SnapStream Blog

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” Joins SnapStream’s Family of Talk Shows

May 16 2014 by Jennifer Miller

First and foremost, let me start by saying, “Welcome to the family “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver, and the entire team of producers, editors, and show writers!”

In case you haven’t heard, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” selected SnapStream’s TV recording and search technology to help build the TV clips and content that will be used on the show. (Here is the press releaselast-week-tonight-with-john-oliver)

Need an example? Next time you tune in (the show airs every Sunday on HBO) watch for the pop-up TV clips that John Oliver references throughout the show. Those clips are pulled using SnapStream!

How They Use SnapStream

With SnapStream’s technology, the team at “Last Week Tonight” is able to quickly search and aggregate mass amounts of current, often obscure, TV content from worldwide sources. This technology, along with John Oliver’s undeniable genius for political satire, is the perfect equation for comedic gold.

Just ask Ari Fishman, a producer at “Last Week Tonight” who said,

“SnapStream has proven itself to be the premiere product for high-volume television recording and search capabilities.

We are hoping to achieve an extensive SnapStream footage archive that we can effectively use as our primary research tool. SnapStream keyword searches makes it a very organized user experience, and we anticipate growing our SnapStream library. All of our producers [are] confident in SnapStream’s capabilities.”

A Favorite Among Many Shows and Networks

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” is not alone in their hunt for an efficient way to find and repurpose specific TV content. They join a host of successful shows and networks including “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report,” “E! News” and “The Arsenio Hall Show,” to name a few. All of these shows, and many more, use SnapStream’s clipping, content repurposing, and archival for their shows.

In fact, SnapStream is known throughout the broadcast and network industries for its ability to quickly research interesting commentary, news trends, and comparative talking points.

Here is what some of our current clients have said recently:

“It would be impossible to generate the amount of content our show requires without a [technology] like SnapStream. The immediacy with which we can research and distribute video has been invaluable to our creative process." - The Colbert Report

“Night in and night out, SnapStream helps us create the freshest monologues in late night.” - The Arsenio Hall Show

“SnapStream is a single solution for creating and packaging aired content for distribution to advertisers.” - MLB Network

So next time you tune into “Last Week Tonight”, or any of the other shows mentioned, wow your friends and family by letting them in on the secret behind those TV clip pop-ups - SnapStream’s TV search technology.

 

 

See What You Missed at NAB 2014

April 29 2014 by Rachel Abbott

Team SnapStream had a great time at the NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters). Who doesn't love spending a week in Las Vegas? We visited with a ton of interesting broadcast folks at our booth and knocked their socks off with our TV search technology.

Erika Blackwell, a reporter at Your Biz Live TV, was one of our favorite visitors. She interviewed Aaron Thompson (El Presidente) asking how "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" have automated their workflows with our product. Watch below to find out the answer and to see what you missed at NAB. You'll feel like you were there with us!

SnapStream's TV Recording, Search and Repurposing Technology Stores More Than Just Petabytes

YBLTV met up with SnapStream‘s President, Aaron Thompson at NAB 2014 in Las Vegas, NV. Aaron talked about their TV recording, search and repurposing technology. It’s amazing to see the wealth of data TV shows and other programming are creating, storing and accessing on a daily basis – petabytes and petabytes…

SnapStream at NAB 2014

End of the Line for Windows XP and What to Do Next with your SnapStream

March 20 2014 by Rachel Abbott

Windows XP End of Support, Goodbye Windows XP

On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will be turning off support for Windows XP. If you currently have SnapStream hardware that runs on Windows XP, you are probably wondering what this change will mean for you. So, we'd like to take a moment to answer some of the questions you may have. If we haven't addressed your specific concern, you can always contact SnapStream's Technical Support Team, who's happy to help!

Can I Continue to Use SnapStream?

Yes, you may continue to make use of your SnapStream indefinitely. However, please be aware that Microsoft will no longer provide updates to Windows XP, including updates for critical security issues. If you continue to use SnapStream after Windows XP support ends in April, it will still work, but it may become more vulnerable to security risks. The Washington Post recently published an article about the vulnerability of government computers to hackers in the afterlife of Windows XP.

Will I Continue Receiving SnapStream Support?

As long as you have a valid SnapStream support agreement, our team will continue to provide you with first-class service (phone and email support, troubleshooting and warranty).


What to Do Next?

For the best possible experience in the future, we recommend that you upgrade to our newest hardware platform, which will also afford you with the latest software features. This is truly an opportune time to contact our Technical Support Team and consider upgrading, because:

Get up to a 20% Discount for Windows XP Trade-ins

We are offering up to a 20% discount for traded-in systems to help ease your migration from Windows XP to a brand new SnapStream.

Advantages to Trading in your SnapStream

Stay protected on a newer OS

The current build of the SnapStream SD or HD runs Windows Server 2008 R2 and the SnapStream Small Business Edition runs on Windows 7. According to Microsoft's latest life-cycle plan, upgrading guarantees you will receive critical security updates until at least 2020.

Access to the latest software upgrades

Web Player

SnapStream software released after 2009 may not be compatible with your older system (check with us for details). Trading in for a new SnapStream connects you to the new Web interface, which provides richer features and management options than our client-based interface.

More robust storage technology and architecture

Our newest platform includes an updated RAID controller and hot spare hard disks, which supply increased redundancy in case of a hard disk failure. We also deliver improved flexibility and reliability through back-end improvements (i.e. SQL server for our software database and an IIS-based Web server).

SnapStream 4.9.3
(old hardware)
SnapStream 5.x
(old hardware)
SnapStream 5.0 & up
(new hardware)
OS
Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows Server 2008
Web Server
SnapStream-built
IIS Express
IIS
Data Store
XML and INI files
SQL Server Express
SQL Server Express
Good
Better
Best!

Faster processing power

An upgraded processor allows you to transcode video faster, and our clustering support allows the addition of dedicated nodes for even more transcoding power.

Scalability and future-proofing

Clustering enables you to combine multiple SnapStreams to increase tuners, storage and processing power as needed. If you start with 4 SD tuners, you can add more tuners to your configuration as desired or convert them to receive a digital source (HD). Storage is also easily expandable, with a starting capacity of 3TB.

Better chassis

Compared to our older platforms, SnapStream's current build provides improved airflow, more powerful management features and error notifications, and simpler hardware replacement. Even replacing hot-swap hard disks is easier!

Get in touch with SnapStream Technical Support

To discuss your best options for handling the end of support for Windows XP, you can reach out to SnapStream's Technical Support Team at 1-877-696-3674 or support@snapstream.com, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. CDT.

New in 6.2! Clip-and-Share, YouTube Integration, Custom Media Tags and More

February 26 2014 by Rachel Abbott

Buy TV clips, upload TV clips to YouTube, share TV clips

New SnapStream 6.2 has arrived to streamline your everyday workflows that revolve around clipping, sharing and managing TV content. These are the bread-and-butter tasks that most users do pretty frequently.

In the improvements below, you'll see how we shaved off intermediary steps and linked things together, resulting in seamless workflows from start to finish. We designed these changes to help save you time and make monitoring TV more efficient and carefree in general. We hope that brings a smile to your face, because that's our goal.


One-Step Clip and Share

Like a sharp machete, SnapStream's clipping tool can razor cut TV content into fine segments. In the brand new release of 6.2, the once single-blade clipping tool has been upgraded to a Swiss Army Knife. While creating a clip, SnapStream presents several handy options, with a swivel of the wrist:

  1. Share Clips in the Cloud - Specify recipients and off it goes, packaged in an email with a link for viewing on SnapStream's cloud.
  2. Add Clips to a TV Playlist - Choose a new or existing playlist and load it up with content.
  3. Upload Clips to YouTube - See below.

The great thing about this new process is: it saves you that second step of having to do something else after the clip is generated. You don't need to remember to go back and share the clip. It's done and done, one-two punch!

YouTube Integration

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month and over 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute. And we know that SnapStream users are big time video sharers on YouTube. But it can be a royal pain to transcode, export and upload those TV clips, right? Especially when your boss wants that content live fast. So, what if you had a direct link between the two?

 

SnapStream 6.2 makes it happen with our new YouTube integration. It's easy: Connect your YouTube account and then upload TV clips directly from SnapStream. If you have more than one account, no problem. Connect them all and you'll be able to choose which clips go where. We provide all of YouTube's standard uploading settings, so fast and seamless.

Make Edits and Clips from Transcript

In SnapStream 6.2, the TV transcript becomes a new vehicle for making clips. By selecting a text block that represents what you'd like to save, SnapStream will clip that video segment for you. For those focused on reading the transcript, this is a great alternative to making clips from the Web Player. All of the same options apply in the process, as far as sharing the clip, adding it to a playlist or uploading it to YouTube.

Another new functionality we've added to the transcript is the ability to make edits to the text. If you notice a typo or misspelling of a name, you can edit the closed captioning and save your changes.

Take Action on your Content

TV content digital asset management, media asset management, television monitoring software

(Click image to enlarge.)

SnapStream's Web Player has gotten a bit of a makeover, sporting three tabs on the right. Doesn't she look pretty? The first tab, About, contains the program information, a link to download the show and more. The second tab, Actions, gives you a straight shot to do cool stuff with the content you are viewing at the moment. You can:

From Playlists, all of these actions are available as well, which is just so convenient for treating a playlist like a batch. Now for the third new tab on the Web Player, Tags:

Add Custom Media Tags

With TV search already based on the closed captioning data and program guide meta data, media tags add another layer of valuable data. Add custom tags to any media item (recording or clip) to help you locate it in your archive later. All tags become part of the search meta data, of course. And there’s also a new search filter TAG: that allows you to refine search results to tagged terms only, but tags will appear in all search results organically.

Hey Admins! Over here!

For the guys and gals that manage SnapStream, we have a couple of treats just for you:

Amazon S3 Export: Try our new integration with Amazon S3, a cloud-based storage service, to export your TV content with a more affordable alternative to network-attached storage.

Workflows Permissions: We have new Workflows Permissions which allows you to set permissions on what user groups are able to run specific Workflows... or not. You decide what to keep under lock and key.

New Resolution Filter: Specify that only recordings with a particular screen resolution then do Action X-Y-Z.

New Actions: Switch To takes a resulting transcode and then switches the output file as the one to be subsequently moved, exported, etc. within one Workflow rule, saving you a step. Generate Transcript allows you to automatically send a transcript from a recording (with filters of your choosing) upon completion to designated recipients.

Ready to see SnapStream 6.2 in action?

Webinar: What's New in 6.2?
For: Organizations interested in SnapStream

How can I upgrade to 6.2?

For current customers: To schedule your free upgrade* to 6.2, contact SnapStream's support team via the Enterprise Support Form or via email at support@snapstream.com.

For new users: Contact one of our Sales Engineers to start the conversation about your TV monitoring needs. Email: sales@snapstream.com. Phone: 1-877-762-7787

*All software upgrades are free for current SnapStream customers who have a valid support contract and meet the hardware pre-requisites.

 

 

How the City of Austin allocated PEG Funds for SnapStream's TV Monitoring Technology

January 14 2014 by Rachel Abbott

 

PEG Channels in the United States, Public Access Channels PEG Channels in the United States

 

PEG Channels in the United States

In your city or town, you have likely flipped to a public, educational and governmental (PEG) channel that broadcasts community events, town hall meetings, public service announcements and other local original programming. Did you know there are over 5,000 PEG channels operating nationwide?

Every U.S. city has the right to collect a cable television franchise fee from the cable TV companies that serve its community. Thanks to the Cable Communications Act of 1984 (Section 622). These franchise fees, which are based on a percentage of cable operators' gross revenues, can generate huge sums of PEG funding for municipalities, for instance as much as $142 million for Dallas in 2007 and $140 million for New York in the fiscal year of 2010.

The catch-22? PEG funds are designated only for capital expenditures that finance day-to-day operations of public-access channels. But within those regulations, PEG funds can be used for various types of purchases. A good rule of thumb to go by is whether the capital being purchased has a substantial shelf life beyond the fiscal year.


PEG Funds Capital Expenditures

Examples of Capital Expenditures:

  • Video production/streaming equipment
  • Computer/technology
  • TV monitoring technology
  • Vehicle for broadcasting or transport
  • Renovation and construction of facilities
  • Office furniture

PEG Fund Strategy at the City of Austin

 

Keith Reeves
Station Manager
Channel 6

The City of Austin is a shining example of maximizing PEG funding in order to leverage modern technology that helps deliver vital information to its citizens through multimedia platforms.

Keith Reeves is the Station Manager for Channel 6, the City of Austin's government access channel. The City has seven public-access channels in total. Programming on Channel 6 includes City Council meetings, public meetings, news conferences, educational programming about City departments and initiatives and more.

"We have a lot of citizen and media interest in what we do," Reeves said. "We have had a long time initiative for open and transparent government. That's one of the reasons we televise about 45 meetings per month, plus a lot of original programming to help educate the public on a variety of issues, event coverage and so forth."

Channel 6 also streams the channel live on its website, in addition to providing a well-categorized archive of video on-demand and corresponding transcripts—all available online for public access. The Channel also shares original programming, such as the CityView news magazine show, on its YouTube channel.

Smart Spending to Purchase SnapStream Again

Since 2007, the City of Austin has used SnapStream to monitor TV for public information purposes, spanning over 35 departments citywide. In 2013, the City was ready to upgrade to SnapStream HD and the newest hardware platform. This is where Channel 6 made a very smart move, by allocating their PEG funds to cover 100% of SnapStream's cost in full as a capital expenditure. Plus, they rolled in 2 years of technical support and service into the cap-ex to really maximize the PEG funds.

 

City of Austin Departments using SnapStream A few of the 35 City of Austin Departments using SnapStream

Just to be clear, you can't use PEG funds for subscription-based services because that is not a capital expense. That is an operational cost.

Station Manager of Channel 6, Keith Reeves, says that SnapStream provides very useful functionality at their PEG channel:

  • Confidence of 24/7 backup recordings of our channel
  • Content to post on-demand on our website
  • Download transcripts from our council meetings and broadcasts
  • Fact-checking and verification of decisions in city-related meetings
  • The ability to make unlimited clips
  • Cloud sharing to easily share clips
  • Media monitoring of other broadcast channels

"We get about 150 news stories per month about the City of Austin's departments," Reeves said. "Media monitoring is a sufficient justification on its own. It's really a multi-use functionality."

Does My State have a Statewide Cable Franchise?

In 2005, the Texas Legislature was the first to approve a cable and video franchise law that allowed telecommunication companies to offer television service without the need to negotiate individual agreements in every city. A majority of these statewide video franchise agreements require franchise holders to provide public, education, and government (PEG) channels and offer certain residential subscriber protections. Here are the states currently offering a cable franchise, statewide:

1. California
2. Connecticut
3. Delaware
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Hawaii
7. Idaho
8. Illinois
9. Indiana
10. Iowa
11. Kansas
12. Louisiana
13. Michigan
14. Missouri
15. New Jersey
16. North Carolina
17. Ohio
18. Rhode Island
19. South Carolina
20. Tennessee
21. Texas
22. Vermont
23. Wisconsin

City of Austin Webinar

For further information, you can check out the webinar we hosted with the City of Austin.

SnapStream 6.1 Delivers the Smartest TV Media Monitoring Software in the Industry

December 09 2013 by Jennifer Miller

SnapStream today announced the 6.1 release of its TV Monitoring and Search technology. The release features groundbreaking language intelligence delivering the most relevant TV search results, new TV playlists for sequenced playback of multiple pieces of content, expanded cloud sharing functionality, and enhancements to the Recording Manager for easier management of recording priorities. SnapStream also launched the new SnapStream ASI product line, which enables broadcasters to ingest and record the ASI format (Asynchronous Serial Interface).

“The biggest news, without a doubt, is how SnapStream 6.1 is breaking new ground and setting new standards in the accuracy and relevancy of TV search results,” said Aaron Thompson, president of SnapStream. “One of the most compelling features of SnapStream has always been its ability to search TV recordings and send alerts based on closed captioning data. We have enhanced this search capability to deliver the most comprehensive and accurate results in the industry. This makes it easier than ever for clients like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to find the most relevant TV material. Additionally, with SnapStream ASI, broadcasting entities are able to get the full benefits of SnapStream.”

Already an industry leader in TV recording and search, SnapStream 6.1’s language intelligence expands on existing search capabilities to include broad matches, providing more relevant results in less searches. The driving force behind the advanced search capabilities comes from SnapStream’s in-house developer, Dr. Michael Speriosu, who has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and a Master’s and PhD in Linguistics.

“We are taking into account a myriad of language factors so that SnapStream can deliver the most accurate and complete search results,” said Dr. Michael Speriosu, software engineer at SnapStream. “By ignoring suffixes, including synonyms, matching pronouns, and ignoring accents SnapStream extrapolates what’s being said on TV, not only word for word but also in between the lines.”

SnapStream automatically corrects the closed captioning transcript for capitalization errors and misspellings which further yields high-quality search results and easily readable program transcripts.

For enhanced collaboration and sharing of TV clips in meetings, lectures, and presentations, SnapStream 6.1 introduces new TV playlists which enable users to clip and play back multiple pieces of content in sequence.

In 2012, SnapStream revolutionized how TV clips were shared and received amongst collaborators with Cloud Sharing. The 6.1 release includes additions that help manage the sharing of material: “unshare” allows clips to be pulled back at any time and new reports allow you to track clip views and catalog all clips created.

SnapStream’s Recording Manager is the mission control center for TV recording schedules, setting priorities, and resolving conflicts. The Recording Manager makes it easier for users to resolve recording conflicts when they occur by using job priorities to decide which recordings matter the most.

The new SnapStream ASI hardware enables broadcasters to ingest and record digital content streams in the ASI format, the standard format for TV production and broadcast facilities, while leveraging SnapStream’s powerful TV monitoring technology.

Language intelligence, TV playlists, enhanced Cloud Sharing, and an enhanced Recording Manager are included in all deployments of SnapStream 6.1 and are available immediately* for any existing customer via upgrade. SnapStream ASI can be purchased as a stand-alone node or added on to any existing cluster.

SnapStream will be hosting a webinar with guest speaker Dr. Michael Speriosu to review all the new features and enhancements included in the 6.1 release. To register for this webinar, or for more details about the 6.1 release, visit the SnapStream 6.1 Release Information page.

About SnapStream Inc.
SnapStream’s Enterprise TV Media Monitoring technology enables organizations to put their finger on the pulse of traditional television. Customers can record a virtually unlimited number of TV shows from satellite, cable, antenna or ASI. Users can easily search their TV archive to pinpoint content of interest, create broadcast-quality clips, and then share those clips in the cloud. Existing customers include government organizations, such as the U.S. Senate and the City of New York; educational institutions at the university and K-12 level; and entertainment organizations such as Colbert Report, Current TV, and MTV. SnapStream is compatible with Mac, PC and iPad.

New in SnapStream 6.1: Smarter TV Search, New TV Playlists and More

December 02 2013 by Rachel Abbott

What's New in SnapStream 6.1?

• Enhanced TV search experience
• New SnapStream ASI
• New TV playlists
• New tracking for cloud sharing
• Improved recording manager

Smarter TV Search = Better Results

Search Target - SnapStream TV Search

Thanks to new advances in language intelligence in 6.1, SnapStream's TV search results are enriched for the better, bringing you a wider variety of useful findings and relevant information every time you search.

Our TV search engine has always delivered exact matches with bull's-eye accuracy and now, we have expanded the target zone to include closely related, broad matches that are equally as meaningful but not so glaringly obvious.


New Language Intelligence

We recently hired Dr. Michael Speriosu, a full-time developer at SnapStream with a master's and PhD in Linguistics, who is the driving force behind this new direction in TV search. Mike's expert knowledge of linguistics and computer science has elevated SnapStream's search to a new industry standard, leaps and bounds ahead of other tools on the market.

As a result, SnapStream extrapolates what's being said on TV, not only word for word but also in between the lines.

"We're taking into account a myriad of language factors like synonyms, pronouns, suffixes and misspellings to deliver the most comprehensive results," Speriosu said, "along with alternative search suggestions to point you in the right direction."

 

Read more in Mike's blog post:
 

 

Breaking New Ground in TV Search

Ingest and Record ASI with SnapStream

SnapStream ASINew SnapStream ASI enables broadcasters to ingest and record up to 4 digital content streams in the ASI format, leveraging SnapStream's powerful TV monitoring technology. ASI (Asynchronous Serial Interface) is the standard format that runs through television production and broadcast facilities.

Watch From TV Playlists

TV Playlists

Click image to expand.

Play multiple pieces of content in sequence with new TV playlists. The inspiration for this new feature came directly from our users. Many of you frequently share TV clips in meetings, lectures and presentations, and we love the collaboration that is happening around television content. So we created a simple way for you to select TV content from your library and add it into a designated playlist, for your streamlined viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Track What You Share in the Cloud

Cloud sharing has revolutionized the process of sending and receiving TV clips, and we are thrilled to release some new additions to managing this feature. In 6.1, you can "unshare" a clip at anytime and also access stats on how many times it has been viewed from the interface or by downloading a CSV report. The reporting option is a great starting point for your own internal media reports focused on tracking and cataloging TV clips.

Easier Management of Recording Priorities and Conflicts

Click image to expand.

SnapStream's Recording Manager is your mission control center when it comes to your TV recording schedule, priorities and conflicts. It's normal to have scheduling conflicts at one point or another, but in 6.1 we make it easier to resolve those conflicts when they occur, using your job priorities on the fly to decide what recordings matter most.

Excited to learn more about 6.1?

For organizations interested in SnapStream, join us on Wednesday, December 11, at 3 p.m. EST for the What's New in 6.1 Webinar to see all of these new features live and in action.

Sign up for the Webinar

For SnapStream users, join our Upgrade to 6.1 Webinar on Wednesday, December 11, at noon EST.

Sign up for the Webinar

How can I upgrade to 6.1?

For current customers: To schedule your free upgrade* to 6.1, contact SnapStream's support team via the Enterprise Support Form or via email at support@snapstream.com.

For new users: Contact one of our Sales Engineers to start the conversation about your TV monitoring needs. Email: sales@snapstream.com. Phone: 1-877-762-7787

*All software upgrades are free for current SnapStream customers who have a valid support contract and meet the hardware pre-requisites.

 

 

Breaking New Ground in SnapStream's TV Monitoring and Search Technology with Dr. Michael Speriosu, PhD in Linguistics

December 02 2013 by MSperiosu

Dr. Michael Speriosu, PhD in Linguistics and Engineer at SnapStream

Hi, everyone! My name is Mike Speriosu and I was the main developer of a set of TV search improvements in SnapStream 6.1 that involve language. I recently finished my doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin where I worked on problems at the intersection of human language and computer science, and was lucky enough to join the SnapStream development team a few months ago.

Products like SnapStream are part of an ongoing trend in technology to help people interact with each other and with computers using their most advanced and expressive mode of communication: language. After working on a variety of linguistic and software problems in academia, I was very eager to apply my skills to a real-life product that could benefit from more linguistic intelligence.

TV media monitoring: find anything said on TV with SnapStream

One of the most compelling features of SnapStream's TV media monitoring technology has always been its ability to search recordings and send alerts based on what’s said on TV, and now recording and searching closed caption data work better than ever.


Closed Captioning Correction

Capitalization

A lot of the closed caption (CC) text that initially comes through with the video and audio signal is messy in various ways. Many CCs are in all caps or just capitalized oddly, so at least some degree of re-capitalization is necessary before we show and save the text, in order to be easily readable.

Previously, we essentially lowercased everything except the first letter of every sentence. We now use a combination of algorithms and dictionaries to be smarter about what should be capitalized. Names of people, places, companies, and more are now often properly capitalized.

TV Monitoring, Recording and Search Technology

Click image to expand.

Misspellings

Another problem with CC text is that it sometimes contains misspellings. We now use a dictionary and statistical model to detect when we think a word is misspelled, and automatically correct the spelling when we have high confidence that our fix is correct. We took special care not to make this feature too aggressive, because we know how annoying automatic corrections can be when they’re wrong. Making a valid correction, however, could be the difference between getting a relevant alert and not getting it.

Television Monitoring Software: Custom Dictionary

To give SnapStream customers more control over these CC-altering features, we've included a custom dictionary where administrators can specify their own words and phrases that they want capitalized a certain way. We’ll never attempt to change the spelling of words in this custom dictionary.

We’re trying out these advanced CC-altering features on English text only, with plans to expand to other languages in the future. In the meantime, we have an algorithm that ensures incoming CCs are English before applying the features, so that your favorite Spanish or French shows don’t have their spelling corrected as if they’re English.

Did You Mean? Search Suggestions

When you searched in previous versions of SnapStream, you would sometimes get suggestions in the form of Did you mean ____? but the quality of these suggestions left a lot to be desired. Our suggestion engine now takes into account the statistical properties of your entire library of recordings, resulting in much more useful suggestions. We also now have the ability to give suggestions when searching the program guide, something that was absent from past releases.

Advanced TV search engine

Click image to expand.

Suffixes

Another improvement we’ve made to search makes it so that suffixes like -s, -ing, -ed, and so on do not affect whether a word counts as a match for your search term. For example, searching for campaign will now match recordings that mentioned campaign, campaigns, campaigned, and campaigning, giving you more relevant results with less effort.

Linguistic Intelligence - SnapStream TV Media Monitoring and Search

Click image to expand.

Synonyms

We’ve also added some lists of synonyms to our search engine, so that searching for big will also match large, and similarly for many other words. We made an effort only to make such connections between words that really do mean the same thing the vast majority of the time.

TV Search results include synonyms

Click image to expand.

Pronoun Matching

SnapStream returns results for pronouns like he, she, and I that likely refer to the same person named in a search, e.g. Lebron, in addition to exact matches on the name itself.

Pronouns are allowed to match names for up to about one minute after the name is mentioned. We hope this feature makes it even easier to find relevant information in your recordings without spending a long time refining your search query.

Advanced TV Monitoring Software: Pronoun Matching

Click image to expand.

Accent Ignoring

Finally, we've made it so SnapStream recognizes accents and other special characters and treats them alike, so you don't have to worry about exact spelling in your searches to return all possible matches. If you search for entree, you'll get hits for both entree and entrée. And if you search for entrée, you'll get hits for both entrée and entree.

Accent ignoring yields higher quality TV Search results

Click image to expand.

The End

We added these features with the intent of making recording and searching just work better, even if you don’t always notice the new feature that kicked in and just made your life easier. We appreciate software that simply works, and hope we’ve achieved that goal with this update!

About Mike Speriosu

Mike Speriosu received Bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Linguistics from Stanford University and a Master's and PhD in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published work in computational linguistics and done consulting in software development for companies looking to beef up the linguistic intelligence of their products. He is now on the development team at SnapStream.

 

 

See new SnapStream 6.0 at Content & Communications World

November 05 2013 by Rachel Abbott

Next week, we're heading to the Big Apple to showcase our TV monitoring technology at Content and Communications World (CCW). Many broadcast folks refer to this hallmark event as the NAB of the East Coast. Since NAB in April, SnapStream's engineers have been diligently working to launch SnapStream 6.0 and tons of new capabilities.

Whether you're a current user or considering SnapStream for the first time, you'll find that everything in the new version helps to enrich your production workflow for recording, searching, clipping and repurposing TV content.


What's new to see at CCW?

AirPlay, search, clip and share TV from your iPad
Collaborate using SnapStream's iPad app during your production meetings. Use AirPlay to display TV recordings and clips from your library in H.264. You can also run searches, create clips and share them in the cloud. Enjoy all of these features on the go, with the mobility and convenience of the iPad.

View multiple channels simultaneously
SnapStream's new multi-viewer enables you to watch up to four content streams simultaneously for a multitude of workflow applications, such as comparing what's airing on your competitors' channels at the same time.

Watch TV and read the transcript, side by side
Monitor the broadcast video and televised transcript in a new interactive way, using Snapstream's new auto-scrolling transcript. Click on any keyword in the text to jump to it. Skip from one keyword mention to the next. Resize the windows to switch your focus from reading to watching, or keep it right at 50/50.

Monitor TV live and fullscreen
Enjoy the ability to track live, real-time events and freely flip between channels without recording anything to disk. Use the new fullscreen option to expand the video display for presentations or just to get a closer look.

Want to schedule a meeting?

CCW takes places at the Javits Convention Center in New York City, Nov. 13 and 14. SnapStream will be at booth 753 (see map below). We recommend setting an appointment with us in advance: schedule a meeting here. But, you are also welcome to swing by anytime during the show hours. See you there!

Schedule a demo

SnapStream appoints Digistor as official Australian reseller

October 22 2013 by Joel

SnapStream in Australia

SnapStream is proud to announce that we’ve partnered with Australian digital media specialists Digistor to help introduce our TV search solution to Australia. We feel working together with Digistor is a big step forward in our company’s expansion.

“We’re delighted to have been appointed as SnapStream’s dealer,” says Digistor Managing Director, Andrew Mooney. “We were amazed at the ease of searching and repurposing of television content that their products provided when we saw them at NAB earlier this year. There’s significant opportunity in the local market.”

Our SnapStream DVB-T appliance works perfectly for any Australian organization with a need for recording digital TV. SnapStream can record any number of channels simultaneously, 24/7, and make them available to you at your desk on a Mac, PC or tablet.

SnapStream Sales Manager, Gayan Gunawardana, sees Digistor as an ideal partner to sell and support SnapStream in Australia given the product’s features and Digistor’s market focus.

“We’re excited to be working with Digistor and believe that SnapStream’s ability to monitor, search and distribute television content will fit in neatly with Digistor’s customers’ requirements, the company’s technical skill set and their solutions experience,” Gunawardana said.

Want to learn more? Click to view more info on SnapStream's Australian solution and for the official Digistor/SnapStream press release.

What is SnapStream? There's an unlimited amount of video content out there: 24/7 news channels, breaking news events, sports, talk shows, awards galas, entertainment shows, and so much more.

SnapStream makes a real-time news and media search engine that makes it fast and easy to find the video moments that support our customers telling great stories.

Posts by Topic

see all