IBC2023: How the Microsoft Cloud is accelerating AI transformation in media

New technologies disrupted the traditional pathways of media and entertainment success—changing how content was created, delivered, enjoyed, and paid for. Today’s audiences have more options, convenience, and control over their consumption; and today’s media companies must adapt to the constant changes or risk obsolescence. As the lines between media segments blur, there remains a common goal to create captivating content in an engaging audience experience that generates profit. AI technology is helping media companies deliver more personalized, more engaging, and more profitable experiences. AI is now providing a means to unlock enterprise efficiency, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Microsoft is enabling media companies to leverage this era of AI to transform the future of creativity, content, and experiences.

• Reimagine content creation and redefine content distribution: With Microsoft, your production teams will embrace the power of AI-driven tools and platforms to empower artists, filmmakers, and creators to push the boundaries of their imagination. From automated content generation and intelligent editing to immersive storytelling, Microsoft AI technologies amplify your creative vision—streamlining workflows and bringing ideas to life with unparalleled efficiency. Harness the power of AI-driven content management, automated workflows, and intelligent communication tools to streamline production processes, accelerate informed decision-making, and bring the right projects to fruition faster than ever before.
• Elevate audience experiences: No more one-size-fits-all entertainment. Microsoft AI technology will enable you to understand audience preferences, interests, and behaviors, curating personalized experiences. Whether it’s recommending the perfect show or dynamically adapting content to match a person’s mood, AI-powered solutions put the audience at the center of the entertainment universe.
• Enable media asset monetization: Gain invaluable insights into audience preferences, trends, and engagement patterns. Microsoft advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms provide media and entertainment companies with a data-driven edge—enabling targeted content creation, optimized distribution strategies, and an unparalleled understanding of audience sentiment.

I am excited to attend IBC2023: The Worlds Leading Content and Technology Event, in Amsterdam from September 15 to 18, 2023. Microsoft empowers media and entertainment organizations to achieve more through a trusted and secure platform for content production, content delivery, audience engagement, and media asset monetization.

Generative AI in media

Media companies are looking for solutions to stay competitive as technology evolves at an unprecedented pace. This is especially true in the field of generative AI. From generating realistic images and videos to enhancing customer experiences, generative AI has proven to be a versatile tool across the industry. Businesses are applying generative AI algorithms to design logos and product visuals, as well as to produce captivating social media content—automating the creative process and saving time and resources. It also assists in automating IT tasks, enhancing employee experiences, improving customer interactions, and boosting efficiency within a company’s developer community.

Generative AI enables media companies to reach larger audiences and overcome language barriers by enhancing language translation and natural language processing capabilities. Reliable automated support for employees results in improved efficiency, better work life, and lower operational costs.

Nota has used Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to build two AI-assisted tools—SUM and VID. These tools do a lot of the heavy lifting needed to optimize stories for distribution and turn written pieces into engaging videos that can produce up to 10 times as much revenue as written pieces.

AI in action

Come and see Microsoft and our partners showcasing the power of AI in our booth (#7.A43, in Hall 7).

• Creative Intelligence: Azure AI Video Indexer enables content to leverage at the edge when video is not in the cloud. 
• Production Automation: Evertz will showcase their AI-assisted co-pilots for live production. DreamCatcher™ BRAVO Studio is a virtual live production studio that includes all the tools needed to create broadcast-quality productions. ​One copilot called Highlight Factory allows the producer to leverage all available data feeds (operator logging, stats feeds, and field sensors) to build rolling or on-demand highlight packages. The Highlight Factory has been enhanced with voice capabilities that allow producers to use natural language to build highlight packages.
• Intelligent Distribution: Harmonic’s demo will automatically extract relevant events and highlights from a video source. Those events and highlights will be displayed in a timeline as soon as they are detected, which allows any viewer to engage with a conversational AI experience that will interact with all of the video content. To make sure you do not miss out on the action, those highlight clips are shown in a picture-in-picture experience.
• Productivity and Insights: Avid will highlight existing and tech preview AI innovations. Avid’s MediaCentral l Cloud UX will demonstrate how leveraging Azure AI Video Indexer, automating metadata enrichment through scene and facial recognition and speech-to-text, broadcast, and post organizations can enable more powerful search, turning all assets regardless of their location into liquid assets they can monetize quickly. Avid will also showcase tech previews AI assists creators with more powerful asset search, sequence creation, and rapid social channel publishing including AI-assisted instructions on how to perform those functions. You can also experience an AI assistant while using Avid Pro Tools.

  Avid will demonstrate the newly launched Avid Huddle, an interactive over-the-shoulder review and approval app for Microsoft Teams, where users can enable a distributed production staff to collaborate from any device anywhere at any time. Editors can now initiate a Teams session from within Media Composer, invite others on the production team to securely join the session, and start collaborating with time-stamped comments and drawings that, once the session is finished, can be imported into Media Composer where the editor can quickly make the appropriate adjustments. Production is accelerated through virtualized interactive reviews that can be scheduled at any time or frequency, all while the production team stays in the creative process, enabling faster time to market finished content.

• ​Customer experience and monetization: MediaKind will showcase how to land targeted ads based on in-video branding—creating more relevance to inserted ads with greater impact and increasing CPM value. Using Microsoft Azure Computer Vision services for brand recognition, the system is trained in advance for the chosen brands learning the various logos. Video feeds are then analyzed and the logo will trigger an ad for that brand to be inserted at the next ad break.

Microsoft and industry experience in the sessions

• Navigating the Balance: Technical innovation and profitability in today’s media landscape—Friday, September 15, 2023, from 4:00 to 4:20 PM CEST at the Innovation Stage.
  • Featuring Simon Crownshaw, Director, WW Media and Entertainment, Microsoft, and Andy Beach, Chief Technology Officer, WW Media and Entertainment, Microsoft.
• Powering Media Innovation: Microsoft and its partner landscape—Saturday, September 16, 2023, from 3:30 to 3:50 PM CEST at the Innovation Stage.
  • Panel featuring Mandy Rutledge, Director, WW Media Partnerships, Microsoft, and partners Avid, Evertz, Harmonic, and MediaKind.
• Navigating Media’s Next Era of Change: Sunday, September 17, 2023, from 11:45 AM to 12:30 PM CEST at the Showcase Theatre.
  • Featuring Francesco Venturini, Corporate Vice President, WW Media and Communications, Microsoft, and Allan Broome, Chief Executive Officer, MediaKind.
• SMPTE: Architecting multi-cloud and on-prem workflows’ solutions for global production needs—Sunday, September 17, 2023, from 10:00 to 10:45 AM CEST.
  • Panel featuring Andy Beach, Chief Technology Officer, WW Media and Entertainment, Microsoft.

Industry innovation at the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme

Microsoft is one of eight finalists in the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme. The project “Connect & Produce Anywhere” intends to build a distributed edge and cloud computing system to remotely produce a live sports event. By deploying 5G for connectivity and utilizing software, the project aims to make the most efficient use of resources in bandwidth-constrained locations. The aim is to detach software from hardware and deploy a distributed computing architecture between ground and cloud—exploring the benefits, challenges, and sustainable potential of such an approach.

Our commitment to the industry

As media organizations pursue the transition to a cloud-first future, Microsoft will continue to help our customers navigate the blurring lines between broadcasting, commerce, engagement, and gaming.

Our commitment to innovation in media extends beyond IBC2023 and around the world. Get the latest updates and thought leadership on our dedicated media Twitter channel. Learn about Azure OpenAI Service and the latest enhancements. 

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Source: Microsoft Industry Blog