June 29, 2009
Digitalsmiths, the innovative multi-screen media analysis, operations and publishing technology provider, today unveiled VideoSense® 2.0, a new product that applies the company’s proprietary media analysis and operations capabilities to premium video content libraries. The new solution unites enhanced company technology alongside new functionality unmatched within the industry – such as a free-form single box video search capable of identifying videos by dialogue, objects within a scene, locations and other complex criteria.
Digitalsmiths’ suite of visual interpretation tools processes each frame of video using proprietary algorithms such as facial recognition, scene classification and object identification to build a unique time-based, metadata framework – or “MetaFrame” – of informed video tags. Specific metatags assign a rich set of variables that go beyond common descriptors like name, title and date to include criteria related to each frame (people, places, objects, dialogue, subject matter) or larger business concerns such as rights management (geography, music issues, licensing concerns). This deep and intelligent approach to metadata management enables powerful analytics, reporting and search capabilities and unlocks advanced capabilities such as customized playlist construction, content recommendations, clip creation and ad targeting.
“This is an exciting time for premium content holders as they place more and more assets into digital distribution channels,” says Ben Weinberger, chief executive officer for Digitalsmiths. “An advanced metadata management framework, like MetaFrame, can bolster their digital media strategy, give them a distinct competitive advantage and enable them to deliver content on-demand, anytime, anywhere on any device.
“To capitalize on this tremendous opportunity, content holders should be building the infrastructure now that will ease their behind-the-scenes workflow while providing a superior consumer-facing experience. VideoSense® empowers studios, networks and other providers of premium video content with the tools they need to increase usage and build audience by making their videos easier to use, easier to view, easier to share, and easier to monetize.”
As part of the new product roll-out, Digitalsmiths revealed for the first time a new video search capability packaging the company’s unmatched proprietary technology into a single search box that is easily embedded in a player. The new free-form search technology combs a video library for matches across a complex set of criteria going far beyond the traditional show title and subject matter to include actor names, characters, locations, objects within a scene and specific dialogue.
Resulting clips display in an intuitive time-based thumbnail, making it easy for consumers to precisely pinpoint and play back the exact frame of video where their search criteria appears. Unlike filtering technologies, Digitalsmiths’ free-form search prioritizes search criteria and includes a predictive “Did You Mean?” feature that provides smarter results. This powerful, breakthrough technology makes video search faster, easier and more accurate to drive increased viewing times and build new audiences for premium content.
“With VideoSense and the free-form search capability, Digitalsmiths has solved a problem that no one is addressing today,” said Colin Dixon, practice manager, broadband media for The Diffusion Group. “The ability to dynamically search within video, have the system not only return results based on what the user wants, but also account for rights and clearance issues and deliver this in a time-based format across multiple screens is truly revolutionary. This is video nirvana.”
Under the new VideoSense brand, the company’s technology is organized across four integrated, modular products that leverage the creation, analysis and application of metadata to build audiences for premium video content holders:
About Digitalsmiths
Digitalsmiths provides the industry’s only studio-grade video monetization solution with an advanced metadata framework that empowers digital media companies to distribute and publish premium video content across multiple screens, open up new revenue streams for film and TV assets, build audience, increase viewer consumption and boost audience engagement. The company’s flagship product, VideoSense®, powers the digital media operations, publishing and analytics for today’s leading Hollywood studios, broadcasters, distributors and publishers including Warner Bros., Telepictures and TMZ.com. Digitalsmiths was named one of the “Top 45 Companies to Watch” by Dow Jones, one of the “OnHollywood Top 100” by AlwaysOn, “Technology of the Year” by North Carolina’s Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), and winner of the “Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards.”