Company contribution
Company contribution
Leveraging the power of AI
Stephane Cloirec , vice president of video appliances and software product management at Harmonic , explains how the company leads innovation in AI-powered video streaming .
In the rapidly evolving video streaming landscape , Harmonic is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence ( AI ) to minimise video infrastructure costs , elevate streaming experiences and open up new monetisation opportunities for service providers and broadcasters .
Fuelling Immersive Video Streaming Experiences and Optimising Costs Historically , video workflows have relied on manual interventions for tasks such as closed captioning , translation , sports highlight creation , voice translation and metadata editing . These tasks , while crucial for driving viewer engagement and subscriber retention , can be prohibitively expensive when done manually , especially for large-scale live events or vast libraries of on-demand content .
Over the past 18 months , Harmonic has pioneered the use of AI to automate these tasks and has partnered with industry leaders , resulting in significantly reduced labour costs and enhanced operational efficiency . Harmonic ’ s AI-powered speech-to-text and voice cloning technologies are game-changers for the video industry . AI-enhanced speechto-text technology on our VOS360 Media SaaS automates the creation of closed captions , including translations , making it easier for service providers to cater to international audiences . On-the-fly voice cloning ensures that commentary , particularly for live sports events , is delivered in the viewer ’ s language with the right tone and speed , enabling more immersive viewing experiences .
Another significant advancement is
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the rapid creation of personalised sports highlights . Harmonic enables service providers to identify key moments in real time and automatically create pertinent highlights , fuelling fan engagement . Highlights are available on the fly and can be accessed immediately .
Increasing Monetisation With AI Technology AI is also opening up new monetisation opportunities for video service providers and broadcasters . One innovative application is dynamic virtual product placement . Traditionally , product placement is planned and executed during content production . However , AI now allows for dynamic insertion of ad-related material — such as products or signage — on video content that has already been produced . This allows for product placement well after production and for tons of archived assets to be monetised by content owners .
Another example of AI creating monetisation opportunities is triggering . Most of today ’ s targeted ( and non-targeted ) advertisements are implemented thanks to cue tones identifying ad placement points in the original content and enabling downstream ad insertion . However , the majority of archived content does not include these markers . This is where AI technology kicks in , allowing for automatic identification of ad placement in content , thus maximising the monetisation opportunities for these assets .
Enhancing Video Quality With AI- Driven Compression Harmonic ’ s commitment to AI innovation is further exemplified by the company ’ s Emmy Award-winning compression technology . Our EyeQ technology , a part of XOS Advanced Media Processor and VOS360 Media SaaS , empowers service providers to achieve up to a 50 % reduction in storage and CDN requirements , resulting in lower costs , reduced buffering times , and enhanced video quality — all driven by the power of AI .
EyeQ content-aware encoding dynamically adjusts the bit rate of live content without compromising video quality . EyeQ reduces the bandwidth needed for encoding , lowering operational costs and enhancing delivery efficiency for video streaming services . Unlike traditional compression methods that encode at a constant bitrate , EyeQ encodes at a constant quality by modelling the human eye ’ s perception of video quality using AI / ML technology . This unique approach significantly reduces bandwidth requirements and assures high video quality .
Conclusion Harmonic ’ s AI-driven innovations are reshaping the video streaming industry by enhancing viewer experiences , reducing infrastructure costs and unlocking new monetisation opportunities for service providers and broadcasters . Through AIpowered automation , advanced compression techniques and innovative monetisation solutions , Harmonic is driving down video streaming costs while maximising viewer engagement and revenue potential . As AI continues to evolve , Harmonic remains at the forefront , pioneering solutions that set new standards of excellence for the video streaming industry .