Black Goblin to debut Thol AI-assisted audio spotting tool at IBC2026

Following an open Beta, Black Goblin will showcase Thol's live cloud platform at IBC alongside a Pro Tools region-generation prototype developed as a custom integration for Dutch audio post-production studio Posta Vermaas. The company is also introducing cloud access to Thol through flexible pay-as-you-go credits and a “freemium” version. 

Developed for professional sound designers, Thol eliminates one of audio post-production’s primary administrative bottlenecks: manually spotting video footage for audio cues. Traditional visual event logging typically consumes 8x to 20x the runtime of a video edit. When combined with department cue sheets, library searches, and Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) session preparation, setup tasks can drain up to 30% of a project’s total schedule. 

Thol uses computer vision to analyse visual edits in a single pass, automatically identifying physical movement and visual triggers to generate time-coded sound cue sheets and editing markers. Built on an 'ethics-by-design' framework that ensures strict data provenance and model evaluation, this cue-spotting assistant is engineered specifically to automate repetitive administrative friction rather than displace human artistry. Exporting universal file formats, including MIDI and CSV, Thol integrates directly into major DAWs like Avid Pro Tools, Steinberg Nuendo, Cockos Reaper, and Apple Logic Pro. 

In a baseline funded pilot with the BBC through the MyWorld Amplifying Imagination programme, Thol saved over 200 hours of manual setup labour across the post-production team for a single 90-minute film. In its ongoing trial with Posta Vermaas, Thol’s computer vision engine generates precise, automated editing regions for Foley artists and sound editors directly within Pro Tools. 

"Automated spotting is exactly where AI belongs in the creative industry: it takes over the time-consuming, repetitive work so that human effort can go where it matters, the creative side of post sound," said Casper Molin, Sound Design, Posta Vermaas. "That's why Thol's idea resonates with us. It reflects how we think collaboration between creatives and AI should work: assistance with the non-creative tasks, more time for the creative ones." 

"Post-production deadlines are tightening across broadcast and streaming,” said Ana Betancourt, Founder and CEO, Black Goblin. “This comes at an enormous toll; nearly a third of sound post teams’ time goes to manual setup. In turn, this takes them away from the tasks that ensure quality and narrative remain at the centre. Having proven Thol in Open Beta with hundreds of award-winning designers, IBC is about showing how AI tools can be designed ethically and help teams reallocate valuable setup labour back into iconic sound designing." 

Black Goblin is launching an open call at IBC2026 for two European post-production studios to join paid enterprise pilots aimed at adapting Thol into custom offline studio architectures. 

Black Goblin will demonstrate Thol as part of EIT Culture & Creativity's Scale programme presence in the Future Tech Ignite Innovation Village at Stand 14.FT102. 

A group of EIT Culture & Creativity-backed ventures arriving at IBC2026 offers a snapshot of where European media innovation is heading next.  Discover more here.