Sports Loft

Not to be outdone by OpenAI’s Sora announcement, Meta unveiled Movie Gen last week – its own #AI text-to-video creator. While Meta clearly states that it's merely “sharing research” (with an accompanying paper that's over 90 pages long!), the demo examples are worth checking out. The resolution of the clips is impressive and Meta claims that being able to create high-quality, 1080p HD videos of up to 16 seconds in different aspect ratios is an industry first. However, three other things really caught our attention: 🎶 The ability to generate synchronised audio, such as music and sound effects, which is something OpenAI hasn’t yet showcased with #Sora. For example, one of the examples showed a skateboarder with the sound of the wheels and trucks on concrete synced to the video. 🤠 Being able to edit existing videos with text inputs. For instance, very easily changing the background of a video or what someone is wearing. This could be a huge timesaver for CGI editors. 👨🚒 Creating personalised videos by using a person’s image and a text prompt to generate a video. While there are numerous use cases (such as using a fan's likeness and depicting them in the dugout of the team they support), there are also significant ethical issues to navigate, including copyright infringement and misinformation. It’s important to stress that much like Meta’s #Orion glasses, which have impressed people who have tried them, Movie Gen is far from being a finished product that’s available for widespread use. As of now, Meta is only sharing the model with a few chosen developers to begin refining the technology. It'll be interesting to see if Meta intends to make it a standalone generative model that anyone can use, or whether it’ll seek to leverage its huge user base and bake Movie Gen into its existing suite of products. If it’s the latter, think incorporating GenAI video into Instagram Reels or sharing customised videos with friends over WhatsApp. ----- Sports Loft is at the forefront of what’s new and possible in sports, media and entertainment. Our newsletter is a bi-weekly dispatch featuring the technology and trends that you need to know about. Not a subscriber? https://lnkd.in/gy6ruFe

Last week on the Sports Loft Podcast, hosts Yanni Andreopoulos and Andy Selby are joined by Samuel Schmelzer, Partner and COO of ADvantage VC – a sports tech focused venture fund that tends to lead Series A and B investment rounds. The portfolio includes the likes of Greenfly, TAPPP, Infinite Athlete and Playermaker. With cheque sizes ranging from $2-5 million and $4-8 million, ADvantage concentrates on three areas of the sports tech ecosystem: 🙌 Fan engagement ⌚ The connected athlete 🎮 Derivative sports: fantasy, gaming and e-sport We asked, where does Sam see the big opportunities when it comes to AI? Listen now: https://pod.fo/e/26de7a

YouTube has unveiled a new feature that could enable creators to build highly focused communities as an extension of their YouTube channels. Whilst the #Community tab has been around for what feels like ages, it’s really only facilitated one-way interaction, with creator’s posting content and their subscribers commenting in one long thread. The new format, which will roll out in 2025, will enable channel subscribers to start and share discussions. So, we could see a football club’s fans starting conversations about their favourite goals, the team selection for the upcoming game or posting user generated content from the ground – all under a team’s own YouTube channel. #Moderation immediately feels key to the success of this – ensuring that these are spaces that are authentic and enable honest discussion, whilst posts from community members aren't detrimental to the channel owner’s brand. Read more about the new feature in the latest edition of the Sports Loft newsletter. Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/gy6ruFe Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eXwzaZc5 Also in this edition: 💸  Talking early-stage investment with ADvantage VC 🏈   Electronic Arts (EA) goes beyond games ⚽ Liverpool Football Club's feel-good branded content 🤓  Our recommended reads from the week

Investors. Sports rightsholders. Technology innovators. This year on the podcast we've had some brilliant guests join us to discuss the technologies and trends that are shaping the future of sports, media and entertainment. Our host, the indefatigable Yanni Andreopoulos, has dug into some fascinating topics. Here are a few you've got to check out if you missed them. 🚀 Monarch Collective: going all in on women's sports, with Jasmine Robinson https://pod.fo/e/214fdd 🏊♂️ Professional Triathletes Organisation: Using tech to take triathlon mainstream, with Sam Renouf https://pod.fo/e/22f25b 📀 AudioShake : using
AI to take control
of audio content, with Suzanne Kirkland https://pod.fo/e/2680e5 📈 Scrum Ventures: Innovate, collaborate, accelerate, with Michael Proman https://pod.fo/e/243e52 ⚽ MLS Innovation Lab: Nurturing tech to grow the league, with Christopher Schlosser https://pod.fo/e/22ad71 🤖 Twelve Labs: Bringing human-like understanding to video, with Maninder Saini https://pod.fo/e/2498e3 Thanks to all our guests and Yanni's co-hosts Charlie Greenwood and Andy Selby.

"If you go to a team's lawyer and say, 'Do you have issues with music licensing fees?' they immediately say, 'Yes, we do.'" On our latest podcast Suzanne Kirkland of AudioShake discusses AI-driven audio separation with Yanni Andreopoulos and Andy Selby. The company enables users to isolate specific components (or "stems") of audio and video, so the audio can be more easily edited. In sports, the tech can be used to remove unlicensed music from clips shared on social, isolate audio in behind-the-scenes content to make speakers clearer, and reduce the background noise from pitch-side interviews, so that players and pundits can actually be heard. Listen now: https://pod.fo/e/2680e5

💰 14 NBA teams are facing fines for copyright infringement after posting content with unlicensed music on their social media channels. 🎙 In our latest pod, Yanni Andreopoulos and Andy Selby chat with Suzanne Kirkland about how AudioShake uses #AI to separate audio into its “stems” or component parts, giving organisations more control over the audio in their content assets. ⚽ In sports, match and game footage often contains music that’s not licensed for social, YouTube or owned digital channels. 🤖 AudioShake ’s AI enables unlicensed music to be stripped out, so that these clips can be legally used. It can also separate voices in behind-the-scenes video to make them more audible. 💃 But the tech, which was born out of a love for homemade karaoke, also has powerful applications across TV, film and the music industry. 🎧 Listen now: https://pod.fo/e/2680e5

Hot on the heels of an excellent Product Byte event in London yesterday, hosted by our good friends at Monterosa, the team is busy packing for IBC - International Broadcasting Convention later this week. If you're heading over to Amsterdam as well, get in touch if you'd like to discuss what's new and possible in sports, media and entertainment.

More than 250 million people worldwide live with blindness or a visual impairment – including ~7 million in the US alone. But despite around 30% of this community being avid sports fans, few tools exist to help them engage with their favourite sports. That’s where OneCourt comes in. The innovative haptic device allows fans to follow sporting action by feel, converting live game data into a series of moving vibrations. In this week’s Sports Loft Podcast, Yanni Andreopoulos and Charlie Greenwood chat with Antyush Bollini, co-founder and COO of OneCourt. Spun out of the University of Washington, OneCourt recently worked with T-Mobile at the MLB All-Star Game and is now finalising its latest investment round, with backers like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on board. 🎧 Listen here: https://pod.fo/e/25dc3d

How do you ensure that content created with AI is accurate? Generative AI often struggles with making images that match company logos or specific products. That's a problem if you want to use gen AI in advertising or marketing. One approach that could address these issues is ‘retrieval augmentation generation’ (RAG) – and it's gaining an increasing amount of attention. We dug into #RAG in the latest edition of the Sports Loft Newsletter. Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/gy6ruFe Read it here: https://lnkd.in/e-jMh4yK? In this edition: 🎙️ OneCourt – helping visually impaired fans experience sports 🚀 Our takeaways from Google's latest event 👋 Events we're heading to in September 🤓 Our recommended reads

The popularity of TikTok, Instagram and Snap Inc. has normalised vertical video as a format, with the average TikTok user spending two and a half hours per day* watching videos on the app. In a recent Sports Loft Podcast, Yanni Andreopoulos and Charlie Greenwood were joined by Bob Thomson, founder of Storyteller, to delve into why vertical video has become so popular and the opportunities for sports teams to use it on their own apps and websites. Storyteller clients, such as the LA Rams and FC Barcelona, have seen positive results in terms of increased engagement and video views after implementing Storyteller. And the platform offers opportunities for commercialisation, including sponsored content and full-screen ads. Listen now: https://pod.fo/e/258b0a