I got an email from the Theatre in Chicago website about a new technology they are using. Because they have such a large archive of podcasts, they have partnered with EveryZing whose product turns audio into text allowing you to search for terms. From their FAQ page:

The text-based search results include snippets from the audio and video portion to help you figure out if the result is relevant. You can even click on the words to begin playing the media from that exact point.

I tested it out on Theatre in Chicago website by searching for shows and directors. True to its claim, it delivered just the portion of the podcasts in which I was interested.

I haven’t figured out how it might be used for promoting arts organizations or adding value to a patron’s experience yet. If someone reviewed you on television or radio, you would want to just include that portion of the audio and video on your website. You would also have separate links to individual promotional videos you made for each show rather than having people type in search terms to find specific footage in a larger video. Even if you were going to have voice directions to your space available to people who have web access on cell phones, you would want separate files for each direction of origin.

The use that did immediately occur to me was to enable understudies to hop around a video to learn the blocking of the person they are going to replace. Just type in the next spoken line and you can zip to that scene. One could also do research and related activities with the search tool.

Given that using the service appears to be free and EveryZing encourages people to use it to make money off their content, if other practical uses occur to someone out there, let me know. I know there are clever people out there and it would be great for arts organizations to be able to provide more value in what they do.