Blackbird to drive fast, flexible, efficient cloud native video workflows for Athletes Unlimited

USA - English

• USA - English

NEW YORK and LONDON, July 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbird plc (AIM:BIRD), the developer and seller of the market-leading cloud native video editing platform, Blackbird, announced today that Athletes Unlimited has chosen Blackbird to drive fast, flexible and efficient cloud native video workflows.

Founded by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros, Athletes Unlimited is a fast-growing network of next generation US sports leagues covering softball, volleyball and lacrosse. Making key decisions regarding how the leagues are run, professional athletes compete in innovative versions of their sports scoring points to move up and down leader boards with the ultimate aim of being crowned Athletes Unlimited Champion. Via a tiered membership program sports fans are able to enjoy live games, a broad library of great content and engage with their favourite players.

Athletes Unlimited will deploy Blackbird for high performance, scalable cloud native video editing of its sports content. Using browser-based Blackbird, the media operations team will have instant access to live and file-based content for the rapid editing, enriching and publishing of content to the Athletes Unlimited website, social channels and broadcast partners for fans to enjoy. Blackbird will enable remote production eliminating the need to travel to a facility or event and also remove the need to transit material back and forth from multiple local storage environments. Blackbird will be deployed within Athletes Unlimited's Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure.

Athletes Unlimited CEO and Co-Founder, Jon Patricof said: "We are thrilled to engage Blackbird and their suite of world class editing and video collaboration tools that will enhance our digital storytelling during our softball, volleyball and lacrosse leagues."

Blackbird CEO, Ian McDonough, added: "It's fantastic to be rolling Blackbird out to another US sports client. Athletes Unlimited will use Blackbird, the world's most advanced cloud editing platform, on a wide variety of sports in broadcast and digital workflows both live and file based.  We are delighted to be a part of the monetisation and scaling of their sports leagues."

Blackbird drives awareness, monetization and efficiencies for brands in the sports, news, entertainment and enterprise sectors. The company's customers include Tata Communications, EVS, BT, IMG, Univision, Sky News Arabia, A+E Networks, NHL, Eleven Sports, Riot Games, the U.S Department of State and 69 local US news stations with TownNews.

About Athletes Unlimited 

Athletes Unlimited is a new model of pro sports where athletes are decision-makers and individual players are champions of team sports. We literally change the game with faster play and new team rosters every week, delivering next-level competition and engagement in which every moment counts. The first season of women's softball was completed in 2020 and the first season of women's indoor volleyball was completed in March 2021. The inaugural season of women's lacrosse launches in July 2021 and the second season of softball kicks off in August 2021 to be followed by season two of volleyball in 2022.

About Blackbird plc

Blackbird plc operates in the fast-growing SaaS and cloud video market. It has created Blackbird®, the world's most advanced suite of cloud-native computing applications for video, all underpinned by its lightning-fast codec. Blackbird plc's patented technology allows for frame accurate navigation, playback, viewing and editing in the cloud. Blackbird® enables multiple applications, which are used by rights holders, broadcasters, sports and news video specialists, esports, live events and content owners, post-production houses, other mass market digital video channels and corporations.

Since it is cloud-native, Blackbird® removes the need for costly, high end workstations and can be used from almost anywhere on almost any device. It also allows full visibility on multi-location digital content, improves time to market for live content such as video clips and highlights for digital distribution, and ultimately results in much more effective monetisation.

Blackbird® is a registered trademark of Blackbird plc.

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SOURCE Blackbird plc