Sponix delivers AI tech for sports broadcasting with OCI AI Infrastructure
The sports-tech startup turns to OCI AI Infrastructure to provide immersive replay and virtual advertising using AI.
“To deliver leading AI-based, sports tech in broadcasting, OCI supports us with reliable, high performance compute and connectivity. Oracle provided deep engineering expertise, superior product capabilities, and the pricing we need to serve the sponsors and ultimately enhance the viewer experience.”
Business challenges
Sponix Tech offers immersive replay and virtual advertising technologies, which help enhance the fan experience, boost engagement, and create innovative revenue streams. Immersive replay technology allows fans to experience replays from unique angles (player perspectives). This elevates the viewing experience, making it more interactive and captivating, while also enhancing emotional connection, increasing viewership duration, and encouraging repeated tune-ins to improve fan retention and loyalty.
Sponix uses proprietary AI models that require intensive computing. For the company, high availability was a critical concern because broadcasting events can last 14 hours, and even a single blank frame in that time period is not acceptable.
Sponix Tech successfully implemented remote virtual advertising services with OCI AI Infrastructure. For example, the video feed on the right shows viewers different, localized advertising, versus the original video at left.
Why Sponix Tech chose Oracle
Sponix chose the highly available and performant Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Compute with GPUs for AI training and inference workloads because OCI was more affordable than other services. OCI’s globally distributed regions are interconnected and deliver low latency bandwidth and fast connectivity. Another reason Sponix decided to adopt OCI AI Infrastructure was Oracle’s engagement with the sports industry, including Oracle Red Bull Racing, Premier League, and SailGP.
Results
After using OCI regional endpoints in data centers throughout the world, Sponix delivered highly reliable virtual advertising content with continuous processing of video feeds lasting over 14 hours. Monthly expenses decreased by 20% because OCI offers 10TB of data egress allocations for free. Additionally, with OCI’s scalable compute and network, the company increased its simultaneous processing broadcast capacity, expanding coverage of more types of sports and developing more innovative products.