SnapStream’s ‘TV Searcher’ Blog

The LA Times ran a story earlier this week about a big distributor of movies and TV shows dropping the VHS format.

Realistically, this doesn’t mean that VHS is dead — I’m sure VHS will continue to be used for things other than movies and TV shows.  But if the LA Times article is true, if this LA company is really the last distributor of VHS tapes, then that’s a significant step towards VHS completely going away.

Here at SnapStream, we often see our customers replacing very old VHS tape and VCR setups with the SnapStream Server so we have lots of photographs of VHS tapes.  Here are a few… in memory of VHS:

The City of Houston’s old VCR and VHS setup

The Plano Police Department’s VHS tape and VCR setup

VHS tape dubbing station at a law enforcement agency

VHS tapes — lots of ‘em — at a law enforcement agency

VCRs at a media company in Washington DC

VHS tapes (at a media company in Washington DC)

TVs and VCRs at a congressional office

Sometimes, we hear about cool and unexpected ways that our customers are using our TV search technology.  This one example.

Local TV stations live and die by their local news operations.  In their 2008 “State of the News Media”, The Project for Excellence in Journalism says:

Newsrooms are a big factor in the economic success of local television. They contributed 42% to a station’s total revenue, according to local news directors. And the majority of these news directors say their newsrooms are profitable.

So competitive intelligence for a local TV station is important — this means knowing who’s getting the scoop on local news stories and how other local TV stations are covering the local news.  And that’s why one of our local TV station customers started using their SnapStream Server to scan for the words “breaking news” filtered on the names of their local news competitors.

This particular local TV station setup multiple SnapStream E-mail TV Alerts on the exact phrase “breaking news” for each of their local market competitors.  And by setting the frequency to “as it happens”, the news director of this TV station now gets an e-mail alert everytime a competitive local station is reporting on “breaking news”!

For example, at 10pm yesterday, they might have received this mention of breaking news on our local ABC station:

13 Eyewitness News at 10PM  Yesterday, 10:00 PM - 13 hours ago >>> Breaking news tops the news, right now firefighters are battling a two-alarm warehouse fire. Authorities are not sure exactly what is burning at the elwood warehouse but they are evacuating that building. We have on the telephone assistant fire chief from the houston fire department omar longoria. Channel: 13 (KTRK) – Show Length:34:27 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

We thought this was pretty cool, so we’ve setup e-mail TV alerts on “breaking news” on a couple of the SnapStream Servers we are running here in our office.

So whether it’s sports news on ESPN:

SportsCenter  Today, 9:12 AM - 2 hours ago The sentencing hearing will be carried live here on “sportscenter” at noon eastern. Roger cossack will return to discuss that. We appreciate the insights this morning. >> My pleasure.breaking news out of the nfl and it is about the new england patriots who have signed another player. You may have heard of him before, linebacker junior seau entering his 19th season. He’s returning to the patriots once again. He played for them in 2006 and in 2007, a 12-time pro bowler. Channel: 33 (ESPN) – Show Length:59:42 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

Or celebrity gossip on EXTRA (OK, maybe they shouldn’t be calling some of this stuff “breaking news”!):

EXTRA  Wed 12/3, 4:33 PM - 2 days ago I have a contrac through 2011. So right now that’s what I have. Until somebody wris me another one. Ok? >> We need you. >> No, you don’t. >> Oprah was in new york last night honoring susan taylor. Breaking news. She reveals there’s big time confusion about who’s throwing the party of all parties at obama’s inauguration next mom. >> Everybody is calling me about having a party. Channel: 12 (KPRC) – Show Length:33:53 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

Or national news on Fox News:

Hannity & Colmes  Yesterday, 8:31 PM - 15 hours ago The next news break is about an hour away, “hannity and colmes” continues right now. breaking news tonight in the minnesota senate recount. While most of the votes are recounted norm coleman is sill in the lead. Yesterday 171 ballots turned up giving franken an extra 37 votes, and with thousands of challenged ballots, his 316 lead could easily change. According to the republican party of minnesota franken is calling for an investigation into a minneapolis church and could possibly be connected to more than a hundred missing votes. Channel: 38 (FNC) – Show Length:1:03:53 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

Searching on the term “breaking news” is one useful way to put your finger on the pulse of television!

Today, we’re taking pre-orders for a new TV search product from SnapStream – the SnapStream Mini.

There are many organizations that don’t need all of the power of a SnapStream Server, but still stand to gain alot from being able to monitor TV with our TV search technology.  And that’s why we created SnapStream Mini.

So like the SnapStream Server, SnapStream Mini gives you all the same power to search inside traditional TV shows for mentions of whatever it is you might be looking for. With SnapStream Mini you can:

• Record traditional TV from regular cable, digital cable, or satellite (SnapStream Mini includes a learning IR blaster)
• Schedule recordings using our simple program guide
• Search by keyword within recordings
• Get e-mail alerts notifying you of mentions of keywords on TV
• Easily create TV clips and then download them or e-mail them
• Burn DVDs of full recordings or clips

But here’s how SnapStream Mini is different from SnapStream Server:

• SnapStream Mini costs $2,000 (vs. SnapStream Servers which start at $8,000).

• SnapStream Mini can record 2 channels of TV simultaneously (SnapStream Servers can record as many as 10 channels simultaneously)

• SnapStream Mini can record and search over 1 terabyte of TV recordings, equal to about 1,100 hour (vs. SnapStream Servers have a default capacity of 2 terabytes space, about 2,300 hours, and can be purchased with up to 8 terabytes of usable space, about 10,000 hours.

• SnapStream Mini’s hardware doesn’t have any redundancy (vs. all SnapStream Servers have redundant power supplies and redundant storage arrays in RAID-5 configuration).

(this comparison table goes into a little more detail on SnapStream Mini vs. SnapStream Server)

So, SnapStream Mini is a $2,000 TV search appliance geared towards individuals and smaller organizations that want monitor television for whatever it is they are interested in.

We’re taking pre-orders now (place your pre-order here) and we expect to ship the first batch of SnapStream Minis on or before December 15th. And all orders include free U.S. ground shipping.