{"id":32321,"date":"2020-03-10T07:54:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T07:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=32321"},"modified":"2020-03-12T09:15:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T09:15:22","slug":"multichoice-and-microsoft-looking-to-future-of-entertainment-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2020\/03\/10\/multichoice-and-microsoft-looking-to-future-of-entertainment-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"MultiChoice and Microsoft looking to future of entertainment in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Multichoice and Microsoft are working together to drive Digital Transformation for Multichoice, leveraging various solutions including Azure, Microsoft 365, D365 and security services. The partnership is enabling MultiChoice to deal with the challenges of its ever-changing industry by driving efficiencies in the business through collaboration, and to explore innovative ways of delivering content to its subscribers thanks to Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analytics. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world of entertainment is changing rapidly. Increased access to fibre to the home, as well as a growing number of content creators and video-on-demand services are forcing large entertainment companies to rethink their business strategies and innovate new and exciting ways to delight their customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


The MultiChoice Group and its companies have long provided subscribers across Africa with quality content, but in this new highly competitive and dynamic environment, it is imperative that it adapts its content and the way it delivers it if it wants to remain one of Africa\u2019s most successful entertainment businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


As part of its Digital Transformation journey, the MultiChoice Group partnered with Microsoft South Africa across various solutions including Azure, Microsoft 365, D365 and security services. Key to the relationship is the fact that both organisations share a future view of responsible innovation, as well as technologies and solutions that empower end-users.
The partnership is enabling MultiChoice to deal with the challenges of its ever-changing industry by driving efficiencies in the business through collaboration, and to explore innovative ways of delivering content to its subscribers thanks to Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analytics.
MultiChoice is streamlining its business, becoming more agile and innovative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


As a crucial partner in MultiChoice\u2019s Digital Transformation journey, Microsoft provides the platform and toolsets that allow it to take its new agile offerings to market quicker, cheaper and better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Azure as a platform for innovation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong> MultiChoice\u2019s Digital Transformation journey with Microsoft started four years ago when the company began exploring the use of Azure as a platform. Initial explorations began with light loads within the business\u2019s IT division, looking at the migration of tape libraries into the cloud. Since then, the relationship has grown exponentially, and MultiChoice is now running test and production workloads across the business. Optimising operations where possible and using Azure as an innovation platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In 2018 during the FIFA World Cup in Russia, MultiChoice demonstrated the power of cloud technology when it was able to stream the semi-final and final of the tournament to subscribers in 4k on the Azure platform, demonstrating just how quick and easy it is to spin up these types of services in the cloud and to deliver them to MultiChoice\u2019s customer base.
\u201cMultiChoice has chosen Azure as a key platform on their journey to the cloud,\u201d said Alkis Flemetakis, Account Director \u2013 Enterprise Commercial at Microsoft Corporation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are continuously assessing the environment and over the last four years, have created prototypes and MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) on the Microsoft cloud platform. Currently, MultiChoice are looking at migrating significant IT workloads to Azure and using AI and Machine Learning to develop innovative solutions for their customers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n


One such project, which is currently in proof of concept, is the dubbing and subtitling of content for different markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Brad Eliot, Group Chief Information Officer at MultiChoice, said: \u201cWe produce a lot of our own local content and there\u2019s a drive to see if we can use speech recognition to dub and subtitle that content. With the volume of media assets, we have literally thousands and thousands of hours of content, so doing this in a non-automated fashion would just be impossible and inefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A second key development, which will be launched next year, is automated highlights packages for sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Using Azure, MultiChoice will be able to produce highlights packages in near real-time for use not only in live broadcasts but also on social media platforms, meaning MultiChoice can still deliver live, easy-to-consume content to customers who are on-the-go but still want access to their favourite sporting content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Another added value service being explored is that of automated content moderation. Using Machine Learning, MultiChoice is exploring ways to automate the moderation of profanity, nudity and violence \u2013 linking to Microsoft\u2019s approach to responsible AI and providing customers with the peace of mind that their children will not have access to inappropriate content in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


MultiChoice is additionally looking to harness the power of AI and co-create innovation that is locally relevant. Through its partnership with Microsoft, MultiChoice is looking to leverage AI, Mixed Reality and Cognitive Services technologies that are radically changing the audience experience compared to traditional static linear TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


There is also the potential to use AI to improve accessibility for MultiChoice customers. Microsoft\u2019s Seeing AI app, for instance, narrates the world around a person, describing people, texts and objects, while Microsoft Translator provides real-time captions for the deaf or hard of hearing.
Other players in the Media and Entertainment industry are already enjoying success by leveraging these technologies: SkySports is using Mixed Reality for audiences to interact with well-known golfers, obtain vital stats on their games, as well as accessories, and US Football live event producers are using Mixed Reality to bring the real-life experience of the stadium to the home or sports pub. Families, friends can also engage in the experience using immersive technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


This shows that there are significant opportunities for MultiChoice within AI, Mixed Reality and Cognitive Services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


MultiChoice also recognises that there are opportunities available by leveraging the power of Microsoft\u2019s partnerships with leading media partner solutions which run on Azure, contributing to the modernisation of the broadcast value chain with a smooth transition in operations and minimal upskilling of staff as well as improving time to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Leveraging the insights from data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong> The ability to capture data, analyse it and then do more with it is top of mind for MultiChoice. The cloud allows for MultiChoice to store enormous amounts of data and overlay data analytics in order to develop valuable insights on how to better serve its customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


This insight then allows MultiChoice to shift from being a blanket content provider to being able to personalise the delivery of its services to its subscribers based on better knowledge of local audiences, ultimately placing it on an even footing with content providers who offer similar services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


MultiChoice can also analyse data on its devices enabling it to predict when a device might run out of space and even monitor the device\u2019s health, ultimately reducing costs when it comes to customer support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe are moving towards a data and analytics driven organisation,\u201d said Eliot. \u201cOur data warehouses have content that facilitates understanding of our subscriber preferences. We are modernising our data warehouses and Microsoft is helping us with their existing technologies. At the same time, we are looking to see how we can modernise our data structures by looking at Azure data services. We are currently looking at proof of concepts for technologies such as sim apps and hyperscale.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Trust as a key factor in opening up new opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong> Eliot believes that working with Microsoft has opened up opportunities that MultiChoice would never have been able to pursue without the access to cloud computing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cThe volume of data that we have and hundreds of petabytes of media assets \u2013 to do subtitling or to do content discovery across those volumes would be impossible and inefficient with on-premises compute. You have to have the scale of the cloud, and that\u2019s where these new kinds of opportunities are being opened up and are becoming quite real for the first time. The Machine Learning that we can do and the Artificial Intelligence that we\u2019re working on really wouldn\u2019t be possible without access to big cloud compute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Overall, trust has been the key factor that drove MultiChoice to partner with Microsoft on its Digital Transformation journey. \u201cMicrosoft is in the business of collaborating with and helping organisations digitally transform, with their technologies and tools enabling their customers\u2019 success in a seamless way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multichoice and Microsoft are working together to drive Digital Transformation for Multichoice, leveraging various solutions including Azure, Microsoft 365, D365 and security services. The partnership is enabling MultiChoice to deal with the challenges of its ever-changing industry by driving efficiencies in the business through collaboration, and to explore innovative ways of delivering content to its subscribers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":32322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,338,258,13,262],"tags":[385,12762,386,620,116,12763,12761,389,176,8720,3225],"class_list":["post-32321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-case-study-newsletter","category-newsletter","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-africa","tag-alkis-flemetakis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-azure","tag-big-data","tag-brad-eliot","tag-d365","tag-digital-transformation","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-365","tag-multichoice"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32321"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32385,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32321\/revisions\/32385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}