Video capture startup Pixellot secures US$3m investment
The core team of video capture specialist Pixellot
Israeli video capture startip Pixellot has announced that it has received a US $3m investment from China’s leading search engine, Baidu. Sports broadcast is among the key target markets for Pixellot, which aims to provide a high quality, cost-efficient alternative to traditional video capture and production processes.
Pixellot invented and developed an ultra-high resolution, unmanned video ‘capture-all’ system with a remote proxy video production suite. This solution effectively automates video production by deploying a multi-camera system that covers an entire scene, instead of the traditional method of using several manned cameras and hoping to catch just the right shots. Using a series of algorithms, Pixellot allows its users to choose an object to zoom in on any part of the venue and to navigate back and forth in time.
Pixellot’s target market is primarily the multibillion dollar ‘long tail’ sports and music production domains, such as high school team sports and amateur community football leagues. Pixellot will enable the players, their families and fans to create their own personal videos, as well as to monitor the players’ performance parameters using cloud-based services.
Along with its ‘long tail’ product, Pixellot also addresses the needs of the professional broadcast market by offering alternate, low-cost production systems and workflows, as well as effects like spatial replay, tied-to-field graphics, special cameras and second-screen applications.
Pixellot says that it is already in advanced talks with leading global networks and sports federations that are interested in using its technology to capture high-profile sports and music events.
Peter Fang, senior director of Baidu Corporate Development, comments: “We’re very enthusiastic about bringing Pixellot’s groundbreaking technology to Chinese Internet users. For the first time, video content producers can broadcast concerts, sports and stage events, and enable the audience to watch streaming video with total freedom to choose camera angles in real time on their devices. We think this will revolutionise video content production.”
Dr. Miky Tamir, Pixellot’s co-founder and chairman, adds: “We are truly excited to kick off this partnership with Baidu as a strategic investor, which will enable us to grow globally and bring us into the Chinese market. We are both honoured and proud to become Baidu’s first investment in an Israeli company. With this capital inflow, we plan to invest in further expanding our R&D and advancing our global marketing and business development platform.”
This is Round-A funding for Pixellot, which has so far brought in $2.3 million in financing by private investors, including the company’s founders and TheTime, an Israeli investment company.