SnapStream Server

The SnapStream Server is a cross between a DVR and a search engine that enables organizations to monitor television based on the closed captioning mandated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attached to every program. The hybrid DVR-search engine is a product of convergence from Houston-based software developers at SnapStream Media, originally known for their consumer product Beyond TV.

The rack-mounted SnapStream Server connects to a PC running the client software, Enterprise TV Link, made for Microsoft Windows. One SnapStream TV search engine can record up to 10 channels simultaneously and internally store 30 TB, which equals approximately 17,000 hours of video content; the absolute archiving capacity depends on the user-selected recording quality (at X megabits per second).

The client-server model allows one computer to host all your media storage and TV tuning hardware, while other computers are connected to it via a known local area network (LAN) that can stream this information.

TV search

Often referred to as a TV search appliance , the SnapStream Server allows organizations to closely interact with television from a PC, using a graphical user interface and electronic program guide similar to familiar consumer products like Beyond TV, TiVo and Sky+.

All recorded programs are indexed in real time, providing a live platform to search inside television with the user mechanics of a web search engine. Type in a string of keywords to pull up relevant search results, click on a video to watch it and view the program in key context with the closed captioning displayed. The user can then collaborate with television by creating clips in portable file formats to e-mail or burn to DVD.

TV alerts

To automate repeat searches, the user can configure SnapStream TV Alerts, which are keyword-generated e-mail notifications based on a prescribed set of search terms. IT Works similarly to Google Alerts, yet instead of pushing news from the Web, SnapStream TV Alerts extracts news from traditional television.

Features

Functions of Enterprise TV Search include:

• Clipping: the ability to cut out and save a segment from a full-length program
• Multi-channel recording: the ability to monitor several channels simultaneously
• Streaming: the ability to playback video on other computers over the LAN
• SmartSkip: the ability to automatically detect scene changes, including commercials, and then jump quickly between them
• ShowSqueeze: the ability to transcode or compress your TV recordings to other formats
• Placeshifting: the ability to remotely view live or recorded media via the Internet

Recent news

In April 2010, SnapStream released the world’s largest DVR, a 50-channel TV search engine that can log 13 years of television. This developed as a result of clustering together five SnapStream Servers with unified search and archive functionality.