It took three years to overcome technical difficulties and stand out from many solutions

"In the early stage, domestic and foreign manufacturers proposed different solutions, and finally our Polaris intelligent clock system was selected." Yang Jiaye, chief technical engineer of Yantai Watch and Clock Research Institute Co., Ltd., said that he and his team members spent about three years, from project design to debugging and operation, conducting experiments and tests over and over again, and overcoming many technical difficulties. Ultimately, they ensured that the clock could continue to operate normally in the face of changes in indoor and outdoor temperature differences in the Winter Olympics venues and any emergencies.

The Polaris smart clock system maintains 24-hour uninterrupted stable, safe and reliable operation. Its main function is to provide a unified standard time for competition timing and scoring, video recording, security, office and related intelligent equipment, thereby ensuring the normal and orderly operation of Winter Olympic Games events and peripheral systems. At present, more than 500 Polaris clocks have been installed in the three venues of the National Alpine Skiing Center, the National Bobsleigh and Luge Center, and the Ice Hockey Stadium. When participants and trainees look up, they can see the unified and standard "Polaris" time from Yantai.


 

Hu Jianfeng, chairman of Yantai Clock and Watch Research Institute Co., Ltd., proudly said: "In the implementation of the Winter Olympics venue project, we have achieved several firsts: such as the technology and equipment have been completely independently domestically produced; the time standard is based on China's Beidou satellite time standard; all three venues use Beidou time synchronization to ensure that the clock systems in all areas of the venues can achieve accurate, unified, safe and reliable intelligent monitoring and operation."

Why did the R&D and design team of Yantai Watch Research Institute Co., Ltd. stand out? Yang Jiaye said that they relied on their hard work.

Advanced design and technology make the clock system run "stable, safe and reliable"

In recent years, my country has been demanding higher and higher rates of localization for the independent control of various equipment, software and hardware technologies. Through continuous research and development and extensive testing, the North Star Smart Clock System has achieved complete localization of products, from chip selection to system software code, and all technologies are independently controllable.

Yang Jiaye introduced that in order to increase the localization rate of the Polaris intelligent clock system and ensure its stability and reliability, the R&D team has done a lot of work from system chip selection to functional testing, high and low temperature testing, electromagnetic compatibility testing, aging testing, etc. "The application of technical algorithms such as redundant hot standby and step-by-step double verification of the entire system can effectively deal with errors and failures caused by various factors, making the operation of the entire clock system more stable, safe and reliable."

He added that the R&D team uses highly stable tamed constant temperature crystal oscillators on control devices and temperature compensated crystal oscillators on clock terminals, using the crystal's constant temperature bath or compensation capacitor array to effectively address the impact of temperature on clock accuracy. All clock devices are equipped with high-precision clock chips, so that the system has an accurate time regardless of whether the terminal is offline or online.

It is reported that from the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2021, Yang Jiaye and the R&D team members had to complete the production, installation and commissioning of the equipment. The time was short and the task was heavy. During this period, they faced repeated outbreaks of the epidemic, which brought them a great challenge. "In addition to meeting the parameter requirements in the bidding documents, we mainly made a deeper design for the security, stability and ease of use of the system. The goal is to ensure stable operation, easy use and maintenance for both a single device and the entire system."

In order to ensure the stable operation of the equipment under various conditions, all Polaris clocks have passed high and low temperature aging tests of -30℃-70℃. Not only is the technology advanced, but some humanized designs and considerations have also been made for different application scenarios of the Winter Olympics. Yang Jiaye gave an example, for example, the clock terminal can display information such as the countdown of the game time according to the settings; the clock terminal can also be opened and closed at a scheduled time. On the one hand, the clock can be turned off when not in use to save energy and reduce emissions, and on the other hand, the clock terminal can be prevented from affecting the athletes when they are resting.

"The clock uses a high-precision ambient light sensor that can sense information such as ambient light brightness in real time and adjust the current of the display circuit in real time. In layman's terms, the brighter the ambient light, the brighter the clock will be. The darker the environment, the darker the clock, making the brightness of the clock terminal softer and more comfortable." Yang Jiaye explained.

Excellent quality, advanced technology, and comprehensive services... can be said to be the key reasons why the Polaris smart clock system stands out from many domestic and foreign manufacturers.

"Hundred-year-old North Star" and "Hundred-year-old Beijing-Zhangjiakou" complement each other to escort the Winter Olympics

The Polaris intelligent clock system is not only used in the Winter Olympics venue projects, but also in the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed ​​Railway, a key transportation support project for the Winter Olympics.

Yang Jiaye said that many manufacturers competed for this project. He led the design team to conduct on-site research many times and consulted a large amount of human geography data. He also made corresponding exterior designs based on the human geography characteristics of each station, so that each station had a different view. "There was more than one version, and we revised it again and again. Finally, we were selected with our outstanding design after many rounds of competition."

​Nowadays, when you step into high-speed rail stations such as the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed ​​Railway Taizicheng Station, Beijing North Station, Badaling Great Wall Station, and Zhangjiakou Station, you can see the "Centennial North Star" clock that is highly integrated with the unique cultural atmosphere of "Centennial Beijing-Zhangjiakou".

In Yang Jiaye's view, Polaris started in 1915 and has been focusing on clocks for a hundred years. In the future, the institute will continue to deepen the design, research and development, production and service of special technical clocks, continue to explore higher precision and more advanced clock synchronization technology, expand the international market, and let Yantai smart manufacturing shine in every corner of the world.