Axle AI FOCUS, revolutionary on-premise media search software, launches at IBC2026 Conference

Longtime industry leader Axle AI (Hall 7.D20), with over 1,000 MAM and DAM sites worldwide, introduces
integrated solution that runs locally, independent of cloud storage and AI providers.
Boston, September 3, 2026 – Axle AI, the leader in on-premise media asset management, is launching a
major new platform, Axle AI FOCUS, at Amsterdam’s IBC conference next week. Building on its eight
years of development of on-premise AI capabilities as well as its acquisition of Portfolio DAM from
Monotype/Extensis in March, Axle AI offers media teams FOCUS to have a single, unified interface for all
of their media, subclips and metadata – both AI-generated and human-tagged – regardless of where it is
stored. It brings the power of the AI revolution under your control, with a radically simple user interface
and affordable workgroup pricing. With social media marketing demanding constant repurposing of
existing media, a tool like Axle AI FOCUS is essential.
“In the last few years, we’ve seen a significant portion of the media industry conclude that while cloud
workflows may have their place, there is no substitute for the speed, security, control and searchability of
storing core media assets locally,” said Sam Bogoch, Axle AI’s CEO. “The sad fact is there are so many
tools for different phases of a media workflow, with so many different interfaces, that users get confused.
We decided to create a single, unified interface that follows you through the entire media workflow, from
ingest through final review, in a single, easy-to-use package.”
With its emphasis on privacy, security, and performance, Axle AI FOCUS starts with a 100% on-premise
solution. Its MAM and AI modules all run on affordable local hardware, with a smooth, integrated browser
front end that manages everything for creative users. No data leaves your site. To the extent Axle AI
FOCUS cloud capabilities such as the threaded review and browser timeline editor are invoked, they are
deployed at the sole discretion of the customer, and generally on customer-managed virtual servers – not
hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft or Google.
Beau Nilsson, Director of Post Production and Operations at Radley Studios, said “Axle AI gives us a
straightforward way to keep our projects organized and accessible. Just as importantly, their team has
been great to work with. We’re always experimenting with adding external tagging data into our Axle AI
catalog, and their support team is genuinely interested in helping us execute those ideas.”
Axle AI FOCUS brings together the feature sets of four previously separate Axle AI products under a
streamlined browser-based user interface and platform:
 Axle AI MAM
 Axle AI Tags
 Axledit / Axle AI Cloud
 Portfolio DAM
Axle AI FOCUS is available in 3 core configurations, each of which can be customized:
Axle AI FOCUS Field
 MAM
 Semantic search and scene understanding
 Panels for Adobe Premiere and other Adobe applications
 Drag and drop app for Resolve, FCP
 Full REST API support
 3 named-user license (expandable)
 Half-day onboarding and remote system configuration
From $2,995 USD per year
Axle AI FOCUS Team
 Everything in Field, plus:

 Trainable AI recognition models for faces, logos, objects, transcription and OCR
 Custom AI ONNX model support
 Connectr workflow automation, 2 concurrent workflows
 5 named-user license (expandable)
 1-day onboarding and remote system configuration
From $14,995 USD per year
Axle AI FOCUS Workgroup
 Everything in Team, plus:
 Raw camera format support and DPX image sequence workflows
 Portfolio DAM subsystem with image processing features
 Rough cut editing
 Cloud review and approval
 Connectr workflow automation, 8 concurrent workflows
 10 named-user license (expandable)
 20 named-user private cloud license (expandable)
 2-day onboarding and remote system configuration
From $28,995 USD per year
Axle AI will be demonstrating Axle AI FOCUS at Hall 7, stand 7.D20 at IBC in Amsterdam from
September 11 th through 14 th .
About Axle AI, Inc.
Axle AI, Inc. is dedicated to making media smarter. As the leading developer of radically simple media
search software that runs on premise, Axle AI has empowered its over 1,000 customer sites to solve the
key problem of finding and repurposing their video content. Axle AI’s solutions are renowned for their
ease of installation, use, and affordability, catering to diverse sectors including video post-production,
education, broadcast, corporate, sports, house of worship, non-profit, advertising, and government
organizations worldwide.

Axle AI is a privately held company, whose founders have extensive industry experience in DAM and
MAM. Investors include Emerging Ventures Capital, Stadia Ventures, Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH
accelerator, and Quake Capital. Axle AI’s CEO, Sam Bogoch, formerly led Avid’s Interplay Workgroup and
Media Central product lines; Axle AI’s growing team includes members with decades of work in the media
management and storage industry. www.axle.ai.

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