With artificial intelligence one of the hottest topics in the media and entertainment industries, Amazon Web Services is highlighting a host of new solutions and tech partnerships designed to show attendees how AI and cloud-based solutions can have an immediate impact on the media and entertainment industries, particularly in sports.
“We are very excited about the NAB Show this year,” said Tracy Geist, global head of media & entertainment, games and sports marketing at Amazon Web Services (AWS). “When we heard that the show was going to have a big sports focus, we really leaned into that, because it fits in so well with many exciting things we have going on,” related to streamlining production, finding new ways to engage audiences, media convergence, monetizing content, data analytics and other areas, she said.
A lot of the AI discussion has focused on its future impact, and M&E is admittedly in the early stages of adoption compared to sectors like finance or health care. But much of AWS’s presence at the show is designed to be practical, with real-world demonstrations of how the technology can immediately begin to transform operations.
“I think we have reached the point where the industry is having positive conversations around generative AI, as something that supports and advances the industry right now,” Geist said. This marks a notable change from two years ago, she added, when there were widespread fears that AI would reduce the demand for creators. “It is an enabler, not a replacement,” she said.
Some examples of how the industry is embracing AI for sports can be found in several panels and sessions involving AWS executives and clients. In a particularly noticeable example, Warner Bros. Discovery Europe worked with AWS to recently launch the Cycling Central Intelligence Platform, which uses generative AI and other AWS solutions to provide real-time data insights to cycling commentators that will allow them to provide much deeper insights into the races. That case study will be among the topics covered on Tuesday, April 8 (10:30 a.m. in W224-W225), during the panel “Beyond Broadcast: The Rule of AI, Data Analytics and Personalization.”
In another sports-themed panel on Tuesday, AWS and IMAX executives will be discussing “Closer to the Action: How IMAX and AWS Are Elevating Live Sports Streaming” (1:15 p.m., W224-W225).
During the show, Amazon also announced a major agreement with TwelveLabs that will make its multimodal foundation models, Marengo and Pegasus, available soon in Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that offers developers access to models from AI companies through a single API. The deal is notable because AWS is the first cloud provider to offer models from TwelveLabs and because TwelveLab’s models are designed to make video more searchable.
Other demos are spread out over the Convention Center at the AWS booth, the NAB Show AI Innovation Pavilion in the West Hall, the AWS Theater and other locations.
One of AWS’s biggest sports-themed demos is an Esports Challenge, where four professional racing simulators in the lobby of the West Hall will allow attendees to experience the iconic Las Vegas Street circuit. Content from those simulators will be fed to a fully equipped production control room in the AWS booth, then used for a variety of different workflows, including the live race feed, data and analytics from the races and post-race interviews conducted by Amazon Nova, an AI model. The demo is designed to show how AI and cloud-based technologies can both streamline workflows and provide features that will better engage audiences, Geist said.
During the show, AWS will also offer hands-on demos of AI applications and the Amazon Nova foundation models for AI solutions (a first for NAB Show). It is also showcasing updates to Amazon Nova Reel for AI video production, augmented reality experiences and ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. Sinclair is using AWS for an ATSC 3.0 transmission of a 4K feed with Advanced HDR for broadcast to a local Las Vegas TV station, KSNV.
As part of those demos, visitors can use AWS’s generative AI to design a real-time racetrack, learn how to build and scale generative AI applications using Amazon Bedrock, and explore how the customizable generative AI-powered assistant Amazon Q can streamline their work.
The AWS Theater in the West Hall (W1343) will feature 26 sessions from partners and clients demonstrating deployments and applications. Featured participants include Arc XP, Avid, Beamr, Bitmovin, Coactive, Fabric, GeoComply, Hydrolix, IPV, LucidLink, LTIMindtree, Mediacube, the National Hockey League (NHL), New Relic, Orange Logic, Paramount Studios, Presidio, Quickplay, Sinclair, Synamedia, TwelveLabs, Virtusa, Wondery and more.
Additional demos involve radio, podcasting and innovative audio solutions. “This is actually the first time that we have had a story focused on audio and radio,” Geist said. Using AWS Partner Riverside.FM’s platform, AWS will record a live podcast. It will also operate an all-day automated radio broadcast with preprogrammed content. In addition, attendees will get a look at how AWS Elemental Media Services and Amazon CloudFront support podcast localization.
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