APRIL 2023Media & Entertainment8IN MY OPINIONMichael Davies, Sr. Vice President, Field Operations, FOX SportsByHOW AI CAN HELP IMPROVE LIVE BROADCASTSPart of the issue with venturing onto a project that utilizes AI in the sports media industry is where to start. We need to ascertain that AI is a part of the process-- or a time saver-- to create a product that already exists as a goal, not simply using AI to do so organically. The tool cannot dictate the solution. Instead, production creatives often find themselves looking for an answer, or a product, versus seeking to ask a question as to how it should come about. Some brief examples of how Fox Sports is using AI in live broadcasts - and the simple questions we asked to produce them - are instructional in what the technology is presently doing and what it may be capable of in the future.We Need Clearer ReplaysEVS, a Belgian company, and Fox Sports have been working on and improving a technology called Xtramotion. For background, an increasing number of cameras in sports broadcasts are Super Slow Motion (SSMO) cameras - those that shoot over 60 frames per second for smooth, definitive replays without motion blur. For instance, many of the cameras in this year's Daytona 500 were SSMOs. However, many essential angles were not-- mainly for size reasons (predominantly, the in-car cameras). To help with this, Xrtramotion uses AI to interpolate existing frames to create new ones between them in producing the Super Motion effect without the need for higher frame rate capture. The novel thing about sports production technologies is that they must be quick. Previous iterations of this product relied on cloud processes that would churn out the new clips. However, the time it took to upload and download slowed the process significantly, devaluing ports Media has always been a ripe playing field for new technologies, perceived and otherwise. As someone who is constantly pitched new technologies, from the nascent to the preposterous, I was always quick to accuse those who peppered their sales pitches imbuing Artificial Intelligence of exaggeration at best and overt expropriation at worst. Frankly, the fact that AI is mentioned anywhere in a sales pitch could not have been more annoying!Recently, many technologies I have been a part of have had me walk some of that back and insofar as a utility, it makes an excellent case for AI's contribution to the production world as we continue to learn how to use it. One of the most visible ways that AI can help Sports Media is simply by improving and creating new video frames out of existing images and doing it rapidly. SMichael Davies
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