Archive
by Katy Saeger, PR Director
“Is Trevor anxious about something?” We’ll never have to ask that question again–we’ll just have to look at what he’s wearing. (Hint: hope it’s not a suit.) He and Nick Worth are featured in a great WSJ article today that dissects the “CEO Casual” look. With a subtitle like “One Executive’s Views On Custom Shirts and Chest Hair,” how could you resist checking out the article in its entirety? The feature also includes a great video.
Enjoy!
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:
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.
Jonathan Ramirez, Motion Designer in Schematic’s Costa Rican Advanced Interaction Group, is interviewed in this month’s Expression Newsletter; the piece is entitled “Developing applications that are true to the intended creative vision.”Jonathan talks to Microsoft about our use of Silverlight and Expression in the context of our amazing work for the NBC Olympics site and the way that these new Microsoft tools have helped streamline the design and development process.
It’s a great interview that highlights our ingenuity and our status as one of Microsoft’s top partners–congratulations and thanks, Jonathan! Read the whole thing here.
Sony Ericsson and the WPP Group (specifically, Grey, Schematic and GCI Group) have launched a “landmark” advertising campaign for the Women’s Tennis Association. The ad was launched June 18, and will break in 75 countries over the next year and a half.
According to Sony Ericsson, the campaign ($15 million over three years) is the “single largest commitment to promote the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour players” in the history of the tour. It will include TV, print, digital and viral advertising, and will gather momentum stateside around the US Open in August. More info here.
Kurt Kratchman, Schematic’s CSO, will speak at the second annual Air Force Cyberspace Symposium June 17 to 19, in Marlborough, MA. The symposium is intended to focus on the Air Force’s efforts to develop offensive and defensive cyberspace capabilities and promises to showase the latest technologies.
Kurt is appearing as part of an industry panel on information sharing and protection within the context of cyber security.
For more information, go here.
by Jeff Koss, VP Client Services
Schematic’s New York office recently developed an animated :30 spot for Fountain House, a professional self-help program for men and women recovering from mental illness. Fountain House, founded in 1948 and located on West 47th Street, pioneered the “clubhouse” model, which is recognized worldwide as one of the most successful models for rehabilitation.
To honor Fountain House’s 60th anniversary, Panasonic donated time on its AstroVision billboard. The video will run twice an hour throughout June at :19 and :48 minutes after the hour. For you non-New Yorkers, check it out on the Times Square Cam. . . and look for the Schematic logo in the lower left corner.
by Katy Saeger, PR Director
Schematic is featured in today’s AdWeek as one of the five “Next Generation” shops to watch; we were chosen based on our success at leading innovations in the marketplace. Here’s some of what AdWeek has to say:
“Trevor Kaufman has never considered himself an adman. Unlike interactive agencies in San Francisco and New York, Schematic, the agency Kaufman founded, didn’t shift to online marketing. Instead, it focused on solving distribution problems for media and technology businesses. Before it became a buzzword on the conference circuit, Schematic helped clients create digital platforms.
“Clients like Disney, ABC and Intel “didn’t come to us to market some offline product but to create products for them to distribute media or establish a community or build an e-commerce experience,” he said. ABC, for instance, tapped Schematic to build the broadband video player when it began putting its TV episodes online, along with helping it figure out an ad model that balances the user experience with business imperatives.
“Its experience with media companies has paid dividends as more companies look to content and customer experiences as a pathway to building brand loyalty. . . .”
Read the entire article here. And look for an article in the same issue on Project DaVinci, our Dell/WPP initiative, of which Schematic is “the digital cornerstone,” according to AdWeek.
Here’s some more info on who will be speaking at the Schematic-sponsored “iDMAa at Digital Hollywood” networking/information workshop coming up May 5. Complete program info: iDMAa at Digital Hollywood program.
10.00–10.15: Introduction to the day, agenda review with Co-Chairs Dave Ferguson, Tim Langdell and Schematic’s Chief Strategy Officer–Kurt Kratchman
10.15-10.45: User Experience Design, the fastest growing segment of interactive development: Ann Supawanich, VP of User Experience, Schematic
10.50-11.30: Adaptable Interfaces: Jon Ruppel, Director of the Advanced Interaction Group, Schematic, and Mat Rappaport, Multimedia Artist and Professor of Television and Media Arts, Columbia College, Chicago
11.35-12.15: The New Entrepreneur–The back-story: Christian Lander, author of the blog StuffWhitePeopleLike.wordpress.com
1.00-1.30: “What we got here is… failure to educate” — How colleges are failing to train the next generation of media makers: Michael Niederman, Chair of Columbia Colleges School of Television
1.30-2.00: The symbiotic relationship between content and promotion: the effects of commerce on interface design for content delivery systems: Jason Brush, UCLA Film School Professor and Schematic Visionary and Researcher
2.00-2.30: Mobile media and its impact on social change: Scott Shamp, Director of University of Georgia’s Institute of New Media
2.30-3.00: Policy and innovations: mobile technology: Michael Kleeman, Senior Fellow at IGCC, Homeland Security Educator, and Wireless Expert
3.00-3.45: Where the next big game technology will come from: Tim Langdell, Game Developer and Professor of Video Games in the Department of Media at National University Architecture
3.45-4.15: Metamorphic architecture: Miles Kemp, Designer and User Experience Leader at Schematic
4.15-5.00: What makes a great consultant and how to build your career as one: Andrew Solmssen, GM and EVP, Schematic, AND Being a Consultant while Being a Student: Glenn Platt, President of iDMAa
5.00: Closing remarks, Kurt Kratchman
Get the word out–this is going to be an amazing event and we’d love to see it at capacity!
In a move designed to bring new talent to light, Schematic and the International Digital Media and Arts Association (iDMAa) are partnering to present a special one-day DH networking/information workshop for college students. Running May 5 from 10-5, “iDMAa at Digital Hollywood” will cover user experience, interface, success stories, video, mobile, videogame, and architecture. The day concludes with time to network.
Schematic presenters include many of our heavy hitters: Kurt Kratchman, Andrew Solmssen, Anne Supawanich, Jason Brush, Jon Ruppel, Miles Kemp and former Schematician Christian Lander.
A lot of Schematic people have put significant time and energy into making this an exciting and worthwhile day for students, educators and industry professionals; the networking opportunities alone should be extremely profitable.
So please reach out to friends, faculty, business contacts, industry groups, lists, bloggers, press and media contacts and let them know what we’re doing at Digital Hollywood this year. It’s a unique program and just another indication of Schematic’s dedication to being a leader in our industry.
For all the information, click here.
Inside the Box is an open forum for Schematic’s employees, partners, and friends to discuss the things that matter most to them. Be it strategy, design, technology, user experience, content, products, services or digital innovations. Here, is where we analyze, proselytize, theorize, ponder and debate. Here is where we share, collaborate, and grow from collective ideas and thinking.
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