Here’s what some of EIDR’s members had to share at the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Spherex
The explosion of content streaming also means a catering to global audiences, and what’s acceptable in the U.S. may be completely unacceptable elsewhere. Davinder Luthra, global digital leader for Spherex, has just the solution to address that.
“We’re focused on culture and culturalization, and you should know as soon as possible that what’s on your platform adheres to all the rules in the country you’re distributing to,” he said. Enter SpherexGreenlight. which combines machine learning and human curation to capture societal and cultural cues from more than 120 countries worldwide, which are applied to movies and TV shows set for global distribution.
The offering helps producers, studios and networks quickly and easily adapt new release content to be fully compliant, most everywhere, and reach larger audiences in every possible market.
Luthra showed how the system works with the 2014 film Divergent, with the system pulling up which scenes would need editing to make the film compliant with the regulations of Brazil. “Essentially it takes the guesswork out of what can go wrong, and it avoids the massive messes you can get into,” he said. “Editing can be a labor-intensive process. With this you can do it all at once.”
Greenlight also predicts how a movie or TV show will be perceived by audiences worldwide, delivers data to make informed decisions about local marketing, and, above all, minimizes the risk of offense or censure in local markets.
Xperi
Xperi’s TiVo came into the show with a new partnership, announcing that TELEV8 will leverage TiVo’s Managed IPTV Service to deliver a new entertainment experience for hotels and other commercial venues.
Using TiVo’s technology platform, TELEV8 will offer a personalized content discovery experience to the hospitality industry with hotels and other venues able to offer premium video at lower cost.
“Evolving viewership habits and content decentralization are continuing to reshape the role of television,” said Charles Siemonsma, co-CEO of TELEV8, in a press release. “Commercial venues are increasingly pressured to deliver on the rapid consumer adoption of streaming video applications and the introduction of app-based TV in partnership with TiVo is the future of content delivery.”
At the show, Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told MESA that partnerships like that — and another new one for Xperi’s DTS — are what’s making the company enjoy one of its better years in recent memory.
“[We’re seeing] progress in the pay TV space, years of work on improving the entertainment experience in vehicles coming to fruition, more cost-efficient technology deployments, and reducing complexity for consumers, while ensuring quality and trust,” he said.
At NAB, Xperi announced a partnership between Quu, which delivers visual content for radio, and next-gen audio provider DTS, with the two making it easier for radio to display and monetize content in connected cars.
Quu and Xperi unveied an integrated solution to sync programming and sales messages on vehicle dashboards. In the past, stations would go to Xperi to deploy its RAPID technology and then Quu for content management, monetization and reporting. Now, Quu is a one-stop shop for both.
“Enabling stations to deliver uniform content to connected cars via DTS AutoStage is an important step in future-proofing radio,” said Joe D’Angelo, SVP of broadcast at Xperi. “The industry needs a standard approach and Quu provides one for the 300 million cars with RDS and 85 million HD-Radio equipped vehicles on the road today and sets radio up for the dashboard of tomorrow.”
BeBanjo
If his company learned anything during the pandemic, and since the last in-person NAB, Dan Meyer, sales manager, for BeBanjo, said it’s that there’s always been a need for Movida, the company’s core product for managing — and maximizing the value of — content.
“We’re proud of how we grew during the pandemic, with new customer relationships, and new partner integrations, five new total,” said Dan Meyer, sales manager for BeBanjo. “We’ve made more than 600 enhancements to Movida, and we’re looking for more, starting with new modules we can build.”
The current version of Movida represents a decade-plus of experience in the industry, and out of the box, it’s helping everyone from WarnerMedia to BBC transform how they manage their assets across multiple platforms, territories, and business models, alleviating the struggles associated with scheduling, planning, rights, and metadata.
“The demand for content is only going to grow, and we need to stay modern to keep pace,” Meyer added. “Every few years we do a market analysis to see what opportunities exist and what the gaps are. That helps us respond to growing market competition, and if we see a way to improve to help our customers, we adopt it.”