You have never known what your shop actually sold.Now you will.
The first point of sale that can see a copy. Your drive becomes a catalogue. Every copy onto a customer’s flash disk becomes a sale as it happens. VJ dubs priced the way you actually sell them, phones tracked by IMEI on the same counter — and the shop keeps counting after you go home.
What is a video library, and why does it need its own POS?
In Uganda, a video library is the shop that sells entertainment by the copy: movies, series and music copied onto a customer’s flash drive or memory card, priced per title or per gigabyte, usually alongside phones and accessories. An ordinary POS cannot see its main product, the copy, because nothing leaves a shelf. That is the gap this mode closes: the copy itself becomes the sale.
Every copy is a sale or a flag. There is no third option.
For twenty years this trade has run on memory. A film goes onto a drive, and whether it becomes money depends on somebody remembering to say so. Stem does the copying itself, so the sale is not something anyone has to remember — it is the same action. And if a file reaches a customer’s drive some other way, the till knows within seconds, whether you are behind the counter or at home.
- A copy made outside the till on a customer’s drive is caught and shown to you
- It compares what is inside the file, not its name — rename it, move it, re-encode the song, it still knows
- Switch the watcher off and the gap itself goes on the record
- Your own drives are marked as yours, so they are never flagged
- All of it works with no internet at all
Do the sum for your own shop
- Copies on a normal day
- ——
- What you charge for one
- USh ——
- If one in ten goes unrung
- USh —— a month
That is money you already earned and never saw. We are not going to tell you that number — we have never stood behind your counter. The till will.
Stop buying hard drives you don’t need
Every year of trading leaves the same film on your drive three and four times, under three and four names, in folders nobody remembers making. You have been buying storage to hold films you already own. Stem compares the actual contents of your files, not their names, groups the copies it finds, and shows you exactly what removing each one gives back.
Named differently, filed differently
It still matches them. Two files with the same name are not the test; two files with the same contents are.
Told before you delete
Each copy shows the space it returns, and the other copy stays. You confirm one at a time.
It will not touch anything else
Anything that is not a known library file is refused outright — customer drives and system files included.
Warned before you run out
The till tells you when a library drive is low on room, before a full drive stops you selling.
Priced the way you actually sell
No general-purpose till understands that a VJ Junior dub and the plain rip of the same film are two different products at two different prices. This one does, and the rule is set once instead of being remembered at the counter.
Charge what a VJ dub is worth
A rule can apply to VJ-dubbed titles only, so the VJ Junior cut prices above the plain rip without the attendant thinking about it.
Fill-a-drive and per-GB deals
Set a price for filling a 16 GB stick, or a rate per gigabyte. The till shows what the deal covers and what it saves before you apply it.
A “deal” that costs more is refused
If a basket deal would charge the customer more than the per-item prices, the till will not let you apply it. That is almost always a mis-set rule.
Seven things a rule can match on
Media type, file format, the shelf it sits on, whether it is a series, whether it is a VJ dub, how long it runs, and a size cap.
A shop customers come back to
It knows what they already have
Plug in the customer’s drive and titles they already own are marked. Bulk adds skip them, so nobody pays twice for the same film.
Preview before you sell
Play the file at the counter to check it is the right dub, the right episode and not a broken download — before any money changes hands.
One drive, one cart
Serve several customers at once. Each drive keeps its own cart and picks it up again when it is plugged back in, even on a different letter.
Time remaining, not a spinner
The copy strip shows the speed and how long is left, so you can tell a customer whether to wait or come back after lunch.
Never a half-copied file
Every copy is checked against its full size before it is put in place, so a customer is never handed a truncated film that looks complete.
Pay first, or copy while they pay
Your shop, your policy. Copies can wait until the sale settles, or start moving bytes the moment the title goes in the cart.
Your titles never leave your shop
The catalogue lives on the machine at your counter and stays there. When a sale syncs, only the price class goes up — the server records that one movie was sold, never which one. Your best sellers, your shelf and your titles are yours. This is not a setting you have to find; it is how the software is built.
Most video libraries are phone shops too
So the same till sells phones, chargers, earphones and memory cards as ordinary barcode retail — and tracks each phone by serial or IMEI, so you know exactly which unit went to which customer when the warranty conversation comes. The credit book, the shift drawer and the daily report are the same ones the whole of Stem runs on, and they work today.
Be the shop this was built around
Free for six months, installed and set up in person, with your drive catalogued and your prices loaded before you sell a single copy through it. In exchange we ask for two things: what the audit finds, and an honest word about it afterwards — good or bad.
If in your first month the audit does not show you a single copy that left unbilled, we will tell you so plainly. The six months stand anyway.
Uganda’s video libraries have run on memory for twenty years. This is the first till built to count them.
What works today, and what is waiting for its first shop
Working today
✓ Phones & accessories retail
Most video libraries also sell phones. Selling them works today as normal barcode retail (phones, chargers, earphones, memory cards) with batches, low-stock alerts and an Excel import for the catalogue you already keep.
✓ Credit and the evening tally
The customer credit book, shift drawer accounting and the daily report all work now, fully offline, on the same till the library mode lands on.
Built and tested
Written, tested and ready. Waiting on the first shop to run it in the real world.
The content index
The drive catalogued by movie, series, season, music and VJ, so “do you have it?” is answered from a search box instead of from memory.
Metered copying
The till does the copying, so the copy and the sale are the same action — what went out, how many gigabytes, on the receipt.
Per-copy and basket pricing
Rules by type, length, shelf, series, VJ and size cap, plus fill-a-drive and per-GB deals.
The owner’s audit
Unbilled copies, engine downtime, and thirty days of best sellers — the record of what actually left the shop.
Phone sales by IMEI
Every phone its own record: scanned in by serial or IMEI, the exact unit picked at sale, its history kept for the warranty conversation.
Duplicate clean-up and drive space
Finds the films you are storing twice and shows what removing each copy gives back.
Still being built
→ iPhone transfers
The one device that refuses to behave like a flash drive. Staged at the counter and handed over; the automatic clean-up after unplug is still being built.
→ Tills that talk to each other
Two counters in one shop sharing a catalogue and a floor over the local network, with no internet involved.
Video library questions, answered honestly
›What is a video library, and why does it need its own POS?
In Uganda a video library sells entertainment by the copy: films, series and music copied onto a customer’s flash drive or memory card. An ordinary POS cannot see that sale, because nothing leaves a shelf. This one does the copying itself, so the copy is the sale.
›How does a copy become a sale?
The till performs the copy onto the customer’s drive, so ringing it up is not a separate step anyone has to remember. The title, the size and the price go onto the sale and the receipt as the bytes move, and the transfer survives the app being closed.
›Can a POS charge a different price for a VJ dub?
Yes. A pricing rule can apply to VJ-dubbed titles only, so a VJ Junior or VJ Emmy cut can carry its own price while the plain rip carries another. Rules also match on media type, file format, shelf, series, running time and a size cap.
›How do I know if a cashier copied a film without selling it?
The till watches connected customer drives and checks each media file that lands on one. If it matches something in your library and no sale covers it, it goes on the owner’s audit with the title, the drive and the time. It compares file contents, not names.
›Do my film titles leave the shop?
No. The catalogue stays on the machine at your counter. When a sale syncs, only the price class is uploaded — the server records that one movie was sold, never which one. Per-title figures, including your best sellers, stay on the till.
›Will it work when the internet is down?
Yes. Cataloguing, searching, copying, pricing, receipts, the credit book and the daily report all run on the machine at your counter with no connection at all. Sales sync when a connection comes back, and nothing waits on it.
›What can I use today?
Phone and accessory sales work today as ordinary barcode retail, with the credit book, shift drawer and daily report, all offline. The library side — catalogue, metered copying, pricing rules and the audit — is built and tested, and opening to its first shops now.
›What does a copy cost the customer?
You decide. The till ships with starting prices you can change — audio around USh 300, a short video around USh 500 — and you set your own classes by length, type and shelf. Fill-a-drive and per-gigabyte deals sit alongside them.
Run a video library?
Tell us how your shop works. The first counters to run this shape what every shop after them gets, and your till updates itself when it lands.
Page updated 24 July 2026