SnapStream Mini offers video search for the individual

You might remember my interview with SnapStream CEO Rakesh Agrawal from last summer. We talked about the SnapStream Enterprise server. Now the Houston-based company is targeting the individual or smaller group that wants the same video searching power:

SnapStream Mini is a dual-channel TV search appliance that allows individuals or organizations to record 1000s of hours of television and then search within those television shows for whatever it is they might be looking for. A cross between a DVR and a search engine, the SnapStream Mini gives individuals and organizations the ability to record television, search within those recordings, create TV clips and then take those clips and email, store or burn them to DVD.

Political video blogger Jed Lewison, whose videos have logged more than 15 million views, uses SnapStream to find relevant TV content for his video blog posts. Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s Campaign team used SnapStream TV search to stay informed of campaign news and the media's reaction to her campaign's platform.

SnapStream Mini allows organizations to:

- Record 2 channels of traditional TV from regular cable, digital cable, or satellite
- Schedule recordings using a simple program guide
- Search by keyword within recordings
- Get email alerts notifying mentions of keywords on TV
- Create clips and download or email them
- Burn DVDs of full recordings or TV clips

The SnapStream Mini costs $2,000, includes 1 terabyte (TB) of storage (~1000 hours of recorded video) and is geared towards individuals and smaller organizations including bloggers, independent media, classrooms and small media monitoring companies. SnapStream expects to ship the first batch of Minis in the first quarter of 2009.

More here

VIDEO: Rakesh Agrawal of Snapstream on BarCampHouston3 TV

If you work in TV news or PR then you will really want to watch this. Rakesh Agrawal of SnapStream stops by my BarCamp Houston 3 TV to talk about SnapStream Enterprise and Beyond TV.

SnapStream Enterprise is a server you can buy that records up to 10 channels and then lets you search the video with text.  Say you want to see TV shows in your 10 recorded channels that feature the terms "Mike McGuff," "Breaking News," "Dr Pepper Icee" or whatever strikes your fancy.  Instead of searching yourself, the system will send you an email alert as it happens. I'm sure media folks can see the value in this.

Rakesh also talks about how Joel McHale and The Soup producers use the product.

http://www.snapstream.com/enterprise/
http://www.snapstream.com/

Stay tuned. More BarCampHouston3 TV on the way. You will be able to see all of my BarCampHouston3 videos here.  And here is more on BarCamp for those who are asking. 

Houston's SnapStream introduces world’s largest DVR at NAB

Steve Safran of the Lost Remote shows us SnapStream's latest video server that the Houston company took out to NAB last week:

It can record 50 channels simultaneously and store up to 13 years of programming – the equivalent of about 325 TiVo boxes. (And you thought your DVR library was getting backed up.) No, it’s not on the consumer market. SnapStream says it’s just a way of demonstrating its recording and search tech. READ THE REST

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- Searching keywords on TV programs, then blogging it
- SnapStream Mini offers video search for the individual
- VIDEO: Rakesh Agrawal of Snapstream on BarCampHouston3 TV

Searching keywords on TV programs, then blogging it

I have blogged about SnapStream in the past because it is a Houston-based company that is pushing the boundaries in my opinion. Heck, the company powers one of my favorite shows The Soup with Joel McHale on E!.

The company's latest project focuses on searching for keywords in TV shows. Here is some of what the company sent me about what it calls TV Trends:

It allows users to analyze what’s being talked about on television by searching word frequency within national news programs (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN & MSNBC, all recorded daily by SnapStream Servers). The search results are then displayed as a graph, which can be embedded into research papers, blog posts, or websites.

Using multiple SnapStream Servers to record and then search national TV news programs, TV Trends allows users to track what’s being said on television. TV Trends updates a “Hot” and “Cold” quick list daily which lets you see what’s being talked about more or less frequently than in previous days. The hot trends are those words/phrases that are appearing more frequently than in previously collected data; the cold trends are those words/ phrases appearing distinctly less often.

So let's search for mentions of Houston, Dallas and Austin. Here are the results from TV Trends:



I can see journalists and bloggers using this.

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VIDEO: Rakesh Agrawal of Snapstream on BarCampHouston3 TV