The TNO start-up company Studio Automated had only just launched when corona struck. The virus was both a curse and a blessing: sports matches were initially cancelled, but are now usually played without a live audience. This has created a growing demand for livestreaming at home from fans who want to watch their favourite teams in action on their smartphones or widescreen TVs. Studio Automated offers precisely such a service.

Studio Automated  equipped two hundred ice hockey stadiums

Studio Automated has already equipped some two hundred ice hockey stadiums in Sweden and Norway with artificial intelligence (AI) software that functions as both film crew and director. The software automatically detects and tracks players and other activity in the rink, transmitting the images live and in high resolution to viewers at home. The same technology can be used to livestream concerts, events and company presentations. Studio Automated also uses this software in the security sector for early risk detection based on pattern recognition.

This is just the beginning

Co-founder Paul Valk: “TNO colleague Paul van den Haak and I got off to a flying start: we grew from a start-up to a scale-up in record time thanks to a contract with the Swedish livestreaming company LiveArena. Our technology is a welcome addition to their service. But this is just the beginning; there’s a lot of demand for services that automate video productions. The software is getting better and better, among other things thanks to AI and deep learning algorithms.

Technology years ahead of the market

After a long period under the umbrella of TNO, this is a welcome step towards entrepreneurship for both of us. The technology developed by TNO is always years ahead of the market, and it’s great to be able to present it now as a concrete product. We are not only focussed on large customers; amateur sports clubs can also use our software for game analysis and training purposes.”

“Our mission is to develop socially relevant, scalable and accessible AI software that generates high quality content and gets the most out of video.”