Author Archive
Inc. Technology: Control Group expert weighs in on how to implement a cloud computing trial
Senior Consultant Dave Rocamora spoke to a reporter from Inc. Technology recently about how small businesses can better implement computing resources. His advice? Look for a long trial and involve stakeholders.
Read his comments in full here.
Wall Street Journal mentions Control Group in its story on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week’s newest accessory: Barcodes
The Wall Street Journal writes about a new Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week accessory: Bar codes. The new system aims to admit guests faster and in a more orderly fashion, with technology developed by Control Group.
CIO Magazine chats with NEP Studios’ CTO about Change Management Lessons. #4 = Bring in experienced subject matter experts (like Control Group)
Managing a technology project that will shift two of today’s highest-profile comedy shows to HDTV is no joke. Here, NEP Studios CTO George Hoover shares 5 keys to change management success. Hint: #4 Bring in experienced outside subject matter experts (like Control Group).
Control Group Client NEP Studios Wins 2010 CIO 100 Award for HD Technology Upgrade
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–When New York City-based technology consultancy Control Group was brought in to help television service provider NEP Studios upgrade the Daily Show and Colbert Report television shows to HD technology format, Control Group partner Scott Anderson immediately saw a “once in a lifecycle” opportunity for NEP to also improve network security and reliability and enhance collaboration between functional groups. NEP CTO George Hoover agreed and with his oversight, Control Group worked with vendor partners Virtual Media, Avid, and VizRT to completely redesign NEP Studio’s technology infrastructure, workflow and maintenance processes, dramatically increasing production efficiency along with strategic and competitive advantage.
The result: NEP Studios recently was recognized by CIO magazine as one of its CIO 100 honorees. The CIO 100 award recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology (IT). NEP Studios is the largest television production service provider in New York City and host to a number of popular TV shows, including The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report.
“In the media and entertainment industry, there’s no such thing as a missed episode. As the old adage goes: ‘The show MUST go on.’ NEP would like to share this CIO 100 award with our vendor partners that made such major improvements possible with almost no impact on our staff and talent,” said Hoover.
In addition to improving productivity, the project has added to NEP’s competitive advantage, as NEP Studios is now known in the industry not only for its state of the art HD facilities but also for its transparent HD implementations.
“This year’s CIO 100 awards draws well-deserved attention to companies that are not only innovating with IT but creating genuine business value as well,” said Maryfran Johnson, Editor in Chief of CIO magazine & Events. “These winning companies and their IT organizations are an inspiration to businesses everywhere.”
The 2010 CIO 100 awards will be presented at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on August 24th at the conclusion of the twelfth annual CIO 100 Symposium® and Awards Ceremony.
About Control Group
Control Group is a technology consulting firm known for its fearless innovation, problem-solving agility and enterprise IT best practices. Since 1995, it has provided insightful business analysis and completely integrated technology solutions for companies in the architecture and design, media and broadcasting, hospitality and gaming and interactive industries.
About NEP Studios
NEP Studios is the largest television production service provider in New York City. A division of NEP Broadcasting LLC, it is the leading international provider of services critical to the delivery of live sports and entertainment events, offering state-of-the-art facilities, engineering expertise and the finest customer service in support of telecasts of major events and programs around the globe.
About CIO Magazine
CIO produces award-winning content and community resources for information technology executives thriving and prospering in this fast-paced era of business, as well as creating opportunities for information technology and consumer marketers to reach them. The CIO portfolio includes CIO.com, CIO magazine (launched in 1987), CIO Executive Programs and the CIO Executive Council.
Walker Digital gets a ‘Top 20’ in Casino Journal’s Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Tech Products
Casino Journal’s Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products Awards are recognized as the most prestigious honor bestowed on gaming products and services. Now in its thirteenth year, the competition recognizes the most innovative technology offerings in the gaming industry.
A panel of judges representing a cross-section of the industry will evaluate this year’s entries and choose the 20 finalists. The judges will then select the top three products and services from among the 20 finalists, and they will receive Platinum, Gold and Silver medals in honor of their achievements. All awards, including an Attendee Choice award, will be presented at the eighth annual Gaming Technology Summit, May 25-26, 2010, at Green Valley Ranch in Las Vegas.
The 2009 Awards
Congratulations to the top award winners for 2009:
Platinum Award: International Game Technology for the IGT DynamiX Solution
Gold Award: Walker Digital Gaming for Perfect Pay on Smart Baccarat Table Network
Silver Award and Attendee Choice Award: Bally Technologies for ALPHA Elite Cash Spin with U-Spin and Interactive Reels
See the complete list of all 2009 Top 20 winners!
VH1 Awarded Broadcast Designers Association Gold Award
VH1 needed to rapidly create a new, data-driven on-air graphics system. Control Group was brought in and we completed the project from specification to implementation in one month and in time for a new season launch. We worked with the brilliant VH1 graphics production team and collaborated to produce the dynamic graphic bug that you see on each and every VH1 show.
Congratulations goes out to the VH1 on-air VFX team who won a Broadcast Designers Association Gold Award for their Beacon channel redesign.
Elite Baccarat/Perfect Pay Named in Casino Journal’s Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products of 2009
If there’s a thread that pulls together Casino Journal’s Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products Awards for 2009, it’s that the future really is now. The products that made the grade represent forward-thinking, novel concepts designed to take casinos to the next level.
This year’s Top 20 cover a lot of ground. They include business intelligence tools, software applications that leverage the power of social media, server-based gaming, digital way-finding, mobile couponing, novel slot and electronic table game concepts, new cabinets and specialty table game and security products.
Elite Baccarat/Perfect Pay Smart Table — Walker Digital Gaming
Walker Digital Gaming’s Elite Baccarat adds a new level of excitement to baccarat with new bets and play options while dynamically calculating odds to create the opportunity for higher house advantages on increased bet volumes. At the same time, Perfect Pay eliminates losses due to mistaken pays, cheating, counterfeits and inflated player ratings. For the first time, baccarat players can change their bet, place new bets or settle a hand after the first four cards of the game have been revealed.
If there is no game decision, players may raise a bet, switch a “player” or “banker” bet to the other side, place a late “tie” bet, place a late action bet, insure an advantaged hand or take an instant win for a guaranteed payout. An informational player screen inset at each position shows bets offered, and a simple slider lets the player quickly see the payout for any allowable bet value.
Players who choose not to place Elite bets can still take a seat and enjoy the traditional game.
Our judges found the potential of the platform intriguing.
“Walker Digital has great innovation and bringing it to baccarat is huge,” said one.
“For casino operators with baccarat dominating play this technology should be considered as a way to increase house advantage,” another judge remarked, adding his view that the dynamic odds bets and perfect play-tracking are the product’s best features.
Perfect Pay/Smart Baccarat Table Network
Baccarat on Walker Digital Gaming’s Smart Table Network with Perfect Pay looks and plays like a traditional triple-live baccarat game with live chips, live cards and a live dealer. But the company has integrated RFID technology, a card-reading shoe and its proprietary Core Game Technology to create the first networked baccarat platform that dramatically reduces previously uncontrollable casino expenses.
RFID technology and Walker Digital’s Core Game Technology work together to eliminate losses due to dealer mis-pays and counterfeit chips. They increase game speed, exactly assess player value and avoid over-comping with accurate player ratings, and they save time and labor with automated table ratings. They also provide detailed reporting on game speed, bet mix, table occupancy, turnover, theoretical win, actual win and player-betting patterns, providing intelligence to maximize dealer performance, optimize floor revenue and create powerful insights for targeted marketing.
Our judges were duly impressed.
“This product would resolve many of the problems casinos currently deal with regarding very high-end baccarat play,” said one. “It automates many of the functions of administering baccarat play, but does so in a manner that would not be intrusive to the serious high-end customer.”
Another judge noted the product would “work well in high-volume baccarat markets where the clientele prefers to handle the chips.” The features he liked best included the combination of accurate real-time bet recognition and optical card reader. “Together they allow for complete tracking of game play,” he said.
Ooyala and CG Launch Next-Generation Interactive Video Demonstration
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ooyala and Control Group today announced the joint launch of a next-generation site showcasing Ooyala’s Interactive Video Technology. With an intuitive interface created by Control Group, the site demonstrates how content owners and advertisers can create highly personalized video experiences for their viewers. The concept has many potential implementations, with e-commerce sites being among the top beneficiaries.
“Control Group leveraged Ooyala’s Interactive Video technology to develop an engaging, deeply personalized video experience for the content owner and viewer,” said Alex Holub, PhD, Ooyala’s Interactive Video Team Lead. “This innovative, measurable way of consuming content will drive new monetization models and advertising opportunities.”
This new technology brings website users highly interactive features that allow them to explore content and learn more about objects of interest within the video frame. Site functionality and backend controls enable clicking on an object or the name of the object to display related information. Thumbnails and a video search feature enable navigation to a related piece of content containing the object.
“This demonstration is a great showcase for the possibilities of interactive video,” said Campbell Hyers, Control Group CEO. “Our clients are always trying to maximize the value of their video content, from production efficiencies to syndication revenue. They hire us because we bring the best tools and integration know-how to the table, and Ooyala has been a great partner in this pursuit. With this iteration of their platform, they have taken a fresh approach to a number of features and provided them at a high-value price point.”
Key features of the site include:
+ Word Cloud: A running stream of object labels is displayed, with high-frequency objects shown in proportionately larger type. Selecting a word allows users to instantly connect to content of interest.
+ Video Search Box: Viewers can jump to objects or scenes in the video by entering object keywords. This functionality can open up libraries of video content for interactive search and scene navigation. Specific objects that match the search results have their position in the frame highlighted during playback in real time.
+ Object Ticker: Video Pane in the lower portion of the site dynamically alerts viewers to clickable items in the video by displaying the object label. Clicking anywhere in the Video Pane toggles the Contextual Results window. Viewers can quickly connect with related information by selecting the object name in the results window.
+ Contextual Results: Text, video, and photographic information offers viewers a rich, multimedia experience for learning more about objects or scenes within the video stream. This dynamic display leverages Ooyala’s Interactive Video technology and 3rd party APIs.
+ Click Tips: Highlights outline the clickable objects in video.
A narrated video tour of the demonstration is on Control Group’s website at http://controlgroup.com, with a link to the demonstration site at https://labs.ooyala.com/ivideo_demos/CG_DEMO/index.html.
About Ooyala:
Ooyala is a video technology company that provides an integrated platform enabling the delivery, management, and monetization of high quality video content. Committed to providing the most accessible and comprehensive video solutions to companies worldwide, Ooyala’s solution is easy to use, quick to deploy, and customizable. Its modular and distributed framework allows Ooyala to integrate seamlessly with legacy systems and scale to millions of concurrent users. Ooyala’s partner portfolio includes 1000s of media companies including Bebo, TV Guide, Glam, and Electronic Arts. Free trial Backlot accounts can be created by clicking here: http://www.ooyala.com/products/install For more information please visit www.ooyala.com.
About Control Group:
Control Group is a privately held IT consultancy based in New York, NY, that provides application development, infrastructure, support and training services. The company’s expertise includes development of rich internet applications, media asset and content management systems, design and media production workflow and automation, data center design and implementation, and managed services and support. The company’s clients include leaders in the media, entertainment, and design industries. For more information about Control Group and its services, go to http://www.controlgroup.com.
Control Group Becomes a Value-Added Reseller for Autodesk
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Control Group today announced it has become an Autodesk Authorized Value Added Reseller (VAR). Control Group is a New York-based IT consulting firm providing solutions including application development, managed services, and training. The company’s client base includes some of New York’s top architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms.
“Our relationship with Autodesk as an authorized VAR will enable us to increase the level of service and value we offer our clients.”
“Autodesk’s recognition of our value in the AEC sector represents a key addition to our portfolio of services,” said Colin O’Donnell, Partner and Chief Marketing Officer of Control Group. “We have in-depth experience deploying, using, and supporting Autodesk products, and our ability to offer our clients the full range of Autodesk solutions now makes us a ‘one-stop shop’ solutions provider.”
Control Group is known for extensive technical expertise, industry knowledge, and commitment to customer service. “We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the world’s leading 2D and 3D digital design software solutions, as well as the highest quality training and support,” added O’Donnell. “Our relationship with Autodesk as an authorized VAR will enable us to increase the level of service and value we offer our clients.”
About Control Group
Control Group is a privately held IT consultancy based in New York, NY providing services for architects, designers, and planners to continuously optimize their design, production, and project delivery systems. The firm’s consultants are supported by a team of network engineers, server administrators, support engineers, and training professionals. The company’s suite of AEC services includes CAD/BIM workflow, project management, security and access, remote office collaboration and optimization, storage and project file management, and comprehensive managed services. Control Group also helps clients speed the adoption of new systems and increase quality and efficiency through customized training and ongoing support programs. For more information about Control Group and its services, go to http://www.controlgroup.com.
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. The company carefully selects VARs to ensure a strong partner network providing superior customer service. Today, more than 9 million Autodesk users worldwide are serviced by more than 1700 resellers offering exemplary proficiency in the demonstration, installation and support of Autodesk products.
Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries.
Change You Can Only Imagine – White House Redux
Read the full article on: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/arts/design/18shat.html
IMAGINE a White House where the Oval Office faces an interactive media wall filled with live commentary from citizens and visitors. Or a White House that is raised and lowered according to poll results, with an unpopular president brought down to the level of disgruntled constituents. How about one that changes colors according to the Homeland Security Advisory System? Or that has been emptied of human content and made into a central server for United States democracy?
However intent he is on change, even Barack Obama might draw the line at trading the Lincoln Bedroom for a situation room at the bottom of an abyss or a glass monument in the shape of a W — a couple of the other proposals generated by White House Redux, a recent call for ideas centered on a simple question: What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today?
“I realize the White House will always be there, but I thought it would also make a very fascinating brief,” said Joseph Grima, director of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in Lower Manhattan, which sponsored the competition last year with Control Group, a computer-design consulting firm. “I can’t think of any other house anywhere around the world that has so many questions built into it.”
The Storefront recently held a monthlong exhibition of the contest submissions. (The prizewinners and other entries can be viewed at whitehouseredux.org.) In a companion book, “White House Redux: 123 Ideas for a New White House,” Mr. Grima writes, “Perhaps because it is the home of the world’s most powerful individual, the White House is a universally recognized symbol of political authority.”
Yet its identity as the seat of the executive branch of government is just one of many. It is one of America’s greatest tourist attractions, Mr. Grima notes, with nearly 5,000 visitors a day. The nerve center of the world’s most complex communications system, with video and data connections to Camp David, Air Force One, dozens of embassies and the central nodes of the military infrastructure. The nation’s best-known work of domestic architecture. A metonymical stand-in (“the White House said this” or “the White House denied that”). One of Hollywood’s most beloved actors.
“The White House is not just a building,” Mr. Grima muses in his book. “It is a fantastically complex accumulation of ideas, memories, images, logistics systems, secrets, circulation patterns, integrated networks, plotlines, rumors, obsolescences and futuristic technologies. So intricate and stratified is its identity that one tends to actually forget that it is still architecture.”
From the beginning, it was envisioned as a weighty symbol. In 1792, when Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson announced a design competition for the President’s House, the United States was facing a public relations crisis. European observers scoffed at its lack of a permanent seat of government, not to mention its notions of an enduring republic.
In his 1791 master plan of the capital city, Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French-born architect and engineer, called for the construction of a grand presidential palace. Although not quite Versailles, it made the fledgling government squirm. Tensions erupted over matters of scale, and L’Enfant’s attitude got him fired.
A contest was proposed, with a prize of $500 resting on the decision of a single juror: President Washington. According to the White House Historical Association, he was clear about his requirements: a noble but simple residence of stone that would have the heft of important European buildings and command respect from both American citizens and foreign visitors.
“For the Presidents House, I would design a building which should also look forward, but execute no more of it at present than might suit the circumstances of this Country when it shall be first wanted,” Washington wrote. “A plan comprehending more may be executed at a future period when the wealth, population, and importance of it shall stand upon much higher ground than they do at present.”
On July 16, 1792, he traveled to the site of the future residence to select a winner from among nine proposals, one of which, legend has it, was submitted by Jefferson under the initials A. Z. Washington swiftly settled on a design by James Hoban, an architect and builder who was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, and had worked in Philadelphia and Charleston, S.C. The residence echoed the Palladian lines of 18th-century aristocratic Irish homes like Leinster House in Dublin, which in 1922 became the seat of the Irish Parliament.
Washington never lived in the house; John Adams and his family, who took residence on Nov. 1, 1800, spent their first frigid winter among unfinished walls. Jefferson wouldn’t move in until at least one of his two water closets was in working order. After the British torched the residence in 1814, James Madison persuaded Congress to rebuild rather than transfer the capital inland to Cincinnati. The West Wing was added during Theodore Roosevelt’s term and made permanent during William Howard Taft’s. A new East Wing was constructed during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tenure, the better to camouflage the construction of an underground air-raid shelter.
In the two centuries since it opened, the White House has undergone so many structural revisions that it is now about five times as large as what Hoban had proposed — or closer to that presidential palace L’Enfant envisioned. And the structure is but the tip of the iceberg, with a labyrinth of rooms extended outward and underground from the original structure and so much classified space that only a few can accurately tally its proportions.
Usually they are given as six stories and 55,000 square feet divided into 132 rooms, with 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, 3 elevators, 5 full-time chefs, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a beauty salon, a physician’s office, a florist shop, a music room, a jogging track, a swimming pool, a putting green and soon, some speculate, a basketball court for President-elect Obama. That count includes 16 rooms set aside for family and guests, enough for the Obama daughters to invite both their old and new classmates for sleepovers.
Of course, the American public hadn’t elected a 44th president when the White House Redux competition was announced in January 2008. Although John McCain had emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. Obama were still neck and neck in polls and the primary battles. Still, when the Redux contest entrants superimposed a presidential figure on a project, 9 times out of 10 it was Mr. Obama.
“When Bush was in the picture, he was typically featured in a monolithic light, almost as a machine,” said Campbell Hyers, chief executive of Control Group, “whereas Obama was featured in an oratorical light.”
Other major themes emerged among the 487 submitted projects from 42 countries, with transparency — expressed through glass walls and observatories — topping the list. Nine projects proposed painting the White House black; nine suggested repainting it another color. Fourteen liked the idea of a distributed network of White Houses. Eighteen proposed a new White House underground. Thirty-one wanted to construct it as a tower. Twenty-three of the projects incorporated a gigantic media screen. Three of the proposed White Houses flew through the air. Three floated. And one entrant proposed leaving the White House exactly as it is.
Geoff Manaugh, senior editor of Dwell, the author of the architecture blog BldgBlog (bldgblog.blogspot.com) and one of the competition’s jurors, noted a propensity toward dystopian renderings. “It was more a call for ideas than an actual architecture proposal, so I think that as jurors we weren’t expecting it to be actual buildings,” he said. “At the tail end of the Bush administration there were a lot of pent-up critical parodies and creative ideas that people wanted to express.”
The winning entry, “Revenge of the Lawn,” submitted by J. P. Maruszczak and Roger Connah with assistance from Ryan Manning, skirted the White House structure and instead tackled the subliminal associations of its green spaces. “We found a kind of resonance in the lawn between the public and private,” Mr. Maruszczak said, “and we were trying to get around the problem of the White House as such a potent symbol that no one could ever erase that.”
Instead he and Mr. Connah settled on the residence as the foundation for a subterranean light well, with a depth and structure that would be determined by each successive president, as a way of wrestling with issues of security, sustainability and technology.
Wayne Congar and Arielle Assouline-Lichten’s “White House 2.0” sought to mitigate the sense of a cloistered government by turning the residence into a central server that would deliver citizens’ messages to the West Wing as quickly, and as undilutedly, as possible. (In another entry Mr. Congar consolidated the federal buildings and properties in Washington into the world’s tallest tower, crowned by the existing White House.)
In a way, that pair’s proposal meshes with some steps taken by Mr. Obama, who plans to appoint a chief technology officer and has created whitehouse2.org as an online meeting place where, the Web site says, “you set the nation’s priorities.” All the same, Mr. Grima said, had Mr. Obama’s victory been assured when the Storefront competition started, the breadth of the proposals would have been far less significant. For all the diversity, Mr. Manaugh, the juror and Dwell editor, said he feels that something was missing.
“I don’t remember a single one that celebrates U.S. power,” he said. “I would have hoped that someone could have come up with a design for that.”
By KATHRYN SHATTUCK