Lunch & Learn with SnapStream:

TV Monitoring Best Practices and Workflows for PIOs

Thursday, May 2, 11:45 a.m. – 1: 15 p.m.
Mike Lopez, Sales Engineer, SnapStream
Tom Erickson, Master Deputy, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office

We are excited to support the Kansas Association of Public Information Officers (KAPIO) at their annual conference this week, as the platinum level sponsor. PIOs from across the state will be congregating to learn from one another’s communities and organizations, focusing on takeaways from “real world PIO experiences.”

We’re joining the conversation with a real PIO, Master Deputy Tom Erickson, who is a real SnapStream user too. At the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) in Olathe, KS, SnapStream’s TV monitoring technology helps Erickson efficiently track and respond to important local media coverage.

SnapStream provides that extra set of eyes for the JCSO’s small staff, with the speed and intelligence of TV search. But SnapStream is a great fit for organizations of all sizes. The City of Miami Police Department, the City of Greensboro, and the City of Austin all exemplify some of the best practices for smart city management, along with their streamlined workflows for media monitoring.

Our vision is to continually drive efficiency at city governments across the country, to empower them with reliable, easy-to-use technology.

Does your state have a regional conference for PIOs? We would love to share the best practices we’ve learned with you, too!

Reach out to sales@snapstream.com.

NAB is next week! Meet with us to get a personalized demo of SnapStream’s new cloud sharing technology, as well as an exclusive look at upcoming, unreleased features. See how easy it is to skip to a topic of interest with the new interactive transcript viewer; monitor TV on-the-go from your tablet; and watch live TV from the Web Player for Mac and PC.

Schedule a meeting with us in South Upper Hall SU4721 and you’ll be entered to win a free flat-screen TV. How awesome is that?

SnapStream Speaker Series at NAB

LIVE from SnapStream’s booth in South Upper Hall, SU4721

Developing the Journalists and Communicators of Tomorrow Tuesday, April 9 at 2 p.m. SnapStream’s technology is helping students interactively study and analyze broadcast news like never before. Join the Technology Director of the School of Communication at Emerson College, Jonathan Satriale, to learn about the academic applications of SnapStream.	Trailblazers: Centralized TV Monitoring at the City of Austin Wednesday, April 10 at 2 p.m. The City of Austin is known for being technology-driven, and its city government is no exception. Join Keith Reeves, Station Manager for Austin’s Channel 6, to learn how SnapStream efficiently provides TV recordings, transcripts and clips for PIOs across 35 departments citywide.
RSVP and we’ll save you a seat!

Getting Interactive

Tomorrow SnapStream will be participating at Journalism Interactive 2013, a new conference focused on intertwining journalism education and digital media. Host of the second annual event, the University of Florida houses one of the top 10 journalism schools in the country.

Scholars, practitioners, teachers and students, from universities near and far, will congregate at Journalism Interactive to share their successful approaches for delivering journalism education in today’s metamorphic media space.

I graduated from UF’s journalism school, so I’m filled with excitement about SnapStream’s involvement with Journalism Interactive, which serves a tremendous purpose. It’s admirable that this group of universities is taking an active role in seeking out new, influential technology and trends, and incorporating them into their curriculums.

Teaching Broadcast Journalism

Plain and simple, SnapStream provides universities with a new, digital platform for studying and teaching broadcast journalism:

• With computer-based access to live and recorded television, professors can implement new teaching and research methods. Like at Emerson College, Graduate Journalism Professor Paul Niwa teaches students how to compare and contrast the coverage of a single news event across various outlets and networks.
• By downloading transcripts and using the TV search feature, graduate students can count keywords and perform advanced content analysis.
• Over time, universities will develop a searchable TV archive or library, which then becomes a valuable research tool and media resource.

Meet us in Gainesville

Are you going to be in Gainesville for Journalism Interactive? Let us know!

Search, play, clip and share. It’s one of the most popular TV monitoring routines. In the newest release of SnapStream, we set out to perfect the “share” step, to improve the workflow of sending and receiving TV clips.

It’s all about sharing in the cloud today, from Facebook photos to Google Docs. So yes, we jumped on the bandwagon, okay? We have embraced the cloud. We’re proud of the cloud.

In 5.8, cloud sharing makes it easy to pass along TV clips to anyone, anywhere. It’s particularly useful for sharing with non-SnapStream users or with colleagues located remotely. Here’s how it works:

1. Find a clip to share

From the TV library, grab the clip you want to send. Click “Share Clip.”

2. Add recipients

Who’s it going to? Type in one or more email addresses, include a brief message, and hit send.

3. The clip enters the cloud

SnapStream kicks off some quick transcoding behind the scenes as it uploads the clip to its privately-hosted cloud. The upload will complete as fast as your Internet connection will allow.

4. Ding! It’s ready

SnapStream delivers a simple email with a link to play. Since the clip lives happily in the cloud, no email attachments are involved. This nicely circumvents any worries about file size limits or spam filters; another reason why cloud sharing is so practical.

5. Watch clips anywhere

All clips play universally from any computer or mobile device: iPhones and iPads; Android phones and tablets; Windows Phones; Etch-a-Sketch* devices; Blackberry phones. Cloud sharing works seamlessly across all of these channels to deliver a true solution for portable, remote sharing. Closed captioning support varies by device.

* Only select models.

Want it? Get cloud sharing, free.

We love adding value to SnapStream, and passing it along to you. So we’re making cloud sharing FREE for all enterprise users. Sharing is caring, so do it in the cloud.

Contact support to upgrade to 5.8 and to verify your eligibility.

Contact sales to get started with SnapStream.

We want toys!

Tech toys, that is. We, at SnapStream, have an obsession with shiny new gadgetry. And during the holiday season, our tech-lust gets extreme. Here’s what’s topping our collective wish list for this year.

1. Like in the movie Minority Report, Daniel F. wants to use hand gestures to control his computer, using the Leap Motion controller.

2. As a fan of Frank Gehry, Rakesh admires this photograph because it shows the famous architect putting his own creation through its paces. Who knew that Gehry designed and built desks earlier in his career?

3. Chris is fired up about getting an Induction Burner, so he can cook like an Iron Chef.

4. Wishing she could fly, Adrienne wants to soar above water with the Flyboard. (Check out the demonstration video!)

5.  Nestor wants to run freely with these wireless earbuds.

6. Zack is all about the Book Book, which consolidates your iPhone and wallet, with a vintage touch.

7. Rob likes the Wasp Injector Knife, which can be used for diving, hunting or just attacking a watermelon.

8. Michael B. wants the blazing Asus gaming ultrabook, so he can play all the latest video games.

9. All Daniel M. wanted this year was a wireless mouse and keyboard… and he got it!

10. Because Gayan enjoys photography in his spare time, he’s eyeing this really nice Canon camera.

11. If money were no object, Joel would splurge and get a monkey in a fitted winter coat. (Not sold in stores.)

12. Aaron fantasizes about commuting to work at SnapStream in the 2013 SRT Viper.

13. Nestor wants to give his iPhone the best protection with a gorilla glass case.

14. There’s something about putting a pen to paper… or to a screen! Michael C. would kill for Wacom’s interactive pen display.

15. Rachel wants to kick up her feet and let the Roomba take care of cleaning her apartment.

16. What Rene wants is legen—wait for it—dary! The official How I Met Your Mother suitjamas, in smooth grey silk. Totally work appropriate.

17. Josie’s phone battery is always running low, so she wants some kind of external charger to make it last.

18. Rakesh also wants this magical unicorn mask, for unclear reasons. (He wants to make us laugh?)

What are you wishing for? From all of us at SnapStream, we wish you a happy, healthy holiday season and new year!

The excitement of a new release of SnapStream.

Today we’re rolling out 5.7, which expands the scope of recording, searching and managing TV from your Web browser. Schedule your upgrade with our support team to gain access to these useful, new features:

1. Display search results by TV show

A new user-level setting allows you to auto-collapse search results by TV show, creating a macro view of all mentions.  In this example, the results are collapsed by TV show, displaying an overview of where the search term Obama appears. Click the arrows to expand the results.

Alternatively, you can opt to display the results in the expanded view, so it’s easier to see every individual mention within every show. In this example, SnapStream drills into the first result, News Nation, to identify every mention of the search term Obama in that program.

2. Create a saved search filter

At the user level, save a default search filter to refine the displayed TV search results. For example, you could exclude clips or ShowSqueezed files from showing up in your searches. Combine any of SnapStream’s search filters, such as DATE, CATEGORY, CHANNEL, TITLE, FILE TYPE, etc. See the help file for a complete list.

3. ShowSqueeze to a new format, QuickTime

In addition to the H.264 and WMV codecs, ShowSqueeze supports the QuickTime format (.mov). We recommend transcoding to reduce file sizes, which thereby increases archive depth.

4. Implement new Workflows

Since Workflows were first released in SnapStream 5.4, we have continued to add new, versatile options. In 5.7, we implemented the following:

New Triggers

ShowSqueeze Finished – Initiate a Workflow once a transcode completes.

Only When Run Manually – Create Workflows to run on demand, from the TV Library, as a series of saved actions.

New Filter

Clips - Create Workflows that only apply to files that are clips.

New Actions

Export Item – Export a copy of a TV file outside of SnapStream’s environment, with the option to include or exclude closed captioning. For instance, export clips to a third-party transcoding application.

Transcode to QuickTime – As explained above in #3.

5. Schedule time-based guide recordings

In 5.7, we introduce a new alternative for recording multiple segments of a channel, throughout the day. Once you select the time period and the channel desired, SnapStream will display all of the upcoming programs to be recorded during that time, in relation to the latest program guide data.

Here’s a time-based guide recording on CNN from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m.

6. Receive emails out of the box

In 5.7, SnapStream.net takes over all email service responsibilities, to remove the administrative step of setting up SMTP. Important features like TV Alerts and system notifications work without any pre-configuration.

7. Play out SDI with new, improved controls

Manage SDI playout with controls to pause, seek and stop. Edit the playlist to remove or reorder recordings.

Ready to get started?

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

Ready to upgrade to 5.7?

Contact support@snapstream.com or 1-877-696-3674.

Because TV is our world, we are very excited to exhibit at Content and Communications World, November 14 – 15, at booth #856.

SnapStream enables TV show creatives to easily search TV and incorporate TV clips into their programs. Shows like The Soup, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report all tap into SnapStream’s endless supply of up-to-the-minute pop culture and news clips.

This is the time we live in: the “clip culture.”

Video clips are suddenly everywhere. They have jumped from the Internet and splattered all over TV. Talk shows, entertainment/comedy shows and even hard-hitting news programs have all added TV clips into the mix of writing and production.

How do they do it?

SnapStream provides broadcasters with the TV recording and search technology to reliably capture and re-purpose TV content.

You have The View re-broadcasting and commenting about what was said on Fox News; CNN reporting on a skit from Saturday Night Live; and E! News recapping Jersey Shore and all the latest episodes of reality TV.

Because of how easy it is to create a TV clip and play out to SDI, all of these shows have embraced the clip culture. And we have to admit, we think it’s pretty cool how the landscape of TV is changing before our eyes.

With fair use, The Daily Show (and all shows) can embed and comment on any content, from any network. So now, TV is this amazingly interconnected ecosystem. Does it remind of you something? (The Web!)

In short, we love supporting and cultivating this fresh new format of TV, so please join us at CCW in New York City next week:

Make an appointment with SnapStream >>

We will demonstrate the core features for TV and film production:

• Recording and searching unlimited TV
• Creating and sharing unlimited TV clips
• Live transcoding to H.264 or WMV
• Play out to SDI (into editing suites)
• Long-term, searchable TV archives

Since SnapStream is headed to Ottawa for GTEC next week, let’s take a look at how government agencies can operate proactively when it comes to media relations.

In the spirit of parliamentary democracy, the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of journalists in providing the public with news and information, according to its Communications Policy. Therefore, all institutions are required to:

• Cultivate proactive relations with the media.
• Operate and respond effectively in a 24-hour media environment.
• Reach and inform the media on issues of importance to decision-makers and the public, even on short notice.

How can institutions work to meet these objectives?

Monitoring the television media (and really, all forms of media) is the first step in opening the lines of communication. If the organization doesn’t have its ears open or its antennas up, then it can’t effectively respond to or inform the public (via the media).

In alignment with the need to respond to the  media quickly, entities like The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have adopted SnapStream at many of their branches. Notably, SnapStream is also widely deployed in various aspects of the U.S. government, because it provides the following abilities:

• Record and search unlimited TV
• Get notified of keyword mentions
• Create and share TV clips
• Archive TV content on a scalable basis

Plain and simple, SnapStream’s core features deliver government officials with the most practical, reliable solution for managing the media, and managing it better. So folks, this is why we are going to GTEC Nov. 6 – 7: to help spread the aid of our technology across Canada.

Schedule an appointment with us at booth 1112

or drop by to discuss your TV monitoring goals at your convenience. Reference the map below so you know where to find us!

In the newest release of SnapStream, we added new features and made core improvements to deliver the strongest and most reliable TV search experience, yet.

+ We added muscle to our Mac version.

The Web Player for Mac supports viewing of in-progress TV recordings, which is a game-changer for TV monitoring on OS X.

+ We added more options for Workflows.

You can delay tasks, like ShowSqueeze, to occur a certain number of days later. This is what we call a new trigger in Workflows.

+ We remodeled the TV Library.

You can sort recordings by date and channel to locate and play the content you want much faster.

+ We improved how you set Recording Priorities.

You can drag and drop your job priorities on the fly, to make quick changes.

+ We made things more speedy, in general.

Enjoy faster page loads and fewer clicks to get to your common tasks.

+ We make it easy to upgrade.

Contact SnapStream’s expert support team to schedule your upgrade to 5.6.  See what else is new in version 5.

support@snapstream.com
+1 (877) 696-3674

+ We love new users.

Contact our Sales Engineers to get started with SnapStream today.

sales@snapstream.com
+1 (877) 762-7787

You knew what that meant. TV in the classroom = awesome. The day’s lesson was about to come alive through video

.

When we spotted this picture on George Takei’s Facebook page the other day, it made us smile, because it represents a significant trend in education. And we put our own little spin on it.

Video, while not a new medium, continues to excite students in new ways. It’s the fact that rich video is available anywhere and everywhere, from YouTube to mobile devices. It’s because TV is always fresh, relevant and relatable. Once you have the classroom engaged, the real learning truly begins. We know video is a powerful and dynamic teaching tool, because more and more schools are streaming TV to the classroom with SnapStream’s technology.

One SnapStream sits in your school’s media center (not actually wheeled around). Teachers then log in from their computers and play recordings (or clips) on their projectors or TVs. See how engaged and connected your class will be when you show them the Curiosity rover landing on Mars or the latest presidential debate.

Just lose the cart and DVD player/VCR. It’s not very 2012.