Topic lifts Vionlabs Fingerprint for streaming recommendations
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 27 April 2020

Artificial intelligence-based content analysis technology provider Vionlabs has won a contract with First Look Media to supply its Emotional Fingerprint API for content recommendations on its streaming service Topic.

Vionlabs says that the vast content libraries available through streaming services means that the ease with which audiences can navigate to relevant content is becoming critically important for streaming companies wanting to attract and retain subscribers. It adds that with the online video market being so competitive, media companies can get an edge through a better understanding of what makes shows appealing to viewers.

The Emotional Fingerprint API is a cloud-based solution designed to provide deeper analysis and data by measuring thousands of factors throughout the duration of a video, including colours, pace, audio, object recognition and other variables to produce an AI-derived fingerprint timeline, frame-by-frame. This is said to represent the emotional structure of content that the industry needs to inform better decision making and is claimed to offer a significant advantage in areas such as determining acquisition and production strategies, personalised UI and video recommendations, as well as enabling opportunities in advertising.

By using the Emotional Fingerprint API, Vionlabs says that Topic will be able to add deep AI-generated video insights to its existing metadata, which boosts viewing time by providing viewers with a personalised user interface and more relevant video recommendations. For its part, through the deep insight provided by Fingerprint API, Topic hopes to be able to understand why customers like certain programming so it can provide personalised viewing recommendations.

First Look Media will be Vionlabs’ first US customer since the company expanded into the region with the appointment of Kevin Odden as president of American sales in October 2019. “We could not be more excited to announce our first US deployment so soon after our launch in the North American market,” said CEO Marcus Bergström. “It’s testament to the fact that forward thinking media companies, like Topic, are embracing innovative technologies which help them better understand their content library and deliver hyper-personalised experiences to viewers.”

“We are excited to be working with Vionlabs to integrate its ground-breaking technology into our streaming platform,” added Topic general manager Ryan Chanatry. “This partnership provides Topic with a competitive advantage that is unique in the market. Access to the rich emotional data that Vionlabs’ solution provides means we can recommend programming to our audiences that we are confident they will love to watch.”