(First time visitors: Welcome to SnapStream! We make TV search software used by organizations to search inside TV shows. And it's not too expensive, starting at $2,000. What's TV search, you ask? Watch this YouTube video or visit our website to learn more.)

We don't do a lot of press releases anymore, but here's one that went out earlier this morning. Congrats to my team here at SnapStream!

(PR Web has the press release and graphics here)

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Choose SnapStream to Monitor and Search Broadcast Television

Houston, December 21, 2009 - SnapStream Media, Inc. announced today that Comedy Central’s hit TV shows "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," have selected the company’s TV search solution for locating and packaging high-definition clips from television broadcasts. Launched in 2007, SnapStream Server is a turn-key television search appliance that enables organizations to record and store thousands of hours of television and then search inside those recordings by keywords and phrases.

“Part of what makes the Daily Show and the Colbert Report great is their satire of news stories, media organizations and political figures. So they are very serious about monitoring television! As the shows deploy SnapStream, we believe our TV search technology will prove invaluable and essential to them—technically and creatively,” said Rakesh Agrawal, SnapStream’s CEO and Founder. “And their selection of SnapStream, after a rigorous evaluation process, validates the uniqueness and power of our TV search technology for any organizations that needs to monitor television.”

The SnapStream TV search solution to be deployed at the Daily Show and Colbert Report will provide for a completely high-definition (HD) workflow, allowing the show’s producers to centrally record and archive more than 30 channels of traditional HDTV; then subsequently search those recordings, create clips that can interact with Avid and Final Cut Pro video editing systems.

Visit the http://www.snapstream.com/ website to learn more about SnapStream's affordable and effective TV search technology - our turn-key TV search appliances starting at $2,000.

About SnapStream Media, Inc.

SnapStream allows organizations to put their finger on the pulse of traditional television. Customers can record a virtually unlimited number of TV shows from satellite, cable or antenna and then search inside those TV shows to pinpoint television content of interest. Existing customers include government organizations, such as the U.S. Senate and the City of New York, to educational institutions at the university and K-12 level to entertainment organizations such as Comcast Entertainment, Current TV, and MTV.

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If you haven't realized it yet HDTV is no longer the wave of the future, it's the present. The recent digital conversion has made HDTV stations more prevalent and in turn propelled HDTV sales. It's become obvious that folks have come to value high quality TV, whether it's for personal at home viewing or presenting media mentions of your company in a board room. With the launch of the SnapStream Server HD, we're making it easy for you to record the highest possible quality TV and use SnapStream's powerful search technology to search within those recordings to pinpoint mentions of interest.

Anyone interested in showcasing their television recordings/clips in the highest quality will benefit from the SnapStream Server HD. Perhaps, you're a TV Station who just switched to broadcasting in HD and you need an HD aircheck solution, or you're a PR Director and want to present you company's TV mentions to your constituents/investors/shareholders/board members at the highest quality, or maybe you're a producer of a TV show like E!'s The Soup or VH1's Best Week Ever and you want to include HD clips into your program, whatever your case is the SnapStream Server HD makes it so you can easily get the best quality TV recordings.

How do I incorporate HD into my existing workflow?

1) First you will need an HD Source. It could be an ATSC (over-the-air) HD signal or a clear QAM signal from your cable/satellite provider or a signal from your own in-house QAM modulation solution.

2) Feed the source into the SnapStream Server HD. There are five input cards, so you can record up to five channels at a time.

3) Run SnapStream’s client software on PCs within your organization. The software user interface looks and feels like a DVR allowing for an easy implementation process.

4) Once you've done the above you can start recording, searching and clipping HD TV.

Now that you have the basic setup for recording and searching HD TV you can take it a step further by importing clips into an editing workstation. We've come up with two viable options to accomplish this task. You can either set up the SnapStream Transcode Appliance and create a file-based workflow or you can use the SnapStream HD-SDI Playout Appliance.

File Based Workflow:
In a file based workflow the SnapStream Transcode Appliance can be used to automatically convert your transport stream files to HD H.264 (works really well with Apple’s Final Cut Pro) or HD Windows Media files. Once the files have been transcoded into the preferred format they are ready for importing into the editing workstation.

HD-SDI Workflow:
In an HD-SDI workflow the SnapStream HD-SDI Playout Appliance allows you to ingest SnapStream recorded content (clips or full recordings) into SDI enabled products within your environment. For example a workstation running Avid or Apple’s Final Cut Pro that has an SDI input card that's connected to your HD-SDI router.

The SnapStream HD-SDI Playout Appliance is a separate appliance that you can connect to using the LAN. The user interface is web based and shows you a list of recordings/clips you've created using the SnapStream Server HD. By clicking the play button next to the show you can start the playback of your clip to the HD-SDI Playout Appliance. If you have a couple of clips you can create a playlist and que them all up at once, so you don't have to keep clicking play for each one. As a side benefit when you import the playlist into the workstation it comes through as one video file instead of multiple ones making it easier to edit.

Either of these workflows work well with the SnapStream Server HD. Which you choose really just depends on your preference.

What are the benefits of the SnapStream Server HD?

• Recording: It can record ATSC (over-the-air) HD or a clear QAM signal from your cable/satellite provider or your own in-house QAM modulation solution.
• Setting up Recordings: It’s a single centralized server for recordings. Accessible to everyone in the organization over the LAN.
• Searching: It’s equipped with SnapStream’s search technology so you can efficiently pinpoint TV clips of interest.
• Creating Clips: Recordings can be clipped directly from within SnapStream making for easy hand-offs from within the organization. No more sneakernet!
• Sharing: Clips can be emailed to anyone or sent as links to others within the organization. No more dubbing beta tapes!
• HD/SDI Ingest or File Transcode: Playout to HD-SDI via web-based interface ensures high-quality (HD) final output.
• Archiving: Added storage gives you flexibility in creating a fully stocked archive (40 Raw TB).

Want to learn more about the SnapStream Server HD? Contact a sales representative via sales@snapstream.com or 1-877-SNAPSTREAM to schedule a product demonstration.

Below is a prime example of our TV search technology. The writers of E!'s The Soup did a simple search on the word 'Twitter', and were able to pinpoint and clip out all the mentions of Twitter on TV to create a montage of 'Twittermania'.

For an in depth look of our search feature read our previous blog post Feature Spotlight: Advanced TV Search.

SnapStream will be at NAB this year again, to demonstrate our new products and features. Come by and see us at our booth, South Upper Hall #SU6105 (Map)

The new products and features we’ll be demonstrating:

• QAM/ATSC Support: Record, search and clip QAM and ATSC broadcasts.
• Email Clip: Create a clip and email it using the Viewscape or Admin interface.
• Real-Time Search: Search for mentions of interest as they are being recorded.
• SnapStream Mini TV Search Appliance: For smaller organizations that stand to gain from searching television, but don't need the full functionality of the SnapStream Server.

NABShow
April 17–23, 2009 • Las Vegas, NV
The NAB Show has evolved over the last eight decades to continually lead this ever-changing industry. And while the solutions at your fingertips have changed to keep pace with consumer lifestyles, habits and technologies, your aspirations to produce and deliver memorable content have remained consistent. From conception through distribution, the NAB Show has proudly served as the incubator for excellence – helping to breathe life into content everywhere.
www.nabshow.com

In this half-hour podcast, Rakesh talks with Matt about how different industries - including entertainment programs like "The Soup" - are using SnapStream TV search servers, and why. Check out the podcast here:

FreshDV Podcast - Snapstream Media’s DVR on Steroids

The Las Vegas Convention center is huge at 3.2 million square feet and while at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, SnapStream only occupies 100 sq. ft. of that space. And based on feedback from visitors last year, we know that the SnapStream booth was hard to find.

Hopefully this year we're easier to find simply because we're not as far back in the South Upper Hall as we were last year (many thanks to our contact at the NAB, Joy Lindsey!):

But, we still wanted to make it easier for you to find us so here are some maps and directions.

Directions to SnapStream at NAB2008:

1. Get to the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (veterans of the Las Vegas Convention Center will know that this is on one end of the convention center, furthest away from the Hilton and the North Hall)

2. Take the escalator up to the South Upper Hall

3. Walk down the main corridor of the South Upper Hall (you'll pass massive booths from companies like Sony and Motorola)

4. When you see the Ross Video booth, hang a left.

5. You'll see us on a corner to your right -- our booth number is #SU6008.

See you at NAB!