Trillium Media Technology

Trillium Media Technology

Situation

Billions of people in the world are consuming voice audio, music and video (collectively, “media”) on their phones, tablets and computers. Facebook has reached 100 Million hours of video watched per day.  YouTube has more than 1 Billion videos uploaded to it, with hundreds of millions of hours watched per day.  In the audio market, Spotify has just passed 100 Million users.  However, this massive explosion in media has created three fundamental problems:


  1. Media Consumers Cannot Socially Interact and Share Detailed Opinions: There is no accurate, flexible, consistent, standard and scalable way for people to interact in a socially extendable way with this media. There is no way for people to store, and then subsequently share, their detailed opinions on the content of a media file(s). These opinions can be any rating, opinion, comment, observation, favorite section, like, dislike etc. placed at any time in any piece of media along with time-stamping and file metadata.


  1. Media Consumers Cannot Effectively Manage the Explosion of Media They Are Exposed To:  The bulk of media consumers have more media available to them than they can possibly consume in their lifetime.  This raises fundamental questions such as:  1) how do I prioritize what media to consume?  2) when I consume great media I want to keep, how do I easily keep access to it?, and 3) what do I do if I only care about a certain portion of a media file, how can I just rewatch or relisten to that?


  1. Media Producers Cannot Effectively Manipulate and Share Media Content:  In addition to digital media being consumed, people also produce their own audio, music and video. To be clear, we are not only talking about media producers such as a music band.  In today’s world, virtually every media consumer is a media producer.  The manipulation of the content of these media files is not straightforward and the tools for doing so are either too simple to be of any real use, or too complex and expensive to be used by other than the professional market. However, even the professional tools still do not allow the efficient manipulation of the media by means of placing/recording actionable markers at specific time points in the media file. This makes the previewing, editing and broadcasting of such media files extremely difficult, very time consuming and totally unsatisfactory.


There is a fundamental solution called Intelligent Marketing Technology (“IMT”) that will allow these challenges and many others to be solved.  Our mission is to bring IMT to the marketplace such that it becomes a ubiquitous tool that all media consumers and producers utilize.

Solution

Trillium is developing a technology which will enable the placing of Intelligent Markers (IMTs) accurately at a specific time within any piece of digitally recorded audio, music or video. Several innovative and proprietary methods for placing intelligent markers will be developed, making this an easy and accurate process for media consumers and producers.  The IMT places accurate, time-specific markers regarding a specific piece of media along with any number of attributes attached to the marked point. These attributes can be comments, observations, favorite section start and finish, edit instructions, and many other marker options.  Each marker is stored along with all of its constituent attributes as a data item in a relational database.  Multiple markers across time enable the creation of processes.  And multiple people creating markers regarding a piece of content creates social feedback that does not exist today. 


The total markers applied to each piece of media is a completely new paradigm in terms of how that media can be previewed, edited or manipulated, broadcast, interacted with, and shared. 


A Critical Point to Understand:  This Solution Simply Does Not Exist Today


Think of the media you have consumed in the last 30 days.  Think also of all the videos you have ever watched on Google, Facebook, or some other platform.  Have you ever seen the ability to place time-specific markers “on top” of that content so that you can share specific opinions referencing a segment of the content?  


Also, have you ever been able to keep access to “the most hilarious part of the video” in your library playlist?  The answer is no… until now.


The net result is that all three of the problems listed above are solved with the IMT.  For the first time ever: 1) consumers will share opinions with each other regarding specific portions of a media file (or multiple files such as an entire music concert), 2) consumers will be able to intelligently mark media they have consumed to retain only “the Peaks”, and 3) any media producer can simply and intelligently review, edit, and broadcast media they have created.


The IMT core functionality will sit at the heart of a cloud-based, multi-layer client-server platform. Such platforms are the standard architecture for the massive multi-user applications in the world today. All of the global social network applications (Facebook, Twitter etc.); all of the major online retailers (Amazon), use such platforms.  


Real-Life Examples:  How the IMT Fundamentally Improves the Experience of Media


Individual Media Consumer – Marking their Favorite Portions of a Video and Sharing it

Imagine a user watching a 30 minute music video on YouTube. Our IMT solution will enable them to place markers at precise points in time in the video. The markers they place can have a number of pre-set attributes or certain attributes can be added. They may want to highlight the start and end of a guitar solo; they may want to just say that "this is my favorite part of the whole video; they may want to say that they were actually at that show, and you can see me at this exact place in the video; they may want to say "I put this marker right here because of [insert any comment or opinion].


IMT markers are stored by our platform enabling every user to build a presence on the platform consisting of any number of markers placed in any number of pieces of audio, music and video. All such markers and the information contained in their attributes will be available to all other users of the platform (subject to user controls). In this way, the markers and the content in their attributes can be consumed by all users of the platform. This can be at the level of "Show me which parts of this video user X liked best" to "Show me which part of this video is the most popular overall", or “Play me the most favorite solo from this track.” 


Media Producers – Real-time Music Collaborative Editing

Further, imagine a band recording in a home, small project, or professional studio (by far the fastest growing segment of the music recording industry are independent studios). As users of our platform they can use the preview and editor modules to place IMT markers in their recording. The markers in this use case make the production of a “final” track much easier than with currently available tools. There are attributes which will enable much more rapid file previewing, automated editing, and file manipulation. Routines can be run to enable the various marked sections of the music (or video) to be automatically re-arranged/assembled. Access and editing rights can be defined for specific users, to enable collaborative work on any piece of audio or video. 


Critical Unique Capability:  The ability for musicians in real-time to collaboratively mark their creation does not exist today and fundamentally brings a new level of musician collaboration to the marketplace for the first time.


Once the final version of the track is achieved, the band will then be able to “publish” it either to our platform or third-party platforms such as SoundCloud, Youtube, Facebook, etc. by means of the broadcast application of our platform. The band could broadcast the track with IM markers in place, which would draw listeners/fans attention to certain sections, or just make comments about the piece, its meaning, the recording process/place etc. etc.


Critical Unique Capability:  IMT markers placed in files can also be used to apply mastering processes, such as equalization, dynamic and spatial enhancement.  These markers applied to a specific music file can improve the sound quality as well as optimize it for various playback environments such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, or hi-fi systems.  The ability to apply and store song-based sonic optimization does not exist today and could dramatically improve the sound quality of every song played today.


Group Music Listening Experience – Real-time Markers Signal “Hot” Real-time Events

A favorite rock band is performing in concert and that performance is being streamed nationally through an existing streaming service.  IMT allows for users watching the stream to record in real-time their “hot spots”.  Simultaneously, other users can see the hot spot marking and elect to join in the stream.  At the end of the concert, a collective recording of the peak moments can be assembled and distributed by the band to their fans.

Where Does the IMT Show Up in Real-Life?

Because of the ubiquitous need for this capability, and the platform architecture described above, the IMT will be delivered in the following manner:

  1. Content Platform (mobile, desktop, tablet):  The platform itself will be an individual as well as social platform enabling any user to intelligently mark any media they either consume or produce, and share that with other users on the platform.


  1. Discrete Applications by Third-Party Developers:  Within the platform, as well as an SDK to enable users to develop their own applications based on the core technology.


  1. Plug-in's to Other Media Players: Core IMT functions such as previewing, editing, and publishing will be developed as plugins for third-party media applications such as DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)


  1. Embedded within Operating Systems: It is anticipated that the core IMT functionality will be desired by operating systems to embed within their capabilities, much the way file compression is now embedded within Windows (and shows up along the “right-click” menu.  

 

  1. Non-Visual Technology Utilized By Other Technologies:  The IMT core will be developed with API interfaces to exchange information with other applications.  Given the vast amount of new data the IMT will be collecting, it is anticipated than data integration will be a tremendous value enhancement for third-party companies.


A Game-Changing Data Implication

The various ways the IMT is delivered has enormous value implications. 


  1. Massive New User-Generated Data Set Applied to All Media:  Today, the data available regarding a media file applies only to the entire file.  This makes this data vastly generalized (for example, if a person likes a video, do they like the entire thing, or just the last 30 seconds which is hilarious enough for them to sti through the first 5 minutes.  


The concept of time-based data is new enough that an analogy might be useful.  Today, all data known about media is a view of the house from the front lawn looking at the house.  IMT content data is every person’s opinions of the house as they are taking a tour of it.  This begs the question, which opinion do you feel is more valuable?  


A critical component of this new data set is the fact that it is user-generated and specific enough to determine intent, a difficult proposition for existing data sets (e.g., when someone enters “Beyonce” into a search engine, you don’t know if it is a Beyonce fan or someone who doesn’t like here looking to read negative stories.


  1. Machine-Based Intelligent Markers:  While the value of user-generated markers from the social platform is dramatic, the importance of machine-based intelligent markers cannot be underestimated.  


  1. New Media Sharing Platform:  Because individuals will be able to share more intelligent markers than ever before possible, the data produced by individuals sharing these markers with their social network, or broadcasting them to the public will provide deep media consumption insights never before possible.  For the first time, we will have linked individual profiles (i.e. their Facebook profile information) to specific detailed media consumption and production.


  1. Easier Ability for People to Produce New Media:  The ability for non-professionals (as well as professionals) to easily review, edit, and publish new content with the platform will enable massive amounts of new media to reach the marketplace.  In addition, it will create a market for individuals looking to sell the rights to their content (i.e. paid audio podcast subscription).


Machine Learning, Deep Learning and IMT Content

Machine Learning and Deep Learning performance improvement relies on new data sets1.  The new data set of IMT Content is an entirely new dimension of data (time-specific), which is then able to be linked into processes.  Taken to the extreme simply for illustration and understanding, the potential data set of IMT Content is equal to the number of published media files multiplied by the time length of each media file (e.g., a 10:15 long music video), multiplied by the number of users (real users as well as machine-learning ‘users’) who have applied Intelligent Markers (e.g., 18,000 viewers who placed markers).


By now we’ve established that the data set captured by IMT Content is entirely new.  This brings us to the next point, which is:  “Is the value of the new data set collected valuable?”  The answer to that question could be phrased in the form of a question as well as such: “How valuable is intelligent data, that does not exist elsewhere, which details consumer preferences regarding the media they consume?”


Value For Media Consumers and Producers


All users of the IMT markers are members of the platform. The platform will offer the range of applications/user features mentioned above and more. ALL IMT markers placed by each user for each piece of media will be stored by the platform and will build a rich body of data. In this way, the platform enables users to produce/create data and to consume/use data either one to one; one to many; many to one; many to many, and so will become a media related eco-system which will be totally original and new.


Specifically, here is just a partial list of highly-valuable functions media consumers and producers will be able to do with IMT Technology that they cannot accomplish today:


Media Consumers


Media Producers


Value to Third-Party Platform Participants (e.g., Advertisers, Media Companies, etc.)

Simply put, IMT offers data far more rich in detail than any consumer feedback data today.  Instead of knowing whether a user simply liked or disliked a video, we will know specifically what parts they liked, why, and who they shared the best parts with.  The aggregated data from the IMT platform will provide valuable insight into user preferences and interaction across the audio and video media landscape.  


Advertisers will have the ability to target messages based not only on a person’s profile, but also based on specific media they have consumed and markers they have placed.  This enables advertisers to serve up far more targeted messages than available today.  In addition, media companies will be able to use the IMT platform aggregated data to produce and publish content more relevant to their target market.


Business Model


  1. Social Platform Users:  In many instances membership of the platform will be free, for example if the user wishes to be able to place IM markers in already published media and consume markers and marker aggregated info about a particular piece of media. This user base will constitute a major part of the “social” user community created by the platform. User adoption/growth would be achieved through a combination of viral and digital marketing programs. A short brand name will be chosen for the IM process such that it becomes verbified, as with Google, Skype etc.


  1. Commercial Transaction Model:  Some of the more specialized and specific applications provided by the platform will be chargeable. These will include the Previewer; Editor and Broadcaster.


  1. Plugin, Operating System Licensing Model:  The platform would also lend itself to integration into/with operating systems; media players; websites etc. and there is a clear licensing model for such integration. An API set would also be developed for use by 3rd party application developers


  1. Data Aggregation Licensing Model:  The value generated by mass-user/big-data platforms is now well understood. This platform will gather data on how users consume, interact and feel about the media they are consuming and creating. This data, in appropriately aggregated form, will be of value to numerous media producers; rights owners; brand owners and advertisers etc. It is quite feasible that the platform could even be used on actual advertising videos by users to comment and to share favorite parts of such videos, and this would open a completely new and powerful feedback channel for brands on their advertising.


  1. On-Platform Advertising Model:  Advertisers for the first can target individuals based on specific content they have marked, and the actual positive or negative markings they have given.  For example, an advertiser can target all users who have watched more than 30 minutes of how-to videos on a topic and gave those videos positive remarks, indicating their proclivity to purchase products or additional content within that market niche. 

Investment Level Needed and Use of Funds

Due to the tremendous value potential, the desire to make a dramatic market entrance to capture full valuation, and the proper strategic focus to be building IMT  intent as a ubiquitous platform solution, Trillium Media Software is seeking a capital partner interested in participating from concept stage through A Round funding levels.  Upon sufficient interest, Trillium Media Software is prepared to provide detailed funding requirements, build phases and costs, go-to-market strategy, and recommended structure and investment levels.

Summary

Intelligent, time-specific media marking technology offers the potential to dramatically improve how media is produced, experienced, shared, and stored.  This technology does not exist in the marketplace today and for the first time ever, will link user profiles to specific media attributes and processes.  Users will be able to collaborate around media in new ways.  Content producers will be able to easily get their best content out to the marketplace.

The combination of the social platform, the new data paradigm that results from it, and the dramatic need for individuals or groups to manage the exploding amount of media content available all point to a highly valuable enterprise with multiple monetization strategies which will provide a tremendous potential return for investors and founding shareholders.




1 Andrew Ng, Nuts and Bolts of Applying Deep Learning.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ka6a13S9I