Global Leader in Video AI Taps Former Disney Technologists to Expand Post-Production Capabilities for Sports, News, and Entertainment
NEW YORK, October 18, 2023 – VideoVerse, an AI-powered video solutions company, has recently acquired Optikka to expand media, design, and publishing capabilities within its real-time content automation platform, Magnifi.ai.
The acquisition brings two key hires to the company with experience across multiple Disney business divisions: Charles Duncan, a creative technologist, and Nick Arciero, a global creative strategist. The Los Angeles-based hires, Charles Duncan and Nick Arciero, first crossed paths at Disney, where Duncan developed creative pipelines for Star Wars, ESPN, Disney Parks & Resorts, and more. Arciero was vital in building media pipelines and infrastructure across Disney+ and the company’s global streaming services.
“We’re focused on building best-in-class content automation services across sports, news and entertainment. Obviously, graphics are an essential component to these workflows and with generative AI moving at warp speed, we’ve been looking for the right team to harness that power and we believe we’ve found that in Charles and Nick,” said Prateek Sharma, the recently named Chief Strategy Officer at VideoVerse. “This is the first step in evolving Magnifi from a point solution to a post-production automation platform. We’re looking forward to bringing the power of Optikka to our clients across all verticals.”
Duncan and Arciero recently reconnected to collaborate on Optikka, originally developed to create images for the visually impaired. The product has become a post-production compositing engine for graphic design that accelerated with bot integrations (GPT), called Bot-able design systems by Duncan.
“My initial focus was on helping companies produce rasterized, visual accessibility which unlocked the ability to talk to AI generators artistically,” explains Duncan, who is color-blind. “With no-code and low-code toolsets, our tech can transform how commercial content owners and broadcasters create fully branded, internet-breaking content for their audiences, in real-time. Through code-as-design capabilities at the pixel level, Optikka allows creators to fully unleash their creativity.”
VideoVerse plans to leverage the pair, along with the rapidly advancing CV/ML-based Magnifi AI, to allow customers to transform thousands of assets into fully designed, consumer-ready highlights and narrative-based packages in real-time.
Optikka helps IP owners distribute and monetize cultural events within minutes. The solution works across video, broadcast, XR, and metaverse platforms and will adapt to future formats.
“Whether it’s a record-shattering play or a fast-moving meme, Optikka takes shareable moments to the marketplace with brand-optimized creative content that can be scaled and distributed to social media, advertising units, and merch drops in near-real-time,” said SVP of Sales US, Daniel Evans. “We are one step closer to rapid, scalable content creation and hyper-personalization that protects our client’s brand and IP.”
VideoVerse will share more information on Magnifi and Optikka’s integrations at NAB Las Vegas in April 2024.
To learn more about Optikka, visit the company’s YouTube channel for videos and tutorials.
ABOUT VIDEOVERSE
VideoVerse has found an extremely strong product-market fit in serving enterprises across numerous industries – OTT players, broadcasters, sports clubs and leagues, marketing agencies, e-gaming platforms and more. VideoVerse is building the next-generation video editing ecosystem, addressing a broad range of use cases in the post-production process. The company started its journey by generating instant key moments and auto short-sized clips leveraging computer vision and AI capabilities, the sliver in which it is the current tech leader. They work with leading rights holders including Indian Premier League, Women’s Premier League, Vietnam Basketball Association, Yamo Media, CricClubs, SuperSport Schools, Professional Squash Association and leading sports broadcasters globally. VideoVerse today has offices in the U.S., Europe and India and is expanding to Singapore and the Middle East by the end of this year.
ABOUT OPTIKKA
Founded by Charles Duncan, Optikka offers AI-assisted design with creative coding and generative art. The company’s bot-able design systems enable creativity, publishing, and monetization at scale for commercial businesses. For more information, visit the Optikka Youtube channel.
Media Contact:
Peggy Blaze, Account Director, Bubble Agency US
