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January 4, 2009 Creative Marketing Strategy Technology User Experience

Schematic profiled in OMMA magazine

As we noted earlier, Schematic has been selected as the winner of Best Web Design and Development 2008 by OMMA magazine. Be sure to read the article that details our extraordinary year, highlights of which included being one of the first developers included in Yahoo and Intel’s Widget Channel initiative, the debut of SouthParkStudios.com, the launch of the PGA Tour Shot Tracker and, of course, the stellar performance of our Silverlight-powered player for NBCOlympics.com. It’ll be hard to match those kind of accomplishments, but knowing Schematic–we will.

Read the article right here.

Created: January 4, 2009 at 4:22 pm

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Author(s): lvalestuk

October 15, 2008 Marketing

Schematic Featured in WPP’s The Wire

“Screen Heroes”—that’s what WPP’s calling Schematic these days. In the most recent edition of “The Wire,” WPP’s monthly newspaper, CEO Trevor Kaufman details some of Schematic’s greatest strengths: creating online services that create value exchange between our client and their users; increasing sales by improving the customer experience; an open approach to partnership; and the way that we look beyond the current model for solutions that will delight and satisfy clients and their customers alike. The article, written by Alexander Garrett, draws attention to our work with Target, Dell, NBC, Microsoft, Coke and Vogue.TV.

Created: October 15, 2008 at 9:16 pm

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Author(s): lvalestuk

September 23, 2008 Marketing

Carla Quant speaks to La República

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.

———————–

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

Created: September 23, 2008 at 1:56 pm

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Author(s): lvalestuk

September 16, 2008 Marketing

WTA’s ChallengeYourHero.com launches

Thanks to Schematic, tennis fans can now mix video of themselves playing tennis with the world’s top women tennis players as part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s “Looking for a Hero?” global marketing campaign. Head over to ChallengeYourHero.com for a chance to win a trip to the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships – Doha (Qatar) in November.

ChallengeYourHero.com provides fans with an innovative video mixer so that they can create cut-scene videos that combine their own tennis shots with those of pros like Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina. The clips are housed on the site’s public gallery and can be shared with friends and even re-edited by visitors.

Check it out here.

Created: September 16, 2008 at 6:55 am

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Author(s): lvalestuk

September 15, 2008 Marketing User Experience

Dale Herigstad on itvt Radio

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.

Created: September 15, 2008 at 6:01 am

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Author(s): lvalestuk

August 7, 2008 Marketing

Trevor Kaufman in WSJ

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!

Created: August 7, 2008 at 8:22 am

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Author(s): lvalestuk

August 4, 2008 Marketing Technology

Schematic press coverage heats up before Olympics

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.

Created: August 4, 2008 at 8:34 pm

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Author(s): lvalestuk

July 2, 2008 Marketing Technology

Schematic’s groundbreaking Silverlight player anchors NBC’s online Olympics coverage

by Katy Saeger, PR Director

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

***

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.

Created: July 2, 2008 at 8:27 am

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Author(s): lvalestuk

June 29, 2008 Marketing

Jonathan Ramirez in Microsoft Expression Newsletter

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.

Created: June 29, 2008 at 8:40 pm

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Author(s): lvalestuk

June 20, 2008 Marketing

Looking for a Hero?

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.