*By Christian Smith*
The streaming service Philo is testing a suite of new features to make watching TV more interactive, said the company's chief executive, Andrew McCollum.
"We do believe that we can make TV a much more social experience, and that's going to be a big innovation we can bring to the product," McCollum said Wednesday in an interview with Cheddar. "It's something that really no one is doing right now, and it has never really been done before, and we want to get it right."
McCollum wouldn't give many details about the new features, or when they would be released publicly, but he said the company's employees were testing the new features on an employees-only version of the platform.
"We're thinking about how exactly we want to roll it out. We generally prefer to do things in smaller pieces so that we can kind of see how people are using it," McCollum said.
Philo already offers a "deep link" feature that allows its users to share links to specific parts of a video, and a simplified sign-in process that only requires your phone number. McCollum said it takes about 10 seconds.
He was one of dozens of TV, cable, telecom, and tech executives participating at The Pay TV Show this week in Denver, where participants were discussing innovations and strategies in television.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/philo-plans-new-tech-innovations-for-streaming-service).
A.I.-based entertainment company, Deedub, recently raised
$20 million in a Series A round, led by Insight Partners. Deepdub uses A.I. technology to automate the dubbing process for foreign-language movies or TV shows, while using actors' original voices. The company says it can take just two to three minutes of data from an actor's voice and transform the voice into a different language. The funding comes as foreign-language films and shows like Netflix's 'Squid Game' have recently become more popular with audiences in the U.S. and around the world. Oz Krakowski, Chief Revenue Officer at Deepdub, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Energy Vault, the company developing sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions, is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the completion of its business combination with Novus Capital Corporation II. Energy Vault develops sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions designed to advance the transition to a carbon free, resilient power grid. Robert Piconi, co-founder and CEO of Energy Vault, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to disucss.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
Alyson Wilson, VP of Brand Innovation at Alo Yoga, joins Cheddar News to discuss the yoga apparel company entering the metaverse and teaming up with Spring Studios for New York Fashion Week.
Sēkr, a mobile app that aims to improve and digitize the outdoor travel experience, announced this week that it raised a $2.25 million seed round. In the Sēkr app, users can get access to more than 50,000 campsites throughout the U.S. including the nation's largest database of free campsites. The company is saying it is on a mission to make every step of the planning experience for outdoor travel easier, safer, and more social. Breanne Acio, co-founder and CEO of Sēkr, and Jess Shisler, co-founder and COO, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
