BOSTON, Mass.—AI-powered MAM software specialist Axle AI will showcase its newly launched Searchr, a system that integrates its media search and management software with fast, high-capacity network storage in a portable 5-pound unit, at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

Searchr raises the bar in terms of media searchability and performance for small teams, even at remote locations, the company said.

A growing trend is for smaller teams to do quicker editing work close to the source of video ingest. Searchr allows these teams to capture, store, search, edit and repurpose large amounts of high-resolution video files. Searchr’s integrated AI-powered cloud transcription and local search capabilities help video teams quickly locate and repurpose their best media, the company said.

Priced at $4,995 for a 5 Terabyte configuration, $5,995 for 10 TB and $6,995 for 20 TB, Searchr combines several advanced software and hardware technologies in a small package that fits in a backpack. Its dimensions–8.5-inches x 8-inches by 2.5-inches—lends itself to field deployment and do-it-yourself networking. Additional terabytes of disk and NVMe-based storage can be attached to Searchr via hardware expansion units, the company said.

Until now, systems with state-of-the-art media management and AI transcription were only available with expensive cloud subscriptions or in the case of on-premise systems, large server farms. Axle AI’s Searchr takes these capabilities to field capture and editing teams generating large amounts of content in areas like sports video, corporate video, YouTube channels, churches, governments and universities.

Axle AI’s included MAM media cataloging software, already deployed at over 1,000 sites worldwide, powers Searchr. Based on Axle AI’s modular platform architecture, the software can scan one or more volumes or folder structures (known as catalogs) on Searchr, the company said.

The MAM software offers:

• A simple browser interface for searching, browsing and playing media
• Drag-and-drop integrations with Premiere Pro, Resolve, Final Cut and Avid
• Elastic search for Google-style search capabilities across media files
• Automatic proxy generation for all files saved to Searchr
• Highly flexible user permissions that can be specified across one or more catalogs 
• 1,000 hours of bundled Axle Speech cloud transcription
• Integrated user interface for editing transcripts and annotating sub-clips
• Custom metadata fields definable on a per-catalog basis
• Two named user access, upgradeable to additional users
• Local network access and remote access options, including reverse proxy and VPN.

 Searchr also supports a range of add-on functionality from Axle AI and its third-party partners. These include: 

• Axle AI Connectr workflow automation
• Axle Tags on-premise AI processing, including semantic search, scene understanding and face, object and logo recognition
• Axledit collaborative browser-based editing and archiving interfaces to many leading cloud and LTO storage providers.

Direct video capture can also be supported via Softron, ToolsOnAir and other workstation ingest providers, and the system supports ingest from SSD drives captured on Atomos Ninja and Shogun devices.

Searchr includes innovative QNAP TBS-574X-i5 hardware, supporting:

• Collaboration workflows using standard protocols
• 13th-generation Intel i5 CPU with 12 cores and 16 Gigabytes of RAM
• 10GigE and 2.5GigE Ethernet ports for fast network connectivity
• Dual ultrafast Thunderbolt 4 interfaces, allowing direct concurrent client connections from 2 editing workstations
• Built-in RAID controller to ensure fault-tolerant storage  
• QNAP NAS operating 
• Full Mac, Windows and Linux client connectivity with support for any editing software
• USB-C 4.0. 

See Axle AI at IBC 2024 Stand 7.D12.

More information is available on the company’s website.

BOSTON—A new bundle of software and hardware solutions has been put together by axle ai to help media teams make the transition from physical to remote workflows called Remote Leap.

The Remote Leap bundle features a five-user version of axle ai 2020, the company’s remote access and search software with a browser front-end that lets users remotely access and tag, catalog and search media files. In addition, the bundle adds 500 hours per year of integrated AI-drive transcription; axle’s Reverse Proxy remote access option; and axle’s plug-in panels for Adobe Creative Cloud suite, as well as for Apple’s Final Cut Pro X software.

Remote Leap’s software functionality is also bundled with Apple’s iMac 27-inch 5K i9 hardware, which features Intel i9 processing capability, a Radeon 5000 series GPU, 16 GB of RAM, a 10 GB network interface and 512 GB of system SSD, as well as 8 TB of external storage to house streaming H.264 proxy media.

Users can connect Remote Leap to nearly any existing storage, axle ai says, whether on-premise or in the cloud. There are also modules available to integrate most archival systems.

axle ai has made Remote Leap available immediately for purchase ($11,995) or on a four-year lease ($295/month) with a $1 buyout at the end of the lease.

For more information, visit www.axle.ai.  

BOSTON—Software developer axle ai is launching a new Pro option for its 2020 software supporting Avid Media Composer, which is designed to enable Avid editors to access Avid native and other media content remotely through any standard web browser.

The axle ai 2020 Pro software catalogs and natively represents the Op-Atom media and can export AAF sequence files to the Media Composer editor, enabling subclip collections within axle ai can be directly placed on the Media Composer timeline. The software also creates low-resolution H.264 proxies of MXF Op-Atom media that can be processed by available AI analysis engines supported in axle ai 2020; this includes axle’s Speech cloud service, as well as Microsoft’s Video Indexer.

The Pro software works with Avid’s Nexis shared storage systems as well as third-party NAS and SAN storage. Additional features include integrated upload and download capabilities for moving files to and from remote locations.

Axle ai says the software runs on either MacOS or Linux servers.

The axle ai 2020 Pro software is available for $4,750 for two users, including one year of remote access and software updates.

For more information, visit www.axle.ai.  

BOSTON—American Public Television’s transition to working remotely because of the coronavirus was made a bit easier because of a previous decision to incorporate axle ai software into its workflow.

APT is a nonprofit organization that finds, curates, licenses and distributes content to public TV stations. They feature a catalog of hundreds of series and single event programs that until a few years ago was kept on physical media tapes and hard drives. Then they implemented axle ai to create a browser-based, shared media workflow.

“axle ai, as well as some of the other key network technologies we’ve implemented, like VPN and cloud storage, were the difference between being disconnected totally from our business due to COVID-19 and being able to operate at nearly regular capacity,” said Gerry Field, APT vice president of technology.

The axle ai software is designed to use industry standards and storage to simplify networked video workflows. This has enabled easy ingest content that comes in as files, or, if they come in as tapes, can be ingested and create a proxy for screening. According to Field, this extended APT’s access to content at the desktop regardless of location. Field also touted axle ai’s ability to be customized to fit their specific needs.

APT is moving to a new public TV member station interconnection system and has integrated axle with APT back-end business systems to link licensing and media access rights information. This allows for material to come into the APT’s cloud, sync it to local storage and make proxy copies.

In addition to full-length programs, APT is utilizing axle for promos, sizzle reels, clips and other promotional material.

For more information, visit www.axle.ai. 

BOSTON—Video search software provider axle ai has begun shipping its flagship 2020 product designed to make remote video work, transcription and tagging easy, the axle ai 2020.

The axle ai 2020 product offers native remote access to address ongoing workforce changes that see more people working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company said.

The product, available for a monthly subscription fee that ranges from $199 to $999 depending upon configuration, can include subscription-based automated transcripts of video using axle’s speech transcription engine. The company will also maintain its upfront license purchasing model for customers preferring that payment method, it said.   

The release’s integration with Adobe Premiere Pro CC supports transcript-aware timeline editing and seamless relinking of high-res media based on initial edits done with axle ai’s proxy media.

High-speed transfer to and from the axle ai 2020 server is included. Remote access to 4K and even 8K footage is supported using a standard browser. To accommodate these higher resolutions, the product makes low-res H.264 proxies of all video files that can be played in a standard web browser. It also creates proxies of audio and video files, as well as PDFs that can be browsed, axle said.

Media can be displayed in browsers for Macs, PCs, iOS and Android devices as well as with the company’s integrated panel for Adobe Premier Pro CC.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—axle ai, a software management company, has announced the launch of the ascribe.ai AI-driven video transcription service that is able to work with Adobe Premiere Pro.

Ascribe.ai is available through the axle ai website and the Adobe Exchange Application Marketplace at no charge. When registering, users receive a free hour of transcription of video content; after that, users can sign up for subscriptions that start at $4.95 per month for 2.5 hours, with lower prices in larger quantities. The service can provide transcriptions in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese, Russian and Korean.

The service creates an audio-only file that is transcribed in faster than real-time, featuring the transcript and relevant markers that are posted to the timeline in Adobe Premiere Pro. Users can also export an industry-standard SRT or VTT file with the transcript.

The same axle Speech services are used in ascribe.ai as in the company’s 2019 media management system for small and midsize video teams, but ascribe.ai is free and does not require a centralized database or shared network storage. The system can connect with Speech’s cloud service via nearly any connection, per axle.

The ascribe.ai system is available immediately from axle’s website, and will soon be available through the Adobe Exchange Application Marketplace.

Axle ai debuted the service at the Adobe MAX Conference.