Press - Video Asset Management

Search the Words Spoken in Video Sound Tracks - MerlinOne Unveils New Technology

Quincy, MA, April 20, 2007 - Did you ever do an hour long video interview of a "talking head" and wish you could jump right to the specific phrase you want to edit for use?

MerlinOne, Inc., will demonstrate at the NEXPO show in Orlando (April 21-24) an HD video-capable version of its Merlin 5 Digital Asset Management System that lets users actually search for words spoken in the audio tracks. With its powerful new technology, Merlin 5 can find digital video files that contain specific words or phrases. The search results of the Merlin Video Asset Management System are automatically cued to the spot where the search term is spoken: this saves tremendous time that would have been lost to locating, mounting, viewing or jogging video clips.

"Digital video use is growing, and with it, a repeat of many of the production issues we saw 10 years ago with the adoption of digital still photos," said John Harrison, VP of Sales & Marketing at MerlinOne.

"The main issue with video is that searchable metadata (dateline, byline, caption) is almost never captured with the video file, unlike the still photo world where the IPTC standard exists. This makes searching for a video file very difficult, unless you remember the date it was shot, or something about the filename: not much to go on!"

Recognizing the exploding use of video, MerlinOne made the commitment to find a way to fill in video metadata without requiring human effort. We realized that using several advanced technologies to make the spoken words in the video searchable, would be a huge step forward in making video asset management truly useful.

"Searching video for words has become the 'holy grail' for digital asset management," said Harrison. At Nexpo, MerlinOne will be doing a technology demonstration of a Merlin 5 system that does just that.

In the Merlin booth at NEXPO there will be a mini-studio with an HD video camera, lights, and a microphone. As people walk up they will have the option of being on-camera for a short clip. We will load the clip into the Merlin server, and do a search for their spoken words. Merlin will list the search hits, and with a click, cue up and play the sub clip containing the search term.

This, and other new technologies will be available as part of the upcoming major Merlin 5 release, with initial installations expected in the second half of the year.

About MerlinOne - MerlinOne, Inc. is a leading provider of digital asset management systems and electronic document discovery platforms. E-Sheets® is the foremost electronic tearsheets service. The Merlin picture desk management solution has over 140 major installations at corporations like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Harvard University, Pfizer, Habitat for Humanity and The White House. MerlinOne technology helps companies manage photos, text, graphics, PDFs, multimedia and e-discovery material.

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