Project description
Putting smart software and robots behind the camera
Video production is complex and expensive. Currently, it is estimated that half of the production requests are not economically feasible. Video productions often lose all profits as soon as overtime and overhead costs are considered. As in other industries, automation can reduce overall costs. The EU-funded Multi RoboDOP project will revolutionise the industry by developing a multi-camera coordination software platform to enable future automation features involving multiple coordinated robots. The platform will expand add-on workflow services, such as audio localization, automated switching and a wide variety of integrations with video production services
Objective
Inconsistent quality, high personnel costs and personnel administration are the main bottlenecks faced by video production/technology companies. As a result, they experience very tight budgets (production requests to do “more with less” - nothing creative is left to do) and margin squeeze in case of production overruns (video productions often risk zero profit once overtime and overhead for human operators is factored in). Based on that, several industry players argue that 50% of the production requests are economically infeasible. To that direction, automation (applying artificial intelligence and robotics to replace repetitive and routine tasks) has emerged as a solution towards tackling the aforementioned challenges. That way, tasks are executed more efficiently and companies can remove economic bottlenecks, decrease mistakes, speed up output and devote more time to creative activities. However state-of-the-art automation technologies are limited to assistive systems or partial automation.
Multi RoboDOP revolutionizes the video production industry, offering full automation. By extending the offerings of our patented single camera solution (RoboDOP), multi-camera robot setups (hardware) collaborate with our proprietary automation control software handling all operational tasks of traditional production crews autonomously. Not only do we make autonomous video production possible, but disrupt the cost structure of today’s video productions by reducing production costs by 40%. Thus we unlock 50% of the market that cannot afford professional video productions while offering reduced costs and increased ROIs for the remaining applications/use cases. Multi RoboDOP will need an additional investment for developing the multi-camera coordination software platform to enable future automation features involving multiple coordinated robots and expand our add-on workflow services such as post-production, cloud back-up/distribution and automated editing.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligence
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- social sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomation
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware development
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robots
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
8092 ZURICH ETH-ZENTRUM
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.