AI is being used by Australian national broadcaster the ABC to create videos automatically from radio studio content.
A trial of the radio visualisation technology is operating at the ABC’s Brisbane studios, with plans to deploy it at the new Parramatta broadcast facilities, due to be completed this year.
Chief digital and information officer Damian Cronan says the videos will be repurposed for sharing on social media, providing a wealth of additional content for news streams across all platforms.
“Capabilities of virtual and augmented reality production are being explored for their potential to provide more efficient use of studio facilities,” he says, “while delivering opportunities for enhanced visual storytelling and audience engagement.
Cronan says several productions have been completed utilising virtual elements and the technology will be deployed permanently into the new Parramatta studios as a pilot for potential rollout to further sites.
The Parramatta studios use the latest IP technologies and will be the ABC’s first fully augmented and virtual reality television production facility. That technology will then be evaluated for possible upgrades around the country.
The ABC is also increasing the use of recommendations on its websites and apps to drive personalised experiences. Cronan says use of ABC recommendations modules increased by 96 per cent, with around 50 million delivered recommendations increasing content consumption.
The broadcaster has also introduced an onboarding experience to the ABC Listen app that provides content recommendations to new users, while introducing personalised recommendations on ABC iview’s ‘featured’ rail drove a 43 per cent increase in content plays and drove the audience to 388 unique series, compared to 86 series accessed with manual curation.
ABC News launched a ‘news for you’ personalisation rail and a ‘popular now’ video section which increased video performance by 29 per cent, and a ‘see more/see less’ option as the ABC’s first audience feedback loop for personalisation.
Improvements in emergency broadcasting including proactive fault monitoring have seen the deployment of new monitoring technology and working with infrastructure partners to improve resilience of ABC transmission.
“This assists in providing local content to areas impacted by emergencies,” Cronan says.
Pictured: Inside the ABC’s master control room during this year’s ANZAC Day broadcast from Villers-Bretonneux in France (from the ABC annual report)