axle Video, the leader in affordable media management, today announced the release of a breakthrough media analysis and search platform, axle ai, as well as the first product based on this platform.  Postproduction teams can save a tremendous amount of time that would otherwise be spent manually tagging their media, and can benefit from the ability to find media that may not have been managed at all, often simply with cryptic multi-digit filenames from camera media. The ‘ai’ in axle ai stands for Artificial Intelligence, shorthand for a variety of Deep Learning technologies which are rapidly making machine analysis of media files not only possible, but compelling in real-world use. 

Based on axle Video’s radically simple browser user interface and and a visual analysis and search engine licensed from Visual Atoms, a UK developer of deep learning software, axle ai helps video postproduction teams bypass the laborious task of entering detailed metadata about every scene. Instead, users simply select a frame from a video, or grab an image from any onscreen source including web pages. axle ai is then able to rapidly identify a ranked list of media clips, as well as the exact segments in those clips, whose contents most closely match the image.

The first shipping configuration to deliver this power is the axle ai Appliance, which combines the axle ai software with a networked processor system with very high throughput optimized to run the axle ai video search and analysis algorithms.  The axle ai platform is extensible to encompass additional onsite and cloud-based engines in the future, and is intended to offer the best available infrastructure for this class of media analysis. 

“axle ai is a major breakthrough in media management productivity”, said Sam Bogoch, axle Video CEO. “In conjunction with axle 2017, it brings automatic metadata creation, faster production, and new possibilities for media search and reuse to a wide range of video professionals. This type of solution was not even conceivable until very recently, and we are excited to be the leaders in bringing it to market.”

“axle ai’s search engine employs the latest in Deep Learning technology to effortlessly link landmarks, locations, products or logos, based on their visual similarity”, said Miroslaw Bober, CTO at Visual Atoms. “axle ai saves users time and money in everyday tasks such as discovery of relevant content, finding alternative content, locating the rushes for a given scene in a shoot, linking edits back to rushes or finding instances of the licensed material.”  

Pricing and Availability
The axle ai Appliance is priced at $4,995 preconfigured including the software, the network hardware and the ability to analyze and search against 2,000 hours of source material.  Licenses for analysis and search against additional hours of media are priced at $1,650 per 1,000 hours of footage.

Complete turn-key solutions including axle 2017 media management software, a hardware configuration to run the software and a connected axle ai Appliance are priced from $9,995 and up.

Larger server-based or VM configurations are available for quotation on request.  The product is available for immediate order from axle Video and its resellers worldwide, with shipments beginning May 31st.

About axle Video
axle Video is the recognized leader in developing radically simple media management software. It solutions have helped over 400 organizations improve the way they create, share and store digital video content with media management solutions that are easy to install, use and afford. axle’s radically simple media management uniquely addresses a burgeoning need and has caught on rapidly among video professionals in post-production, education, broadcast, corporate, sports, house of worship, non-profit, advertising-marketing, and government organizations worldwide. At its introduction, axle Video’s software was recognized with the IBC 2012 Best of Show award and at NAB 2013 with the prestigious DV Magazine Black Diamond and Post Picks awards. axle Video is a privately held company; its founders have extensive industry experience in media asset management for creative applications. Learn more at http://www.axlevideo.com.

About Visual Atoms
Visual Atoms is a leading provider of content-based visual asset management solutions. Its award winning FIND visual analysis and search engine helps businesses and organizations save time and money by allowing them to search through huge volumes of visual data using visual queries instead of metadata or keyword, and has found application in diverse fields, from security and surveillance to video production and broadcasting. Visual Atoms is a privately held company and its founders have decades of experience in the development of computer vision, machine learning and multimedia technologies. Find more at http://www.visualatoms.com.