Contact us at 1-877-762-7787 orenterprise@snapstream.com
Contact us at 1-877-762-7787 orAll recordings are made in an unencrypted MPEG-2 program stream format. After a recording has been made, SnapStream's ShowSqueeze technology allows you to re-compress your recordings into the Windows Media Video (WMV) or H.264 formats. The specific parameters for recordings made in MPEG-2 or those ShowSqueeze'd to Windows Media or H.264, such as video resolution and bit-rate, are configurable by the administrator. See more information on pre-configured MPEG-2 qualities.
Many video editing systems do not support MPEG-2 program streams. To import a clip or recording made with SnapStream Enterprise on video editing systems like these requires a few extra steps.
One approach is to transcode the recording or clip that you wish to import into a format that your video editing system supports. SnapStream Enterprise has built-in support to ShowSqueeze to the H.264 and Windows Media formats. Or you could use dedicated transcoding hardware (such as Telestream's FlipFactory) or software (such as Sorensen Squeeze) to convert from a SnapStream Enterprise-recorded MPEG-2 to a format such as DV25.
Another approach to ingesting SnapStream Enterprise-recorded videos into a video editing system is to use a third party graphics card with an SDI output, such as the Blackmagic DeckLink. Installed on a PC running SnapStream's Enterprise client software, SnapStream Enterprise-recorded videos can then be captured directly on your video editing system using the SDI output.
Yes, the Enterprise TV Server has full support for recording from digital cable and satellite television sources. For an Enterprise TV Server setup involving satellite or digital cable, you will need one set-top box (provided by your television provider) for each tuner. For example, if you are setting up a 10-tuner SnapStream Enterprise TV Server to record from a DISH satellite television system, you will need quantity of 10 DISH set-top boxes (one for each input on the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server). For most television sources that require a set-top box, Enterprise TV Server controls each set-top box using an IR blaster (see our IR blaster quick-start guide). For compatible DirecTV set-top boxes, Enterprise TV Server controls each set-top box using serial tuning (see our serial tuning quick-start guide).
Yes, the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server can be pre-configured for a custom channel line-up. For example, if you receive television through a satellite system and have your own in-house cable plant where you re-modulate it throughout your facility using RF cabling, a custom line-up for your re-modulated feeds can be created so the program guide in SnapStream Enterprise matches your custom in-house cable line-up.
This depends on the quality at which recordings are made. As an example, using the default MPEG-2 recording quality (MPEG-2 Fair), a 1-hour show will be stored on disk as a 1 gigabyte (GB) file. See more information on here.
Yes, all MPEG-2 and Windows Media Video (WMV) encoding profiles are highly configurable, from resolution and bit-rate to frame rate to audio frequency and bit-rate.
The Enterprise TV Server can record any device that has analog audio and video outputs (NTSC-only). Specifically, the Enterprise TV Server has one RF coax input, two S-video video inputs and two 3.5mm (1/8") audio inputs for every two tuners. However the Enterprise TV Server is specifically designed for recording and searching television, so your mileage may vary for other applications. For example, with video source inputs other than television, the Enterprise TV Server's search technology is likely to not work.
The following inputs are available on an Enterprise TV Server, for every two tuners:
Only analog NTSC is supported. PAL and SECAM are not supported at this time. Also, the Enterprise TV Server does not have any SDI or HD/SDI inputs or any support for ATSC or FM Radio.
Yes, as a complement to our standard SnapStream Enterprise TV Server appliances, we also offer a SnapStream Enterprise TV Server that supports recording up to 5 over-the-air ATSC channels at once. For more information about this product, contact us.
Nope, SnapStream Enterprise does not currently support recording from clear QAM or CableCARD.
SnapStream does not sell the Enterprise TV software stand-alone. In order to utilize the Enterprise TV Server's features, you must purchase one of our complete turnkey harware/software solutions.
No, there isn't a monthly subscription fee, but there is a required annual service and support contract that provides you with software patches, updates, and program guide data for the United States and Canada.
The Enterprise TV Server runs Windows XP Professional.
The SnapStream Enterprise Server records whatever signal you plug into it. Accordingly, you are limited to capturing television content available through your cable or satellite feed. Note: some satellite providers can provide local market television channels from other markets. Check with your satellite provider to see if this service is available to you.
Typically, it takes SnapStream approximately 3-4 weeks to build, test, burn-in and ship a configured box to our customers.
No, there is not a native Linux or OS X version of Enterprise TV Link. But Enterprise TV Link does work through the Parallels emulation software on Intel-based Apple computers.
SnapStream Enterprise TV Link requires a PC running Microsoft Windows XP (Home or Pro), Windows 2000 or Windows Vista. Minimum processor requirement are Pentium, Celeron or AMD Athlon at 700MHz (though we recommend 1.5GHz and above). The video card should be compatible with DirectX 9.0 (or greater) and it should be an nVidia GeForce 2 or above, ATI Graphics Radeon 7500 or above or any other graphics card with 16MB RAM and 3D acceleration.
No, at this time we do not have a reseller program for SnapStream Enterprise.
Yes, the SnapStream Enterprise TV interface is designed to be used both on a desktop PC with a keyboard and mouse as well as on a traditional televisions with a remote control. See our Harris County Sheriff's Office case study for an example of this.
Nope, at this time, SnapStream Enterprise only supports over-the-network playback of live or recorded television through its SnapStream Enterprise TV Link client software. There is a web interface that can be used to schedule recordings, search recorded shows, setup alerts and more, but all playback is done through SnapStream Enterprise TV Link.
Yes, the Link clients and Enterprise TV Server work across different subnets. To connect across subnets, you must manually configure the Link clients to connect to the Enterprise TV Server's static IP address.
We recommend that you have at least a 100 Mbps wired network to support multiple simultaneous users. At the default recording quality (MPEG-2 Fair), video bit rates are 2 Mbit / sec.
It depends on the bandwidth available on your network and the video quality settings on the SnapStream Server. For example, if are recording at SnapStream's default quality of "MPEG-2 Fair", each live TV or recorded TV stream consumes about 2 Mbit/sec of bandwidth. Accordingly, to support 10 concurrent playback sessions, you would need approximately 20 Mbit / sec of available bandwidth. Also, each PC playing back live TV or recordings needs to have SnapStream Enterprise TV Link installed. Each Enterprise TV Server includes 5 Enterprise TV Link client licenese per tuner. For example, TV Server 4 includes 20 Enterprise TV Link client licenses and TV Server 10 includes 50 Enterprise TV Link client licenses.
If the network connection at your remote location provides enough bandwidth, you could VPN into your organization's LAN (the same one that your Enteprise TV Server is located on), connect to the SnapStream Server using Link and do all the normal things you can do with Link. The default recording quality (MPEG-2 Fair) would necessitate at least 2 Mbit / second of bandwidth between your remote location and your organization's LAN.
SnapStream Enterprise TV Server can also be used with the free Orb software for basic place-shifting capabilities.
SnapStream Enterprise intelligently manages the system's available TV tuners. For example, if a show is being recorded on a particular channel and a user wants to watch that same channel live, only one tuner is used to serve both the recording and the user's live TV session. And if all the tuners on a SnapStream Enterprise system are in-use, a user trying to watch live TV is prevented from interrupting a recording or another user's live TV session and can only choose from amongst the channels that are already being tuned.
Yes, the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server will allow you to record a channel around the clock. You can also configure the recording to happen in time blocks of 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, or 6 hours. And you can record as many channels 24x7 as your SnapStream Enterprise TV Server has the tuners to record.
Yes, multiple channels can be watched live at the same time, but only on multiple PCs. However, SnapStream does not have any picture-in-picture capabilities or the ability to playback multiple live TV channels on a single PC. SnapStream's Enterprise TV Server's limitation is that a single PC can playback one live or recorded TV session at a time.
Yes, you are able to use 3rd party video editing software as long as the 3rd party software supports MPEG-2 program streams or Windows Media Video (WMV).
SnapStream Enterprise has "padding" settings that allow recordings to start a specified number of minutes before the scheduled start time and end a specified number of minutes after the scheduled end time. This setting can be made on a recording by recording basis or universally for all recordings. Also, while a recording is being made, a user can dynamically extend that recording from the live TV screen if it appears that the event may end past the scheduled end time.
Yes, SnapStream's video folders and drive pooling capabilities allows for any 3rd party network attached storage (NAS), storage area network (SAN) or USB-connected direct attached storage device to be used to archive recordings. If your storage solution can be mounted on the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server, it can be used to store recordings made by SnapStream Enterprise. The SnapStream Enterprise TV Server does not have any any kind of FibreChannel or eSATA connectors on it.
It depends on the quality at which video is being recorded to the Enterprise TV Server and the size of the disk-array on the server. When recording at the default quality (MPEG-2 Fair), our standard 4-tuner SnapStream Server can store about 580 hours of video, while our 10-tuner SnapStream Server can store over 2,300 hours.
You are able to use multiple Enterprise TV Servers in one organization. The SnapStream Link client software can connect to any one of multiple servers at a time. However, at this time, there is no clustering support -- each SnapStream Server is an independent entity and recordings must be scheduled on each independently.
As the hard-drive fills up with video, the Enterprise TV Server's software will automatically purge the oldest content on the machine. You can also limit the "Max number of shows" for a particular show so the SnapStream Enterprise will delete episodes of that show once you hit that limit. You are able to mark a specific show or clip as "locked", meaning when it comes time to purge video, the "locked" video will not be erased.
Yes, any compatible video file can be copied into a video folder and it will appear in the library of available videos in SnapStream Enterprise. You can also add meta-data, such as show title and description, after such an import. You can also add time-coded metadata (such as a transcript) in the SRT file for such an imported video. Compatible video files include .mpg (MPEG-2), .wmv (Windows Media Video), .mp4 (H.264), .avi, .divx, .ts and .tp (MPEG-2 transport streams) and .dvr-ms.
Yes, an archive of videos in the VHS or DVD format can be manually recorded onto a SnapStream Enterprise TV Server system. Doing this simply involves connecting the analog video and audio outputs from a VHS or DVD player to the corresponding inputs on the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server and playing the media on the player and manually recording it on the SnapStream Enterprise TV Server. The resulting videos on SnapStream Enterprise may be searchable, depending on whether or not your original media includes the closed-captioning data.
No, when you purchase a particular configuration of SnapStream Enterprise, it is not possible to later add additional tuners. A 4-tuner SnapStream Enterprise TV Server, for example, cannot latter be upgraded to make it a 6-tuner or 8-tuner SnapStream Enterprise TV Server.
No, while most SnapStream Enterprise TV Servers are designed to be rackmounted in a server rack, they can just as easily be stored in an office on a desk.
Today, SnapStream Enterprise's primary means of searching television recordings is closed-captioning data embedded inside of all television broadcasts. Today, the FCC requires most broadcasters include closed captioning data on all of their television programs. There are some exemptions to the requirement for FCC, but, in general, most television programs in the United States include closed captioning data.
SnapStream Enterprise indexes new recordings while they are progress, so except for a short lag, recordings are searchable as they are being made.
SnapStream Enterprise allows you to do simple searches on television, including boolean logic but it also lets you refine your searches by a variety of television-specific parameters, including:
See SnapStream Enterprise's full television search syntax for more details.
Yes, through SnapStream Enterprise's advanced search screen, the full transcript for any recording can be viewed or downloaded.
Yes, clips can be downloaded to your local PC and then sent via e-mail using your standard e-mail client. It's recommended, though, that you use SnapStream's ShowSqueeze technology to compress MPEG-2 clips to Windows Media Video (WMV) to reduce the file size as much as possible.
It's also possible to e-mail a URL to a colleague. This URL, when clicked on, will launch the SnapStream interface and load the designated video at the specified time. This method requires the recipient to have the SnapStream Link software installed.
Yes, with SnapStream's TV Alerts feature, keywords can be saved and results can be emailed to users on a real-time, daily or weekly basis. The e-mails include an excerpt of the text transcript, with matches highlighted, along with a link to the matching video clip.
Also, using SnapStream's advanced search interface, common searches can be saved as bookmarks in your web browser and then those bookmarks can manually be run and scanned or watched on a daily basis.
Yes, SnapStream Enterprise is designed to support concurrent usage by many users at the same time.
The Enterprise TV Server software has a rich API, which gives you access to customizing the software as you see fit. More information on the SnapStream Enterprise API can be found by visiting the SnapStream SDK page or see the SnapStream Enterprise API.
Here are some of the web services that are part of the SnapStream Enterprise API:
SnapStream's Enterprise TV Server only supports NTSC video signals. So it works in any country where the NTSC standard is used, though, the "Search recordings" feature relies on closed captioning data, which may not be there in countries outside the United States and Canada. There is no PAL or SECAM support at this time. Also, SnapStream Enterprise does not support the CC2, CC3, or CC4 data channels at this time.
SnapStream's Enterprise TV Server includes access control that allows you to control the functions users have access to. For example, some of the permissions you can grant or deny include:
- watch/search recordings
- watch live TV
- create clips
- burn DVDs
- schedule recordings
- administration
SnapStream Enterprise's access control can be integrated with Microsoft's Active Directory so your users can login with their existing usernames and passwords.
Yes, just see the knowledgebase for tips on how to configure your anti-virus software so it doesn't interfere with the SnapStream Enterprise software.
