CrowdOptic and The Big Picture Film and Video Arts Partner to Pinpoint Locations for Breaking News

SAN FRANCISCO and SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Sept. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CrowdOptic, a maker of crowd-powered mobile applications, and The Big Picture Film and Video Arts Inc., a leading provider of video production solutions for broadcast television, today entered into a broad agreement to tag news reports in real time with the precise GPS location of the breaking news event – a breakthrough capability in the Electronic News Gathering industry, where traditionally only a reporter's location is known.

CrowdOptic technology will allow broadcasters with the The Big Picture to tag a breaking news event, such as a fire "in the hills," with a precise GPS location during a real time broadcast, which can be used to automatically cluster, verify and broadcast all photos and videos of that same location. "A news event may be tagged on a map at the newsroom and then all photos containing that location's tag may flow into a control room as reporters, or even the general public, through crowdsourcing, supply supplementary photos and videos," said George Lang, president at The Big Picture.

"When precise GPS coordinates are known, they can be used to invite contributions which will be automatically clustered and verified," said CrowdOptic CEO Jon Fisher. "This partnership is a major milestone in the nature of how news is broadcast."

CrowdOptic's technology, which identifies and tags the location of focus of a group of mobile phones in real time, works by using sensor data on smartphones to determine where a phone is aimed and to identify clusters of phones with the same focus. Photos and videos of that location are automatically tagged and cameras aimed at the tagged location are instantly identified. CrowdOptic technology can operate in real time as part of a live broadcast or retroactively to cluster and tag material from historical broadcasts. 

About The Big Picture Film and Video Arts Inc.
For the last fifteen years, The Big Picture has been a leading provider of video production solutions for corporate, episodic, and broadcast television clients. The Big Picture creates a variety of productions including corporate videos, web videos, corporate events, ENG (Electronic News Gathering), episodic television, satellite media tours (SMT), multi-camera live-event coverage, commercials and documentaries. We work in a variety of video formats and specialize in High Definition. Visit http://thebigpicture.tv for more information.

About CrowdOptic
CrowdOptic is a new crowd-powered "heat" signal – the only technology that can decipher where fans are located and where they are focusing their camera phones to create better opportunities for fan engagement. CrowdOptic analyzes hundreds of millions of mobile social media posts to identify, tag, and rebroadcast the most relevant videos, photos and social media content and join fans into live discussions. CrowdOptic is privately held and based in San Francisco.  For more information, visit www.crowdoptic.com.  

SOURCE CrowdOptic