ARKA Mediaworks Partners with CIE-IIIT Hyderabad to launch MediaTech Startup Accelerator
2 years ago Rituka MOn February 7th, ARKA Mediaworks partners with CIE-IIIT Hyderabad launched MediaTech Startup Accelerator. This Program will be focusing on DeepTech startups leveraging AI, CV & NLP-led solutions.
About ARKA Mediaworks & CIE-IIITH
A leading motion picture production house, ARKA Mediaworks has since its inception pushed the boundaries of commercial cinema. ARKA is on a mission to create innovative and engaging content to capture large audiences. Moreover, ARKA has worked on multiple TV shows and movies in various languages such as Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, and Oriya.
Having worked on the blockbuster movie Baahulbali and left an indelible mark on Indian cinema, ARKA has been committed to this mission.
Founded by Shobu Yarlagadda, and Prasad Devineni in 2001, ARKA is a leading new-age production house aiming to revolutionize Indian cinema.
The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at IIIT Hyderabad, a technology incubator set up in 2008 has become the largest academic incubator in the country. Being a research-led innovator, CIE focuses on amplifying technology and IP through research collaboration and co-creation models for startups. They have nurtured multiple deep-tech start-ups in segments like med-tech, visual informatics, data engineering, machine learning, gaming, and robotics. Additionally, CIE at IIITH has been an ecosystem fostering the creation of technology solutions, innovations, and startups.
Launch of MediaTech Accelerator
CIE-IIITH has run multiple successful accelerator programs in the Deep-tech & Med-tech segments and has supported over 380 startups. Aiming to venture into the Media space, CIE-IIITH along with ARKA Mediaworks has launched the Media-Tech Accelerator. The accelerator programs are designed to discover and accelerate startups in Virtual Production, Web 3.0 (Blockchain, Metaverse) & Journalism segments.
Placing a larger focus on DeepTech startups leveraging AI, CV & NLP-led solutions, Shobu Yarlagadda, Co-Founder & CEO at ARKA said; “Movie production in India now leverages many of the latest technologies available globally. This accelerator will support Indian innovators and startups in creating new technology-driven solutions for the media and entertainment sector. The possibilities are immense. I’m looking forward to this exciting program.”
This program will be led by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prof. Ramesh Loganathan as Chief Mentors. New media is a convergence of digital production, including AI-powered journalism, with emerging virtual worlds, such as the metaverse. With the development in AI, this program will help startups leverage cutting-edge research work at IIITH. Consequently, they will also provide domain mentoring, market access, seed funding, and customer connections to help them achieve their respective goals.
AI-powered automatic editing, automatic dubbing, Lip Sync for movies, Computational Cinematography, Decentralized web, NFTs and News Analytics, Immersive and Interactive Mediums for Storytelling, and much more.
Adding, Shobu said; “In recent years, research in AI and other emerging technologies have made great strides making many challenging MediaTech solutions possible. This involves using computer vision AI for editing, and language technologies for evaluating scripts. Moreover, speech technologies can be used for realistic dubbing, blockchain powering metaverse solutions, and more.”
On the other hand, “Several research areas of AI and emerging technologies have made great progress. Enabling these from India is the focus of this accelerator.” says Ramesh Loganathan.
