I was deep in marketing-land on Thursday (also known as "writing a case study"), when I heard about the US Airways plane that crash-landed in the Hudson. I grew up in Houston, but lived in NYC for 5 years and moved back last year. I still have lots of friends there...so when I hear news like that coming out of NY I still feel like it's My News and it feels personal. Within minutes, my boss showed me that rescue picture that Janis Krums took from the ferry and posted to Twitter. I was really amazed by how quickly that picture got out. I watched as the number of "views" went from the dozens to the thousands. It was posted and cross-posted on lots of different blogs as the page views overloaded the Twitter server. Twitter is an amazing thing. I posted it to my Facebook page; I had friends in NY who learned of the plane crash from my Facebook post. Incredible.

A few minutes later, I ran across an article on Silicon Alley Insider, "U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work." I was astonished at how quickly that all happened. I know that sounds cliche...but not just the news of the plane crash - but also how quickly the photo some random guy took from his iPhone got thousands upon thousands of views within minutes; according to Dan Frommer, he was interviewed live on MSNBC just 34 minutes after he posted that photo to Twitter. Pretty cool. It got me thinking about how much technology has changed the way journalists cover the news.

Which got me wondering over the weekend, if I were a video blogger, how quickly could I get up a story about that plane crash? Here in the SnapStream office, we record most of the National news programs for our own interest and example purposes, and we've got alerts that are set up for "breaking news" (read more about that here). I went to my email alerts, did a quick search through Gmail for "Plane Crash" and got several results. I clicked right through to the program through the link in my alert:

In the end, though, I was just fascinated by how quickly that news spread, and how new technologies like Twitter and SnapStream can help journalists keep track of an unfolding event. Pretty cool.

Here's the clip of the TV broadcast my "breaking news" alert linked me to.

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 LA Times ran a story earlier this week about a big distributor of movies and TV shows dropping the VHS format.

Realistically, this doesn't mean that VHS is dead -- I'm sure VHS will continue to be used for things other than movies and TV shows. But if the LA Times article is true, if this LA company is really the last distributor of VHS tapes, then that's a significant step towards VHS completely going away.

Here at SnapStream, we often see our customers replacing very old VHS tape and VCR setups with the SnapStream Server so we have lots of photographs of VHS tapes. Here are a few... in memory of VHS:

The City of Houston's old VCR and VHS setup

The Plano Police Department's VHS tape and VCR setup

VHS tape dubbing station at a law enforcement agency

VHS tapes -- lots of 'em -- at a law enforcement agency

VCRs at a media company in Washington DC

VHS tapes (at a media company in Washington DC)

TVs and VCRs at a congressional office

Sometimes, we hear about cool and unexpected ways that our customers are using our TV search technology. This one example.

Local TV stations live and die by their local news operations. In their 2008 "State of the News Media", The Project for E

xcellence in Journalism says:

Newsrooms are a big factor in the economic success of local television. They contributed 42% to a station’s total revenue, according to local news directors. And the majority of these news directors say their newsrooms are profitable.

So competitive intelligence for a local TV station is important -- this means knowing who's getting the scoop on local news stories and how other local TV stations are covering the local news. And that's why one of our local TV station customers started using their SnapStream Server to scan for the words "breaking news" filtered on the names of their local news competitors.

This particular local TV station setup multiple SnapStream E-mail TV Alerts on the exact phrase "breaking news" for each of their local market competitors. And by setting the frequency to "as it happens", the news director of this TV station now gets an e-mail alert everytime a competitive local station is reporting on "breaking news"!

For example, at 10pm yesterday, they might have received this mention of breaking news on our local ABC station:

13 Eyewitness News at 10PM Yesterday, 10:00 PM - 13 hours ago >>> Breaking news tops the news, right now firefighters are battling a two-alarm warehouse fire. Authorities are not sure exactly what is burning at the elwood warehouse but they are evacuating that building. We have on the telephone assistant fire chief from the houston fire department omar longoria. Channel: 13 (KTRK) - Show Length:34:27 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

We thought this was pretty cool, so we've setup e-mail TV alerts on "breaking news" on a couple of the SnapStream Servers we are running here in our office.

So whether it's sports news on ESPN:

SportsCenter Today, 9:12 AM - 2 hours ago The sentencing hearing will be carried live here on "sportscenter" at noon eastern. Roger cossack will return to discuss that. We appreciate the insights this morning. >> My pleasure.breaking news out of the nfl and it is about the new england patriots who have signed another player. You may have heard of him before, linebacker junior seau entering his 19th season. He's returning to the patriots once again. He played for them in 2006 and in 2007, a 12-time pro bowler. Channel: 33 (ESPN) - Show Length:59:42 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

Or celebrity gossip on EXTRA (OK, maybe they shouldn't be calling some of this stuff "breaking news"!):

EXTRA Wed 12/3, 4:33 PM - 2 days ago I have a contrac through 2011. So right now that's what I have. Until somebody wris me another one. Ok? >> We need you. >> No, you don't. >> Oprah was in new york last night honoring susan taylor. Breaking news. She reveals there's big time confusion about who's throwing the party of all parties at obama's inauguration next mom. >> Everybody is calling me about having a party. Channel: 12 (KPRC) - Show Length:33:53 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

Or national news on Fox News:

Hannity & Colmes Yesterday, 8:31 PM - 15 hours ago The next news break is about an hour away, "hannity and colmes" continues right now. breaking news tonight in the minnesota senate recount. While most of the votes are recounted norm coleman is sill in the lead. Yesterday 171 ballots turned up giving franken an extra 37 votes, and with thousands of challenged ballots, his 316 lead could easily change. According to the republican party of minnesota franken is calling for an investigation into a minneapolis church and could possibly be connected to more than a hundred missing votes. Channel: 38 (FNC) - Show Length:1:03:53 - Play - View Transcript - Download Transcript - More

Searching on the term "breaking news" is one useful way to put your finger on the pulse of television!

Today, we're taking pre-orders for a new TV search product from SnapStream -- the SnapStream Mini.

There are many organizations that don't need all of the power of a SnapStream Server, but still stand to gain alot from being able to monitor TV with our TV search technology. And that's why we created SnapStream Mini.

So like the SnapStream Server, SnapStream Mini gives you all the same power to search inside traditional TV shows for mentions of whatever it is you might be looking for. With SnapStream Mini you can:

• Record traditional TV from regular cable, digital cable, or satellite (SnapStream Mini includes a learning IR blaster)
• Schedule recordings using our simple program guide
• Search by keyword within recordings
• Get e-mail alerts notifying you of mentions of keywords on TV
• Easily create TV clips and then download them or e-mail them
• Burn DVDs of full recordings or clips

But here's how SnapStream Mini is different from SnapStream Server:

• SnapStream Mini costs $2,000 (vs. SnapStream Servers which start at $8,000).

• SnapStream Mini can record 2 channels of TV simultaneously (SnapStream Servers can record as many as 10 channels simultaneously)

• SnapStream Mini can record and search over 1 terabyte of TV recordings, equal to about 1,100 hour (vs. SnapStream Servers have a default capacity of 2 terabytes space, about 2,300 hours, and can be purchased with up to 8 terabytes of usable space, about 10,000 hours.

• SnapStream Mini's hardware doesn't have any redundancy (vs. all SnapStream Servers have redundant power supplies and redundant storage arrays in RAID-5 configuration).

So, SnapStream Mini is a $2,000 TV search appliance geared towards individuals and smaller organizations that want monitor television for whatever it is they are interested in.

We're taking pre-orders now (place your pre-order here) and we expect to ship the first batch of SnapStream Minis on or before December 15th. And all orders include free U.S. ground shipping.

The SnapStream's TV Alerts feature allows you to save keywords and have your SnapStream Server (or SnapStream Mini) automatically search all of your TV recordings for them; you'll get an email with results on a real-time, daily or weekly basis - you choose the frequency. If you've ever used Google Alerts, think of this like Google Alerts but for traditional television.

So let's say you want to track all mentions of your organization. Simply type in the keyword, and anytime your organization is mentioned on your recorded channels, an email will be sent to you showing you the transcript of the video along with a link to the particular part of the video where it was mentioned. It's as easy as that!

For example, let's say you're in charge of press for the City of Houston and you want to track all mentions of The City of Houston or Bill White (our mayor) on the local news, you could set up an automatic search for the keywords:

• "city of houston"
• "mayor white"
• "bill white"

and have the results emailed to you:

With the "real-time" frequency option, you can get an email the moment a mention occurs so there's no time lost in responding to an important media mention. You can even track "breaking news." For example, recently, The San Jose Police Department was able to react immediately to an incident involving a cow and a train (?) thanks to SnapStream's as-it-happens email alerts!

Once you've found stuff you're interested in, you can click the link to watch the video and then create clips, email clips to other people within your organization, or even synchronize those clips to your iPhone or iPod so you can watch them while you're traveling. And unlike clipping services and media monitoring services, you can create an unlimited number of high-quality TV clips without any incremental cost.

To learn more, see this in-depth YouTube video on SnapStream's TV alerts function:

It’s been a little over a year since we released the SnapStream Server, our turn-key TV search appliance that allows organizations to record lots of TV and then search inside those recordings, and we've accomplished a lot in that year! Some of the highlights:

• Over 3 major software updates, we've expanded the SnapStream Server's capabilities, including:
  • Real-time TV search and clipping
  • Filter searches by show genre and channel
  • Simple clip creation
  • 24x7 recordings with program guide data
  • E-mail a clip
  • Google OneBox integration
  • Frame-by-frame playback and clipping
  • and more...
• From a year ago, when we only had a handful of customers, we now have a broad customer base including:
  • Government organizations at the city, county, state and federals levels
  • Universities
  • K-12 schools
  • TV and radio entertainment properties
  • TV stations
  • Political campaigns and organizations
• Internally, we've grown our team in almost every area

And we'll soon release the 4.9 version of SnapStream Enterprise that will, among other things, coincide with our offering a SnapStream Server TV search appliance that can record and search clear QAM and ATSC broadcasts.

So it's been a great year, we have even more people using SnapStream to find whatever it is they are looking for on traditional television, and the product is only going to keep getting better!

We've improved existing features and added a few new ones to our TV Search Appliance in turn making recording, searching, clipping, and archiving television more efficient for your organization. Let's take a closer look at what's new.

24x7 Recordings: We’ve enhanced this feature to now show the program guide data, not just recorded time blocks, when you record every show airing on any one channel.

Archived Closed-Captioning: If enabled, this feature will automatically archive the metadata of a deleted recording. This will allow you to continue to search through the recording once the audio and video have been deleted.

"Did you mean...": If you happen to mis-type or mis-spell a search term a "Did you mean..." message will appear to aid you in your search.

Email Clips: Now you can email clips directly from the Viewscape or Web Admin with the click of a single button. SnapStream Enterprise will automatically convert the clip to your choice of Windows Media Video or H.264 so the attachment is as small as possible.

My Clips Folder: Once you have created a clip on your Enterprise TV Link Client the clip will automatically be added to your "My Clips" folder for easier access. And you can still access all the clips on the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server.

Library Folder Permissions: Grant or restrict specific user groups permission to view and access particular video folders in the library.

Improved Logging: The view log is now user-specific. It includes documented user log-ins and detailed use by user.

Faster Scheduler: The new scheduler is now 80 times quicker than before allowing you to manage larger recording schedules faster.

So check out the release notes for SnapStream Enterprise for the complete scoop and existing customers can upgrade their SnapStream Enterprise TV Server and their SnapStream Enterprise Link clients.

Last weekend the Houston Technology Center hosted BarCampHouston3. For those of you asking yourself what exactly a BarCamp event is, well it’s a way for techies to meet up, mingle, network, and exchange ideas. Our very own Rakesh Agrawal headed over to HTC and was interviewed by Mike McGuff, Multimedia Web Producer at KTRK-ABC. Rakesh answers the who, what, how and why on SnapStream’s Enterprise TV Search Appliance. Check out the interview below.

We often get the question, "How does SnapStream's TV search appliance work?" so here's a brief explanation.

First, for anyone new to SnapStream's TV search technology, a quick summary of what it is: SnapStream Enterprise is an "appliance" that allows an organization to record lots of television and then search inside those recordings. By "appliance", we just mean that the product is a self-contained server that you buy from us that's quick and easy to setup. Here's what the hardware looks like:

Once you have a SnapStream Enterprise TV Server setup, the first thing you'd typically do is tell it what you want it to record. You can do this using the SnapStream program guide -- you can record a single instance of a show, you can record every instance of a show, or you can record a particular channel 24 hours a day:

Once recordings are made, you can search inside those recordings for anything you might be looking for. Some examples of TV search scenarios:

• A presidential campaign wants to search for every mention of their candidate and their candidate's competition is mentioned on TV -- so they can respond to that TV coverage more efficiently.
• A city government wants to search all of their local TV stations for mentions of their police department, their fire department, and anything else related to their city government.
• A television comedy show (like The Soup on E!) wants to search thousands of hours of television for things to make fun of.
• A journalism department at a university wants to do a type of research called content analysis (also known as textual analysis), so they use our search technology to chart word frequencies over time.
• ...and the list goes on.

As an example of our TV search results, here's an ad-hoc search that I did on "George Carlin" (I ran this query just now on Friday, June 27, 2008):

You'll see for each search result, there's

• the name of the program that contained the match,
• the time at which the match occurred (for example, Anderson Cooper 360 at 8:59pm yesterday),
• and finally there's an excerpt of the transcript with the matching words bold-faced.

(A side note: you can also setup SnapStream Alerts that would e-mail you everytime certain words appeared on television -- the results would look similar, but you'd get them on e-mail).

So how does our TV search technology work? It searches over a combination of

• closed-captioning data and
• program guide data.

The FCC requires closed-captioning to be included on almost all TV programming (more on the details of this on the fcc.gov website). So while SnapStream Enterprise is making a recording, it also simultaneously records all of the closed-captioning data for that show. In the process of recording the closed-captioning, SnapStream Enterprise does some clean-up of the text to make it easier to read and easier to search. And then we index all of that text in a time-coded fashion, so when we find a match, we can direct the user to not only the program where the match occurred, but also to the time within that program. Program guide data is also used in our search process so users can easily filter searches by program genre, by channel, or by program title.

In addition to being simple to use, the SnapStream TV search engine also offers up a lot of power in the hopes that our customers can find whatever it is they are looking for on television. More on this in the next blog posting! Meanwhile, if you have any questions, post 'em in the comments.