With access to four tuners and 1.5 terrabytes of storage, I thought that I had the ultimate DVR setup. However, after seeing Snapstream’s Enterprise PC DVR in action, I’m envious of its capabilities and my home entertainment system suddenly seems wimpy. I don’t know how much Snapstream is charging, but if money grew on trees, I’d be all over this in a heartbeat.
With 10 tuners, one won’t worry about programming conflicts. And with 2 terrabytes of storage, it would mean that one can record 10 different channels, 24 hours a day for at least 8 days before worrying about archiving. Even, if one needed to save old content, the software enables video backup onto DVD.
While the specs had me drooling, the search capabilities were what I found most impressive. By taking advantage of the closed captioning system, SnapStream is able to search the transcripts of any program you record. This allows you to record a lot of junk and filter it for the information that you care about. Unlike the DVR in your living room, this isn’t limited to one monitor. SnapStream has designed the DVR to act as a server, allowing multiple users to search and stream videos from anywhere on a network.
In the video demonstration, Snapsteam CEO Rakesh Agrawal mentions that they have PR firms, political organizations, schools and pro sports teams as customers. While I see how all of these organizations could benefit from access to this type of technology, I was surprised to see Wall St. missing from this list. Being able to keep track of when an investment is mentioned in the media is a powerful tool for money managers. When you consider that Thomson books a billion a year in profits by selling market data to businesses, you have to imagine that there’s an opportunity for searchable video intelligence. SnapStream may be tapping into a niche market, but it can be a lucrative one if they attract motivated buyers. By helping businesses make better use of DVR technology, they’re filling a market void and creating demand for an entirely new DVR product category.
SnapStream’s professional DVR may be well outside of my tax bracket, but it’s still exciting to see the company innovate. Considering the stiff competition in the consumer DVR market, it makes sense for them to diversify into the professional segment. You can read more about SnapStream’s enterprise ambitions in Brent Evans’ recent interview with Agrawal.
Davis Freeberg is a technology enthusiast living in the Bay Area. He enjoys writing about movies, music, and the impact that digital technology is having on traditional media. Read more at Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection.
Wow, this would make it so much easier to do news monitoring. You wouldn’t have to have people watching the damn news shows, you could just search for your boss’s or company’s name, then go watch the relevant video.
Back during the Internet bubble, there was a company a floor below mine that was all about business intelligence and mining data. This would have been a useful tool for them. Which makes me wonder if SnapStream should be selling to the Ernst & Youngs and Accentures of the world and letting them pitch it to clients. If I still did government contracting and IT integration, I might have a few ideas of who could use this.
By the way, I ran into Rakesh at NAB in Vegas a few months ago and saw the hardware. It looks sharp.
Great article, I’ve also wanted to see our enterprise product in Wall St, through some Money Managers I know personally. I think what it really comes down to is there’ll be a notable use case for this server in all markets, but it will be highly appreciated by key individuals who yearn for these features.
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