First it was IP but now there’s an even bigger revolution going on in all parts of the creative media process. Artificial intelligence that can continually learn without human intervention is a fast emerging as a disruptive technology that is impacting the complete production process through to the final consumer experience. 

Not only can the technology handle and organise vast archives of footage, images, marketing materials and post production work, machine learning applications also offer solutions to internal organisational challenges. With the cloud and machine learning algorithms, businesses can begin to structure and automate processes for all of their content, saving hours of manual review, data entry and quality assurance. This in turn will drive efficiency through creative automation across the whole production process in way that couldn’t even be dreamt of a decade ago. 

It’s not only at a technical level, however, AI and ML can create programmes as illustrated by BBC 4’s first experimental documentary, ‘Made by Machine - When AI Met the Archive’. Whether it be live panel discussions or football matches various tracking technologies combined with a “virtual” director enables a live cut output of the event without any human intervention to be streamed directly to the consumer. 

Television has had many paradigm shifts in its evolution e.g. black and white, colour, HD, 4K, etc., all adding value to the final product. None so far, however, have been as radical as machines taking over what were previously human processes. What impact will the introduction of AI and ML on the way we produce content, what will the new production process look like and when will these changes take place?  

Panel Chair : Rich Welsh is Senior Vice President of Innovation at Deluxe, where he works to bring next generation technologies and workflows to mastering, distribution and localization services for studios, OTT platforms and content creators worldwide. Rich has over two decades experience in movie and television post production, mastering and delivery. Prior to his role at Deluxe, Rich was CEO and founder at Sundog Media Toolkit which pioneered cloud based automated mastering for movies and TV for Hollywood studios. Sundog was acquired by Deluxe in 2020. Rich has also held positions as Head of Operations at Technicolor as well as Director of Digital Cinema at Dolby.  Rich currently serves on the board of SMPTE and chairs the Media in the Cloud initiative. He has also previously held the role of SMPTE Vice President of Education.  Rich holds a Doctor of Technology (HC) and BSc(hons) Media Technology from Southampton Solent University. 

Panayota (Yota) Georgakopoulou: With a PhD in translation and subtitling, a stint in the academia, participation in multiple research projects and over 20 years of experience in the industry in senior management roles at multinational language service providers, Yota is a leading audiovisual localization expert, specializing in the application of language technologies in media localization. She offers her services to high-profile organizations around the world as an independent consultant, advising on strategy, quality, tools, workflows, and language resource and data management. 

Yiannis Andreopoulos, PhD: Yiannis Andreopoulos has 20 years’ experience in video coding and machine learning, with 150+ research papers, several patent applications, 10 contributions to JPEG/MPEG standards and extensive engagement with industry in consulting and advisory roles. As CTO of iSIZE Technologies, he is dedicated to challenging the video delivery industry to see how deep neural networks can enhance and accelerate existing video coding standards for internet video. 

Yvonne Thomas: Currently Strategic Technologist at the DTG (Digital TV Group Ltd.), Yvonne helps DTG members to transition towards IP/Hybrid delivery platforms and ensuring to reach the best End User Experience. She has an international background with almost 10 years as Project Manager on Future Television Technologies in the Technology & Innovation Department at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Product Manager for Arvato Systems´ Media Asset Management System. Yvonne is active in various industry bodies (e.g. as former SMPTE Education Director, current Governor EMEA & Latin America and elevated as SMPTE Fellow) and works together with DTG members to explore the best viewing experience and strategies to move to an IP world. 

She hold degrees in Television Technologies and Electronic Media Engineering from University of applied Science Wiesbaden and received a prominent award of the ARD/ZDF Academy for her thesis in September 2011 at the IFA in Berlin. At NAB 2017 Yvonne was presented with the annual Technology Women to Watch Award from TVNews Check. 

In particular, Yvonne enjoys working in a dynamic environment with people from around the globe, bringing together different perspectives as she believes in the power of collaboration.