Dual Awards Signal a Breakthrough in Live Production Automation
viztrick AiDi, developed by Nippon TV and commercialized with FOR-A as GoVertical! AiDi, has emerged as a standout innovation in live production automation. The system’s AI auto-tracking live streaming capabilities and real-time video cropping earned it two major honors: NAB Show’s Product of the Year in the Streaming category and Future Publishing’s TV Tech Best of Show award. Both awards are judged by panels of industry peers and engineers, emphasizing innovation, feature set, and real-world value. What set AiDi apart is its ability to process live video at true broadcast speed, powered by high-performance GPUs, without relying on the cloud. This recognition underscores how fast, on-device intelligence is becoming central to next-generation live workflows, where production teams must deliver flawless vertical video format content alongside traditional broadcasts with minimal added complexity.
Real-Time Auto-Tracking and 9:16 Cropping for Vertical Streams
At the core of AiDi is on-device AI that automatically tracks players, faces, or key objects and dynamically reframes the shot for a 9:16 vertical video format. Instead of assigning operators to manually follow the action or set up separate cameras, the system performs real-time video cropping from the main feed, creating a mobile-friendly frame on the fly. This approach addresses the surge in demand for vertical viewing on social platforms and mobile apps. AiDi’s auto-tracking keeps the subject centered while preserving essential context, so audiences on phones see a polished, native vertical feed rather than a simple cut-down of a horizontal picture. Because all of this happens in under one second of latency, the vertical stream remains tightly synchronized with the main broadcast, preserving the immediacy that live sports, entertainment, and news require.
Eliminating Manual Camera Work and Complexity in Live Events
By combining AI auto-tracking with intelligent cropping, AiDi significantly reduces the operational workload traditionally associated with multi-format live streaming. Broadcasters can rely on a single primary camera or production feed, while AiDi generates optimized vertical outputs automatically. This dramatically cuts the need for dedicated camera operators or additional rigs solely for vertical capture, simplifying both on-site and remote production setups. NBC Sports’ Tim Canary highlighted the near-zero latency—outputs are delivered in under one second—as a key advantage for live sports, where delayed or mismatched footage is unacceptable. Unlike many cloud-based solutions that introduce five to ten seconds of delay and require complex connectivity and labor-intensive workflows, AiDi’s on-device processing keeps the pipeline lean. For producers, this translates into fewer staff, fewer failure points, and a more streamlined path from lens to screen.
Multi-Format Streaming from a Single Source Feed
AiDi’s architecture is designed for multi-platform live content delivery, allowing multiple simultaneous outputs from a single source. Producers can generate a traditional 16:9 program feed for linear channels while simultaneously delivering 9:16 vertical streams for mobile platforms, social networks, and apps. The system’s AI-driven player tracking, face tagging, object recognition, and motion data analytics further enrich these outputs with context-aware framing and graphics. Because the processing is entirely on-device, broadcasters can deploy AiDi in outside broadcast trucks, studio control rooms, or remote production hubs without depending on stable internet connections. This flexibility supports everything from live sports and red-carpet events to conferences, news coverage, and scripted or unscripted entertainment. The result is a more agile production ecosystem where one capture pipeline serves many destinations, improving ROI on equipment and meeting audiences wherever they choose to watch.
Meeting the Growing Demand for Always-On Vertical Content
As viewing habits shift toward mobile-first consumption, the pressure on broadcasters to supply continuous, platform-specific live content is intensifying. AiDi directly addresses this trend by enabling live production automation that scales without proportional increases in staffing or infrastructure. 9:16 vertical streams can be spun up instantly for breaking news, movie trailers, or pop-up live events, giving content owners more opportunities to engage audiences and unlock new revenue channels. FOR-A America’s leadership emphasizes that AiDi “instantly unlocks revenue streams with mobile phone viewers,” reflecting how vertical live experiences are moving from optional extras to core offerings. With latency kept to under a second and no dependency on cloud services, broadcasters can maintain the immediacy and reliability audiences expect. As AI auto-tracking live streaming tools like AiDi evolve, they are poised to become standard in any workflow aiming to deliver simultaneous, high-quality vertical and horizontal live video.