Russell Wise is Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Digital Nirvana.
Author:BROADCASTPRO ME Media companies are in a race to create volumes of compelling, high-quality content for many different markets and distribution channels. But doing so has its challenges, explains Russell Wise.
Russell Wise is Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Digital Nirvana.
For one thing, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned the media industry on its head. Most media companies are struggling valiantly to produce content remotely at a time when in-person contact is restricted. That means remote production and cloud-based tools have become more important than ever.
The same is true for repurposing content. Even in the best of times, media companies have been keen to monetise their existing content. After all, some of these companies have vast asset repositories, and what better way to get more bang for the production buck than by using an asset in multiple ways, such as localising it for a new audience in another country? In this time of limited production options, repurposing content can be a critical source of revenue.
Then there's the direct-to-consumer model, in which media companies avoid distribution points and go over the top directly to the viewer. To do it, they must be able to go through their libraries to sort, find, create, and distribute a piece of content, usually in four or five different versions, depending on the customer, geography, etc.
Even at the highest level, corporations like NBC are reassessing their strategies in light of the pandemic, deciding what media products they want to bring to the market and what technologies they need to make it happen. Those three scenarios - remote production, content repurposing, and direct-to-consumer delivery - are driving media companies to seek help creating compelling and compliant content more quickly, while adhering to government and internal standards and practices at the time of distribution. Most media companies are taking a serious look at AI and machine learning to help with this task.
There are clearly some discrete applications that are prime candidates for AI.
Content enrichment is one such example. At any time, you can add intelligence in the form of metadata; and at any point in the chain, you can produce better, more targetted content more quickly - and a lot more of it.
In pre-production and post-production workflows, a classic use case is to enhance the metadata of existing assets. AI can watch or listen and tag content in an existing library faster and more accurately than humans ever could. Or media companies can rely on AI to index any incoming feed so that metadata already exists before the content even enters the main system. In either case, having more - and more accurate - metadata speeds up the search process and accelerates content creation.
In one real-world example, a news website must deliver video within one hour of hitting post-production. The company uses speech-to-text engines to tag the video on its many incoming feeds, which makes it possible to meet deadlines and provide captions. Likewise, two major sports leagues are using AI for real-time captioning during live sports broadcasts. In all cases, AI helps broadcasters get content to air faster with better-quality captions - and without using human labour to do it.
Repurposing and localisation is another area where AI is critical. Once there is enriched content in the repository, it's easy for media companies to repurpose it. For instance, they can use AI to translate content and localise it for other geographies. That's exactly what one Spanish-language broadcaster is doing. AI takes Spanish content and captions it in different languages for different markets.
AI is also very useful where quality assurance is concerned. So, on the far end of the chain, for instance, there's content distribution. This is where broadcasters check to see if the content is compliant to local government standards, like the FCC, or their own internal standards, like a style guide. They can use AI to assess, for example, the quality and accuracy of captions, which is becoming an issue in countries with stringent captioning laws.
Monitoring is another element worth considering. AI comes in handy when weeding out objectionable content, such as unacceptable language or images that would violate strict rules if they were to go on air. AI engines such as image and speech recognition can monitor and automatically flag such issues for review instead of a human continually viewing it. Likewise, AI can automatically quantify logo insertions, product placements, ads or even the number of times a given person appeared within a broadcast - all information that can correspond to billing.
AI technologies have improved substantially in the past years in terms of accuracy, but the big barrier to adoption in the media industry has been a practical application. That is, how to insert it into the content workflow. Take speech-to-text, for example. Broadcasters can get a lot of value from a speech-to-text engine, but it's difficult for them just to order one. It has to come with management tools. It has to have a good UI and basic user functionality to get the full benefit. Fortunately, there are companies that have built a solid workflow that lets broadcasters harness the power of AI.
For instance, some products allow users to upload media through a portal to a cloud-based system. Once the content is there, the system essentially does all the work - transcription, translation, captioning, and monitoring. Users can set up presets to publish captions in the format required by the distributor, which is a pretty big thing, especially with Netflix. There are some basic tools for, say, editing the transcription, sort of like a word processor. There's also
North America Stories
25/04/2024
Sundance Institute Founder Robert Redford during a press conference at the 1996 ...
25/04/2024
alt= class=wp-image-12361 data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/NAB-booth-2024-960x540-1.jpg/> Set against a vibrant backdrop of innovation and collaboratio...
25/04/2024
alt= class=wp-image-12356 data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/NAB-mod-win-960x540-1.jpg/>NAB's Eric Trabb (right) awards SNS with two NAB Show Product...
25/04/2024
PHILADELPHIA Comcast beat earnings estimates in its Q1 2024 financial report, as streaming losses continued to decline and Peacock's paid subscribers spiked...
25/04/2024
SEATTLE The Seattle Kraken have inked new multi-year agreements with Tegna and Prime Video that will expand access to their games over broadcast stations and st...
25/04/2024
Cintel Scanner G3 HDR Restores Egypt's Cinema Treasures to Their Former Glo...
25/04/2024
Sinclair Broadcast Group said it named Kevin Coskren chief meteorologist at KTUL, its ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma....
25/04/2024
The Business of TV News, a new one-day event featuring Martha Raddatz, Shannon Bream, Glenn Kirschner and other major figures in television news, happens at Hot...
25/04/2024
Conditions put on the proposed sale of WADL Detroit, to Mission Broadcasting have created a potential drama in the Motor City....
25/04/2024
TelevisaUnivision reported a $52 million loss in the first quarter, up from $3 m...
25/04/2024
Comcast reported flat first-quarter earnings as it reduced the red ink at Peacock but continued to lose video and broadband customers....
25/04/2024
Music-video network Vevo said it launched its app on Telly, the company offering consumers free dual-screen TVs in return for data about what they're watchi...
25/04/2024
Future Today said it has introduced a redesigned user interface for about half of its 300 streaming apps, including Fawesome, HappyKids and iFood.TV....
25/04/2024
Broadpeak , a leading provider of content delivery network (CDN) and video streaming solutions for content providers and pay-TV operators worldwide, announced t...
25/04/2024
Lightware Visual Engineering, a leading manufacturer of connectivity solutions for the professional integrated systems market and a pioneer in signal management...
25/04/2024
Net Insight has entered into a collaboration with DMC Production that positions Net Insight at the forefront of sports broadcasting in the Nordics. Net Insight ...
25/04/2024
GlobalM has announced a strategic partnership with scoopa, the specialists in broadcast-quality content distribution, offering a complementary service for live ...
25/04/2024
PlayBox Neo announces the completion of a new multichannel playout system for the DDish direct-to-home satellite television network in Mongolia. Based in the na...
25/04/2024
Canadian music producer and engineer Garth Richardson also known as Gggarth due to his stutter - has embraced immersive audio by installing a PMC monitoring s...
25/04/2024
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced that Televisa, the Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company, has chosen Synamedia as its pa...
25/04/2024
OTTera, a leading provider of end-to-end OTT and FAST channel solutions, proudly announces its strategic partnership with ThinkAnalytics, a global leader in adv...
25/04/2024
The American Tobacco Campus will be hopping with activity tonight and this weekend with two fun events!
Durham Night Market
At last! The Durham Night Market i...
25/04/2024
WEST CHESTER, Pa. Video commerce provider Qurate Retail Group has launched The Big Dish, a new culinary-themed FAST channel on The Roku Channel....
25/04/2024
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Professional Association has announced that submissions for the 2024 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards are now being accepted. This re...
25/04/2024
NEW YORK The digital media measurement and analytics firm DoubleVerify has announced that it has received Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for Video Vie...
25/04/2024
SAN FRANCISCO Fox Corp.'s ad-supported streaming service Tubi has announced a licensing agreement with the sports platform DAZN that will see DAZN Ringside ...
25/04/2024
NEW YORK In the runup to the 2024 IAB NewFronts, the IAB has announced three key appointments to its leadership team....
25/04/2024
Epic Games releases Unreal Engine 5.4 with new Motion Design Mode, Unreal VCam f...
25/04/2024
Content Creation, Production, Distribution Is In a State of Flux
Andy Marken April 24, 2024
0 Comments
My empathy is creeping towards what I would de...
25/04/2024
The Carolina Panthers and Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) announced they have...
25/04/2024
Berklee Student Riko Sasaski Named 2024 Yamaha Young Performing Artist The accomplished saxophonist secured a spot among the elite winners of this year's ...
25/04/2024
Stations everywhere take pride in having a main anchor who comes from the market they represent. That applies in St. Louis, too, but it also pertains to general...
25/04/2024
Edward Moody is joining the WBTW Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, anchor crew, and will anchor the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts alongside Trish Williford. He comes f...
25/04/2024
MTV said the 2024 Video Music Awards will return to New York and take place at the new UBS Arena....
25/04/2024
Season three of comedy The Outlaws premieres on Prime Video May 31. Stephen Merchant co-created the show, and stars. There are five episodes....
25/04/2024
The E.W. Scripps Co. is evaluating offers for Bounce, its multicast channel for African-American viewers, according to a report from CNBC....
25/04/2024
Paramount Plus has ordered a second season for Dora, the animated preschool show based on Dora the Explorer. The show, featuring Dora on a rainforest adventure ...
25/04/2024
April 25th, 2024 Press Materials Available Here
TRIBECA FESTIVAL 2024 ANNOUNCES AUDIO STORYTELLING AND GAMES LINEUP
Audio Storytelling Program Features 10th ...
25/04/2024
NFL Draft 2024: Verizon Expands Broadband Capacity To Handle the Spike in Demand Mobile cells will help accommodate first responders, social media, sports betti...
25/04/2024
NFL Draft 2024: NFL Media Teams With The Fantasy Footballers on Hybrid, REMI Pro...
25/04/2024
NFL Draft 2024: ESPN Motors Into Detroit With Trio of Simultaneous Live Presenta...
25/04/2024
Back to All News
Let the Pleasure Begin: Doctor Climax' and Its Steamy Q&A...
25/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Joins The Thursday Murder Club
Entertainment
25 April 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Writer, Director: Chris Columbus
Prod...
25/04/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
25/04/2024
Support for Battle.net on GeForce NOW expands this GFN Thursday, as titles from the iconic StarCraft and Diablo series come to the cloud.
StarCraft Remastered,...
24/04/2024
ATLANTA Mundo Hispano Digital has launched a new advertising product, MundoNow Connect, that is designed to help advertisers reach Hispanic audiences on connect...
24/04/2024
Epic Games has released a major new version of Unreal Engine, which has become a mainstay in virtual production, that includes new features and improvements to ...
24/04/2024
The National Association of Broadcasters welcomed the industry to its annual extravaganza last month in Las Vegas. The sights and sounds were similar to previou...
24/04/2024
NEW YORK Chptr and Gray Television have announced that they are introducing a new video solution for funeral homes and communities that will allow funeral direc...
Russell Wise is Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Digital Nirvana. 
