Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon company, and Pixelscope have formed a partnership agreement to create an end-to-end remote acquisition and production workflow solution aimed at the live sports market.
The joint solution integrates MRMC’s AFC-180 Robotic Heads with the Pixelscope advanced tracking and autonomous producing platform.
It has been successfully trialled at some USA Table Tennis competitions, said the companies. Pixelscope’s AI-powered tracking accurately follows the ball and players, providing real-time 3D trajectories.
It also collects image, audio, and time-series data, facilitating what the companies describe as the creation of “Sports Big Data”, which integrates into the final production of AI-automated live sports broadcasts.
Additionally, Pixelscope can automatically generate highlights of key moments for use in replays during broadcasts.
Speaking about the partnership, Marius Merten, sports broadcast manager at MRMC, said: “It was clear to me from the very first meeting that our two companies are a perfect match. Together, we can deliver a complete product that sports broadcast production has never seen before. It opens up many new possibilities to take sports productions to a new level. The focus here is on cost savings despite a high production standard.”
Kei Kwon, CEO at Pixelscope, added: “We’ve been working for several years to create the perfect AI solution to provide the most accurate sports data with high standard quality and to deliver this in a cost-effective way that can also open doors from the groups that get fewer spotlights, such as youth and amateurs, to the professional leagues. MRMC’s range of camera robotic solutions and expertise in motion makes them the ideal partner for us to continue towards our goal of making Pixelcast the go-to solution for more professional leagues and tournaments regardless of their tiers or sports. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this collaboration.”
