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

Social media + TV go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Don’t believe us? Check out this Twitter Media Blog detailing stats from the recent social media storm caused by the Syfy Network’s “Sharknado 2: The Second One.”

The newly released SnapStream 6.4 makes it easy to engage with your fans/viewers through social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook. It's so quick to post images, TV clips and animated GIFs, because you can "do it yourself," without help from video production or anyone else.

Tweets and TV, Side by Side

Inside SnapStream, for the first time, you can watch the broadcast of any TV show AND what viewers are live-tweeting about it, side by side, in one window through our "Tweets Tab."

Tweets are automatically categorized so our "Tweets Tab" automatically works for 200+ US channels. Just pull up a national TV show and you'll see tweets about that show, from the Twitter firehose, displayed side by side with the show itself.

And to make it easy to find the right TV moment, you can click on any tweet to "snap" to that moment in the broadcast. From there you can reply to an individual tweet with a TV screenshot, animated GIF or video clip.

With our "Tweets Tab," you can engage people watching your TV show with unprecedented efficiency -- there isn't a better way to "engage your follower's followers."

And live-tweeting does wonders to boost follower growth and to build a strong social audience for your TV show, according to a recent Twitter study.

Share TV Clips, Screenshots and Animated GIFs to Your Social Media Audience

Here's how SnapStream can help your TV show maximize engagement on Twitter and Facebook for every minute of your broadcast, to boost viewership and Nielsen Social TV Ratings.

Tweet and Reply on Twitter

Did you know that simply adding an image to your tweet can double your engagement rate? SnapStream 6.4 gives you a quick, seamless tool for replying to tweets with embedded TV clips, images or animated GIFs.

This allows you to engage your viewers and fans in a one-to-one fashion, in real time, with the actual TV moments they're talking about. Tweet, rinse and repeat to amplify 100s of engagements into 1000s.

The clips you create for Twitter are stored in SnapStream’s cloud forever (no limits on storage!) and the images and animated GIFs are stored directly on Twitter.

Create viral buzz with memes! SnapStream 6.4 allows you to overlay text onto any TV screenshot, so you can add a meme-like photo caption or a message to drive more followers.

We support multiple Twitter accounts per user and users can easily and securely add their own accounts without the need for an administrator to be involved.

Post Directly to Facebook

Ensure viewers will come back for more by capitalizing on your content’s ability to keep viewers hooked between episodes. SnapStream 6.4 allows you to compose Facebook posts directly inside of SnapStream that contain screenshot images or even TV clips directly from the show.

With all the content you'll be posting, you might be curious where those videos and images will be stored. All media content is natively embedded and hosted on Facebook.

With SnapStream 6.4, you can publish content directly to your Facebook Page. Are you managing multiple Facebook pages? SnapStream supports multiple Facebook accounts, so you can securely manage all of your Facebook Pages from a single SnapStream log-in.

Create and Share Animated GIFs

GIFs are at the heart of many Internet memes and viral phenomenon. SnapStream makes it easy to create and share animated GIFs on the Web and to social sites like Twitter and Tumblr. It’s one of SnapStream’s essential tools for repurposing your show’s content and engaging fans online.

SnapStream 6.4 makes it easy to adjust frame rate and speed so you can highlight those awesome sports moments (or bloopers) with slow motion. In this case, we had fun speeding up this SNL clip with Kristen Wiig, Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake!

Ready to see SnapStream 6.4 in action?

Webinar: Boost Social TV Ratings with SnapStream

Date/Time: Tuesday, November 18 at 3 p.m. EST / Noon PST

For: TV Shows and Broadcasters

Webinar: Share TV to Twitter and Facebook

Date: Wednesday, November 19

Pick a Time: Noon EST / 9 a.m. PST or 3 p.m. EST /noon PST

For: All Organizations

How can I upgrade to 6.4?

For current customers: To schedule your free upgrade* to 6.4, 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.

Meet SnapStream's 2014 Summer Interns!

We loved having these smart, young minds on our dev team this summer! Here's a glimpse into what SnapStream's interns experienced and learned:

Evan Liu

So much has happened this summer at SnapStream, it’s hard to recall all of it. The other interns and I arrived just as work on social media integration began. We were able to work with new technologies including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as learn new Web development techniques. Collectively, the interns were able to implement a bunch of cool new features that we are very proud of.

SnapStream is an incredible company to intern at. Because everyone on the team is very friendly and eager to help if we had any problems, working at SnapStream was an enjoyable experience. Personally, I appreciated the laid-back work environment the most. It’s very refreshing to be able to work without constant micro-management.

Working at SnapStream has taught me a lot of new things and skills. Here are a few important points:

• MVC is a pretty cool thing
• CSS is a thing
• Internet Explorer ruins everything
• Caffeine is valid

All in all, my experience here has been incredible. I’ll look fondly upon my time here and will miss working at SnapStream.

Shuu Hossain

Working for SnapStream has been quite the experience for me; I've learned so much in my short time here.

Before I worked here, I was so scared of working for an actual software development company. This was partially because I wasn't particularly confident in my skills, but mainly because of social environment reasons. As a fairly extremely introverted person, it's already difficult for me to socialize, and with the ratio of women to men in dev companies being as low as it is, it seemed even more daunting to make friends.

Despite this company also sporting a similar male-dominated workforce, I never once felt lonely while working here. In this small company, I feel rich in friends. Everyone is so nice and caring and the community is so close-knit that, despite being an intern, I really felt comfortable here.

I learned so much in terms of software development during my three months here as well. Probably even more than in my entire college career! I'm only about to enter my second year of university at UT Austin, but my point stands.

This wasn't just my first experience in real-world programming, but programming outside of school as well. It was overwhelming the first day coming here and learning how to use programming environments that I never encountered before. Before coming here I had never once touched C# or SQL and I'd only fiddled with Javascript. But now I feel fairly confident in all three!

Honestly, I am glad I was as inexperienced as I was when I first entered. It made me feel free to ask "dumb" questions, which were all answered, either by my mentors or the internet. Everyone was very patient with me, either explaining concepts and issues to me, or redirecting me to sources where I could study for myself.

Each assignment I was given gave me a hundred questions to get answers for. I learned by breaking things, or doing things not quite right. I was so afraid of doing either but now I'm glad when I do, because it means I can learn how things work, or how to do things better. Whenever I submitted code for review, I would hope that it would be sent back to me for changes, because each time it came back, I would be able to track down new questions and learn even more.

I'm so thankful to have had this opportunity. It's been an honor to have been the first female developer in the history of this company!

Jeff Hertzing

In my era before working at SnapStream, I always wanted to work on a big project or system that really mattered. School projects still matter, but as soon as you get a grade they are pretty much discarded. I wanted the work experience of being able to see many different parts come together from a lot of different people. When I first got to SnapStream and looked at all of the the systems and components inside the software, I wasn't sure how to grasp it because I've never seen anything this big before. After almost three months, I've been able to see a lot of it and understand how real projects work and function together.

I've always heard of other interns at most other places always getting stuck in a corner doing pointless busy work that never sees the light of day. Instead of a corner, here at SnapStream we were in the middle of everything and part of the whole office practically. Even though I’m sure some of the things we did were “Intern jobs,” they still were necessary for the real product and are actually implemented into it. I even got to work on some really neat jobs such as implementing UIRT blasting functionality onto a web page.

Looking back at my skills before I started the internship and comparing them to now is a huge change, and only 3 months have gone by. Interning at SnapStream really helped me learn a lot about software development as well as learning other aspects besides programming. I still have a lot to learn but I plan on using these skills to become better everyday.

This is how we will always remember you...

Illustration by Shuu Hossain

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!)

Are you curious about the present and future plans of SnapStream? Who better to ask than the CEO and Founder himself!

On Thursday, June 26th, at 9:45am CT, Stephanie Ruhle from Bloomberg TV's "Market Makers" interviewed SnapStream's CEO, Rakesh Agrawal. During this interview Rakesh explains how SnapStream technology is able to search anything said on TV - helping out the likes of corporate firms, federal and government agencies and, of course, television shows such as "The Daily Show" and "Last Week Tonight."

Rakesh also announces the future plans of SnapStream. (Hint: Anyone into social media? We thought so!)

Tune in! (Run Time: 7 minutes)

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!

Have you ever wondered how Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert and John Oliver are able to sift through all the chaos of cable news to bring you the most ridiculous of the ridiculous?

Like a media-focused Indiana Jones, Editor Tony Maglio from TheWrap.com set out to explore just how these shows are able to stay current with face-paced news and media night-after-night. What he discovered was the secret technology behind your favorite late-night comedy shows. (Spoiler Alert: The secret technology is SnapStream!)

Read the full article at TheWrap.com.

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: