Company News

This week in Cannes, France, IBM Watson Captioning was honored in the Advanced TV Innovation of the Year category at the Content Innovation Awards 2018. The award highlights technology that has improved the TV experience, overcome challenges to the market or enabled viewers in new ways. In this respect, IBM had recently launched IBM Watson Captioning Live, which debuted in April of 2018 to offer live intelligent closed captions for broadcast networks.

The solution, which aids in automated caption generation, helps solve some of the most critical issues facing live content creators today in providing captions. This includes both the ability to scale caption generation and in regards to accuracy, all through infusing the technology with artificial intelligence. This article details what is IBM Watson Captioning and some background on the Content Innovation Awards. For even more information on this technology, also download our white paper Captioning Goes Cognitive: A New Approach to an Old Challenge.

Artificial intelligence is transforming industries, increasing efficiency and improving our ability to manage complex issues. That technology also has many benefits within the video space, ranging from language processing to metadata management and enrichment.

As the market and technology continues to improve, those that are shaping it are being honored. This weekend, two of Watson Media’s video solutions were highlighted at the CSI Awards 2018. Announced in Amsterdam, IBM Watson Video Enrichment  and IBM Watson Captioning and were cited as the ultimate winners for the “Best Use of AI or Machine Learning in Video” category. These solutions bring to market key advantages for tackling ongoing issues in the video space: the scalable generation of accurate closed captions and effective analyzation of large libraries of content.

Read on for more details on this technology and the awards themselves. For a greater elaboration of these concepts, also be sure to download our Uncovering Dark Video Data with AI white paper as well.

This has been a big year for IBM Watson Media. Since launching a year ago, we’ve worked with the Grammy’s, FOX Sports and The World Cup, The Masters, and introduced a new product: Watson Captioning. A highly trainable, AI-powered offering, Watson Captioning provides broadcasters and publishers alike with a new tool to take closed captions to the next level. Today, we’re excited to kick off a new collaboration with Sinclair Broadcast Group that will roll out Watson Captioning to all of their local stations across the United States, making live programming more accessible to local viewers, including the Deaf community, senior citizens, and anyone experiencing hearing loss.

Television requirements for closed captioning were established in 1996, but more than two decades later, live captioning remains both challenging and labor-intensive for production teams to deliver in real time. As a result, breaking news, weather, and live sports segments often have delayed or incorrect captions, leading to a confusing and occasionally frustrating viewing experience. With our Watson Captioning technology, Sinclair will be able to improve caption accuracy, automate time-intensive manual processes, and reduce production costs, all while providing captions in real time at scale.

On September 17th, 2018, IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream) will be sunsetting free streaming.

As part of this change, your free account will no longer be able to broadcast or have viewers watch your content.

To keep your videos and access to our video streaming platform, please upgrade to a paid plan before August 1. This will also provide you with lots of premium features.

If you decide not to upgrade, please make sure to download all of your videos and data, because you will not be able to log in and use our product starting August 1st. Normally content remains on free accounts to be watched and downloaded for 30 days, but after August 1st you will not be able to log in and download these stored videos nor will they be watchable by viewers.

See plans and features

Note: The plans and pricing page will be updated on August 1st to match the upgraded plans described in this blog post.

In addition, the Watch and Discovery experience, found at ustream.tv/explore/all, will be retired as part of this transition. That will happen in September, after free streaming has been shut down. This will not impact individual channel pages, which will still exist.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. IBM Watson Media will be improving the professional plans to include a greater array of features, increased video storage and expanding the number of channels per account. You can read about these features should you choose to upgrade or sign up for a plan in the near future.

[note: free streaming has been extended to September 17th, 2018, from its original sunset date of August 1st]

• Enhanced professional plans
• Increased video storage
• Additional video channels

In today’s workforce, businesses need to remain agile to support increasingly global teams. In order to stay on the pulse of shifting workplace trends, these large companies are turning to new media and technologies. At IBM, we’re ushering in the future of effective and efficient workplace collaboration with our advanced video and AI technology.

That’s why today IBM Watson Media unveiled new AI-powered Automated Watson Caption Support and Speech-to-Text capabilities to its enterprise video offering. From town halls to training and development seminars, we’re applying Watson’s machine learning capabilities to expedite the distribution of enhanced video content to teams worldwide. These flexible, scalable video streaming capabilities connect enterprises worldwide through live and on-demand streaming video technology — increasing accessibility, streamlining compliance adherence, expediting workflows, and enhancing overall corporate communications.

Rodan + Fields, the number one skincare brand in the U.S. (according to Euromonitor) and one of the fastest-growing disruptors in beauty, is among the first of our clients to experience these enhancements to their global enterprise communications. The company has a range of popular, dermatologist-inspired, clinic-quality products and in 2016, they achieved a major milestone by surpassing $1 billion in revenue. By pioneering a high-tech, high-touch business model that combines the best of retail, ecommerce, and social platforms, Rodan + Fields has more than a million customers and an expansive network of over 200,000 Independent Consultants. Rodan + Fields uses IBM Watson Media’s enterprise streaming solutions to connect with their Consultants, and with our latest features, companies like Rodan + Fields can deliver the best video experience to their employees and Consultants regardless of location.

Winners for the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards 2017 have now been announced. Representing the online video industry’s shining stars as selected by users, categories ranged from cloud based solutions, like the Live Streaming Platform category, to physical offerings, like Encoding Hardware (Live). This year, IBM took home three awards at the ceremony in the following categories:

– Live Streaming Platform
– End-to-End Workflow Solution
– OTT Platform for MSO and MVPD

For more information on the awards, including our history at them, please read on.

• Awards
• Ceremony Details
• IBM/Ustream at the Readers’ Choice Awards
• History of the Readers’ Choice Awards

The Watson Media team is thrilled to have received the award for Best OTT TV Technology of the Year at the Content Innovation Awards 2017! It was an honor to attend the event hosted by Digital TV Europe and Television Business International, where over 200 industry experts gathered at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes for a night of thoughtful recognition and inspiration. We are humbled to be among other innovative content producers, broadcasters, platform operators and technology companies, and believe the award is a testament to the value of our services.

As of April 1st, 2017, Ustream’s transition to becoming part of IBM is complete. Ustream was acquired by IBM back in January of 2016, and quickly became one of the pillars of the then newly created IBM Cloud Video business unit. This unit brought together innovations from IBM’s R&D labs, including IBM Watson capabilities, and combined them with cloud-based video technology.

This article explains the future of Ustream as IBM Cloud Video, and outlines the minimized impact to current broadcasters and content owners using the service for either external or internal use cases. If you are a longtime Ustreamer, and curious how the platform has changed and everything you can do with IBM Cloud Video now, be sure to watch this Getting Starting with IBM Cloud Video Demo.

Update: IBM Cloud Video has since been rebranded as IBM Watson Media.

• Products and Services
• Ustream.tv Website Branding
• Social Profiles

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, or SMPTE to us industry folks, is the organization that has supported a century of technological advances in entertainment technology, and is the host of the SMPTE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition being held in Hollywood, CA October 25th – 28th. SMPTE 2016 is a three day event packed full of technical sessions and special events such as the SMPTE-HPA Student Film Festival annual Awards Ceremony, an exhibition hall with all the key players in video technology and a pre-conference Symposium that gives you the opportunity to build relationships with top video professionals in the industry.

Mark your calendar and make sure you catch the IBM Watson Media team at the second annual SMPTE Oktoberfest reception on Wednesday, October 26th in the Centennial Hall, from 5:00p-7:00p. Complete with imported beer and German-themed nibbles, the Oktoberfest will surely be a time to remember! (Dirndls and Lederhosen are optional.)

• SMPTE 2016 Oktoberfest
  • Wednesday October 26th 5:00p – 7:00p
  • Centennial Hall at the Hollywood and Highland Center
  • Open to registered attendees, speakers, and vendors
  • Sponsored by IBM Watson Media

While you are there, stop by and visit the IBM Watson Media team in person by visiting us nearby at booth #12 and learn how video has become a global communication medium for entertainment, information and applications. Meeting times are limited and won’t last long! Act now and reserve a time to speak with one of our video experts, we look forward to seeing you there!

Schedule meeting

IBM Video Streaming is a comprehensive solution that organizations can leverage as part of their video strategy. This can be for both external and internal facing assets, which might include marketing activities or corporate communication. Content can range from live broadcasts to on demand video assets. The platform is a global solution, supporting multi-national corporations while also being able to effectively scale to cater video content on a huge, worldwide scale. Because of this level of inherit flexibility, IBM needs to take into account data privacy laws not just in the United States, but also every country where we store personal data or from which we access personal data.

IBM has prepared an EU Model Clauses agreement for IBM Video Streaming customers to facilitate the transfer of personal data outside of the EU in accordance with the EU data privacy laws. EU Model Clauses are relevant to all customers sending personal information relating to EU citizens to IBM.

To request an EU Model Clauses agreement or for any other information or assistance around the transfer of personal data, customers can contact our dedicated EU Model Clauses team via email.

The EU Directive 95/46/EC sets out rules concerning processing of customer’s personal data. As the data controller, customers appoint IBM as a data processor to process (e.g., store, transmit, archive) any personal data which may be included in the customer’s content. In turn, customers are responsible for obtaining all necessary consents to include the content (including any personal data) in IBM DBaaS solutions.

A list of countries where content may be held or from where content may be accessed for the purpose of delivering and supporting a Cloud Service is available at: www.ibm.com/cloud/datacenters.