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Sony Set to Acquire AI Innovator iSIZE
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PacketLight Unleashes Ultra-HD with Advanced 4K Support
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KWIKmotion’s AI Tool Revolutionizes Video Cropping
Hosts: Philip Grossman, host and co-producer at Visionaries, and Maria Kholodova.
The live broadcast took place on November 6, 2023. Production – TKT1957 LLC.
Sony Set to Acquire AI Innovator iSIZE
Maria: Sony Interactive Entertainment announces intent to acquire iSIZE, a UK innovator in deep learning for video delivery. The acquisition aims to integrate AI for optimized bitrate and improved media quality, propelling Sony’s R&D and streaming offerings. The London-based iSIZE team, established in 2016, will join Sony’s ranks, though deal specifics aren’t yet available.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Announces Intent to Acquire AI Video Tech Company iSIZE
So Philip, unpack this for me.
Philip: It’s interesting. The buzzword is AI. Everything’s AI, and the question is how it’s going to help us. I think a lot of it is sort of hype. This one, though, seems very interesting because it really is now taking that deep learning technology, that AI — and AI is nothing more than really just developed advanced algorithms that are able to do things faster and better — and they’ve focused on the compression world. “How do I take the amount of data, the images, the bits, and optimize that for broadcast?” As much as our broadcasts are now YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and sort of over-the-top, and then, of course, the cable companies are moving into doing IP-based delivery. This just adds another layer on top of it. It’ll be interesting to see if this will go across Sony’s delivery channels as opposed to becoming a much broader technology.
My supposition is that it will get across Sony’s channels, which is great, but it’s just that AI helps take us to that next level of, “Okay, we’re now going to be able to get 8K video in the same amount of bandwidth as, say, 4K video.” So, it’s exciting to see how they apply it and what that really means for the industry at this point. For them, it allows them to have higher quality, better delivery on smaller pipes, so it could be seen as a cost reduction on the Sony side. From an industry perspective, it’ll just be sort of who else comes into that field and can take this tech and apply it to a larger arena. So, I think that’s where we’ll see it, all right.
PacketLight Unleashes Ultra-HD with Advanced 4K Support
Maria: PacketLight Networks advances 4K video with 200G DWDM equipment, now supporting 12G-SDI. The PL-2000 series enables robust, cost-effective 4K video networking for media industries, ensuring full quality, low latency, and high security with AES-256 encryption, across metro to long-haul infrastructures.
Philip, tell me about this.
Philip: Yeah, so, you know, one of the things that had always held back, I think SMPTE had called it, dematerialized data centers was that I can’t run an SDI cable 100 miles, can’t even run 300 meters. But now that we’ve gone all fiber, and we’re [using] SMPTE 2110 and 2022-7, we’re now starting to see companies take advantage or build technologies to allow them to take advantage of distance-based production. So, your control room no longer has to be right next to the production facility. You don’t have to roll trucks out, so REMI, or remote production, is really becoming a bit more mainstream, and technologies like this make it easier for organizations. 200G is great; that’s about roughly 64 1080p signals bidirectional over 200 gig links, and we’re starting to see links into stadiums at that 100G, 200G. I know there’s 400G is out and about as well. So, it’s really enabling organizations to take advantage of the value of what uncompressed IP-based video is bringing to the table.
So, you mentioned stadiums; I’m assuming this can be used for sports. Is there any other area in which this could be used? Basically, any type of live production that’s arena-based, so concerts, speeches, and mixed martial arts — any of that kind of stuff where your venue… There’s a huge cost to drive the truck and all that infrastructure on trucks up to the venue. If I can replace that with a 200 gig cable that runs across the country back to my control center, I don’t have to take the entire crew. I don’t have to pay for hotels, so it just enables greater production, or greater capabilities in the production arena.
KWIKmotion’s AI Tool Revolutionizes Video Cropping
Maria: Moving on to our last item of the day. KWIKmotion, powered by White Peaks Solutions, launches a revolutionary AI video cropping tool, transforming content creation. Effortlessly adapting landscape videos to portrait while preserving key elements, this tool redefines editing precision. Ideal for diverse platforms, it highlights crucial audio-visual cues and accommodates multiple participants in a single frame.
So unpack this one a little bit for me.
Philip: Well, firstly, in all transparency, I hate this tech. I don’t like the 16:9 video aspect ratio being changed to 9:16 for the phone. I get that it’s what Twitter, TikTok, and all the others are doing, so from that perspective, okay, great. It does enable content creators to shoot in one way and repurpose the video for release in a more portrait-oriented environment, but I just don’t really want to see this tech take off. I don’t want to watch a movie or a video in that portrait environment. You know, our eyes are set apart; we have a wide field of view. Why are we squeezing it into this? But, it’s interesting to see that it’s taking that tech in which you could then utilize it for moving cameras around as well. So, it’s interesting in what it’s going to be providing from a capability perspective.
Maria: That’s all the time we have today. Many thanks to our experts – Philip. And don’t forget to comment on the news we’ve discussed. See you next Monday at the same time!
360 Seconds. Broadcast News & Commentary
The weekly show, focusing on the latest products and solutions in the global TV and film industry, features insights and analysis from top experts. Released every Monday within the TKT1957 network, the program can be found on the YouTube channel, social media groups, and the tkt1957.com website. Engage with the content, view the episodes, and participate in the conversation by leaving your questions in the comments section.
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