NAB Reflections: Adobe's Steve Forde on How Sensei AI Fuels the Latest Creative Cloud Features

NAB Reflections: Adobe's Steve Forde on How Sensei AI Fuels the Latest Creative Cloud Features In the sports environment, particularly, AI enhances collaboration By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Wednesday, April 25, 2018 - 11:08 am

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Adobe unveiled a major update to its Adobe Creative Cloud platform at NAB 2018, highlighted by several new automation features powered by its Adobe Sensei AI platform. The new Color Match for Premier Pro CC matches two shots at one click, applying editable Lumetri adjustments from one clip to another to achieve visual consistency across the whole project. On the audio side, the new Sensei-enabled Autoducking feature automatically adjusts soundtrack audio around dialog, whether for a single clip or an entire Premier Pro project. In addition to the new AI functionality, the Adobe Immersive Environment VR/360 editing environment is now available in After Effects CC.

During the show, SVG sat down with Steve Forde, GM, emerging products, digital video and audio, to discuss the new Color Match and Autoducking features, how Adobe is leveraging Sensei to create the latest AI-fueled workflows, the latest VR/360-video features, and much more.

What are the big updates being announced for Premier Pro here at the show?

The two big [new features] are color matching and auto ducking. Both leverage Adobe Sensei, which is our platform for AI and machine learning.

Adobe's booth was packed as usual, with live demos throughout the show.

For shot matching, [a user] can now apply a high-grade color across the entire timeline based on a core element within the scene. Our machine-learning AI algorithm had to watch a lot of video and can now make that happen. I think that's one of the most powerful [abilities] of Creative Cloud.

A lot of our customers share information with us as the input content and collaborate. We don't understand the nature of that content, nor do we associate that with anything the user is doing. But what we can do is algorithmically understand the content and use it to [enhance] the algorithm to better understand things like skin tone. So the algorithm becomes smarter. Then we brought in professional color-grade artists to say, Okay, this is what the algorithm thinks it can do; let's critique that and teach it a little bit more. And we [baked] that algorithm into the product.

That's the exact same thing we did with auto ducking. We basically had Audition listen to a lot of audio and learn in order to make the algorithm better.

How do you see AI and machine learning impacting the broadcast market in the coming years?

I know some people worry that AI and machine learning are going to replace them one day. Actually, these [programs] are not that smart, but, when you teach them to do one thing really well, they can excel. Computers are very good at repetitive tasks, so we are focusing on getting rid of the tedious tasks that consume a lot time. That way, we can let the user be more creative.

I think that's the core message for what we believe artificial intelligence and machine learning bring to the table. You're seeing these two [features] as big investments we made in our video and audio products, and I think you'll continue to see a lot more.

Are you seeing much interest in AI-fueled features by clients in the sports-production space specifically?

We have relationships with many of the major sports brands, and one of the major machine-learning requests we've heard is [the ability to] create highlight reels very fast. How can you teach it to understand a goal in soccer or other common core components in each sport and then cognitively understand that? I think that's an area that's of interest for us. Does that replace anyone? Absolutely not. That just makes what they're doing better. That is where we want to go with AI.

Adobe Team Projects has proved quite popular in the sports community. Why do you think that is, and how has use of that platform evolved since its debut?

I think the collaboration in a sports environment is huge. You've got a lot of different people in disparate locations working together on a similar task. So Team Projects has been very popular specifically in [that] part of the market, and it's something that we continue to see.

Adobe's Steve Forde: We work on something with our customer, and then that migrates into what the public sees in the final product.

But I think Team Projects is only the beginning. We've got some great interaction between After Effects and Premier Pro that allows an After Effects artist to work with a Premiere Pro editor more seamlessly. And they can collaborate just by logging in.

One of the biggest things with Team Projects is, it gets rid of one of the most difficult things that people have when they collaborate: passing files around. They get into scenarios of Untitled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Final-Good-1, Final-Good-2, that kind of stuff. And, in a sports environment, fast turnaround is everything. If you're trying to figure out which project file is the good one, that's where I think Team Projects really shines. You log in, you have context, you can go back to the conversions if you want, you can do that quick turnaround. That's really leveraging the power of the cloud.

Adobe has added several new VR and 360-video production capabilities to the Creative Cloud over the past year. Any new features being announced at the show on that front?

We have what we call the Adobe Immersive Environment. We have put a lot of effort into After Effects for this context. Premiere's had really good response, and people are creating 360 content. We wanted to bring that into the motion-graphics environment, especially as people are creating complicated titles and effects.

Once again, that shows t

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/04/25/nab-reflections-adobes-steve-fo...
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