Etherlive – Event Technology Experts

Reassuring Start to 2009 at The Event Show

25 Jan 2009

Event, Event IT, Festival, Location tracking, Wi-Fi

With attendee numbers at The Event Show at Olympia last week apparently up on 2008 figures, there was a positive feel and vibe to the show. Yes, there were plenty of conversations about whether the downturn was having an impact but all in all it was business as usual, with organisers and suppliers planning as normal for the 2009 season.

We took the chance to discuss some of the new products and services that we are launching for the 2009 event season. In the Wi-Fi space we have increased our range of solutions to include a new market leading technology that is ideal for the events industry as it is specially designed to work in ‘noisy’ environments using a patented beam-steering technology. This gives excellent connectivity even when rogue wireless units appear on site or large lorries start creating disturbances! These devices also support the new ‘n’ standard giving a much higher (300Mbps) throughput, ideal for services such as video streaming.

Alongside this our location tracking capabilities have also stepped up another gear with a new hybrid location tag that allows us to use GPS, Wi-Fi or RFID to identify location, reducing the infrastructure we require to cover large festival sites and providing outdoor, indoor and close proximity capability.

Power independence remains a key factor in our site designs so that our network and communication services remain operational whether a generator fails or not. Our power units switch from generator/mains to battery in a few milliseconds with no loss of service and can remain on battery for up to 24 hours (or longer if required) if site power is a problem.

Site Operations is another area where we have been busy. Extending on our modular ‘POD’ design we now have a special version aimed at providing all the key services at a remote site from a small unit that can be deployed quickly when staff first arrive on site. It’s pretty much a portable ‘office IT environment’ keeping a site operations team connected and productive from anywhere.

To round off the enhanced line-up a new mobile phone ‘portal’ or event guide was also on display. Working across a large range of phones (with no Java download) the guide is highly customisable and varies user experience based on their connection type (2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, etc). It can also be used in an interactive fashion enabling features such as uploads and voting.

As always further information is available on the website or we are more than happy to demonstrate these new technologies and services either at our base in Wiltshire or on a suitable customer site. Let’s just hope that 2009 brings a better summer!

Smart-Fi

18 Jan 2009

As the economy continues to experience a rollercoaster ride consumer confidence is significantly lower than a typical wet January. Whatever the weather for the economy the events market should focus on growth; those industries that invest through a downturn are always quickest to take advantage when it picks up. Events will benefit from focusing on investing in sponsor relationships, differentiating experiences for attendees through interactivity whilst finding new methods to maximise their event brand.

Etherlive has several new technologies which are aimed at reducing costs whilst maximising return. Come and see us at the event show to understand more, our on booth team will be happy to talk through the opportunities at your event or drop us a mail anytime at unwire@www.etherlive.co.uk

Shake Out the Real Costs of IT

Chris Green

13 Dec 2008

EtherBlog

Comments: 0

AMT, Intel vPro, IT, Manageability

One of things that happens in a downturn is most companies stop spending on IT. Well they think they stop spending on IT, what they really do is stop buying new hardware. Research has shown that the cost of computer hardware is only a small percentage (often less than 20%) of the real total cost of ownership for IT. Most of the costs actually come from aspects such as IT support, lost user productivity when problems occur, software, data loss, power consumption and misplaced assets. Although it may feel wrong it is often cheaper in the long term to replace aging hardware sooner rather than trying to keep it going as the new hardware is capable of reducing costs in other areas.

Etherlive have a keen focus on helping customers reduce their overall IT costs whilst driving up their productivity. One aspect of this is improving IT manageability and Etherlive work closely with Intel Corporation to deliver maximum benefit from their Intel® vPro™ technology and Intel® Active Management Technology.

These technologies can deliver great benefits, driving down support costs, reducing overall power consumption and improving employee productivity. Recently we worked with Intel to develop an ‘activation’ message to help customers understand what they need to do take advantage of Intel® vPro™ technology and Intel® Active Management Technology. You can find out more on the Intel ‘Make the Case’ website with articles and videos from Etherlive, Cap Gemini and Computacenter covering the different aspects of the technology. You can find out more about the specific services we offer around activation at vproactivation.www.etherlive.co.uk.

The key point is don’t sit back and ignore your IT, go and shake the real costs out. Not only will you save money, you should also end up with a more productive IT environment.

Chris Green Etherlive Intel Active Management Technology

Chris Green from Etherlive explains Intel Active Management Technology features

Come and see Etherlive in person!

20 Nov 2008

Etherlive will be exhibiting their event technology solutions at the Event Show 2009 21-22 Jan 2009 Olympia London.

We will be showing some of our new products which will make life easier for event organisers and reduce costs.

http://www.eventshow.co.uk/

The Event Show 2009 Logo

Next generation web

16 Nov 2008

For years we have been reading about social networking, Web 2.0 and the next generation of the internet – how things would move from the static fixed content we knew to the dynamic interweaved world we would grow to love. I heard about Web 2.0 sometime in 2005 and since that points I have been looking for a seismic event; a real signal things had changed for most people. I believe that point is upon us, we are now in web 2.0 and like most changes in life – most people didn’t even notice it. What’s my big example? I’m afraid it’s our friends across the pond and their recent vote for the next tenant in Pennsylvania Ave.

Mash ups funnelling multiple data sources into one widget are common place in certain circles; I’m sure I have used them to watch the results for the last UK election and several by-elections but they are typically limited and certainly not used by the population at large. This changes with something on the scale of the US election, arguably one of few events the world looks at, around, under and over for months with the culmination of one bit data rich count. What makes me think this was the web 2.0 turning point? Simply by the volume of good examples of dynamic content within main stream sites

Google did its usual job of pulling complicated data into an effortlessly simple interface but other sites added a more community feel like the BBC who went mash up mad with a great mini site integrating voters experiences with proportional representational mapping. Away from the main sites techpresident.com interweaved blogs and social media sites. If that isn’t enough data was also available in a customised iPhone interface

What does this all mean for everyone? Well good things of course – in the modern world we have access to a huge amount of data but it’s of little use if we can digest it – web 2.0 can help with that digestion. Even better we can move on from talking about web 2.0 and enjoy it.

PS – for those of you interested it seems like Obama will not be able to keep his trusty BlackBerry as he moves into office; though he is petitioning to be the first (first!) US President with a laptop computer on his desk

PPS – A great video from YouTube explaining Web 2.0

Sounds Good

Chris Green

03 Nov 2008

EtherBlog

Comments: 0

Reading Festival, Sound Monitoring, WiFi

2008. A year where events and festivals alike were plagued by poor weather, poor attendance and in some cases poor organisation. One festival in my opinion shone through above the lucky unaffected few, with its notorious line-ups and probably its historically good luck for a sunny weekend. Reading Festival 2008 not only managed to grow its attendance figures but equalled or maybe even surpassed the previous years experience as a festival goer. Above the calls of sound issues and act cancellations I believe they pulled it off… Again!

But this blog isn’t really about promoting our extracurricular activities, it is in fact to show how etherLive can make a difference, not only at the events that are struggling but also to those that are growing in success.

As much as we would love to be able to lend our hand to filling the odd vacant slot for the often disappointing line-up cancellations, it is in fact the possible sound problems that would, and have been the focus of our attention. The main stage sound (arguably the only stage there that could be effected by the elements) was a popular topic of debate in the Reading Festival and NME forums as much as it cropped up in conversation amongst friends and colleagues.

So as festival sites expand, sound systems become more powerful and with our downward spiral into a country of 365 days of torrential rain and gale force winds, you can imagine one of the fastest growing concerns for festival organisers is their compliance to noise regulations and how the weather effects it. Noise regulation is that fine balance between ensuring the neighbouring towns and villages don’t get a front room seat to the main event whilst keeping everyone else stood in-front of the bands they came to see, happy… Easy? Those that think so obviously have never tried to communicate with the person just about to launch their precious new kite skyward on a windy day whilst clinging onto the strings not quite ready to go!

With this all in mind we began to look into the ways and means in which we could help make that complex and often frustrating job a little easier. Not being specialists in sound sampling and analysis we partnered with the experts to allow us to offer real-time remote sound monitoring. Utilising etherLive’s Wi-Fi infrastructure and industry leading sound monitoring equipment, organisers can capture sound levels from multiple unmanned locations across the festival site, possibly further and monitor this data from one single console in real-time!

To read more about Our Services

Why Wi-Fi?

31 Oct 2008

There is nothing more exciting and challenging than organising and executing an event. It’s the highlight of your customer’s calendar whether it is a music festival with mud, bands and portable toilets or the other side of the spectrum with vast exhibition halls and thousands of people in just a few hours.

Where can Wi-Fi help?

– Lower your costs by optimising staff time, reducing call charges & cables

– Enable new services like sponsorship opportunities and on screen messages

– Simplify management by using Etherlive’s site wide location reporting and remote sound monitoring support

Thats certainly the message people where taking away from our stand at the Showman’s show – it was great to see so many people interested

iPhone 3G – Gadget and Business Tool?

Chris Green

29 Oct 2008

EtherBlog

Comments: 0

Enterprise IT, IT, Technology

I like to think these days I’m not easily drawn to the latest gadget craze so, when hunting down a company mobile phone handset, I was somewhat concerned that the team consistently said the iPhone 3G ticked all the requirements boxes. With our requirements including push email, WiFi and a good web browser, competition was relatively thin but the consumer label of the original iPhone did concern us.

After much discussion we opted for the iPhone 3G and after three months of use by the team what’s out verdict? In a word – excellent. Ok it’s not quite perfect but it is pretty darn good. Now before I get spammed by all those folks who love to complain in forums about its shortcomings let me expand on my view in a few key areas:

Call Quality – no issue here, much better than my previous few phones. I haven’t experienced the ‘call drop’ problem that has been reported so much – personally I suspect it was primarily related to a certain carrier’s network in the US.

Buggy OS – Yes the 2.02 firmware was poor, a step back from 2.01 but even so the phone still worked fine and the issues were contained to specific functions. OS 2.1 however has proved to be excellent – as stable as a normal phone, and much better than your average smart phone.

Battery Life – No smart phone has the multiday battery life we expect from a more traditional phone. The iPhone is no exception, so yes it needs charging daily but with the 2.1 firmware it is very reasonable considering what it is delivering.

Email Integration – We use Microsoft Exchange, although I also have a POP3 account running on the phone too. Both accounts work flawlessly with excellent usability. The only letdown is the lack of task and note integration and the missing ability to invite people to calendar items on the phone. Hopefully a software update will resolve that.

Camera – Not what it should be, but hardly a major issue on a business phone.

App Store – A great killer app for Apple, an environment that is controlled enough to give you confidence in the apps that cover everything from games to serious business tools.

The point is that if you focus on narrow aspects you will find imperfections but when you take the whole package together you get an impressive device that is very user focused, comes at a good price point and yet still fits comfortably into your pocket (a key requirement for me).

What I haven’t mentioned of course is the fact that the iPhone blurs the edges between a consumer item and a business tool. Personally for me that’s a great bonus – one device that meets my business and personal needs, and I suspect most professionals like that idea too. The people that don’t like that idea are in enterprise IT departments.

And that’s the big issue. The iPhone 3G is a great small/medium business tool but I doubt it will succeed in the enterprise environment. Having spent 13 years working in a very big enterprise IT department I know all the questions and issues that will be raised which, in the view of those departments, make the iPhone 3G completely unsuitable for enterprise use.

Sadly many enterprise IT departments are struggling to keep up with where their users are – they are worrying about the latest encryption standards whilst the sales team are happily copying confidential presentations on USB memory sticks. In one company I know over 60% of the company laptops have iTunes installed. Then there are all the people who are happily syncing their non-company phone via a dock, copying contacts, email and confidential information onto a completely uncontrolled device.

Rather than embracing this, most enterprises continue to fight it – a futile exercise – but because the iPhone looks like a consumer device, is seen as a gadget and straddles the consumer/business boundary it will more than likely be officially kept out of most enterprises. Of course the users will be finding any way possible to get them in though the back door.

As for us we have already moved to the next step and are developing applications for the iPhone which forms part of our interactive event strategy – from basic event guides to location aware solutions, video streaming and real-time information screens.

Now I’m not saying immediately ditch your Blackberry, Nokia or whatever, but I am saying ignore the hype and the naysayers, focus on user requirements and keep an open mind. The iPhone isn’t for everyone but it does set the scene for the next generation.