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SnapStream Upgrades Educational TV Content Management Software

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 09/10/10

Enterprise television software provider SnapStream Media has upgraded its content management technology for educational users, streamlining it for easier use and giving it greater storage capacity and efficiency for larger school districts and expanded user groups.

Key among the added features of the fifth-generation upgrade is integrated scalable storage, which allows users to add to existing storage nodes without interruption of activity, providing the option of ever-increasing capacity for storage of saved content.

In addition, the upgraded software removes the limit on the number of shows/channels being recorded simultaneously, and it allows tuner nodes to be clustered, eliminating bandwidth limitations to provide optimal streaming, regardless of how many classrooms or groups are accessing the SnapStream server at once.

Calling it a cross between a DVR and a search engine, the company has demonstrated a wealth of uses for the technology, citing recent partnerships with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at University of Missouri-Columbia and the Boston University journalism department, which both use SnapStream for delivery of media lectures. Additionally, Missouri's Academic Support Center currently uses the technology to manage digital video recordings for a research study on autism. And at the K-12 level, Moore County Schools of Carthage, NC, has acquired two servers in order to provide searchable television content to as many as 80 classrooms.

Brad Fernandes, director of technology at Boston University's College of Communication, noted the utility and efficiency of the SnapStream technology. "The software is more efficient and manageable than trying to stream video from the Web," he said, "removing the hassle of slow Internet browsers and video buffering."

More details about the upgraded enterprise technology, including a video demonstrating its uses, can be found here.