GridSearch Launches Video Search Tool

GridSearch has introduced a video search tool that it says “quickly and efficiently narrows down to a precise frame in the video. The tool uniquely doesn’t mimic spooling through magnetic tape and enables users to accurately navigate to a specific frame within the video by selecting the closest thumbnail to the desired moment from a grid of nine thumbnails: zooming in by a factor of eight each time. The search tool works with TV remote controls, tablets and smartphones, game console controllers, numeric keyboards and voice control too.”

In a user study, 100% of respondents agreed that the GridSearch method was easy to use and took them to exactly where they wanted to be in the video. This compared with 86% that disagreed with the same statement connected to iPlayer. All of the surveyed respondents also found GridSearch to be at least twice as fast as iPlayer, with around a third stating it was more than six times as fast. It reduces the cognitive load of trying to understand what you are fast forwarding through.

Jonathan Bowes, GridSearch founder, said: “With so much content being watched on-demand, consumers want an easy way to navigate to the specific points they want to see. This is especially true for programs such as Strictly Come Dancing, where viewers might want to skip directly to the dances.”

While the tool has been developed to make it easier for end users to find the content they want to watch quickly, the company says it can also be used for production and post-production teams who need to navigate to a specific point for editing or quality checks.

Bowes added: “Editing teams are under increasing pressure to perform reviews and edits in record time. Our tool can make it much faster for them to find the precise point in the video, speeding up that process and ultimately helping get content to consumers fast. It is a complimentary tool to AI to allow content discovery in video archives.”