Create Instant Sports Highlights with the Help of Data Annotation

In a world of online streaming, sporting events retain significant value due to their live, conversation driving nature. Despite the hugely damaging effects of COVID-19 advertisers and commercial partners are still eager to invest in sports and benefit from the visibility they create.

Creating engaging highlight packages, that can be distributed through social media or broadcast during events, is a key part of sports media. As demand for this content grows AI innovators are stepping in to automate highlight production with the computer vision based AI models.

This blog will look at this promising technology in detail, and show how it can potentially transform production processes for the industry. In order to continue developing these systems developers are partnering with image and video annotation providers, like Keymakr, in order to create high-quality training datasets.

The need for real-time highlights

As demand for sports content increases so does the need for exciting and timely highlight videos. These packages can be distributed on social media, helping to spark interest in particular sporting events as well as increasing the exposure of paid advertising.

This social media driven need has led to a huge increase in the amount and variety of highlight videos that need to be produced. This can put significant pressure on editors and production companies, leading to increased costs and potential mistakes.

Highlights are also essential for live broadcasts. Producing them in real time requires a large production staff and significant facilities. It may not always be possible to create engaging highlights in live event timeframes, leading to a reduced experience for viewers, and less exposure for advertisers.

How AI creates highlights

Automated highlight creation is possible with the use of machine learning. Algorithms are trained with thousands of videos and images of particular sports and are then able to recognize important moments, rate them, and then segment them into a complete highlight package, or individual moments.

This capability means that highlights can be selected and packaged in real-time, without the input of human editors. This frees up staff during intensely busy live events, and also means that highlights can be distributed on social media far quicker.

In general automated highlight systems allow broadcasters and advertisers to construct highly efficient workflows around sporting events, optimizing value for everyone involved and improving the overall experience for the customer.

Data annotation services support instant highlight technology

In order for instant highlight AI technology to become a feature in the industry further development is necessary. Data annotation providers can support these efforts by providing companies in the field with accurate and varied datasets. Advantages gained from outsourcing to providers, like Keymar, include:

• Skeletal annotation: In order to capture the movement of humans in video frames it is often necessary to employ skeletal annotation techniques. Annotators add lines to limbs and connect them at points of articulation. Annotation services are adept at keeping skeletal annotation accurate across thousands of frames of video.
• In-house annotation teams: Constructing a data annotation program can be costly and time consuming for tech companies. On the other hand, cheap, crowdsourced annotations can suffer from a lack of precision. Keymakr guarantees quality by utilising an in-house annotation team, working in one location. This significantly improves QC processes and communication generally.
• Annotation platforms: Outsourcing to data annotation specialists allows instant highlight developers to access proprietary annotation tools. Keymakr’s annotation platform features unique analytics and workflow management capabilities.

AI can help streamline sports broadcasting and production. Keymakr is collaborating with AI leaders, and supporting exciting projects with high quality, cost-effective annotation solutions.

Contact a team member to book your personalized demo today.