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Digitalsmiths Acquires Gotuit in Bid to Become Video Metadata Powerhouse
Video metadata solution provider Digitalsmiths has acquired Gotuit Media, another player in the video metadata space. Digitalsmiths' CEO Ben Weinberger explained to me over the weekend that the combined company will have the most comprehensive solution for video indexing and metadata management/monetization for multi-platform distribution of various content types. To date Digitalsmiths has been mainly focused on library TV and movie content while Gotuit has concentrated on live sports and news.
Metadata is crucial to online and mobile video because it's what enables search, recommendations and higher-value monetization. It's especially important given the proliferation of short-form clips created out of longer-form content which need to be indexed and easily searchable. Accurate metadata is hard to produce and Digitalsmiths and Gotuit have used different approaches that will be complimentary as part of the new solution. Ben said that the goal is to introduce the comprehensive solution to each customer set to deepen existing relationships, while developing new opportunities based on the comprehensive approach.
Digitalsmiths has built a proprietary set of algorithms in its VideoSense product that indexes video on a frame-by-frame to create metadata tracks or smart video tags. These tracks can then be used to manage or group assets by type (e.g. actor, scenes, lines, etc.). VideoSense uses an automated workflow that manages assets through the metadata creation and operational stages. Hollywood customers using Digitalsmiths include Paramount, Warner Bros., The CW and others.
Meanwhile Gotuit has focused on metadata authoring tools for use by content editors and viewers. A key aspect of Gotuit's approach has been not to create separate video files for each short clip that's been created, but rather to define scenes by customizable attributes that are then used as the starting and stopping points of "virtual clips." The metadata created can be stored in a Gotuit-hosted model and video can be served up in customizable players. Gotuit has powered high-profile projects for Turner, ESPN, NBA and PGA among others. Gotuit is based in the Boston area and I've known their team for years; they've largely flown below the radar while continuing to turn out impressive results.
Ben said that the combined company will have a portfolio of 35+ patents in metadata creation, aggregation and application, the most significant of any company in the industry. Existing Gotuit investors will become investors in the new combined entity. Digitalsmiths has raised $18 million to date.
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Topics: Digitalsmiths, Gotuit Media
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