Village Gamer

Upstream Works Software has named Mike Wilson as Vice President of Sales. Wilson will provide strategic leadership to the sales team and facilitate new business to increase revenue by driving sales through direct and indirect sales channels.

“Mike has an outstanding track record of accelerating revenue growth,” said Rob McDougall, president of Upstream Works. “His understanding of successful sales and partnering with consulting, technology and telecom service organizations and his proven expertise in building world-class sales teams make him the perfect person to lead our sales effort as we accelerate the adoption of our award winning Business Interaction Manager solution. We are thrilled to have him as part of the team.”

Wilson is a software industry veteran with a well-proven track record of driving companies to revenue growth and market leadership. He most recently served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing at UM Labs, where he led the company’s global sales, marketing, and operations functions for the Americas. Prior to UM Labs, Wilson also held senior positions at IMRglobal, Visual Systems and Ernst & Young.

“I’ve always been excited by companies that have a distinct value proposition,” said Wilson. “Upstream Works is especially compelling because the company is solving the very real and significant problems that COOs are facing as the customer experience becomes the clear differentiator for the enterprise. Upstream Works has fantastic sales traction plus an organization built of people with a strong history of customer focus and innovation. I look forward to driving revenue for the brand as well as the companies we work with.”

Teradici Corporation, developer of the innovative PC-over-IP® (PCoIP®) protocol that enables a true PC experience for desktop virtualization, announces the availability of PCoIP Firmware Release 3.4 and PCoIP Management Console 1.5.30. This firmware update includes event log, smartcard, and additional keyboard layout enhancements. The Management Console release includes new auto-configuration and profile scheduling capabilities. The firmware update and corresponding Management Console release are available as a free download from Teradici and OEM partners.

PCoIP Firmware Release 3.4 enhancements include:

• Support for “T=1” PIV CAC Smartcards
• Enhanced Event Log and configuration options, including Syslog support
• Added support for Czech, Slovenian and Romanian keyboard layouts

PCoIP Management Console 1.5.30 enhancements include:

• Device auto-configuration to automatically group and configure newly discovered PCoIP zero clients
• Profiles now include firmware file and On-Screen-Display (OSD) logo options
• Profile application to groups or individual devices can be scheduled for a future time

Avotus Corporation, a Mississauga-based provider of telecom expense management (TEM) services, eProcurement, and Call Accounting (Usage Management) solutions, has announced that the company will be participating in Cisco Live’s World of Solutions at the live conference in Las Vegas from July 10-14, 2011.

Cisco Live is Cisco’s annual IT and communications conference centered on the World of Solutions Expo which is the primary attraction of most in attendance every year. With one on one access to industry leaders, the conference attracts thousands of technical innovators and purchasing decision makers, making it the premier event of its kind in the world. Avotus is proud to be an exhibitor at this year’s event at the World of Solutions and will showcase the new release of its premier call accounting suite, ICM Unity.

Visitors will have a chance to speak with experts on a variety of solutions to find out how to enhance and extend their Cisco implementation at Avotus Booth # 2351.

“We are happy to be a part of this solution evolution as it is one of the best ways to gain and contribute insight into the future of our industry and technology as a whole. While we understand that the market is continually evolving with newer means to communicate than ever before, we stand committed to ensuring that our solutions remain compatible with the prevalent technology of its time,” said Sumer Shankardass, CEO of Avotus. “This is a testament to the Avotus team that has developed, certified, implemented, and constantly found ways to improve a solution that delivers best in class quality while remaining committed to customer satisfaction.”

Secure digital media distributor YANGAROO Inc. has reached a major milestone as it has delivered over 2000 music videos since launching the service a year ago. YANGAROO’S Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is now used by all four major record label groups as well as the growing independent community to deliver SD and HD quality music videos digitally to broadcast destinations such as MTV, VH1, BET, CMT, MuchMusic, MusiquePlus, MTV Canada, AUX TV, CMT Canada, with more coming, and over 150 additional regional and online destinations.  Before DMDS was adopted by the major broadcasters as the preferred platform for the submission of broadcast-ready digital music videos, virtually all music video submissions were made on costly, time consuming and inefficient video tapes.

“Hitting the milestone of over 2000 music videos is a significant achievement for the DMDS technology and sales teams,” said Scott Wambolt, CEO YANGAROO Inc. “It clearly represents a culture change within the industry and establishes the fact that YANGAROO and our DMDS service is once again leading the way to a more efficient and effective digital workflow, and this was clearly reflected in our just released first quarter financials where our revenues were up 49%. We have the potential to continue and accelerate this growth rate as more content owners and broadcasters adopt DMDS and go with a digital workflow.”

YANGAROO’s technology team worked closely with the TV broadcasters and the content owners to refine the DMDS process for digitally distributing SD and HD television broadcast-quality video. DMDS also transcodes the broadcast file for online availability for streaming and provision of a frame-accurate preview quality version of the file with the time-code burned in, which improves reviewing and editing processes. The television broadcast-quality video file can be easily integrated into Online Editing Suites, On-Air Playback Servers and stored in a Digital Archive Server. These files are 50mbit IMX in an MXF OP1a container that maintain both time-code and closed captioning for the underlying video.

Interactive Ontario, in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, is conducting a short survey of the interactive digital media industry in Ontario.

In an effort to monitor the evolution of the industry, IO will be requesting your cooperation on a periodic basis to help us improve our knowledge of key trends. The information collected will be used in aggregate in order to improve programs and policies that serve the industry.

Please note: these questions may best be answered by the person most familiar with key financial, human resources, and other strategic issues with your company. All responses will be kept strictly confidential, and your participation in this survey is of the utmost importance and is greatly appreciated.

If you have questions about this survey, please feel free to contact Astrid Rosemarin at Interactive Ontario either via email or by phone at 416.516.0077 extension 232.

Alliance numérique (AN) and the Canadian Interactive Alliance (CIAIC) have announced the launch of the Canadian Game Development Talent Awards, a gala event which will be held on November 2nd, officially closing out the Montreal International Game Summit.

“We are very happy to launch the first edition of the Canadian Game Development Talent Awards” said Pierre Proulx, General Manager of Alliance numérique. “Our goal is to recognize the creative talent in Canada, which is now the third most important cluster in terms of video game development in the world.’’

The Canadian Game Development Talent Awards will focus on recognizing the achievements of talent from across Canada in all the major disciplines of game creation. Alliance numérique has also launched the recruitment campaign of the Canadian Interactive Academy, whose role will be to evaluate the nominations and select the finalists and winners.

This national committee will be chaired by game business consultant Jason Della Rocca. Experienced game developers wishing to join the Academy and participate in the Awards process may view complete details and submit applications from now until the end of July.

Key Dates and Deadlines:

– July 5^th – August 1^st – Academy applications accepted
– August 1^st – September 15^th – Award nomination process
– October 15^th – Award finalists announced

The Trade Commission invites Canadian creative developers to join them, along with other Canadian companies,  in the Canada Pavilion at GamesCom 2011 this August 17th through 21st and take advantage of the following:

• Complimentary exhibit space to qualified Canadian companies
• Access to free meeting space throughout the event
• An opportunity to be profiled in the GamesCom 2011 book modeled on the GDC San Francisco profile book
• Pre-show matching services offered by the Trade Commissioner Service and Provincial Government partners (including BC) while in Germany
• An opportunity to engage business contacts at the networking reception and other networking events at the Canada stand

GamesCom 2010 Stats:

• more than 254,000 visitors
• 505 exhibitors
• 120,000 sqm rented space
• 4,400 media representatives from 49 countries

For further information, please contact Nina Cagic, Senior Manager Europe.

The Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund (the Partnerships Fund) is a program of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture and is co-administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation. The Fund assists Ontario’s Entertainment and Creative Cluster stakeholders in the commercial theatre, film and television, interactive digital media, music, book and magazine industries by supporting strategic partnerships that develop fresh approaches and solutions to the priorities and needs of the cluster.

Full eligibility requirements and guidelines are outlined in the Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund Guidelines (PDF). Guidelines and eligibility requirements are the same as last year with the exception of the Pre-Qualification Process – see below. Please read the Program Guidelines thoroughly.

A new step has been added in the process for submitting an application. Interested parties must complete and submit a Pre-Qualification Form. There are three steps when applying to this program:

Step 1: Contact OMDC to discuss the project.

Step 2: If the project and partners are eligible you will be invited to prepare and submit a templated Pre-Qualification Form via the Online Application Portal – to be submitted by September 1. An OMDC Consultant will review the material within 10 business days. If all program eligibility criteria are met you will then be invited to submit a full application.

Step 3: Submit the full application by September 28 – only Pre-Qualified applicants may apply.

Applications via the Online Application Portal (OAP):

• All applications must be submitted via the OMDC Online Application Portal (OAP) system. Applications submitted by any other method will not be accepted.
• Applicants are strongly encouraged to commence their applications early to allow for enough time should assistance be required.
• Prior to commencing an application, your Company’s corporate information must be registered. If this has not already been done, you should register as soon as possible.
• If registered, the Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund program deadline will appear in your dashboard. To start the application, click on “Start new application” and follow the directions through the 5 step wizard to access the application form.

Enter The Secret World – a next-generation massively multiplayer online game for the PC, a world where players are given total freedom to create and progress their characters, unbound by the restrictions of classes and levels. Players will get the opportunity to join one of the three secret societies and fight for power over important locations throughout our own world.  Players will also journey through familiar places across the globe, such as Egypt, New England, London, New York and Seoul and battle monsters of myth and legend.

From the dark and unforgiving Atlantic shoreline, to the overgrown attractions of a theme park lost to the darkness, the Savage Coast reveals more of its hidden mysteries in the latest location video from Funcom. Only a small part of the game, the Savage Coast is home to several unique monsters and myths as well as providing a fantastic backdrop for players to immerse themselves in.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0NQAgZ2FqY]

prairieFyre Software has completed verification field trials of its prairieFyre Contact Center for Microsoft^© Lync™ and the AudioCodes SmartTap Lync call recording solution. The combination of AudioCodes SmartTap and the prairieFyre Contact Center solution provides sophisticated contact center functionality for the Lync 2010 unified communications (UC) platform.

The prairieFyre Contact Center for Microsoft Lync is a modular software suite developed on the Voice-over-IP and UC architecture of Microsoft Lync Server 2010. The prairieFyre Contact Center is ideal for those organizations that wish to leverage the advanced enterprise voice features of the Lync UC platform and require a comprehensive contact center solution.

“As an early adopter of Microsoft’s United Communications platform, prairieFyre has taken a lead position in providing an innovative, presence-aware contact center solution.” Said Nimrod Borovsky, Vice President of Marketing at AudioCodes. We are very pleased to complete interoperability testing, and partner with prairieFyre to provide Microsoft Lync customers with a feature rich contact center solution.”

AudioCodes, known in the industry for providing best-in-class VoIP technology, has extended their product offering to include a complete call recording solution for Microsoft Lync. SmartTap is a fully IP-centric application that utilizes open standard protocols to record both internal and external calls for compliance regulations, dispute resolution, customer satisfaction and public safety requirements.

“Our prairieFyre Contact Center in conjunction with AudioCodes SmartTap provides a complete, scalable solution for those customers who have chosen Lync for their enterprise voice solution.” said Chris Courneya, CEO, prairieFyre Software. “The SmartTap solution is compelling in an ACD environment because it records calls without consuming valuable Lync resources such as conferencing services. Instead, it deploys a certified plugin on the Lync server that decrypts SRTP signaling while preserving the data integrity and quality of the conversation.”

With its broad functionality and modular design, the prairieFyre Contact Center for Microsoft Lync can be tailored to businesses of any size or industry in departmental, standalone, or geographically dispersed deployments.

The prairieFyre Contact Center for Microsoft Lync will be on display at prairieFyre’s booth, #1135, at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, July 10^th to 14^th, 2011.

prairieFyre Software has deployed contact center solutions to over 8,000 customers in over 70 countries worldwide. They have leveraged this experience to create an affordable yet feature-rich solution that is ideal for enterprises looking for a contact center designed to work with Lync Server 2010.