20,000 VHS Tapes Under the Sea

A case study of Metro Monitor, a Media Monitoring Business

15 April, 2007

By implementing SnapStream DVR Technology, Metro Monitor was able to improve the efficiency of their media monitoring business by eliminating the physical storage and transport of VHS cassette tapes.

The Situation

Metro Monitor provides television monitoring and clipping services. The company tracks, archives, and delivers copies of its clients’ mentions and appearances on television news across the country. Metro Monitor provides their customers access to more than 160 regional television markets- some of the most complete coverage in the media monitoring industry.

Since 1993, Metro Monitor has maintained recording and processing offices around the U.S. at more than 30 different locations. Each of these locations previously required staff to record desired news programming manually on VHS. The tapes had to be shipped every day from branch offices to the Metro Monitor home office in Alabama, where they were archived for up to six months. This process was extremely labor-intensive and required a massive amount of physical storage— by late 2005, the company had an archive of 20,000 tapes, occupying half of the Metro Monitor home office.

The Solution

Metro Monitor used SnapStream DVR technology to turn their recording process all-digital, automating and streamlining their business and resulting in two major benefits. First, the company has been able to dramatically reduce costs. Its SnapStream DVR boxes record regularly scheduled programming automatically, eliminating the need for any staff to manually switch or program VCRs. Furthermore, the expense of shipping and storing VHS tapes has been eliminated.

Second, and most importantly, the switch to digital technology has completely eliminated the need for physical delivery of recordings to customers. Recordings can be edited and delivered by FTP from any branch office- and all this can be accomplished remotely from Metro Monitor home offices. By making it possible to serve video to over the Internet, SnapStream DVR software gave Metro Monitor a lightning-fast method for delivering news clips to their customers. "We are now able to offer our clients same-day access to video, regardless of the market in which they appear," says Metro Monitor's Director of Client Services, Bryan Council.

About Metro Monitor

Founded in 1993 and operated by veteran media and public relations professionals, Metro Monitor is a leading electronic news monitoring service. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Metro Monitor provides broadcast news reports, video news clips in a variety of media, transcripts, public relations support services, research data, videotaping, and videotape editing and duplication. Daily radio monitoring is also offered.

Figures

Figure 1: From the Metro Monitor home office in Alabama, Metro Monitor employees can retrieve recorded TV news content from any of their regional offices, nationwide.

Figure 2: SnapStream DVR technology displays recorded content directly on a user's PC.

Figure 3: Metro Monitor's archives are far more manageable on DVD than on VHS.