Mumbai: AE Live, a global provider of data and broadcast solutions, has announced a partnership with the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH).
The partnership brings together one of India’s leading institutes, the largest group in AI and ML in India and recognised as having a strong pedigree and being the largest group in AI and ML in India, and AE Live, globally recognised as one of the principal providers of specialist graphics and data services for some of the world’s leading governing bodies, broadcasters and production companies, in order to foster a wider range of innovation, research and development activities.
The partnership will see an innovation lab built on campus in Hyderabad, with AE Live’s engineers being embedded within a free-thinking and unfettered environment, to allow them the space to truly innovate, but with the guidance of experts in their field. International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) is an autonomous university, founded as a not-for-profit public private partnership (N-PPP) in 1998, and is the first IIIT in India under this model. Over the years, the institute has evolved strong research programmes in various areas, with an emphasis on technology and applied research for industry and society.
AE Live's CTO, Dave Gill, said, "I’m excited about the partnership we are building with IIITH. It’s a real win-win, as we get access to some world-class talent to help drive innovation in such an exciting space, whilst IIITH gets to work on real-world problems and see their ideas and technologies potentially deployed across the globe on some of the biggest sporting events in the world.”
Commenting on the partnership, IIITH professor of practice, head of product lab & TTO, Yalla Veera Prakash said, “It has been a long-cherished dream to have a sports innovation lab on campus. With the AE Live partnership, a market leader and innovator in this domain, we hope to see our research in sports analytics lead to impactful solutions for broadcast industry.”
Prof Vineet Gandhi who was instrumental in the AE Live and IIITH partnership said, “IIITH research labs have shown consistent ability to develop and deploy ideas from inception to final implementation. The collaboration between our team and AE Live began with the creation of live player tracking technology for cricket, developed in partnership with Disney Star Sports. AE Live served as our graphics partner, and the technology was successfully implemented in several international tournaments, including the last two editions of the Asia Cup and the India Tour of South Africa. This successful collaboration inspired the idea of setting up an innovation lab on IIITH campus. We believe this initiative will foster significant advancements in AI and ML based solutions for sports.”
AE Live has worked with a number of Indian clients over its 30-year history, most recently with Disney Star’s coverage of the ICC CWC 2024. Before that the Indian broadcaster has utilised AE Live’s expertise in broadcast graphics for over 10 years, having worked together on Star’s marquee productions like ICC events, IPL, Asia Cup, Pro Kabaddi League, and also Indian Super League, BCCI International Cricket, Pro Badminton League, when Star had rights for these events. Other key Indian clients include BCCI, Viacom18, RISE, Sportsworkz and Mashal.
AE Live’s impressive global portfolio also includes (amongst many others) Premier League Productions, World Rugby, BBC, ITV, Sky Sports, WTA Tennis and Fox Sports. In July 2023, AE Live announced the acquisition of Silver Spoon, the industry experts in innovative, real time virtual production content on Unreal Engine, joining Ignite, AE Live’s in-house creative design agency, in the AE Live Group.
