PILOT Announces 2024 Innovation Challenge Winners at NAB

PILOT, the innovation arm of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), today announced Amira Labs, AudioShake and Chord Communities as the winners of the 2024 PILOT Innovation Challenge and named Black Stock Footage and ConnectionOpen as honorable mentions.

The winners will receive a trip to the 2024 NAB Show, held April 13�17, in Las Vegas. They will also be given exhibit space on the convention floor to demonstrate their products to potential customers, investors and partners, and the opportunity to present their findings in the Connect Zone Theater.

The PILOT Innovation Challenge specifically sought products or prototypes that align with three focus areas of the 2024 NAB Show associated with the content lifecycle: Create, Capitalize and Connect. Winning submissions provided compelling solutions to key challenges and opportunities facing broadcasters over the coming two to three years.

This year’s winners are:

• Amira Labs: Specializes in AI-centric, cloud-based broadcasting solutions for enhancing real-time audio and video content integrity with unparalleled multi-language capabilities. Cloud-based, containerized, AI-driven system designed for real-time audio and video processing, crucial for use-cases like quality service monitoring, content localization and metadata extraction for archiving.
• AudioShake: Opens up content workflows with audio separation AI. Its technology can split a recording into its stems to power next-gen audio experiences in film, TV, music and sports. AudioShake is used for audio editing, remastering, immersive mixing, synthetic voice, ASR, copyright compliance and more.
• Chord Communities: Enables broadcast organizations to easily create thriving online communities, rich with actionable first-party data. Its integrated customer data platform CDP and segmentation tools help broadcasters deliver relevant local advertising into their new online communities. The platform easily integrates into websites, dramatically increasing traffic, engagement and digital revenues.

This year’s honorable mentions are:

• Black Stock Footages: A stock video marketplace for video creators to download HD and 4K stock videos of Black people, cultures and activities. Helps to streamline production workflows with diversity-focused stock videos.
• ConnectionOpen: Provides a low latency, HD video/uncompressed audio solution for remote and home studio connections. It has features like screen sharing/sizing, an onboard recording device for backups as well as plugins for digital audio workstations (DAWs) using a variety of plugin formats. Windows, Mac and iOS compatible.

“This year’s Innovation Challenge winners and honorable mentions highlight the cutting-edge technologies that will help broadcasters meet the everyday challenges they face now, and those on the horizon,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “We are excited to provide these forward-thinking companies, Amira Labs, AudioShake and Chord Communities, with the opportunity to showcase their innovation at NAB Show in April.”