The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast Opus Digitas CEO Gary Learner NAB Show 2019 Booth Interview

Episode Date: April 10, 2019

Opus Digitas CEO Gary Learner NAB Show 2019 Booth Interview

Hi folks, Chris Voss here from thechrissvossshow.com. Hey, coming to you with another booth interview here at NAB 2019. And we're of course wandering around checking all the cool booths, things you want to take and see here. We are at booth SU12707 in the second floor of South Hall, and we are at the Opus Digitas booth. And I'm here talking with Gary Lerner. Gary, how are you doing today? I'm doing great Chris, how are you? Good, good. Now Gary, you're the CEO of Opus Digitus. Give us an idea of who you guys are and what you're about. So, thanks. I mean, it's, you know, we are excited to be here. This is our first time demonstrating new technology that helps broadcasters, content creators, as well as brands to federate user-generated

videos. And we are doing that by essentially assuring authenticity of contributed videos. We are streamlining user management rights transfer, as well as engaging the users to give a unique advantage to broadcasters and content creators to attract viewers to their content. Awesome sauce. So you guys have a...is it online or is it software that I download or... It's a full platform that's actually...it's a cloud-based platform that allows all of

the content to go to a platform to be reviewed by the broadcasters and decided what to do with this content you know we have integration with all of the social media platforms content management systems online storages as well as they can integrate the broadcasters can integrate the content into media asset management or or scheduling system for live broadcasts so basically this to authenticate viewer videos. What does that mean for you guys? What do you guys do with that?

One of the challenges that exist today with user contributed content is to assure its authenticity. We all know about fake videos or deep fakes that today AI and computer generated animation can create a very live looking, real looking videos. So by making sure that the users are in a specific location at a specific time that has been defined by the broadcaster and they uploading live content only, we are making sure that the content has not been altered in any way and it has been recorded at a specific location specific time that have been predefined by the broadcasters

so this is probably important too i know sometimes when i watch certain videos or when people watch videos in other countries they go this content is not available in that country is that one of the things you guys help do is, you know, determine where that piece wants to be distributed? So all of the distribution management and distribution rights are the complete workflow that the broadcasters use today. So we will integrate with that existing workflow and the same rules apply to that user generated video the same way it applies to the rest of the country. So one of the other things you guys do is you streamline rights management.

How does that work and who uses that? So we have a small piece of technology that integrates into an existing broadcaster app that part of the terms of conditions, their lawyers will come up with the right language to make sure that the usage rights are being properly transferred immediately. It's a very important component because time to air is very, very critical and the value of the content obviously goes down with time, the more time passes by. So today without this technology, even if the broadcaster gain access to a particular content of interest, they need to engage special forms to be signed in order to obtain usage right for this content.

With our technology, because it's integrated into the existing broadcaster's app, and part of the terms and conditions, usage rights are automatically transferred to the broadcaster. Awesome. So now one of the key points here says it increases viewer loyalty. That's a very good point. What is happening today, we are managing to engage the viewers. Engage viewer is a loyal viewer. There's a high competition exists today, especially in the local news market where you have several

stations or several networks are competing for the same eyeballs. By engaging the viewers and inviting them to be an active part of the broadcast workflow as opposed to passive viewer of the content that is being delivered to the viewers, you're essentially engaging the viewer, and once the viewer is sort of engaged, they will go for the rest of the content to the same broadcasting station. Awesome.

And it's also like, you know, they'll invite all of their friends. I mean, they become, you know, mini celebrities. Look, you know, my video was shown at six o'clock news. That's awesome. Because, I mean, there's a lot of that going on where the news agencies are using a lot of social media. They need to get the approvals from the people who have them

and all that sort of good stuff. And like you say, it's very, you know, they're trying to go on air with this stuff and they've got to get everybody into the thing. It's not, you know, it's not a replacement for everything that it is today, but it's a better way of federating and managing content that is being obtained from the users. And then the other aspect you guys have here

is you simplify UGV operations. What does that mean? So UGV stands for user-generated video, because it's all part of the same workflow. You know, it starts from assuring that the content is being authenticated, that the content, the usage rights are being automatically transferred. We have full integration with social media platforms, online storages, as well as the broadcast workflows. It simplifies

the operation and it makes, shortens time to air. And that's what a lot of the broadcasters are about. So it does all this automatically and you publish with one click and away you go. And certain things being reconfigured ahead of time and they're just using the same configuration just automates the process. That's awesome. So what else do we need to know?

Anything more we need to cover on you guys? So if you're at this NAB show, please stop by our booth, SU 12707. You can go visit us on our website, www.opposedigitas.com. And one more thing that I want to mention, we are running a contest, a video contest where we're inviting users to capture the spirit of NAB and we are giving away prizes every day of the show. That's awesome. So we have a little card and it's actually here so you can go to this QR code and go

to the web page, download this sample app and it will allow you to upload content just in case that you are here at NAB. That's awesome. There's so much fun stuff to see here at NAB. So much cool stuff and for broadcasters and newsAB. That's awesome. There's so much fun stuff to see here at NAB. So much cool stuff. And for broadcasters and news people, it's awesome. So guys, go see him at the booth. And they're at South Hall. It's on the second floor. It's booth number SU-12707 in Opus Digitas. Thanks for having us. We certainly appreciate it. I appreciate you coming by.

All right.