PTP Inc, a Japanese venture company, developed "Spider Pro" and released it for professional users in 2007. The Spider Pro is a so-called all-channel recorder that can record all programs of eight terrestrial analog TV broadcasts for one week.
The recorder is assumed for use in combination with PTP's information service under 24-hour Internet connection. Its key feature is the capability to quickly find the scenes that users are looking for, searching for them from among programs and commercials aired over the last week based on program content and the names of performers and products, for example.
PTP has already provided the Spider Pro to about 120 firms as of April 2008. Its current clients are primarily advertising companies that need to confirm the content of programs after they are aired, PR and advertising departments of companies, broadcasters and program production companies, PTP said.
However, their clients also include a small number of private users. Spider Pro in its current state only offers functions and services limited to professional users and is not at all cheap. It requires additional monthly fees for the information service as well.
In fact, PTP didn't develop Spider Pro only for professional applications. Its ultimate target must be private users. For that purpose, PTP earnestly focused on ease of use so users can fully enjoy TV content, according to PTP President Ariyoshi.
What are the goals of Spider Pro? Nikkei Electronics interviewed PTP President Masayasu Ariyoshi and Director Takeru Komoriya, who is in charge of software development (interviewers: Tomohisa Takei and Takeyoshi Yamada).
Q: The VAIO type X, which Sony released in November 2004, is one of the first all-channel recorders, isn't it?
Ariyoshi: When the "VAIO type X" was announced, I honestly felt we had been beaten to the market. The development team shared knowing glances, since we were obviously not the only people that were pursuing the same idea.
We began to build up the Spider Pro concept around 2000. The VAIO type X was released at the same time or shortly before we first succeeded in operating our prototype. We probably completed the prototype around the summer or fall of 2005.
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