ABSTRACT
Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents almost limitless possibilities for the future and is already having a transformational impact in many areas. Live football production is one where there is a real need to drive operational efficiencies as rights holders are pushed to deliver more and better live content to an increasingly diverse and connected audience.
With the right machine learning agents in place, AI is able to mimic creative human behaviour, overcoming the limitations of automation and performing high-level, complex tasks with the speed and reliability that is required in live environments.
In this paper, we will present our vision of AI as a built-in production assistant, through some potential future applications as well as current use cases in the context of live football storytelling. We will showcase applications such as assisted framing, camera selection, camera calibration and automatic robotic camera steering that all contribute to delivering better storytelling in live sport productions.
INTRODUCTION
Viewers’ expectations are on the rise. Modern technologies are changing the way football fans are watching their favourite sport, increasing the need for more immersive experiences that make them feel closer than ever to the game and the players.
Already, leagues, teams and individual sporting events are capitalising on this new reality, exploring the latest technologies that help them to produce compelling content that suits the desires of today’s digital-savvy fans.
However, there is one major catch – this needs to happen with increasingly tight budgets. Broadcasters are expected to bring more efficiencies to their productions, while ensuring they are offering a superior viewing experience for their audiences.
In this context, AI-based technologies are progressively finding their way into the broadcast industry for live productions. Based on various machine learning components, AI’s ability to mimic the behaviour of human operators and their creativity, is opening the doors to a whole new world of opportunities.
Johan Vounckx, SVP Technology & Innovation from EVS, and Nicolas Déal, TV Transmission Manager at UEFA, explore different use cases of AI in football storytelling, that may drive the development of live production technology in the years ahead.
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