Turner Broadcasting, which runs CNN, is deepening its ties with an Israeli startup that allows content producers to broadcast live video generated by users at conferences, protests, product releases or any event.
The Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation announced that Turner and Snappers, an Or Yehuda, Israel-based company are to receive a grant to help jointly develop the crowdsourced video platform.
The project was one of nine BIRD announced in July it would fund with up to $1 million. BIRD is splitting $8.2 million among the most recent awardees, but private-sector funding will increase the value to $20 million.
Snappers and Turner have interacted before: In 2017 the company was part of the Tel Aviv version of The Bridge, a commercialization program backed by Coca-Cola Co. with partnership from Turner and Mercedes-Benz.
The company says it can help bloggers and media outlets “cover the world without leaving the office” by turning event participants into field reporters and letting content producers more quickly broadcast the event to their audiences, adding commentary along the way.
Snappers is led by founder and CEO Dov Zales, who studied industrial design and telecommunications in Uruguay and has a history of product design in electronics.
Georgia companies working with Israeli firms have benefited for years from the program, this being the 12th chosen since 1981. In January, Alpharetta-based building inspection systems provider TEKWave was tapped for a grant with Israel’s MS Tech Ltd. to help develop a process for rapid field analysis of chemicals and opioids using nanotechnology sensors.
View all BIRD projects announced in July in a news release here.
View all Georgia-based BIRD projects here.
Atlanta International School is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Technology Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Tech newsletters.
