RT Software collaborates with Queen Mary University
Developing content-aware sports video analytics using machine learning with RT Software
Queen Mary has been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with RT Software which will allow the company to develop content-aware sports video analytics using machine learning (ML) and related computer vision technologies.
Machine learning in Tactic allows users to attach graphics to players and follow their run automatically with just one click.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme helps businesses in the UK innovate and develop new products and services by linking them with a research organisation and a graduate. This helps businesses bring in new skills and academic thinking to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project through a knowledge-based partnership.
This KTP – funded by Innovate UK and RT Software – will allow the company to address emerging needs in the sports media graphics market. The project will use Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular ML, and related computer vision techniques to deliver advanced products and applications to the company’s sports media clients.
“We are very excited to launch this KTP project with Queen Mary and hope this is the beginning of a relationship that will last beyond this initial programme. RT Software has always been at the cutting edge of sports technology and Queen Mary are world leading experts in the field of AI/ML for video analysis.
“We believe that this partnership will continue the work we are already doing in this field and help us deliver advanced and innovative tools and workflows for our customers.”
– Steve Hart, Development Director at RT Software.
This partnership between RT Software and Professor Ebroul Izquierdo‘s MultiMedia and Vision (MMV) Research Group brings Queen Mary’s cutting edge research in multimedia systems technology and deep machine learning to the real time graphics industry. The challenge for the KTP will be to incorporate these new systems into RT’s current product offerings in order to maintain and grow its business.
Principal Investigator Professor Izquierdo at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science said, “ML and specifically deep learning has the potential to revolutionise sport broadcasting by enabling automated creation of interactive visually appealing and highly engaging content. The MMV Group has been working in related problems over the last decade, providing solutions to relevant real-world problems and creating knowledge for the benefit of the broadcasting industry and end users.
“This KTP will enable MMV to widen the transfer of knowledge to industrial partners keen to provide solutions based on cutting-edge technology. This in turn will help to cement Queen Mary’s reputation as a research-oriented institution, which promotes the transfer of knowledge and technology for enhanced industrial products and the benefit of society at large.”
This KTP partnership is supported by Queen Mary’s Business Development team, which works to connect the University’s academics with private-sector organisations that can benefit from world-class research expertise.
About RT Software
RT Software is a leading worldwide provider of real-time graphics solutions. Its product set spans CG, template-driven graphic overlays, election and newsroom graphics, specialist sports graphics and virtual studios. From its beginnings as an offshoot of the BBC 3D Graphics Department in 2004, the company now has installations from Iceland to New Zealand, and its growing customer base includes the BBC, Sky Sports, Fox Sports, BT Sport and many other Tier 1 broadcasters.
