Introduction

Live sports are being redesigned for a world where the phone is the main screen, held upright, scrolled quickly, and watched in short bursts. Fans now view matches in portrait, dip in and out of highlights, and expect the key moment to fill the screen. On a small display, a horizontal 16:9 feed makes players look tiny and turns graphics into clutter. This blog takes a clear, practical look at how AI-powered smart-framing, brought to life by QuickFlip, reshapes live coverage for vertical screens, keeping the story intact while making every moment easy to see and follow.

The Mobile-First Sports Revolution

Mobile fundamentally changes the language of live sports. Small screens and vertical orientation demand immediacy: the ball, the key players, and the decisive space must be immediately legible. Simple centre crops of horizontal feeds often miss the story, an overlapping run in football goes unseen, a wicket event in cricket loses the crease context, and a tennis rally oscillates too quickly for a static crop to follow.

AI is ushering in a new era by automating format adaptation. Instead of treating vertical as a resized afterthought, AI reframes action in real time, preserves critical context, and maintains the feel of a directed broadcast. The result is mobile‑native storytelling: decisive moments are larger, the framing is centred, and graphic overlays are unobtrusive during live broadcast.

Quickflip, The AI-Powered Smart-Framing Tool

QuickFlip leverages state-of-the-art AI models to convert traditional 16:9 horizontal video feeds into dynamic vertical formats like 9:16 and 1:1. The technology uses its machine learning capabilities to precisely identify and emphasise crucial moments in the game. This isn’t a fixed or manual crop. It reads the game. It identifies the ball, players, officials, and crucial landmarks, like goalposts, the crease, baselines and composes a shot that tells the right story for a vertical screen. It follows each sport’s rhythm and rules, keeping enough of the scene centred to understand what’s happening, and brings the key moment forward so it’s easy to see on a small screen.

For broadcasters, this translates into clearer viewing and stronger engagement on mobile, new vertical‑native sponsorship formats that fit naturally, creative freedom to tell the story the way fans consume it today, and the ability to produce a mobile‑first feed alongside the main TV feed without doubling the crew.

Under the Hood

QuickFlip’s AI leverages an attention training mechanism that tracks where the human eye focuses during a cricket game. The AI model is trained using extensive datasets from previous sports broadcasts, ensuring it can accurately identify moments of action and adjust framing in real-time.

One of QuickFlip’s key features is its Smart Cut Detection System. This system reads the incoming world feed and automatically detects scene transitions, ensuring smooth cuts between camera angles without breaking the viewer’s experience. 

This technology also introduces a flexible control layer, giving broadcasters the ability to customise their setup across fully on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid production models. It also integrates on-air graphics tailored for vertical screens.

Environmental sustainability is another area where QuickFlip stands out. By eliminating the need for additional cameras, on-site equipment, and personnel,  it reduces the overall carbon footprint while also significantly cutting down on operational costs.

QuickFlip’s Road Ahead

Vertical isn’t a bonus anymore, it’s a broadcast necessity. Fans are watching, sharing, and engaging with live sports on their phones more than ever. For leagues and broadcasters actively investing in digital engagement and fan-first innovation, QuickFlip helps them meet fans where they are, with content that fits how they watch.

As Quidich progresses, we’re building deeper integrations in football to unlock more immersive and insightful vertical viewing. At the same time, QuickFlip is expanding across multiple sports, including golf, tennis, motorsports, and the NFL, broadening its global impact. A key focus is preserving critical in-game details that are often missed in vertical formats. We’re also developing interactive graphics that let viewers explore live stats, player data, and more, making vertical viewing as informative as it is engaging.

From Filmmaking to Vertical Production

At Quidich, our Co-founder, Rahat Kulshreshtha’s roots in filmmaking and aerial cinematography turned into a vision that led to the invention of QuickFlip, bringing the language of cinema to live sports so every moment feels immersive, personal, and emotionally resonant on a phone. That vision shaped our journey: we took what makes great shots in film, steady feed, clear focus on the subject, and a sense of anticipation. Over time, this creative approach became our way of telling sports stories, guided by a filmmaker’s eye and built for modern, mobile-first viewing.

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