Monday, October 08, 2007

Taking the hip-hop capital of the world by storm!
















The “Creativity is Fundamental” Campaign takes the hip-hop capital of the world by storm!
ATLANTA, GA - In our ongoing strategic relationship with Penton Entertainment Group, we were proud the be the Title Presenting Sponsor for the 2007 Remix Hotel Atlanta Show. This is an annual end user event held in the capital of urban and hip hop music, and is a major buzz generator for music enthusiasts, producers, and performers alike around the technologies and services that fuel this market space.

The Remix Hotel provides hands-on access to the technology and equipment used to create today's electronic and urban music via artist presentations and demonstrations, workshops, clinics and discussions. Remix puts the tools of the trade into the hands of the end user, and helps inspire young, up-and-comers to realize their creative potential through all the great tools of the trade.

Microsoft Master Class & Lecture Room
Held in a 40-seat mini-theater complete with projector, professional A/V equipment and surround sound, the Microsoft Master Class & Lecture Room provided a quiet, focused environment for our managed partners to showcase their latest offerings for PC content creation. The schedule was packed with product demos and tutorials on the latest technologies from the leading names in music content creation:

Ø Digidesign Pro Tools LE Master Class
We were fortunate to have one of Digidesign’s premiere demo product specialists, Alex Jinh, conduct daily product demos on the best selling Pro Tools LE system. Alex built a piece of music from scratch, right before an enthralled audience’s eyes…helping ends users understand how easy it is to create music on the PC.

Said Alex in an email afterwards, “People couldn’t believe we were running the demo on a PC. The system kept up with everything I was doing, never crashed, and helped make the demo successful. It really helped change people’s perception of the PC and its usefulness in making digital music.”

Ø Roland MV-8000 Production Studio Master Class
This was one of the most compelling demonstrations of building a piece of music from start to finish. Shown by the local Roland product expert Mike Acosta, the Roland MV-8000 wowed the crowd as beats were created, bass lines were recorded, voices and keys were added in, and the final piece was published to the PC…all in less than one hour’s time.

The demo went up a notch when a local Grammy-winning performing artist plugged in his bass and started recording new tracks alongside the beats, so attendees could see how you can combine live playing with electronic music. This really connected with the audience….totally awesome.

Ø Yahama Corporation Motif & Steinberg Sequel
Never to be outdone, Yamaha took over the Master Class Room with a compelling demo of their world-renown Motif keyboard workstation and interface. Yamaha product expert and Yankees fan Phil was able to build a funk tune with all the drums, bass, guitars, keys, and even voices in less than 15 minutes! The Motif can actually modulate and create parts around your central idea for a piece…you don’t have to know how to play guitar to get a great sounding guitar part to go with your idea.
Did I mention that the entire demo was centered around his HP laptop?

Ø Ableton Live 7 Master Class
Ableton originally made its mark in the music business as the world’s first music creation software dedicated to live performances…which meant the program needed to have ultra-fast response to changes made on the fly, and also feature a complete toolset for loop-based creation.
Ableton proved that was the right place right time strategy with the announcement of Live 7, a full featured workstation product that boasts a user base of over 100,000 worldwide and one of the most vocal, loyal customer bases anywhere.

Why is Remix Hotel important to Microsoft?
Events like Remix Hotel allow us to carry out our mission in a way that draws people in and excites their imagination….instead of a top-down overbearing branding and marketing approach. It is a unique opportunity to leverage existing relations with ISVs and enable them to position their product offerings as solutions that integrate seamlessly with the PC environment. It also is one of few events that allow us to accomplish several goals in one setting. When you get out there and start connecting with people one-on-one, you put some personality to your initiatives and help create the perception change that the Windows PC is a phenomenal creative content tool.

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The next generation of digital artists


Today, we are launching our first campaign as part of the “secure the next generation of digital artists” initiative - The Make Your Mark Tour

Coming next month to Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Make Your Mark Tour is designed to help students find their creative voice through technology.
Students will immerse themselves in the most advanced digital content production tools on the PC platform, mingle with the minds behind the gear, check out artist-hosted demos and hear industry experts reveal what it takes to break into the biz

Make Your Mark Tour - http://makeyourmark.avid.com/


Why Attend?
Students will get to hear from Grammy-nominated producers/Remixers to representatives from the SXSW Film Festival, and a host of other renowned artists and industry veterans in audio, film and animation on how to stand out and get noticed. Students will also be shown the latest tools from Avid running on Microsoft Windows platform.

Locations:
Boston - October 3, 2007 - Boston University
New York - October 13, 2007 - The Millennium Broadway Hotel
Los Angeles - October 20, 2007 - Los Angeles Film School
San Francisco - October 23, 2007 - San Francisco State University

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Thursday, August 02, 2007

Extend our strategic alliance with Avid Technology

Im very excited today , as we are extending our strategic alliance with Avid Technology Inc.

Over the past several months, My team and Avid Technology have been working towards a strategic alliance designed to provide better user experience and enhance functionality on the Microsoft platform for the consumer market and the Media & entrainment industries.

This multi-year agreement will allow both Microsoft and Avid to drive end user excitement for our products and solutions by placing better and improved tools for digital content creation in the hands of consumers, enthusiasts and professionals.

We will be working together to deliver Vista certified Consumer based Video editing solution thru Pinnacle Studio product family, and for Digidesign ProTool that will include support for HW and SW components.
We will be making other investments as part of this deal ....
I wish i could have told you all how much/if any $$$ was involved here .....

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