Archive for the ‘New Zealand’ Category

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Chris & Kat Show on TVNZ ?

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

chris-and-kat-show

I was in Auckland the other week for TUANZ Award conference. It was a great chance to catch up with my sister, who I had not seen in ages. Kat is editing the News at TVNZ. I got the obligatory tour of the infamous rabbit warrens, where all the “technology action happens” and where New Zealand’s largest video wall lives. It was a great opportunity to briefly meet some of the very friendly and very talented team who help keep broadcast TV alive in this country, as well as a unique chance to practice some “clinical News-Laughter poses” on the official TVNZ news set, with Kat. Thank goodness, but I dont think our performance will make it to Air, YouTube or even Bebo.

However keep an eye out on Bebo for future TVNZ shows, as the mighty TVNZ looks to embrace ‘the brave new world’ and has partnerd with New Zealand’s largest website Bebo (I have not checked the stats about Bebo being New Zealand’s largest website, however that is what they state.)

At this stage their intended model is the standard advertising model. They now claim they will be able to provide advertisers access to a combined audience of over 1.5 million New Zealanders. Traditional shows they are planning to port into their Bebo strategy are TVNZ news and current affairs. Lets hope that this will pave the way for some new thinking for innovate new local shows directly focused on taking advantage of web2.0 and mobile delivery. The Gibson Group’s “My Story” is a good start. (…perhaps the Chris & Kat Show will get picked up after all ?)

Posted in Broadcasting, Chris Blair, Innovation, New Zealand, Social Networking, Trends, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Armageddon Pulp Expo – Art Prize

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

armageddon-art-winner-2

Armageddon Pulp Expo is New Zealand’s leading expo for dedicated game, film and comic, animation fans. Earlier this year the expo came to Christchurch for the first time, and brought with it a huge buzz with special guest appearances by stars from Star Trek and Lord of the Rings to name afew.

International Comic, Film, & Animation Celebrities ( and Wrestling Stars of course) all turn out for what is the most fun on the planet, and it was true again for Auckland earlier this week, where the event is now 12 years old. The very first event was held in 1995 at the Avondale Raceway in Auckland, with no noted international special guests at all.

Auckland Pulp Expo Special guests this year included:
- Rodger Bumpass – Squidward Tentacles in SpongeBob Squarepants
- Billy West – Voice actor on Futurama, Ren and Stimpy and much more
- Amanda Connor – Power Girl – international comic artist
- Bruce Timm – Animation Legend

Special events run throughout the Armageddon expo to keep you on your toes – ranging from Streets Brain Freeze Ice-cream eating contests to Lazer tag and the infamous Art Contest.

Zodal are very pleased to announce that Tom Robinson, who leads Zodal’s game character development & character illustration has won the best art prize at Amageddon Pulp Expo Auckland 2007.

Tom is looking forward to enjoying his Nintendo DS prize, not to mention the honor of keeping in touch with some of the industries leading comic artists from the USA who formed the expert judging panel which chose Tom’s artwork, of what some may describe as “an eye ball on legs”, as the top piece of digital art at the Amageddon NZ Art Contest the year.

Keep an eye out for Zodal’s next online adventure game which is due to be released before Christmas 2007, the game features some of the most amazing creatures you have ever seen in Adobe Flash online gaming, all of which have been created specifically for the game by Tom and the Zodal team.

Posted in Adobe Flash, Animation-Art, Awards, Chris Blair, Flash Games, Gaming, New Zealand | 5 Comments »

Canterbury Software Summit – 2007

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

canterbury

Canterbury Software Cluster held its annual Summit last week, and I managed to get along. There were acouple of speakers the same from last year, however as I had not made it last year, this held no problems for me.

There was a great line up of experienced individuals all openly providing insights into their up’s and down’s as they have fought the battles needed to grow a successful company here in New Zealand. There was a lot of conflicting opinions as various differing strategies were shared. I think this was important to note; in the sense that there really is no right or wrong way to growing a successful company here in New Zealand. There is always going to be different timing pressures and different growing pains for each individual company, as they seek potential partners or Venture Capital, and whether to look for that capital offshore such as from the USA, or from locally here in New Zealand.

If anyone missed the event, I would recommend joining the Cluster and going next year. It was valuable to be able to meet and network with Stuart Wilson from Modica Group, Michael Elwood-Smith from GOA and Melissa Clark-Reynolds; not to mention gain some great insights from Richard Clarke from polyMEDIA, Nick Gerritsen from CrispStart and John Blackham of XSOL. While we don’t have that many “heros” here in New Zealand to look towards for advice on growing Emerging Technology companies, these few people have done remarkably well within the short life span that is ‘New Zealand Digital Technology’.

Posted in Chris Blair, Export, Innovation, Leadership, New Zealand, Venture Capital | No Comments »

Zodal announced as Finalists for Mobile at TUANZ Innovation Awards

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

tuanz
TUANZ announced today that Zodal is a finalist in the Mobile Application of the Year Category at the TUANZ Innovation Awards 2007. The team is very excited and we feel that this is a testament not only to our hard work, but also to all of you that have in some way or another contributed to the development of LINKA mobile game server framework – whether through technical assistance, general feedback on the server and its Adobe Flash Lite games, mentoring, support, encouragement and mobile industry and business advice.

We look forward to meeting with the judges in early October for a final presentation of the multi-player game server. The winner will be announced at a Gala Dinner in Auckland on October 11.

To find out more about the Awards as well as to see the tremendous competition that Zodal is up against, go to the TUANZ website:
https://www.tuanz.org.nz/content/0c927847-ec0d-4522-bda8-78c9347dbfeb.html

Posted in Adobe, Adobe Flash, Awards, Chris Blair, Flash Lite, Innovation, Mobile, Mobile Games, Mobile-Devices, New Zealand, Telcos, Telecommunications | No Comments »

G3 – July 13 and 14 in Auckland

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

g3_logo-1

The New Zealand Game Developer’s Association is this weekend hosting a Games, Girls and Graphics Conference at the Town Hall. The speaker lineup includes a few NZGDA members. If you’re going to be in Auckland on unlucky Friday the 13th, check out the website to see if there is still space.

Posted in Gaming, Ghada Vanderpool, New Zealand | No Comments »

New CEO for Telecom NZ from the 'Motherland'

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

The old Empire of the British Commonwealth used to send support from the motherland to its colonies (well at least a visit from the Queen). Now the growing trend tends to involve the colonies having to headhunt the experience from the motherland.

Telecom New Zealand announce their new CEO, Paul Reynolds, who will replace Theresa Gattung, and take the reigns for Telecom New Zealand, basing himself in Auckland, from late September.

Dr. Reynolds has been described as a crucial cog in the incumbent BT’s organization, and the British now await the results of the loss, and prepare for further re-structuring around the leadership of Ben Verwaayen.

Paul Reynold is a valued member of the BT Board and was instrumental in the strategies behind BT’s positioning during the “unbundling of the local loop” in UK and the recent development of the 21CN – the world’s first national IP network.

Sir Christopher Bland, BT’s soon-to-leave chairman added, “Paul has played a central role in the transformation of BT, both as CEO of BT Wholesale and as a member of the board for the last 6 years. His vision and drive have been a tremendous asset to BT as I am certain they will be to Telecom NZ”.

Now we await perhaps a new era for New Zealand communications and Telecom. It had once been dubbed one of the most innovate telecom communications companies in the world, and perhaps it will rise again…

Posted in Chris Blair, Leadership, New Zealand, Telcos, Telecom NZ, Telecommunications | No Comments »

Kordia Buys Orcon

Monday, June 18th, 2007

ISP Orcon has recently been purchased by the State owned Kordia™ Group (formerly BCL the transmission arm of TVNZ) .

Orcon was New Zealand’s 4th largest and fastest growing ISP and telecommunications company. In October 2006, Vodafone bought ihug, New Zealand’s 3rd largest Internet service provider.
In the past 12 months Orcon has committed to building a $30m next generation LLU network with global communication technology provider Siemens, signed a wholesale agreement with Vodafone to become New Zealand’s third mobile player, and most recently announced the purchase of a $2 million soft switch to deploy advanced digital voice solutions.
Orcon was firmly committed to a quad-play future (Mobile, IPTV, VoIP, ADSL) and mounting a serious challenge to the incumbents.

To me it appears this is a way for the Government to gain access with flexibility in delivering and trialing next generation interactive mobile multimedia across new generation handsets and technologies which are more compatible on the GSM/GPRS network of Vodafone. There are some interesting perspectives about possible reasons why Kordia Group have made this move, and many personal opinions left as comments on Rod Drury’s Blog, and I guess we may find out more over the next 18 months.

Maybe now TVNZ could have a partner for a much needed vehicle to deliver their proposed Inspiring On Every Screen Strategy to diverge into new media deliveries such as Mobile, IPTV and WiMAX Screen Based Devices over the next four years.

Posted in Broadcasting, Mobile, New Zealand, Telecommunications, WiMAX, Wireless | No Comments »

Can New Zealand Sustain 6 Operators in WiMAX?

Monday, June 18th, 2007

Respected Telecommunications Expert Andrew Seybold was in New Zealand recently at Convergence, Wireless and Broadband conference in Wellington.

In his blog Andrew outlines the intentions that Communications Minister, David Cunliffe, discussed during the conference in which the New Zealand Government has decided for a combined auction of the 2.3-GHz band with spectrum in the 2.5-GHz band. The rationale for combining the spectrum auctions is to “offer six different companies sufficient spectrum to launch a national WiMAX service, while still reserving some for community use.

Andrew makes some ‘thoughtful back of the envelope’ calculations estimating just how many WiMAX Broadband companies can New Zealand’s population competitively support for our Urban centres and our more outspread Rural districts.

Posted in Mobile, New Zealand, Telecommunications, WiMAX, Wireless | No Comments »

Telecom New Zealand confirms $300 Million move to WCDMA

Monday, June 18th, 2007

Telecom New Zealand has publicly confirmed that it is committing NZ$300 million towards a WCDMA/HSPA network rollout with vendor Alcatel Lucent.

Telecom is the second largest mobile operator in New Zealand with a 49 percent market share (Vodafone is slightly ahead) and operates a CDMA EV-DO network, according to Wikipedia.

It’s expected TNZ will keep the existing CDMA network for high-speed data and voice as it moves customers over to the new network.

The long anticipated move leverages off the carrier’s existing CDMA assets while allowing it access to the UMTS migration path and the lucrative inbound mobile roaming market.

The move is no surprise to analysts in New Zealand, although the Herald also reported that: “Mark Ratcliffe, Telecom’s chief operating officer for technology and enterprises, said the company would continue to invest in CDMA with an increasing likelihood it would go to UMTS some time in the future?

Alcatel Lucent is understood to still be negotiating the finer points of the two year contract but work on the project will commence before the end of the year.

Posted in New Zealand, Telcos, Telecommunications, Vodafone | No Comments »

Zodal's Lead Interactive Programmer wins Gaming Award

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Jeff Nusz, Zodal’s Lead Interactive Programmer has picked up first place in the international web gaming awards held by Jay Is Games – Casual Gameplay site.

“Sprout is a creative and original adventure puzzle game created by Jeff Nusz, of New Zealand, for our second Casual Gameplay Design Competition. From the moment you lay eyes on it you know it’s something special. The unique artwork for a Flash game has a paper-cut appearance that lends a storybook atmosphere to the game. This environment perfectly suits the role you play as a young seedling trying to find its way home. Sprout has everything we love to see in a Flash game: originality, a simple design, and a beautiful presentation.”

Congratulations Jeff from from the rest of the Zodal team! – Sprout also took out the Audience award for the 2007 competition! – go check it out here!

Posted in Adobe, Adobe Flash, Awards, Gaming, India, Jeff Nusz, New Zealand, Trends | No Comments »

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