Wasabi Technologies introduces Wasabi AiR

Wasabi Technologies has introduced Wasabi AiR ™, the industry's first AI-enabled intelligent media storage. Wasabi AiR combines Wasabi’s high-performance low-cost object storage with advanced AI metadata auto-tagging and multilingual searchable speech-to-text transcription. Video files uploaded to Wasabi AiR are immediately analysed and a second-by-second metadata index is created, enabling users to quickly find what they are looking for. Wasabi AiR greatly reduces the cost of metadata creation: with Wasabi AiR, customers pay only for the storage. There is no additional charge for use of the AI.

In January, Wasabi announced its acquisition of Curio AI, a state-of-the-art AI platform designed specifically to analyse and index large video archives. Now users simply upload their video files to Wasabi AiR storage and the AI automatically goes to work generating a rich second-by-second metadata index. Wasabi AiR uses facial recognition, searchable speech-to-text, multi-lingual translation, speaker recognition, optical text recognition, logo identification, and sounds recognition with unparalleled accuracy. Video archives currently stored on tape can be uploaded to Wasabi AiR storage and formerly “dead” content can become a new source of revenue and user engagement. Wasabi AiR is purpose-built for use cases including:

• Post-production: Quickly find and assemble video for news packages, highlight reels, social media content and more in real time to enable production teams to focus on creativity without being bogged down searching for content

• Sponsorship and marketing ROI: Find logos for sponsorship attribution with ease for ROI analysis

• Geo-diversity: Tailor content to specifically meet the requirements of geo-diverse audiences

"Wasabi AiR introduces a groundbreaking solution to a persistent 25-year-old challenge, combining AI-driven search capabilities with high-performance cloud storage. This marks a transformative shift in media management, offering efficiency and accessibility for businesses dealing with massive unstructured data.” According to Dave McCarthy, Research Vice President at IDC, “Wasabi AiR represents a significant advancement in tackling the longstanding issue of managing extensive data archives, within a substantial market for intelligent media storage solutions."

“Why move to the cloud if you still can’t find anything?” said David Friend, co-founder and chief executive officer, Wasabi Technologies. “Object storage without metadata is like a library without a catalog. Wasabi AiR works right out of the box and it’s as simple to use as popular search engines. For example, if it finds a face that it doesn’t recognise, it asks ‘Who is this?’ Using a simple UI, the user can train their own models. You can have tens of thousands of hours of video, and Wasabi AiR will take you right to the moment you are looking for. And you can search as much as you want – we only charge for the storage.”

Transformative Price Predictability and Performance Accuracy

Media organisations are operating under tighter deadlines and narrower profit margins and are looking for ways to speed production workflows while controlling costs. Wasabi AiR’s inexpensive, capacity-based pricing allows users the freedom to work with their content without being penalised with unpredictable fees for AI analysis, egress, or API requests, at a price up to 80% less than competitors. Both source files and metadata are owned exclusively by each customer – Wasabi never uses our customer’s proprietary data to train models that others can use. Files and metadata are secure and protected from ransomware, disasters or accidental deletions by Wasabi’s immutable storage and unique multi-user authentication.

“Wasabi AiR significantly reduces our manual efforts due to its seamless use of AI recognition technology to identify, organise and categorise files,” Drew Crisp, Senior Vice-President of Digital at Liverpool Football Club. “At the club we handle extensive media content, and so this enhanced efficiency could really help us to locate specific content quickly and accurately within our archive, and create new content streams quickly, empowering our creativity and innovation. Wasabi AiR transcends mere storage; it will become another key to unlocking the full potential of our content.