Rakesh was generous enough to sit down with me and answer several questions I had for him. Over lunch, we talked about Snapstream’s history, the change in their industry, Snapstream’s new Enterprise product, the effect of Microsoft Vista on Snapstream, Integration of DVD & Music playback with Beyond TV and many other topics.
I asked Rakesh how he initially became interested in the Software PVR market. He explained that the idea took hold when traveling on business. “We needed a way to stream our shows to the hotel room from our home. That grew into a concept that became Snapstream Personal Video Station.” Personal Video Station was even showcased in Bill Gates keynote address at the Windows XP Launch which is ironic since Windows eventually added their own PVR program to their Windows Operating System. Version 3 of Personal video System was launched in May 2003 and in November of 2005 the latest version of Beyond TV BTV4 (note there has been many free upgrades since 2005) was released.
Our conversation moved on to how the Software PVR business has changed since Agrawal started Snapstream back in 2000. Snapstream moved on from “Personal Video Station” to Beyond TV and then Beyond Media (Snapstream’s HTPC media front-end software) These two products were developed separately and continue to act as stand-alone products today.
