MediaKind, the spin-off from Ericsson that has moved rapidly into the immersive production arena, announced a partnership for live immersive 360 production with Tiledmedia and Focal Point VR on June 17, 2020. Chris Pfaff moderated two live webinar sessions, entitled ‘Accelerating Immersive 360 Live Video in ‘The New Normal’ to announce the partnership (slightly different shows each time). The heavyweight line-up included MediaKind’s own Chris Wilson, director of market development, sports, from London; Rob Koenen, founder/chief business officer of Tiledmedia, from Rotterdam; Jonathan Newth, CEO of Focal Point VR, from Guildford, England, and Chris Pfaff joined from New York.

The sessions included detailed discussion and demos of 360-degree technology and how it enables:

* new interactive consumer experiences through simple, cost-effective and scalable 360-degree-as-a-service deployments

* service providers to connect with audiences and enable impactful, immersive experiences that cut close to ‘being there’

The sessions engaged in deep-dive discussion around live 360-degree content, exploring how it can transform the way in which viewers experience live events in ‘The New Normal.’ Discussion centered around how 360-degree video can be captured, produced, streamed and delivered to enable best-in-market quality for live VR streaming to existing headsets and mobile devices, at the lowest possible bitrates. Various real-life applications of the technology across live sports, theater productions, music events, and concerts were also discussed.

View Session 1 – ‘Accelerating Immersive 360 Live Video in ‘The New Normal’ – June 17th – Session 1 at 10:30 am EST

View Session 2 – ‘Accelerating Immersive 360 Live Video in ‘The New Normal’ – June 17th at 2:30 pm EST

Intro screen (left) and promo post (right) for the ‘Accelerating Immersive 360 Live Video in ‘The New Normal’ webinar

Chris Wilson (second from left), MediaKind, discusses the MediaKind partnership with Tiledmedia and Focal Point VR

Jonathan Newth (upper row, center), shows off a camera rig that Focal Point VR uses for 360 capture

Rob Koenen (lower left) discusses Tiledmedia’s approach to immersive production, while holding up an Oculus Go headset

MediaKind’s VP marketing and communications, Lisa Aussieker (lower right) wraps Session 2

envision.ai, the Montreal-based firm that has been a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for video insights, launched its VideoViews product, a cloud-based tool which enables video professionals to conduct automatic discovery of topics and information in video content. VideoViews uses patented technologies in areas such as speech detection, facial tracking and video scene understanding to explore topics within video and enables automatic curation and editing of video.

On May 27, 2020, envision.ai conducted a live webinar, ‘AI for Video: Scaling Deep Learning for the Multichannel Universe,’ that demonstrated and discussed the use of AI for video and visual imaging in the in the broader media and entertainment industries. The webinar featured conversation with some of the leading figures in the science of visual information, and will discuss considerations for AI in video as they relate to mobile networks, broadcast production, and computer vision.

In addition to Thomas Jelonek, founder and CEO of envision.ai, the panel included:

•    Dr. Eric Petajan, principal systems engineer, Video, CV, AI, AT&T Mobility
•   Bryce Hunter, senior vice president, digital, Boat Rocker Media
•   Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media LLC (moderator)

You can watch the entire webinar below:

Thomas Jelonek, from envision.ai, introduces VideoViews

Eric Petajan, from AT&T, discusses the role of AI in 5G networks

Bryce Hunter, from Boat Rocker Media, discusses the use of AI in production workflow

As co-chair of the VR AR Association (http://www.thevrara.com), or VRARA Storytelling Committee, I had the opportunity to moderate a well-attended webinar on ‘VR & AR in Storytelling’ on Thursday, July 18, 2019, from 2:00-3:00 pm EST.

The session featured the following presenters:

Maarten van der Lee, Tiledmedia

Jeff Olm, Perfect Pictures

Tim Martin, FS Studio

Cortney Harding, Friends with Holograms

David Rodriguez, Zanni

Srinivas Krishna, Geogram

Michael Owen, MediaCombo

The webinar, part of the VRARA industry education series, was sponsored by the sponsored by the Storytelling Committee of VRARA.

You can access the full event recording at: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/14711/362982?