F E ATUR E “Microsoft and the NBA are creating a new, innovative, direct-to-consumer platform on Microsoft Azure that will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver personalised game broadcasts and other content offerings, as well as integrate the NBA’s various products and services from across its business. The platform will reimagine how fans engage with the NBA from their devices by customising and localising experiences for the global fanbase. The NBA’s vast array of data sources and extensive historical video archive will also be surfaced to fans through state-of-the-art machine learning, cognitive search and advanced data analytics solutions, creating a more personalised fan experience that tailors the content to the preferences of the fan. Additionally, this platform will enable the NBA to uncover unique insights and add new dimensions to the game for fans, coaches and broadcasters.“ Ken DeGennaro Senior Vice President, Media Operations and Technology, the NBA “Microsoft technologies enable Blackbird’s core attributes and unique selling points to be utilised to the full. Namely to deliver very fast, intuitive, light, sustainable and highly efficient editing of live or file-based content in a web browser. For example, Deltatre uses Blackbird and Azure Media Services for access to high-profile National Football League (NFL) streams that scale on event load. Azure Media Encoder is then used for video-on-demand (VOD) asset publishing. Another example is a global sporting body who use Blackbird to rapidly access and repurpose very high-resolution archive assets in blob storage for VOD delivery. The alternative to Blackbird workflows is to spin up a traditional non-linear editing system with associated expensive, power-hungry infrastructure. Blackbird and Microsoft have made previously inconcievable cloud workflows possible.“ Ian McDonough CEO, Blackbird 148
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