We are on Cloud 9, literally! It's our 9th year in a row exhibiting at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas. And we are thrilled to be introducing SnapStream Cloud, along with SnapStream's new social TV features, to over 100,000 of the most tech-savvy media and entertainment professionals.

If you're one of 'em, come on by and visit! We're in a prime-time spot (pun intended) in South Upper Hall SU5402. We are the 9th booth (noticing a theme here?) in the first main aisle.

Here's a lovely map for you.

See a SnapStream Demo at NAB

To schedule a demo (which we recommend), email sales@snapstream.com. But drop-ins are welcome! We'll show you the ropes of SnapStream's TV recording and search technology, plus you'll get an exclusive look at what's new and coming soon:

Today, we're announcing a brand new product... going bravely where no SnapStream has gone before...

SnapStream Cloud is a new SnapStream, without the hardware. It's easier to install and Internet accessible. So you can enjoy all of SnapStream’s powerful TV monitoring features on-the-go.

	Capture your local TV source(s), like analog cable, digital cable or satellite.
	SnapStream Cloud accepts H.264 video in a transport stream container over UDP, RTP or TCP. If you don't already have this, here are some devices we support: HDHomeRun Extend, Hauppauge StreamEez-Pro, Haivision Barracuda, Haivision Makito.
	Point your IPTV source to the SnapStream Cloud to start recording & watching live TV.
	Search, play, clip and share your TV shows from anywhere in the world.

Want a demo sooner, or have questions about SnapStream Cloud?

Contact sales@snapstream.com or 1-877-762-7787.

SnapStream 6.5 is available today, introducing several new features while also improving upon the scalability of SnapStream's core features. New SnapStream Cloud is also released today, so check that out!

Current customers, y'all know the drill. To schedule your free upgrade* to 6.5 with SnapStream's support team, you can submit a ticket or email support@snapstream.com.

Social TV Updates

• Create a GIF from any existing TV clip in your library.
• Upload multiple clips to YouTube in a single go.
• Email TV screenshots (JPGs) as an attachment.
• Email animated GIFs as an attachment.

Updates to Clips, Playback & Alerts

• TV recordings play back up to 5X faster for large user groups and large file sizes.
• TV Alerts process and deliver up to 5X faster for high volumes of alerts.
• Create clips directly from live TV.
• Play back TV from any point in the transcript viewer.

For Administrators

• New updates to Workflows:
  • New Trigger for how frequently to run a Workflow.
  • New Filters to only run a Workflow based on a show air time (day of the week and/or time of day).

Schedule Your Upgrade

Again, to schedule your free upgrade* to 6.5 with SnapStream's support team, please submit a ticket or email support@snapstream.com.

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

A quick reminder, we're hosting 3 webinars this week to give you a full tour of SnapStream's new social TV features. For those who manage social media, you won't want to miss learning how you can use SnapStream to easily share TV clips, screenshots and animated GIFs to Twitter and Facebook.

And when you attend, you'll get this free (and awesome) SnapStream T-shirt:

Y'all, CCW (Content and Communications World) is happening this week. Watch out New York City, because SnapStream's both exhibiting AND leading a conference session at CCW that you won't want to miss. If you'll be at the Javits Center November 12-13, here's the rundown on where to find us:

Attend Our Session

Visit Our Booth

CBS Black Rock: Recording & Clipping TV with a "DVR on Steroids"

Hear from CBS Black Rock Media’s Director, Heather Doyle, and Technical Director, David Hadley, as they discuss the TV recording and clipping workflows of their group in a panel led by Gayan Gunawardana of SnapStream. As part of CBS Operations & Engineering, CBS Black Rock Media fulfills TV clip requests for every division of CBS, such as the sales, marketing, sports and affiliate relations groups.

Whether it’s a TV clip of the "The Big Bang Theory" for a press rep or an NFL broadcast clip for a sponsor, they can efficiently service everyone with the robust recording and clipping capabilities of SnapStream. Heather and David will briefly review the archaic processes of pre-2008, which were dependent on one-channel DVRs, long overtime hours of manual recordings, hunting for specific clips, editing software and VHS tapes/DVDs.

The discussion will focus on how the group was able to streamline processes to a single system and find several “bonus use cases” involving their top exec’s TV appearances and engaging CBS Sports fans on Twitter.

Meet us at booth #755

It's your chance to see a live demo of SnapStream's new social TV features, in addition to our robust TV recording and TV search capabilities:

• Monitor your TV show and viewer reactions on Twitter, side by side
• Reply to tweets with TV screenshots, clips and animated GIFs while your TV show is airing
• Post directly to your Facebook Pages with TV screenshots and clips
• Add a caption to any TV screenshot
• Create animated GIFs in a snap, to share on Twitter or anywhere on the Web

It really feels like back-to-school season! SnapStream is excited to meet with Journalism and Mass Communication administrators and professors next week at the AEJMC 2014 annual conference. This year's event is taking place up in Montreal, August 6-8, just in time before the school year begins.

Did you know that SnapStream is a curricular centerpiece at many of the nation's top Journalism Schools? Often compared to LexisNexis, but as a TV news database, SnapStream resides at such innovative institutions as Emerson College and the University of Pennsylvania.

Here's a glimpse of the J-Schools who are pushing boundaries with SnapStream's leading-edge technology:

If you're planning to go, keep an eye out for SnapStream's table. Our education-focused account manager, Daniel Fritz, will be on-site demonstrating SnapStream's many applications for the study and analysis of broadcast journalism:

• Record 4-10+ channels from your local lineup
• Search recordings by keyword
• Play and stream TV from Mac, PC or iPad
• View transcript side-by-side with broadcast
• Generate and share unlimited TV clips (automatically)
• Compare and contrast up to four broadcasts at once
• Receive real-time TV Alerts

Are you going to AEJMC? Get in touch with Daniel Fritz, since he'll be there too!

Daniel.fritz@snapstream.com

(713) 554-4580

Toll-free 1-877-762-7787

The world is watching. The world is waiting. Where will LeBron James play basketball next year? We've been here before, when King James announced on July 8, 2010 that he was "taking his talents to South Beach."

I may work for SnapStream in Houston, but I was born and raised in the 305 (that's Miami, y'all). So you can guess where my allegiance lies! LET'S GO HEAT! I really can't see LeBron choosing to leave The Heat, his teammates, his loyal fanbase and all of the luxury of the South Beach lifestyle. Can you?

I have to campaign a little right here. ESPN created this clever video for their show "ESPN First Take" using SnapStream's TV search and clipping technology. Thanks guys, for selling my city! Brace yourself to find out where all of the big NBA free agents will land and enjoy this new rendition of Will Smith's "Miami." (Fingers crossed!)

HOUSTON, TX — On Tuesday, June 17, the hosts of morning radio show "The Roula and Ryan Show," on 104.1 KRBE, started up a fun conversation about late night TV. You see, the night before, "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" aired its newest rap remix featuring NBC News anchor Brian Williams.

If you haven't seen it yet, you seriously need to watch Brian Williams rap "Baby Got Back," which has racked up more than 3.8 million views on YouTube and counting. All of these Brian Williams raps have gone extremely viral, because they're just plain hilarious, with "Rapper's Delight" topping them all with 11.9 million views. Whoa baby.

So, back to the radio show: SnapStream was surprisingly brought up in this context and we thought, "Cool, they're talking about us on the radio!" Our TV search and clipping technology is known as "the secret weapon" to creating satirical clip montages at "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "The Soup," and "The Colbert Report."

While "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" is not a SnapStream customer (yet), they totally should be! They could crank out these Brian Williams raps at a furious pace if they were using our ridiculously fast TV search. Just sayin'.

Take a listen! (SnapStream's mentioned around 2:15 in the clip.)

And thanks again to the team at "The Roula and Ryan Show" for the amazing shout-out on the air, in our shared hometown of Houston!

What's New in SnapStream 6.3?

• Automatic Clip and Share
• Social TV Integration with Twitter
• IP Capture (UDP multicast)
• New Hardware + ShowSqueeze Node
• Interface Enhancements

Automatic Clipping and Sharing to the Cloud

SnapStream already makes it easy as pie to search for, review and create TV clips, especially with the efficient clip-and-share feature we introduced in 6.2. But we thought, "Hey, how can we make clipping and sharing even more awesome for our awesome users?"

In new SnapStream 6.3, we re-imagined the manual process of creating and sharing clips and made it automated. (Or as we like to say, awesomated!) Here's how it works:

Our new auto-clip technology intelligently detects topic changes and commercial breaks, using various algorithms and linguistic cues, and as a result, it clips out relevant TV segments just for you. Clips are no greater than 15 minutes in length and they're designed to provide lead-in and lead-out context about the topic at hand.

How does SnapStream know what topics to clip out? Simple, it's based on your keywords in TV Alerts. So when you receive your TV Alert email (daily, hourly, in real-time, etc.), the summary of media mentions and transcript excerpts will also include auto-clips! Isn't that nifty? We know this is going to be a huge time-saver, shifting your workflow from manual to automatic.

The auto-clipped content can be played in two ways: 1) from your SnapStream or 2) with auto-sharing enabled. With auto-sharing, the clips will get transported to the cloud, which is ideal for a couple of reasons. It's far more convenient for monitoring TV on-the-go and it also makes the content accessible to people outside your local group or who aren't SnapStream users.

Of course, regular clip-and-share is here to stay, for those instances where you need to make a clip on something unexpected or out of the norm. But for the routine topics you're following every day, sit back and let SnapStream's auto-clip and auto-share do the rest!

Social TV Integration with Twitter

TV has always been a shared experience, and with social media like Twitter, viewers are having interactive, real-time conversations that extend way beyond the living room. In 2013, 1 billion tweets circulated around TV broadcasts in the U.S., according to Nielsen SocialGuide. Talk about a hyper-engaged "second-screen" TV audience! Wouldn't you like to maximize engagement with your audience across Twitter?

SnapStream's new Twitter integration enables broadcast networks and TV shows to amplify engagement by clipping and sharing the excitement of TV, with only a few clicks. It's seamless, quick and easy to create high-quality clips from any of your TV shows and tweet them out directly from SnapStream. Tweeted clips appear with a Twitter Player Card to deliver the richest media experience, which in turn, stimulates social engagement. Plus, you can integrate multiple Twitter accounts, leveraging your permission settings for added control.

In the future, more social TV features are coming to SnapStream. Interested in features like this or have social media folks who are? Email us at social@snapstream.com.

New SnapStream IPTV

SnapStream is branching out to support more and more types of inputs, so you can ingest TV content from a greater variety of sources. New SnapStream IPTV lets you ingest and record several IP Streams simultaneously in UDP multicast and archive up to 36 TB of content. We’re adding more IP stream types in future software revisions, so let us know at sales@snapstream.com if you're interested!

New SnapStream Hardware and ShowSqueeze Node

The newest generation of SnapStream hardware has superior storage and processing capabilities. The storage limits are increased to 36TB on a single SnapStream, which equates to about 40,800 hours in SD and 5,580 hours in HD. Plus, the combination of the newly enhanced ShowSqueeze Node and software optimization in 6.3 yields great improvements in simultaneous transcoding and shorter compression times. You can perform up to 10 SD real-time transcodes simultaneously and up to 8 in HD. Look at the marked difference between the new and old hardware, running 6.3 vs. 6.2:

Click graph to enlarge.

Interface Enhancements

Last, but not least, SnapStream 6.3 introduces a slew of new, useful additions to the user interface:

• Use the new Search Tab in the Web Player to search within a TV show you're watching.
• While watching a TV show, use the expanded options in the Actions Tab to: Run a Worfklow, ShowSqueeze, SmartChapter, Add to Playlist and more.
• In lieu of clips, add segments to your TV playlists. Segments are essentially time-stamped portions of your original recording.
• Change the channel when watching live TV.
• Manage conflicted recordings with greater ease from the EPG (Electronic Program Guide.)
• Schedule manual recordings from the EPG (even without guide data.)

Ready to see SnapStream 6.3 in action?

Webinar: What's New in 6.3?
For: Organizations interested in SnapStream

How can I upgrade to 6.3?

For current customers: To schedule your free upgrade* to 6.3, 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.

*UPDATE*

In case you missed it, watch the SnapStream 6.3 Webinar and Demo here:

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…