IBM development center opens in Budapest

The American multinational technology company IBM has announced the opening of an IBM Budapest Lab dedicated to developing new technologies for IBM Cloud Video to support the increasing demand for streaming video technology by companies across all industries.

A major focus will be
collaborating with other IBM sites to infuse cognitive capabilities into IBM
Cloud Video solutions to unlock data and insights from video. IBM estimates
cloud-based video will be a USD 105 billion market by 2019.

Last year, IBM combined Watson
and other cognitive technologies with its cloud video solutions for new pilot
services that automatically segment videos by understanding the content and
provide near-instant feedback to livestreamed events by tracking sentiment on
social media.

IBM also has used Watson’s
capabilities to enhance video in a number of ways, from helping create a movie
trailer to delivering closed-captioning in real time with subject-matter
expertise. Watson provided intelligent captioning to the US Open by learning
tennis terminology and names to improve accuracy.

According to IBM Budapest Lab
leader Gyula Fehér, “video is a fast-growing area in the cloud with companies
across all industries using video to improve communications with employees and
customers. Developers at the new IBM Budapest Lab already are working closely
with other IBM researchers to use Watson and other cognitive technology to
uncover new insights from video and provide new value to broadcasters and
content owners.”

The IBM Budapest Lab expands
on the work of the previous Ustream R&D Center in Hungary. IBM Budapest Lab
offices will stay in the heart of Budapest on Andrassy Street where the Ustream
R&D Center was located, and are being renovated and expanded to provide a
high tech and inspirational workplace for IBM employees.

IBM acquired Ustream in
January 2016 and made it one of the pillars of the newly created IBM Cloud
Video unit. IBM Cloud Video helps media companies and enterprises across a
broad range of industries, including retail, automotive, technology, education,
hospitality and healthcare, to stream live and recorded content through a
global network.