2 Nov 2009 13:29
blinkx Powers Rich Media Search for BBC's Democracy Live Website
blinkx's Speech-to-Text Technology and Video Wall at the Heart of New Political Coverage Initiative
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - November 2, 2009- blinkx, the world's largest video search engine, today announced that it is powering search on the BBC's Democracy Live website, an important new online initiative from the BBC that provides public access to video coverage of the Houses of Parliament, all the devolved British legislatures and the European Parliament.
Democracy Live (http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/) brings together live and archived historical video coverage for the first time, with the aim of opening up the workings of parliaments to voters, and educating the public about the work of British political institutions. In order to help people to access this wealth of content more efficiently, the BBC is using blinkx's powerful speech recognition software to make the archive of parliamentary debates and business searchable by specific keywords.
With blinkx's jump-to-word technology, users can jump directly to the point in the video content where a relevant word is spoken, rather than having to sit through long passages of business. Whether searching for hot-button political issues, a particularly spirited exchange or a clever quip, users will be able to find the dialogue they are looking for quickly and efficiently with blinkx's patented search technology. blinkx is also powering the video wall on the Democracy Live homepage.
"Democracy Live is an incredibly valuable tool for the voting public," said Suranga Chandratillake, CEO and founder, blinkx. "In the lead up to the general election, constituents now have greater access, at a remarkably detailed level, to political debates and the performance of their MPs. blinkx is delighted to be working with the BBC with this initiative - we believe it's an important public service and are proud that our technology is helping voters gain quick and significant insight that they would not previously have been able to access."
blinkx pioneered video search on the Internet, developing an engine based on technology that was conceived at Cambridge University, enhanced by $150M in R&D over 12 years, and is now protected by 111 patents. Unlike other multimedia search engines that attempt to re-purpose technology built for the Text Web, blinkx uses a unique combination of patented conceptual search, speech recognition and video analysis software to efficiently, automatically and accurately find and qualify online video.
About blinkx
blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 35 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx's founders set out to solve a significant challenge - as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - and even see - the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world's most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.
Press Contacts for blinkx:
Tim Turpin
Sparkpr
+1 (415) 321 1894
tim.turpin@sparkpr.com
Nicole Love
Marlin PR
+44 207 869 8328
Nicole.love@marlinpr.com
NOMAD for blinkx
Charles Lytle
Citi