historical narrative and achieving an immersive learning experience of "seeing the building and knowing the history."
More notably, the large screen links real-time thermal data and visitor flow data, dynamically displaying the current visitor density heat map of each site building and route guidance: red blocks mark crowded areas, green paths recommend optimal visiting routes, and data dashboards such as "visitors today" and "weekly visitor flow trends" allow visitors to intuitively grasp the venue's real-time status and plan their visit pace independently.
From 3D interaction with architectural details to instant access to historical information, and then to intelligent guidance based on visitor flow dynamics, the interactive large screen enables digital results to truly serve the public, making the transmission of Red culture warmer and more efficient.
Under the contemporary challenge of cultural heritage preservation and transmission, digital technology has become a core engine for activating value and extending vitality. Using the Grade I cultural heritage protection building complex of the Zunyi Conference Site as its carrier, MGC Digital integrated digital logic into the entire chain:
Through integrated high-precision 3D capture from ground, air, and imagery, millimeter-level digital archives were established, achieving permanent scientific preservation of immovable cultural relics;
Relying on technologies such as lightweight compression and cross-platform interaction, offline interactive large screens break through spatial limitations, comprehensively presenting architectural appearance and cultural connotations and promoting "living" transmission of historical scenes;
Using smart terminal perception and data analysis to build a distributed thermal early-warning system, extending digital results to service optimization and achieving the leap of cultural heritage from "static preservation" to "dynamic utilization."
This practice provides a technical paradigm for the digital preservation of Red cultural heritage and interprets the core value of digital technology in safeguarding memory, improving experience, and promoting transmission.
For artifacts, digital archives become a "permanent backup," providing precise evidence for subsequent restoration and research;
For visitors, 3D interaction and smart guidance make the visiting experience more immersive and comfortable;
For the industry, this practice provides a replicable technical paradigm for the digital preservation of immovable cultural relics.
When Red history crosses time and space in digital form, cultural transmission gains more vivid vitality. MGC Digital uses technology to safeguard memory, allowing the spiritual power of the Zunyi Conference to continue passing on in the digital age.