NAB Show Perspectives: AI-powered automation expands in broadcast and production

Many professional industries are seeing an increased interest in the use of AI. In the media and entertainment realm, we’re seeing a continually increasing demand for automated camera control and framing in broadcast and production environments, and AI offers solutions for enabling those capabilities.

New applications of AI and AI-powered automation technologies are streamlining live production workflows, with AI applications including video capture, content and workflow management, even background content creation for virtual production. Time-consuming and labor-intensive manual tasks can now be managed by AI, freeing up staff. The potential benefits are seemingly endless.

From Sony’s perspective, we think of AI in terms of giving customers more options, so they can choose the right AI-based workflow that makes the most sense for their operations.

Even with all it can do, AI is still only one more tool for our customers to use.

Just as AI itself is constantly evolving, Sony’s AI-powered features are constantly expanding based on customer feedback. We are continually seeking the voice of our customer to ensure our offerings meet their real-world requirements, whether that’s through firmware upgrade or a new hardware device. Sony’s AI-powered cameras provide options and flexibility for broadcast and production use cases, allowing users to toggle between automated and manual control as needed.

AI is hardly a new area for us. Sony has been incorporating AI capabilities in its earliest digital photography cameras for several years, enabling features like eye detection autofocus. In recent years, we’ve been introducing enhanced AI capabilities like auto-tracking and auto-framing into our production-level cameras, including capabilities that can follow and frame presenters with ease. In these cases, the AI is handling the processing necessary for camera control, increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

That level of flexibility is reflected in our product lines, from the BRC-AM7 4K PTZ camera with AI-enabled Auto Framing and Tracking to handheld options like the PXW-Z200 and HXR-NX800 camcorders, that employ AI for Auto Framing, tracking and subject recognition.

AI has been driving innovation in numerous industries, many of which Sony provides AI-based solutions for, beyond media and entertainment. But we’re still only scratching the surface of its potential to provide smart automation, create efficiencies, transform workflows, provide analysis and offer tailored solutions.

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Kento Sayama, Sony ElectronicsKento Sayama is a deputy vice president for imaging solutions at Sony Electronics.