Tech Archives - Susan von Seggern

Evergent Announces Partnership with KOCOWA to Optimize Payments and Customer Flexibility Across Global Audience Base

10/10/2022 by Susan von Seggern

New agreement simplifies payment and customer management for Korean content service in the Americas and worldwide

Sunnyvale, CA – September 8, 2022 — Evergent, the customer management and monetization leader for streaming and digital subscription businesses, today announced a new partnership with KOCOWA, a subscription video streaming platform serving Korean content to audiences throughout the world. Through the agreement, Evergent will provide optimized payment solutions for KOCOWA customers in different global regions, while also incorporating multiple currencies, languages and payment models.

KOCOWA was launched in 2017 by wavve Americas (wA), a joint company of KBS, MBC and SBS, the top three Korean broadcasters, together with SK Telecom. The streaming video platform delivers Korean dramas, reality and K-pop content to a subscription audience in North, Central, and South America.

As wA introduces KOCOWA to new markets and geographies, Evergent’s agile monetization and CRM products will make it possible to accommodate for both global and regional considerations and provide the adaptability required to seamlessly integrate different currencies, languages and payment processes. With Evergent’s flexible monetization tools, KOCOWA will be able to rapidly scale and reach the growing global audience for premium Korean entertainment content. The new partnership will also allow KOCOWA to explore and deploy multiple pricing and payment options for existing customers in North and South America.

“KOCOWA presents an ideal use case for Evergent’s highly flexible solutions, as they operate at the nexus of three cultures, languages and geographies,” said Vijay Sajja, founder and CEO of Evergent. “KOCOWA has already demonstrated the viability of delivering premium Korean content to customers in North, Central, and South America, and we look forward to supporting them with agile monetization tools as they extend this service to other areas of the world.”

“The success of our streaming platform in the Americas demonstrates the tremendous global demand for premium Korean content, but capitalizing on that demand requires speed and agility as we work to meet the needs of diverse markets and audiences” said KunHee Park, CEO at KOCOWA. “Evergent makes our platform better and more competitive by enabling us to pursue multiple new monetization models with minimal deployment effort, which in turn provides us with new tools to inform our sales and marketing campaigns. We expect Evergent to play a key role in our growth as we bring KOCOWA to new customers throughout the world.”

ABOUT EVERGENT
Based in Sunnyvale, CA, Evergent delivers customer relationship management tools for global digital media, entertainment and telecommunications providers. With customers in 175 countries ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, Evergent creates flexible, user-friendly solutions that enable each customer to streamline their CRM processes and maximize monetization efforts. For more information, visit www.evergent.com.

ABOUT wA AND KOCOWA
wA is a joint company between the top three Korean broadcasters — KBS, MBC, SBS, plus SK Telecom. wA launched KOCOWA, a subscription video streaming platform in the Americas in 2017, with primary audiences in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. KOCOWA provides a robust lineup of over 25,000 hours of Korean Dramas, Reality, and K-pop content in multi-languages on its direct platform. For more information please visit: www.kocowa.com.

European Customer Service Experts Enteractive Survey Americans’ CS Positions Prior To Market Entry

06/12/2022 by Susan von Seggern

Harris Poll Findings Reveal Americans Would Like Human Interaction
Gzira, Malta –June 9, 2022 – Enteractive, a noted customer service and retention concern with clients and offices across the European Union today announced the results of a survey of American’s attitudes towards customer service in the United States prior to entering the market later in the year.

Their findings were consistent with what one might expect given the dismal state of customer service in US, especially in the technology and entertainment fields currently. Some of these include:

90% of respondents would prefer to speak with a real person when contacting a brand with a customer service enquiry
89% of respondents believe brands’ customer service agents should speak the same language as the customer they are calling
87% of respondents think US brands should use a CALLER ID when contacting customers so they can clearly see who is calling them
85% of consumers said they are MORE LIKELY to stay loyal to a brand that uses real people for customer service
70% of respondents find robo-calls from brands frustrating, with 54% confiding they are VERY frustrating.
Overall, on average, over 53% believe that getting through to a real person is DIFFICULT when calling a brand’s customer service number, with the numbers even higher among older respondents
41% of respondents would be happy to get a call from online entertainment or technology brands to check in and improve the customer relationship

Enteractive CEO Mikael Hansson noted, “I was so pleased to see the results as they bear out our personal interaction business model, that we are excited to be bringing to the US later in the year.” Adding, “Since 2009 we’ve had real people talking to our clients’ customers in their own language to bring them back with amazing success. We’re looking forward to helping US companies with their customer retention by actually speaking with their users as well.”

A leader in customer retention in the popular and legal online gambling sector in Europe, where clients typically see a 500% increase in customer reactivation, and a 300% increase in customer spend, Enteractive is entering the US market as online and mobile sports betting and other iGaming formats grow quickly as the number of states with legalized sports betting has increased. With recent legalization in New York, plus 19 other states allowing some form of wagering, online gambling brands are signing up thousands of new players during important sporting event like the Super Bowl, March Madness and the upcoming Tennis Grand Slam events, the US Open and Wimbledon.

Enteractive also polled the sample on attitudes towards online gambling and found that 64% support online gambling nationally, while 60% approve of it at the state level.

“While our service works in any customer service or customer relationship management setting, we’ve been very successful in the iGaming space in Europe, and are eager to work with US operators like Caesars, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and others. While these companies are spending large sums on promotion, marketing, and competitive odds to prompt high-speed growth as they enter these new markets in the US, they must keep a focus on retention of all those hard-won customers,” says Hansson. Adding, “it’s heartening that the majority of Americans support online gambling.”

To ensure the safety of their clients’ data, Enteractive has developed the (Re)Activation dashboard to give partner brands complete transparency, with real-time reporting for each interaction with individual customers while keeping all data highly secure, GDPR, and Responsible Gambling compliant.

“There’s currently a gold rush in the US sports betting market,” adds Hansson, “and the eventual winners will be those brands that engage with their customers and build relationships for the future. Every brand must keep a clear focus on all aspects of their offering, ensuring that all the hard work in getting to market, and the expense of customer acquisition is not quickly lost to lapsing relationships.”

About Enteractive:
Enteractive is the industry leader in player reactivation, driving innovation through custom-made tech, powered by personal human interaction. As a partner to iGaming operators around the world, Enteractive increases retention and player loyalty through engagement with players in one-to-one conversations.

NEW DOCUMENTARY PUTS TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION IN THE SPOTLIGHT

12/08/2021 by Susan von Seggern

DETOX aims to create urgent dialogue on digital wellness, helps parents address and prevent addiction symptoms

Los Angeles, CA – November 16, 2021 — Documentary filmmaker, David Donnelly, today announced a new film to address the increasingly alarming issue of technology addiction, entitled DETOX. The feature-length documentary explores how pervasive technology use is impacting our daily health and wellness, and offers solutions for reducing the harmful effects of tech reliance.

In March 2020, a screening series at The Kennedy Center for Donnelly’s previous documentary, FORTE, was canceled as the nation began closing doors for COVID-19 safety precautions. Donnelly, whose livelihood is making international films, was grounded, and while quarantined in London, began to explore the disturbing proliferation of technology addiction symptoms. His fascination and research became the basis for DETOX.

“The combination of global wifi and ubiquitous smartphone usage is influencing the behavior of billions of people, and yet we know so little about how it’s actually impacting us as humans,” said Donnelly. Since he began making the film, countless events have unfolded that spotlight the issue, including Facebook’s recent whistleblower news.

The film features shocking new insights on how tech devices are affecting our physical and mental health from digital sociologist and author, Dr. Julie Albright; bestselling author Robert Greene; the co-founder of one of the nation’s first technology addiction centers Dr. Hilarie Cash; and more. These experts identify the roots of the problem and provide easy, applicable solutions for healthier relationships with technology–especially for parents who are routinely monitoring phone and technology exposure for their families.

The filmmakers are producing the film independently before approaching distributors to maintain the focus and integrity of the message. An Indiegogo campaign is now live to help the film launch essential conversation on digital wellness–supporters can choose virtual premiere tickets, an accompanying DETOX book featuring bonus interview content, exclusive NFTs, and sponsored screenings.

About David Donnelly
Donnelly is an award-winning American filmmaker, writer, speaker, artist, and entrepreneur. He has written, directed, and produced music videos, video installation art, short films, and feature-length documentaries, which have been featured in Forbes, Playbill, and NPR. He has directed three films, Forte, Nordic Pulse, and Maestro, and is currently working on his fourth, Detox. Donnelly’s educational films are used in thousands of classrooms across North America.

In Time for Marvel’s Multiverse, Epic Games’s Metaverse, and The Matrix Resurrections, MIT and Game Industry Alum to Release The Simulated Multiverse October 15

10/11/2021 by Susan von Seggern

In a follow up to The Simulation Hypothesis, MIT Computer Scientist Rizwan Virk explores the idea of the Multiverse from the lens of Simulation Theory, Video Games, and the Mandela Effect

San Francisco, CA – September 20, 2021 – MIT computer scientist and Silicon Valley video game designer Rizwan Virk announced the much anticipated follow up to his bestselling book, The Simulation Hypothesis, will be published October 15. The book comes as interest in multiverses and metaverses are at an all-time high with the release of The Matrix Resurrections in December, Marvel’s ongoing Multiverse storyline, and the exciting developments of Epic Games’ Metaverse.

The Simulated Multiverse explores deeper questions about the nature of space and time in all possible universes. Virk explores the idea that parallel universes are a result of different runs of the simulation, with variables changed, an idea first proffered by Philip K. Dick, and a rational explanation for the mysterious Mandela Effect. By tying science fiction ideas and Virk’s extensive knowledge of computer science, quantum physics and video games, this book expands our idea of our world.

“When the Matrix came out in 1999, it was in the realm of science fiction,” said Virk. “With today’s advancements in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and the Metaverse, a simulated universe is not far away.

“With The Matrix 4 and Free Guy, this is the year of simulation movies; but multiverses are extremely popular too, appearing in everything from TV shows like Marvel’s Loki and What If… to The CWs The Flash and Superman & Lois. In this book, I explore how a multiverse might work.”

This book addresses the idea that there are multiple versions of us in different timelines, like multiple processes running inside a giant computer and explains everything from parallel universes in quantum physics to the Mandela Effect.

Virk is the founder of Play Labs @ MIT, a video game startup incubator at the MIT Game Lab, and co-founder, advisor and investor in many video game startups.

The Simulated Multiverse is for computer scientists, science fiction and comics fans, video game enthusiasts, and those looking to understand the nature of reality.

The author is also announcing that translation rights for his previous book, The Simulation Hypothesis, have been acquired will be published into a number of languages/countries, including Chinese (via China Machine Press) Portuguese (via Citadel), French (Editions Extraordinaires), and Japanese (via Tokuma Shoten).

The new book is available for pre-order in Paperback or eBook format now and will be released on October 15, 2021. Pre-ordering can be done at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XFR749T/ or by visiting the authors website at http://www.zenentrepreneur.com/.

About the Author:
A graduate of MIT and Stanford, Rizwan (“Riz”) Virk is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, bestselling author, video game industry pioneer, and independent film producer. Virk was the founder Play Labs @ MIT (www.playlabs.tv) a startup accelerator for playful technologies held on campus at the MIT Game Lab, and is currently at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University’s College of Global Futures.

His previously published books include: Zen Entrepreneurship (Bayview, 2013), Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success (Watkins, 2017), The Simulation Hypothesis (Bayview, 2019), and Startup Myths and Models: What You Won’t Learn in Business School (2020, Columbia University Press).

Virk’s video games have included Tap Fish, which was downloaded over 50 million times, and games based on TV shows like Penny Dreadful and Grimm. Virk has been an investor and founder in many startups, including Telltale Games (creator of narrative games based on The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones), Tapjoy and Discord. He has been a producer on Thrive: What on Earth Will It Take?, Knights of Badassdom, starring Peter Dinklage, the TV show The Outpost, and adaptations of the works of Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Visit his author and professional websites at www.zenentrepreneur.com and www.bayviewlabs.com.

Praise for the Simulated Multiverse and the Simulation Hypothesis:
“How am I unreal? Riz Virk counts the ways. So many ways we might all live in one (or more) simulated worlds. Palpable ‘reality’ may be as delusional as our old notion that the heavens revolved around Earth. And just like Galileo did then, Virk may help open our eyes to a greater (if humbling) cosmology.”
—David Brin, author of EXISTENCE, The Postman and EARTH.

We are used to thinking of the afterlife as a sort of simulation with less reality than our world of solid objects … However, a few cutting-edge thinkers have posited that this world in which we live is a simulation. In his second book on the subject of simulation, Rizwan Virk walks us through the concept of a computer-generated reality that Philip K. Dick posited in the speech that he delivered in Metz, France, in 1977. This volume is well-researched and eminently readable for any interested reader. The topic is fascinating, and the writing is clear. Perhaps The Matrix is more than a science fiction film; perhaps it reveals some truth about our world and our lives in this world. Read this book, if you dare.
—Tessa B. Dick, author of Conversations with Philip K. Dick, wife of Philip K. Dick

Refining his impressions of the progress of AI since his research at MIT… Virk has expanded his thesis in the wider scope of the multiverse, building on the framework of pioneers such as Nick Bostrom and Kurzweil. The result is a new challenge not only to theories of simulation, but to what constitutes reality itself, and human illusions of our rightful place within it.
—Jacques Vallée, venture capitalist, author of Forbidden Science

Virk … makes a cogent, clear-eyed guide to the head-spinning science of parallel universes, quantum indeterminacy, and the possibility—terrifying or relieving—that our perceived reality is in fact part of a great simulation.
—Publishers Weekly

I’m grateful to be living in a branch of the multiverse where if I’m asked to go into more detail about the relationship between Total Recall and quantum physics, I can simply point someone in the direction of this comprehensive and entertaining book. To quote a certain 1999 blockbuster: Woah.
—Rodney Ascher, director of A Glitch in the Matrix

“In The Simulated Multiverse, Riz Virk takes simulation theory and The Matrix to a new level. Using computational tools – complexity, artificial intelligence, video games and quantum computing – Virk explains an interpretation of our world that sounds like science fiction: that we are living multiple parallel timelines. If you want to get glimpses not only of our possible digital futures, but also of multiple parallel pasts and presents, read this book!”
—Brad Feld, venture capitalist and author of The Startup Community Way

“MIT scientist’s ‘Simulation Hypothesis’ makes compelling case for The Matrix.”
—The Next Web

“Those looking to expand their brains for a few hours should enjoy this cerebral work. A well-crafted discussion of simulation that is unexpectedly persuasive.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“In The Simulation Hypothesis, Riz Virk provides a deft and knowledgeable blend of video game history, hard science speculation, and science fiction references. Whether or not you believe we all exist in a simulation, I found it both fascinating and entertaining.”
—Noah Falstein, former chair of the IGDA, former Chief Game Designer at Google

The Simulated Multiverse
An MIT Computer Scientist Explores Parallel Universes, The Simulation Hypothesis, Quantum Computing and The Mandela Effect
by Rizwan Virk
Bayview Books | October 15, 2021. Available as e-book and Paperback ISBN: 978-1954872004

Family Office Portal Launches as Community Hub for over 5000 Family and UHNWI Investment Offices

08/09/2021 by Susan von Seggern

Hosting Family Office/Venture Capital Mixer September 14 at Meat Market Steakhouse Palm Beach

Palm Beach, Florida – July 29, 2021 – Launching today, Family Office Portal (aka FOPort) sits at the hub of a community comprised of over 5000 ultra-high net worth individual, single, and multi-family offices, the asset managers they work with, service providers, early-stage companies and other members of this unique professional network geared to making the lives of its members easier, more profitable, and more enjoyable.

Family Office Portal curates a network of investors and issuers to connect investors with investment opportunities that match their personal mandates and preferences. Family Offices and UHNWI’s that choose to join this exclusive community are able to view or be directly connected with vetted issuers.
Family Office Portal also partners with best-in-class technology solutions that help family offices in all that they do. Through a range of technologies from basic to incredibly dynamic and complex solutions, FOPort offers the convenience of aggregation and consolidation of these tools, discounted rates, streamlined account management and more. These technologies help family offices with everything from automated and compliant investment processes, and peer to peer due diligence, to enhanced lifestyle experiences, and much more.

Family Office Portal enables members to browse and connect with rare family office sponsored opportunities, the kind that are spoken for before they are public, including early-stage companies that are poised to disrupt industries, or otherwise grow through strategic value add partnerships, investments, etc.

The founders of Family Office Portal are CEO Peter Apostol who has an extensive background working with family offices, alternative investments and lifestyle services. Peter worked with a South Florida based family office packaging and syndicating investments before he began to develop an international family office community. Cecil Robles, FOPort’s VP of Strategy, is an entrepreneur with 17+ years of corporate strategy and global brand-building experience. He has also served as a CMO and CEO and has built and sold multiple businesses in various industries. They are joined by legal advisor Nate Sumbot, who prior to FOPort, was a lawyer with Ballard Spahr LLP, has an extensive background as a securities attorney, and worked as general counsel for the governor’s office of Utah.

Apostol notes, “I founded Family Office Portal as a place to centralize this network with an emphasis on deal flow and other unique opportunities. We are excited to work with families and individuals to access early-stage companies, and to help them invest to fit their personal priorities whether it’s ESG investing, future-proofing their funds, or enabling them to live their passions. And we’re equally excited to bring investment to well vetted young companies that will continue to grow family wealth.”

With events returning, Family Office Portal is excited to host their first 2021 event, a family office/venture capital mixer at the Meat Market Steakhouse 191 Bradley Place, Palm Beach, FL 33480 on September 14 at 5:30 pm. Future events will take place in Miami, Orlando, and Houston, with more to be announced soon. Potential invitees can sign up at https://foport.com/events/.

Torii, Tinder For Real Estate, Announces Seed Round from Noted VCs

06/10/2021 by Susan von Seggern

Boston, MA – May 20, 2021 – Torii, a next-generation real estate brokerage with an app that allows users to search for homes via a Tinder-like interface (swipe right to match with your perfect home), are thrilled to announce a successful seed round of venture funding from a number of noted VCs.

Born out of the frustration of Torii’s CEO James Rogers’ experience with an ineffectual and archaic system, he founded Torii to reimagine the entire way people buy homes from top to bottom, search to close. With Torii, homebuyers have access to helpful tools in the Torii app, work with a dedicated agent and a whole team behind them, get their closing costs refunded (averaging around $7500!), and then get a personalized Move-In Survival Kit (with toiletries and cleaners, plus other fun and must-have items that are probably still packed away) to smooth their move!

The company has just completed a $3.2m Seed Round and are excited to announce some notable investment including $1m from Lookout founder Kevin Mahaffey’s SNR.VC, $1m from noted crypto hedge fund founder Dan Matuszewski’s CMS Holdings, $1m from longtime noted investor Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH, and around $200k from smaller accredited investors.

This is in addition to a successful $1.4m Pre-Seed round in 2019 that saw an investment of $1.1m from Calacanis’ LAUNCH Accelerator and $310k from the founders’ actual friends and family.

The site launched in 2018 at first offering sales in their HQ location, Boston, but have since added the Bay Area in California, and they just launched in the Los Angeles area last month.

Even with residential real estate in an extreme seller’s market, Torii’s licensed real estate team continuously receives 5-star reviews for their flexibility, responsiveness, knowledge of the real estate market, and their ability to advise their clients on making offers that win and close. Torii’s intuitive platform allows users to search for a property, schedule showings, submit an offer and live chat with their team, all from their phones.

In addition to a wonderful interface and dedicated, talented staff, Torii’s business model pays agents a salary plus commission (instead of the typical real estate commission-only structure) and uses the buyer’s agent commission to pay their buyer’s closing costs, saving clients an average of $7500 per transaction.

Torii CEO James Rogers notes, “we’re looking forward to using this investment to continue to build our incredible team in our current markets while adding new cities throughout 2021. We’ll also continue to develop our machine learning-powered search, that ‘learns’ what each buyer is looking for while they swipe through homes, similar to dating app interfaces – what style of home they like, what home amenities truly matter to them, and more, allowing buyers to find the right home faster, while we continue to decrease friction in real estate transactions while creating a seamless experience for buyers.”

About Torii:
Torii has streamlined the home buying process by integrating the power of automation and machine learning with the personal touch of human-to-human customer service. Our licensed real estate team continuously receives 5-star reviews for their flexibility, responsiveness, and knowledge of the real estate market. Our intuitive platform allows users to search for a property, schedule showings, submit an offer, live chat with our team, and track an offer’s progress, all from their phones. Why buy a home any other way? This is the new standard of real estate.

Torii is fully licensed and operates in Massachusetts and California, specializing in homes for sale in Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles.

Tinder For Real Estate and So Much More, Torii Launches Sales in Los Angeles

05/10/2021 by Susan von Seggern

Torii Lets Users Swipe Home Listings, Handle the Entire Buying Process Through Their App, and Pays Buyers’ Closing Costs

Los Angeles, CA – April XX, 2021 – Home buying for many people can be a painful, stressful, and scary process. Born out of the frustration of Torii’s CEO James Rogers’ experience with an ineffectual and archaic system, he founded Torii to reimagine the entire way people buy homes from top to bottom, search to close.

Now, this tech-powered real estate agency is available to buyers in Los Angeles. Torii has streamlined the home buying process by integrating the power of automation and machine learning with the personal touch of human-to-human customer service, resulting in a very familiar feeling interface, similar to Tinder, but with the addition of data-backed real estate tools to empower Torii’s home-buying clients, and a reliable team of expert agents too.

Even with the real estate market here and nationwide in an extreme seller’s market, Torii’s licensed real estate team continuously receives 5-star reviews for their flexibility, responsiveness, knowledge of the real estate market, and their ability to advise their clients on making offers that win and close. Torii’s intuitive platform allows users to search for a property, schedule showings, submit an offer and live chat with their team, all from their phones. Why would today’s phone-based home shoppers buy a home any other way? This is the new standard of real estate.

In addition to a wonderful interface and dedicated, talented staff, Torii’s business model pays agents salaries (instead of the typical real estate commission structure) and uses the buyer’s agent commission to pay their buyer’s closing costs, saving clients an average of $7500 per transaction.

Torii launched in 2017 in Boston and the service is currently available there, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now in Los Angeles. Their team here consists of a number of top real estate agents including Annabelle Brownell who is a real estate broker and mortgage loan specialist representing real estate buyers, homeowners, and investors looking to purchase real estate. She is dual-licensed to service real estate purchasing as well as mortgage financing options linked to real estate assets. With an undergraduate degree from UCLA and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Management, Annabelle’s career includes seven years in technology marketing, seven years as a successful entrepreneur, and seven years as a real estate and business broker, including mortgage loan origination.

Annabelle is joined in Los Angeles, by LA native Leon Townsend III, who started his real estate career at Century 21 in 2015. Always a bit of a prodigy, Leon was the youngest high school graduate in the history of Pasadena High School and received both his undergraduate degree and MBA from California Lutheran University. Very oriented towards community building, Leon is an Advisory Board Member of the California Association of Realtors Young Professionals Network, the co-founder of the Deliberately Fair Housing group on Facebook, and is a frequent blood donor at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Torii CEO James Rogers notes, “we are thrilled to enter the LA real estate market and to start growing our team there, beginning with these two amazing agents who are used to prioritizing client service up to our extremely high standards. While it’s a challenging market out there, we know our team will be able to win homes for our clients along with saving them money as we pay our client’s closing costs.”

Torii is fully licensed and operates in Massachusetts and California, specializing in homes for sale in Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles.

ICEWIND TURBINE TO POWER EMERGENCY BEACON AT ARCTIC CIRCLE

11/16/2020 by Susan von Seggern

Straumnes Air Station, Westfjords, Iceland (Latitude 66.440607) – October 22, 2020 – Noted wind power startup IceWind is deploying its new Njord series wind turbine just nine miles below the Arctic Circle on the site of the former U.S. Air Force’s Straumnes Air Station in the Westfjords region of Iceland. The air station monitored Soviet maneuvers in the strategic Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap during the Cold War. The IceWind RW100 (aka Njord) turbine will power an autonomous emergency beacon operated by the Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands) there.

Straumnes is known for its extreme weather. In fact, five prior attempts have been made to run the site on wind energy, all of them unsuccessful. Wind gusts break apart lesser turbines and none have lasted for an entire winter. IceWind turbines, on the other hand, are engineered to provide reliable power in the most extreme Arctic environments.

The site has a 30W emergency transmitter that needs to run 24 hours a day all year and cannot go off-line. The total power consumption of the system is around 100W. For a vast majority of its lifespan the site has been run on diesel. Solar panels were incorporated in the last ten years to power the station during summer months.

At Straumnes Air Station the wind is known to reach 157 mph – blowing from all directions because of turbulence created by the near-vertical drop on the sides of the mountain the station is on top of. Average wind speed is estimated to be well over 22 mph.

The IceWind Njord turbine installed at Straumnes is made from stainless steel, carbon fiber and aluminum. It will be placed on a concrete platform 26m away from the main power system and will be connected to location’s existing energy system of batteries, solar panels and a diesel engine.

IceWind designs and manufactures robust omni-directional micro vertical-axis wind turbines and other hybrid energy solutions to power telecom towers, and weather and seismic stations, for on-grid and off-grid applications. All products are designed and tested in Iceland, one of the windiest places on earth.

The Njord (RW-series) wind turbines are built to be mounted on commercial towers, and reduce operational costs through an increase in backup power time and reliability, as well as reduced maintenance and failures, minimizing total downtime, and carbon emissions, along with savings from the vastly reduced service and refueling calls needed by diesel generators.

IceWind USA President Daryl Losaw, a USAF veteran, notes, “We are very excited to be working with the Icelandic Coast Guard on this installation and are hopeful that it will be the first of many Arctic region installations of our robust carbon free technology.”

Noted Arctic expert Robert Gerber, the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the US embassy in Reykjavik, and an IceWind advisor, adds, “With our understanding of the power needs in Arctic locations we are thrilled to be part of a critical infrastructure power solution that is also good for the planet.”

Black Women Owned Slumber Bliss Seat Covers Launches Line of Antimicrobial Seat Covers and Other Travel Safety Products During this Time of COVID-19

11/16/2020 by Susan von Seggern

Austin, Texas/Los Angeles, California – October 29, 2020 – One never knows what kind of germs, viruses and bacteria are lurking on seat surfaces of buses, trains and airplanes, especially during this time of COVID-19. The easy safe solution? Patent Pending Slumber Bliss re-usable antimicrobial seat covers! They are the simplest way to protect yourself and your family during travel from germs, bacteria, allergens, and pathogens that may be on contaminated seats that can cause illnesses or bacterial infections. Proudly made in the USA and accepted by all airlines and travel providers around the world, these universal seat covers are launching to high demand as one of the newest traveling necessities preferred by safe and savvy travelers.
Founded by Nichale Denby and Nichole Denby-Jackson, the dynamic sisters found a way to help travelers in the midst of one of the most uncertain and challenging times that the human race has ever faced. During early days of the pandemic, the sisters were informed that a family friend tested positive for COVID-19. With the fear of possibly contacting the deadly virus from sitting and touching unsanitary seats while flying, the sisters came up with a superb idea to create reusable antimicrobial airplane seat covers. Nichale and Nichole had a seamstress develop a few samples out of soft, high quality antimicrobial fabric to sell to their close friends and family members.

One of the main goals of launching a company around their popular seat covers was to gather funds to make an impact by giving back to essential workers. The sisters used some of the seat cover sales proceeds to deliver food and much needed medical supplies, including PPE, to local hospitals in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. The duo also made errands and grocery store runs for individuals at high risk for COVID-19 in hopes to mitigate their risk of becoming infected. After receiving so many compliments and praise from fellow airline passengers, friends, and family on their safety seat covers’ design, they decided to take it to the next level and mass produce the seat covers for the general public across the globe.

Moving forward, the Denby Sisters will continue their philanthropic efforts and donate a portion of all proceeds to a charitable organization selected by the public through submissions to their website each quarter.

All Patent Pending Slumber Bliss seat covers come with a clear waterproof seat cover tote. The Slumber Bliss product line also includes disposable seat covers, sanitary travel kit, plush blanket attachment, and copper infused compression socks. All seat covers can also be used on most buses, trains, automobiles, and movie theater seats.

Nichale Denby, MBA, is a HBCU graduate that is balancing her respectable career as both a tech executive and entrepreneur. Currently flourishing in a successful career in tech and entrepreneurship like her sister, Nichole Denby-Jackson was also a world class athlete – she ran the 100-meter hurdles for the USA team in the 2007 World Championships, and was an USA Olympic Team alternate in 2008. To date, there have been some high-flying sports figures who were early adopters and are now ambassadors of Slumber Bliss seat covers. These include Bradie James, former NFL Linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, Darren Sproles, former Pro Bowl and Super Bowl Champion Running Back for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Sanya Richards-Ross, an Olympic Gold Medalist and American Record Holder in the 400 meters.

Sproles notes, “Since retiring from playing in the NFL I took on a Scout Consultant role with the Philadelphia Eagles and with all the traveling I do my Slumber Bliss seat cover has been one of my favorite traveling necessities. I never leave home without it!”

Affordable Cloud Based Production Management Solution Klio Studio Now Available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

11/16/2020 by Susan von Seggern

Hollywood, California – November 5, 2020 – Former US Navy officer, international talk show host, and film producer Adrienne Lunson is excited to announce that her latest production, not a film or TV show, but Klio Studio, an affordable cloud based production management solution, purpose built for film, television, and commercial productions, is now available the Microsoft Azure Marketplace and on AppSource, and the company is a Microsoft partner.

Lunson notes, “while we’ve been building Klio Studio since 2017, when the Coronavirus appeared, we launched as soon as we could to help producers manage their newly distributed teams online and effectively. Now that we are on Azure, studios and producers can feel even more confident about running their productions on Klio Studio, since their data will be even more secure with the platform now being housed in Microsoft’s Azure cloud.”

The Klio Studio system keeps producers and their collaborators on track throughout the production process starting with development, through fundraising, pre-production, production, post-production and even release. It turns the creative chaos of filmmaking into orchestrated art.

Klio Studio’s toolset unifies all aspects of production, including tasks, schedules, chat, and file sharing. Lunson comments, “Because Klio Studio is Azure cloud based, staff can work remotely on multiple productions at once, potentially getting millions of people back to work from the Coronavirus crisis sooner and everyone’s favorite shows back on the air.”

Klio Studio is also helping to increase set safety in these challenging times, Lunson adds, “With Azure, our mobile tools help keep cast and crew safer on set, with digital check ins, digitally choosing meals for catering, and electronic signatures. Additionally, our medical advisory board is aiding us to create other practical protocols to keep set life safe.”

Lunson adds, “Klio Studio is for all producers. We created a powerful project management tool. It works great for commercials, online content, or multimillion-dollar movies.” Starting at $11.99/month, Klio Studio opens up an affordable toolbox for all creatives.

Through this incredible year Klio Studio’s smart virtual tools are helping to get four million filmed entertainment workers back at it. Check out KlioStudio.com to sign up for a free trial. The show must go on!