The Ark takes its place in the football crowds
Goal
To develop and market a solution to optimise TV royalties from the broadcast of sporting events. This involves replacing the moving advertising content shown on the hoardings around sports pitches and grounds with targeted content specific to the country in which the match is broadcast.
Partners
E.S. Concept, Institut Idiap, The Ark Foundation
The main mission of The Ark’s Accelerator service is to provide a link between science and the marketplace, by transforming the technologies produced by research institutes into marketable products. An excellent example of this is the “DIGI-Board” project, which has been in development since spring 2014.
The company E.S. Concept, established in Valais and supported by The Ark Incubator, is developing and marketing a solution to optimise TV royalties from the broadcast of sporting events. This involves replacing the moving advertising content shown on the hoardings around sports pitches and grounds with targeted content specific to the country in which the match is broadcast. For example, during a Champions League football match, UK viewers will see different advertising content from German viewers.
E.S. Concept approached The Ark Foundation, who acted as a link with the Idiap institute and initiated a project to commercially develop the technology. The two partners are working together closely on the project, which is partially financed by The Ark, enabling E.S. Concept to benefit directly from the knowledge at Idiap in the field of computer vision.
The implementation of a system of this kind presents numerous challenges. It has to function in real time to prevent any delays and must be perfectly rendered so that TV viewers do not notice it. This quality is directly dependent on the precise positioning of the advertising hoardings and the degree of instability in this positioning.
The project, which looks very promising for the company, will be followed with interest, as the subject-matter is more relevant than ever in today’s world.