Carla Quant is Director of Operations for Schematic’s Costa Rica offices. In a recent interview with La República, she discussed Schematic’s most recent projects, technology challenges and the business sector she’d most like to advise.

Energy Everywhere

Despite her youth, Carla Quant is responsible for operations in the Costa Rica office Schematic, a company that develops solutions for the web, mobile devices, television, and new platforms.

Q: Is technology the domain of men?  A: It has been, especially in the executive and technical areas, but that is changing.

Q: As a woman in a technological company, have you felt discriminated against?  A: I wish I could say no, but yes, whether because I am a woman or because of my age, I have encountered people outside the company who are extremely narrow-minded.

Q: Can a company survive without a web page?  A: The more importance a company places on having lasting and satisfactory relations with its clients, the more indispensable a web presence becomes.

Q: Which personal merits do you feel most proud of?  A: The credibility I have earned; to achieve credibility, you must repeatedly demonstrate that you are able to meet the level of demands.

Q: Which product would you like to provide advice?  A: In Costa Rica, a bank; banks have the tools to communicate with their clients but they don’t use them adequately.

Q: If you had to define yourself as a technological device, what would it be?  A: A cell phone; I like to talk.

Q: Are you able to disconnect while on vacation?  A: Enough to re-energize myself, but I do check my mail once a day.

Q: In what area is the country the most backward?  A: We must expand internet coverage; we had to wait 14 months to get a fiber optic connection.

Q: If you could take only one invention to a deserted island, what would it be?  A: Matches or a lighter.

Q: Which do you prefer? A Mac or a PC?  A: For work, a PC.

Q: Your most important clients?  A: All of them, but I could name Microsoft, Nokia and Coca-Cola

Q: The project related to the Schematic Olympics?  A: The video player on NBCOlympics.com, with its capacity to transmit 2,200 hours of live video with unprecedented quality

Q: How important is it to relate to a web page?  A: So important that it is Schematic’s reason for being.

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© 2008 Periódico La República. All rights reserved.

This article appeared in slightly different form in La República (September, 2008). It has been translated to English with permission from the publisher.

CCO Dale Herigstad recently joined a panel of the nation’s leading interactive television experts to discuss  the current state of the interactive TV design space.

” Topics discussed include the most important things to keep in mind when designing ITV interfaces; the potential impact of gestural interfaces, such as that of the Nintendo Wii, on ITV design; how TiVo’s and Apple’s “game-changing” interfaces have impacted the ITV design space; the areas where the most innovation is currently taking place; the challenges of designing applications for multiple platforms; and much more.”

To listen to the 1.5 hour discussion, click here.

by Jim McGrath, SVP, Production

Eight is a lucky number in China. The word for it — ba — sounds so close to the word for wealth that many people believe eight is a number that is linked to prosperity. So it is no surprise that the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games were at 8:08:08 p.m. on 8/8/08.

The date was also special for Schematic. For the last 8 months a team of designers and developers has been working diligently with MSFT, NBC, Delta Tre (CMS), 2 CDNs (Limelight and Akamai), Omniture, DoubleClick, and multiple NBC constituents to bring the Olympic Silverlight video player into being. NBCOlympics.com is one of the most ambitious projects on the web and one of the largest Silverlight applications deployed today. You can see it right here.

And if you do check out that link, you won’t be alone: on Friday there were 70 million page views. On Saturday the site had 3.1 million video starts.

The NBC Olympics player will provide access to every moment of video of every event at the Beijing games; value-added features provide both context and control for users. The standard version of the player enables users to view on-demand and related video as well as athlete bios, sport-specific information and trivia. Schematic was completely responsible for creating the Enhanced experience. The enhanced video player provides near HD quality video and picture-in-picture capability; it also uses Silverlight’s transparency capabilities so users can simultaneously navigate through menus while watching an event onscreen. Users can also track the action and navigate via a continuous stream of broadcasters’ live expert commentary and play by play links. The standout feature is the “Live Video Control Room,” which allows viewers to select videos, configure the display and watch as many as four live video streams simultaneously.

But the real story is the Schematic team and the outstanding service the team provided our client. The team had to balance the marketing needs of MSFT, against the business goals of NBC (advertising) against the technical complexities of developing an application on an alpha then beta platform for content that was to be delivered on an infrastructure that was being built as we were developing. Schematic helped MSFT minimize the risk of such an ambitious, high-profile development. We were trusted consultants who weighed in on the features Silverlight needed to support, and we actually helped the MSFT team debug Silverlight.

Cross office collaboration was fantastic; it involved New York, Atlanta, Costa Rica and Los Angeles. We have a 6 month running Skype chat. Hopefully the team will not go into withdrawal after the project is over. Collaboration with other vendors was important as most of them did not have services set up for Silverlight and Schematic worked with them to define and develop the features necessary to support Silverlight. Travel was a necessity. Team members traveled to NYC, to Atlanta, to Redmond, and to Turin. Mix it up and do it again and then do it again. I don’t even know what that last trip to Turin was for, but Seth and Cory said it was necessary. The team went above and beyond to hit critical launch dates repeatedly–working with a team this talented and dedicated was a pleasure.

by Katy Saeger, Director of Public Relations

Just a couple more days til the Beijing Olympics begin (08/08/08) and the world gets a look at the Silverlight video player that we helped develop in cooperation with Microsoft and NBC. The player is set to forever change the way fans experience the Olympic games, with  NBC streamling 2,200 hours of 25 events live and making just about all of the Games (around 4,000 hours) available through video archives for users across North America.

Understandably, we’re getting lots of great press, including high-profile articles in the following publications:

Investors Business Daily

Hollywood Reporter

Redmond Developer

Enjoy!

PS: And a big thank you to Matthew Rechs for being such a great company spokesman.

by Katy Saeger, PR Director

The following press release hit the wires this morning. Congratulations to everyone involved in this amazing project!

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Schematic Brings NBC’S Coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to Millions of Americans With Development of Silverlight-based Online Video
Channel for NBCOlympics.com on MSN

Coverage Debuts With Live Streaming of This Week’s Olympic Trials; NBC to Deliver 2,200 Hours of Live Action from Beijing Olympics, August 8-24, 2008

NEW YORK (JULY 2, 2008) Schematic, a WPP Digital company, announced today its development of the groundbreaking Web video player anchoring NBC’s online coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on NBCOlympics.com on MSN.  The announcement was made today by Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics, and Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic.  The player debuts this week with live, streaming coverage of the U.S. Olympic trials at NBCOlympics.com.

Created using Microsoft Silverlight 2, the video player will deliver 2,200 hours of live, streaming coverage from NBC to millions of Americans with an unprecedented level of picture quality, interactive features and user control. As the largest Web event ever, the player will also allow visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN to access over 3,000 hours of on-demand video, including full-event replays, highlights and interviews.

Tapped by NBC Universal and Microsoft for its expertise in implementing the latest technologies and success in creating award-winning user interfaces for the world’s largest brands, Schematic’s player for NBCOlympics.com on MSN represents the highest-profile deployment of Microsoft Silverlight 2. All of the content will be available free-of-charge and the video player will feature more than a dozen live video streams at peak times to ensure that fans will be able to watch their favorite athletes go for gold in 25 Olympic sports.

“Fans are going to be truly amazed at both the quality of the live video and the comprehensive menu of sports available for viewing,” said Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic. “We believe that Silverlight’s powerful and distinctive capabilities were critical in enabling us to build such a fluid and satisfying user experience. At Schematic, we are very pleased to have been entrusted by NBC and Microsoft to create this transformation of their Olympics coverage.”

The interface is designed to be simple to use and is packed with a broad range of helpful tools. Fans can watch up to four live streams from the same event at once. The picture-in-picture feature lets fans watch a program displayed in inset windows while another program is displayed on the full screen. Fans can view and navigate via an expert commentary displayed over the video. They can also access rich meta data such as results and athlete information while they’re watching,  plus they can receive alerts to ensure they catch their favorite events live. Additionally, the player features multiple bit rate (MBR), which automatically matches the quality of the video to the user’s connection speed.

“It’s our goal to deliver the best Olympics experience to the broadest audience,” said Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics. “We turned to Microsoft and Schematic to help us design a dynamic and rich viewing experience for NBCOlympics.com on MSN.”

“NBCOlympics.com on MSN is an unprecedented example of the power and possibility to break out of the traditional television box,” said Steve Sklepowich, group product manager, Silverlight media, Microsoft Corp. “The team at Schematic did an impressive job harnessing the features of Silverlight to provide a truly interactive, hi-def experience that puts the viewer in control of the content.”

About NBC Olympics
NBC, “America’s Olympic Network,” owns the exclusive U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games, television’s most powerful property, through 2012, which includes Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010 and London in 2012. From August 8-24, 2008 NBC Universal will present an unprecedented 3,600 hours of coverage, highlighted by NBC in primetime with live swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball. In August 2004, 203 million viewers watched as the networks of NBC Universal–NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, Telemundo, and NBC’s HD affiliates–offered a then record 1,210 hours of Olympic coverage from Athens. For additional information, go to NBCOlympics.com, a year-round destination for fans of Olympic sports, featuring news, Beijing previews, athlete features, expert blogs, photos, Olympic video from the NBC archives and social tools enabling users to build communities around their favorite sports, post comments and blogs.

About Schematic
Schematic, a WPP Digital company, deploys and develops solutions for the Web, mobile devices, television, digital environments and emerging platforms. Schematic offers complete strategic, creative, marketing and technology services to Fortune 1000 companies, including Disney, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Condé Nast and Turner. For more information, please visit http://www.schematic.com

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.