Editing and repurposing all this extra video is time-consuming and challenging. That’s why the Wildmoka team built our new Smart Segmentation solution.
So, what is Smart Segmentation, and how does it help you?
Automatic identification of live TV show segments
Almost all live TV broadcasts can be broken down into clear segments. This starts at the channel level, then breaks down to the show level, then blocks within the show, and finally segments within each block - as the graphic below demonstrates:
Take a typical ‘morning show’ on a news channel as an example. The running order might fall into the following segments:
- Opening credits
- News headlines
- Top story
- Ad break
- General news
- Debate
- Ad break
- Sport
- Weather
While the live stream is running, digital teams will be working hard in the background to identify blocks and segments within shows, and edit them. Whether they’re creating clips for social media, feeding owned & operated platforms or FAST channels, the pressure is on to repurpose content so it reaches audiences who consume content on platforms other than linear TV.
This is hard work. Besides watching for potentially ‘viral’ clips to edit and distribute, the digital team must also manually divide the show up into its segments for further editing and distribution. All these segments need metadata to be attached. And they need to be formatted for different destinations.
AI-powered Smart Segmentation
We wanted to create a solution that would help digital teams speed up their editing processes and let them focus more time on the most creative, high value work.
Our new Smart Segmentation feature automatically segments live broadcast streams and can even trigger downstream distribution workflows. Here’s how it works:
- Identifying segments
The technology uses multiple types of program information to intelligently identify segments. These include SCTE markets for ad identification, AI/ML detection of video elements such as bumpers and transitions, and LLM analysis of transcripts.
- Automatic segmentation
Smart Segmentation then creates segment markers in the live stream, with metadata attached, allowing your editorial team to quickly find sections later.
- Automatic distribution
The solution can also automatically distribute segments of a show to multiple destinations.
- Ad segments
The solution gives you multiple options for handling ad segments. You can remove them entirely (e.g. for subscribers of O&O platforms), keep the ad timing but use different ads for your FAST channels, or even use different ads for different destinations.
Smart segmentation - an example
So, what does smart segmentation actually look like? Here’s a simple example of how it might help the digital team on the first 10 minutes of a typical ‘breakfast TV’ show.
07:00: The show begins and Smart Segmentation instantly identifies the beginning credits.
07:01: The presenter introduces the headlines. Smart Segmentation creates a clip of this section as soon as it’s finished. This is then distributed automatically to X/Twitter as a one minute clip entitled “today’s headlines”
07:03: The top story of the day is about travel disruption caused by a major storm. Smart Segmentation identifies the start and end of the story, and uses LLM and image recognition to ‘tag’ sections with metadata (e.g. ‘reporter outdoors’; ‘broken river banks’; ‘interview with meteorologist’). The digital team can then work with these segments, refine and polish them, and distribute.
07:07: Ad break: Smart Segmentation identifies the SCTE marker, and marks this section of the show of the live stream as an ad break. Paid subscribers of your O&O get an ad-free experience, so Smart Segmentation removes this ad segment when publishing to that destination.
07:09: General news: Smart Segmentation can identify bumpers and transitions to identify different news stories, helping you edit faster.
Without Smart Segmentation
The digital team must work continually, watching the live broadcast for potentially ‘viral’ moments, while also inserting markers manually at different segments. On top of this, they have to cut and distribute content to all their platforms manually, while making sure the content fits different destination formats.
With Smart Segmentation
The team can rely on Smart Segmentation to identify all segments of the show for them and to distribute content to different destinations in the correct format. That leaves them much more time to be creative, select the best ‘viral’ clips, and engage different audiences.
5 benefits of Wildmoka’s Smart Segmentation
Our Smart Segmentation solution is already being used by multiple broadcasters around the world. Here are five key ways it’s helping them:
- Boosts productivity: Smart Segmentation automatically identifies and distributes sections of live shows. This immediately increases the amount of content generated, and also wins digital teams back time to edit and create even more video.
- Get to work faster: Using Smart Segmentation effectively removes the first step of editing (i.e. identifying segments). That means editors can get down to work much faster.
- Supports personalization: Because Smart Segmentation intelligently divides up sections of a live broadcast, digital teams can personalize content for audiences much more easily. With a ‘breakfast TV’ show, for instance, you can distribute the sports highlights to sports fans, the ‘debate’ section to political junkies, or news headlines to busy people who are on the go.
- Reduce tedious admin tasks: A lot of live video editing work is dedicated to administrative tasks - tagging content with metadata and keywords, and formatting clips for different platforms. This work is tedious and low skilled - Smart Segmentation does it for you.
- Connects to the Backlight family of tools: Smart Segmentation works as a standalone product, but also connects seamlessly with other Wildmoka and Backlight solutions. For example, it can be used in combination with our multi award winning Auto ReZone content verticalization solution too.
Try Smart Segmentation today
Multiple leading broadcasters around the world are already seeing the benefits of Smart Segmentation today. It’s helping the digital teams at multiple media organizations - from traditional broadcasters to online-only channels or sports event organizers - to maximize the value and reach of their live content.
Want to see Smart Segmentation in action? Contact us today for a demo.