Mobile Viewpoint announces new AI division plus two new AI products

Mobile Viewpoint’s IQ Sports Analytics

The Dutch developer and manufacturer of live streaming technology solutions Mobile Viewpoint has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence (AI) division, IQ Video Solutions, plus two new AI products.

IQ Video Solutions will house Mobile Viewpoint’s existing AI products – IQ-vPilot, a live camera studio solution, and IQ-Sports Producer, an automated live sports production solution – plus two new developments.

The new products are aimed at federations and clubs, with IQ Sports Analytics providing a training tool so that clubs, trainers and coaches can analyse play for improving tactics, while My Team Stream is a 24/7 matchday platform with a video and paywall option,.

The IQ-Sports Production platform enables broadcasters, sports clubs and right holders to remotely live stream games without the need of camera people or an onsite director.

The company has also launched a new Mobile Viewpoint website, plus a site for IQ Video Solutions.

The divisions will have their own dedicated teams, including sales and support, as the leagues and clubs that are set to be the customer base of IQ Video Solutions will require specific help.

Explained Michel Bais, managing director at Mobile Viewpoint: “We will have dedicated people for the IQ Solutions business; dedicated support people and also dedicated sales people, because we understand we will have different customers. So Mobile Viewpoint customers are production companies and broadcasters, but for the new business you will have leagues and sport clubs; it’s a totally different type of customer.

“They’re not really video-minded so they will have to learn a lot from us on how to do a video production. All the leagues and sports clubs are all very interested in analytics as well.”

On analytics, the IQ Sports Analytics portal has been developed with a former Dutch football player Remco Van Leeuwen. Van Leeuwen has partnered with Mobile Viewpoint on the development of IQ Sports Analytics, and the company is part owned by Mobile Viewpoint.

IQ Sports Analytics is available for football initially, but will be rolled out for ice hockey and further sports in 2021. Bais added that third-party analytics can still be integrated into Mobile Viewpoint and IQ Video Solutions’ products, depending on clients’ needs and preferences.

My Team Stream, meanwhile, has been designed to allow clubs of any size to create a subscriber list and begin to monetise their own content. It provides a portal for them to push their content while controlling their own advertising.

Bias commented on the thinking behind My Team Stream: “Many of those sports clubs want to broadcast their own content, especially now with COVID, and they want to broadcast that on a platform that they more or less own. There are a few reasons for that: one is that you want to monetise your content and secondly you want to give more room for your sponsors and advertisers, but if you go to social media or existing streaming providers that’s not allowed.”

Mobile Viewpoint has therefore developed My Team Stream, which will become available in January 2021, to enable sports clubs to broadcast their matches and other content behind a paywall, subscription or pay per view if required.

Bais said: “AI is so much more than a buzzword. At Mobile Viewpoint and we are now delivering on two major AI platforms for use in both sports production and camera automation. It makes sense to separate them from our key encoder products that we are absolutely committed to and will continue to innovate.”

Recent emerging AI products in sports production have focused on web-streaming, yet Mobile Viewpoint has taken a different trajectory. Bias explained: “Our traditional broadcast customers are very strict on service levels when it comes to issues such as dropped frames, error correction, reliability and latency. We have taken this heritage and applied it to our AI technology, and so this technology is not only aimed at web streaming platforms where quality is sometimes comprised because of perceived cost savings but to our broadcast customers too.”

“We have developed our AI to be for those who want a highly professional production and to playout to regular broadcast channels as well as online platforms,” he concluded.