Israel is a country that’s known for its tech ecosystem. Israeli startups are at the forefront of innovation, and they’ve been successful in dominating their respective industries. Israeli entrepreneurs are always on the cutting edge, making them some of the most desired entrepreneurs around. In this series, I cover the leading startups to watch.
In this interview, I talked to Gal Oz, Co-founder & CTO of Pixellot.
About Gal:
Gal served for nine years with an elite R&D unit in the Intelligence Corps of the IDF, managing development groups of computer vision and GIS application developers. During that time, he worked with different visual platforms to capture information, from UAVs to satellites. Prior to Pixellot Gal co-founded SportVu with Dr. Miky Tamir (Pixellot’s co-Founder and Chairman) and served as the CEO and R&D Manager of the company until it was sold to a US-based company, STATS, in 2008. Gal obtained a Master’s degree in Bioengineering from Tel Aviv University.
About Pixellot:
Pixellot offers automated sports production and data extraction solutions that provide affordable alternatives to traditional video capture, production, and distribution systems for professional and semi-professional sports events. Founded in 2013, Pixellot’s AI technology solution streamlines production workflow by creating a stitched panoramic image of the entire playing surface. Advanced algorithms enable automated coverage of the flow of play and generate highlights. Pixellot systems are deployed by broadcasters, production companies, clubs, federations, universities, high schools, sports portals, and coaching solution providers around the globe.
Pixellot broadcasts over 80,000 games per month of over 140 leagues and tournaments, from 18,000 sports fields, from 57 countries around the world.
Q: Where did the initial idea for the company come from?
Since the mobile phone revolution made the cameras much cheaper and higher quality in the latest years, the idea was that it was time to capture the sports field in a new panoramic way that would cover all the fields and change the way sports production was made.
later we also realized that with this technology, we can create a fully automatic production without any man in the loop and bring the TV coverage to any sport type and any level of athlete
Q: What are the key differentiated features of your product or service?
Scale, expertise, and an end2end solution
Scale
Over 17,000 Pixellot systems are deployed by broadcasters, production companies, clubs, federations, universities, high schools, sports portals, and coaching solution providers around the globe. Pixellot’s vast experience in providing cost-efficient live coverage for sports has made it the solution of choice for thousands of teams and federations. To date, Pixellot has produced over a million live games from 57 countries across the globe, and that number is growing day by day, with over 100,000 games produced last month!
Expertise
In 2013 Pixellot pioneered the concept of automated sports production solutions as an affordable alternative to traditional video capture, production, and distribution systems. Since then, Pixellot’s award-winning, end-to-end, AI-automated technology captured, produced, and streamed more than 1 million games to millions of devices live or on-demand.
End2end Solution
In the last two years or so, we substantially upgraded our offering.
At the end of 2019, Pixellot acquired VidSwap, a sports analysis and video-sharing solution designed specifically to serve sports organizations, coaches, leagues, and teams. The solution breaks down games and pre-tags all the actions to save coaches time while enabling them to improve team performance and teach more effectively.
In 2020, Pixellot launched the Pixellot YOU platform. A DIY platform that took our advanced video tracking technology and made it available for everyone. Got a GoPro or a high-quality action camera? Now YOU can tap into our technology! At the end of 2020, we officially launched the portable ‘AIR’ camera that was co-developed with the Barça Innovation Hub, the FC Barcelona platform for innovation, research, and knowledge, and the Barça Academies.
In parallel, we developed our OTT (Over the Top) broadcast platform that allows every sports organization to create a channel! They can now get sponsors, receive revenue from fans and families, and engage more people with their video. These revenue streams were very valuable during the pandemic when fans stayed at home.
Q: How does the company market or plan to market its products or services?
We work with local office partners, distributors, or directly.
Q: What kind of CRM software is your company using?
We use Zoho
Q: What’s the first bit of advice you’d give to someone who’s thinking of starting their own Startup?
Ask yourself: What can you do better than others? Do you have a great idea? Can you bring the technology solution? Do you have great business skills? Are you a good manager?
Answer those questions and know your position in the Startup. Focus on what you do best. Many entrepreneurs don’t know to let go and don’t recognize their limits.
Q: What is the key to happy clients?
Make every client feel he is your number one!
You can over-promise, but you must believe that eventually, the client will be happy, even if the road there is a little jumpy.
Q: How do you strengthen your ability to focus on what matters?
Build a vision for the company and check everything you do how it makes you closer to this vision.
Prioritize your attention to the tasks that have the biggest influence on the vision.
Always know your clients and what is really important to them.
Q: What other companies or startups inspire you?
Companies that give a great solution to a simple problem are more impressive than companies that give complicated solutions to complicated problems…
Great examples are Mixtiles and Sensibo.
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