(Watch our video on COM Express)

Also at SOFIC 2012, we will also be showcasing our ACC-188 Synchronous Interface Adapter, which enables tactical radios to interface to PCs and quickly transmit IP-based data such email, text messages, GPS maps, images, coordinates and other communications.

We will have a range of other products on display, including synchronous products (PCI, low profile PCI, PCMCIA, and USB) and industrial computers.

Whether you’re looking for custom or off-the-shelf products, Sealevel can help you find the perfect solution for your application. Our goal is to help you get your product to market faster. Stop by Booth #1933 and let’s talk about your application needs.

We look forward to meeting you at SOFIC 2012. If you have any questions, please email me at marcf@sealevel.com or call me at (864) 843-4343.

We’re really excited about this show for a lot of reasons, but most of all, we’re happy to be partnering with Chuck, the Randall Bramblett Band, Edwin McCain and Euphoria to help support our communities. For those who aren’t familiar with Euphoria, it’s a food, wine and music festival founded in 2006 by our friends and incredibly talented local boys singer-songwriter Edwin McCain and restaurateur Carl Sobocinski. Proceeds from Euphoria events support local charities. In addition to our corporate sponsorship, several Sealevel employees have volunteered to work the show. I’d like to thank each of them for taking their time join us in welcoming Chuck back to Greenville, supporting Euphoria and making a difference in our communities.

In the days leading up and following the show, we hope to bring you an inside view of Chuck’s role at Sealevel as well as some photos and videos from the meet and greet and concert. If you have questions for Chuck, leave them in the comments section, and we’ll do our best to get them answered for you. Be sure to check back after March 30 for all of the rockin’ good times.

We’ll see you at the show!

Tom

It was Benjamin Franklin who once said, “We must all hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately”.

While the circumstances and stakes for Franklin and other leaders during the American Revolution were certainly far different than for those of us living today in Upstate South Carolina, the concept of needing to work together to achieve success is still an important one that we must continue to follow in the 21st century.

Since being formed in 2005 by public, private and civic leaders from across the 10-counties of South Carolina’s Upstate (Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union) who recognized the importance of working together and planning for the future of the region, Ten at the Top has worked to foster collaboration and partnerships as we look to ensure that the future for residents across the Upstate is filled with promise and success.

Between now and 2030, the Upstate is projected to add more than 275,000 residents, which would put the population for the region above 1.6 million. While population growth is an important ingredient of community and economic vitality, if left completely unchecked the potential for unintended consequences such as increased traffic congestion, sprawling development, air quality and water quantity issues and other impacts to our daily quality of life are enhanced.

Regions across the country and globe that have been able to successfully grow both in population and economic vibrancy without negatively impacting the quality of life for residents have typically been places where individual communities have been diligent in developing and implementing local plans or visions while also collaborating with other communities across the region on addressing issues that cross jurisdictional boundaries. In other words, places where residents have taken the initiative to create a shared vision of their future and found ways to collaborate on making that vision a reality.

In 2010 and 2011, more than 10,000 Upstate residents from across the ten counties provided input on what mattered most to them when looking at future growth within the Upstate region during a community campaign to create a Shared Upstate Growth Vision. This process was shepherded by Ten at the Top, which hosted community meetings, conducted surveys and made presentations to ensure that input was received from residents in each county across the Upstate.

The result was the Our Upstate Vision, which calls for the Upstate South Carolina Region in 2030 to be universally recognized as one of the leading places in the United States to live, learn, do business and raise a family. The vision identified five driver areas where regional collaboration can help ensure that the Upstate reaches its full potential. Those five focus areas are human potential, economic & entrepreneurial vitality, sustainable growth, natural beauty & resources and community vibrancy.

Currently, Ten at the Top is engaged in a number of regional efforts to increase opportunities for collaboration and partnerships on key issues of regional significance.

One exciting recent regional success was the approval of the first-in-the-Upstate formal regional agreement by the largest transportation planning organizations in the region (the Greenville Pickens Area Transportation Study – GPATS – and the Spartanburg Area Transportation Study) to regularly collaborate on planning, grants and other initiatives. This is an important first step toward being able to eventually develop a Regional Transportation Strategy. Other areas where Ten at the Top and partners are currently working to try and create regional dialogue include air quality, tourism, water quantity, land use planning, entrepreneurial support and education. The ultimate goal is to identify opportunities within each area where subject experts and stakeholders from across the region can come together to identify and implement collaborative initiatives that will help enhance the overall quality of life across the Upstate.

Another area that is important for building collaboration and trust across the region is related to how we communicate and receive information across the Upstate. Earlier this year, Ten at the Top launched the Upstate Information Hub (www.ourupstatesc.info), which is a regional internet portal designed to make it easier for residents across the Upstate to find local information and resources. The portal currently has links to more than a thousand organization and company web sites across the Upstate related to everything from finding help for starting or growing a business to listings of schools, utilities and public services.

The site also includes what we believe eventually will become the largest comprehensive calendar of events from all over the Upstate. Whether you are looking for specific areas such as arts & culture or library programs or for fun events and festivals for the family to enjoy on a weekend, the Our Upstate Calendar has a comprehensive list of what is available across our ten-county region. I encourage you to go check out the Upstate Information Hub and use it as a tool for finding local resources as well as when looking for fun activities to do within easy driving distance.

Cultivating a region that communicates and works together takes time to blossom, but the seeds of collaboration being planted here in the Upstate today should one-day grow into the fruits needed to ensure that the Upstate remains a great place to live, learn, do business and raise a family for generations to come.

Dean Hybl
Executive Director
Ten at the Top

Everything changed of course with the advent of email and the internet. Today we live in an age where customers expect immediate response to their requests, and manufacturers must find a way to meet these expectations if they expect to be successful. Sealevel Systems, Inc. has worked very hard to provide our customers the easy ability to access information, place orders, and receive technical support using our website and other assets. However, even in this digital age, our most important asset is the people that make up our team.

A critical component of the Sealevel team is our network of international distributors we call SeaPartners. One of our longest standing and most successful SeaPartners is Impulse Corporation in the United Kingdom. The team at Impulse is well trained on Sealevel products and does a fantastic job of taking care of our customers in the U.K. with support and services that cannot be replaced by a website or an email. It has been my pleasure to see Impulse continue to grow successfully while we have worked together, and we the value they add to Sealevel’s products and support for our customers.

Impulse, our authorized Sealevel distributed in the U.K., recently launched a new website featuring intelligent product searches, the latest products and technologies, market-specific products, live chat and product certification. Visit Impulse and check out the Sealevel products available on our partner page.

Bryan Buchanan (Technical Support) – It’s probably considered a bit boring for all the apps available, but my favorite is ‘The Weather Channel’ app. It provides current accurate weather conditions with great detail down to temperature (both high and low for your zip code), humidity, UV index and wind speed. The app offers hourly and 10-day forecasts for planning ahead, plus an animated weather radar. You can store multiple locations so that you can follow the forecasts in other favorite areas.

Eric Sikes (East Coast Sales) – MyRadar – It’s a weather radar app and extremely precise. Particularly good when you are on the lake!

Will Rostron (Technical Support) – I like Angry Birds. It keeps my kids occupied!

Charlie McKenzie (International Sales) – Words with Friends is the best app available for smart phones. It’s disguised as an interactive game of Scrabble amongst friends, but it’s more like head-to-head vocabularic combat. Through the use of calculated strategy and linguistic wizardry (Ooh, “wizardry” could be worth 129 points in an ideal placement), Words with Friends offers a stimulating way to kill some time during lunch, at the DMV or anywhere else within cell phone range.

Amanda Brock (Public Relations) – 7 Little Words is my new favorite app. Here’s how it works: There’s a box filled with 20 random letter combinations and 7 crossword-style clues. Using the random letters, I have to figure out the clue and then find the letters to spell the word. It’s like a crossword, word search and Scrabble all in one. I’ve been stuck on the same level for a few days. If anyone knows a nine-letter word for “spontaneously playful”, I’d love to hear it!

Bryan Cochran (West Coast Sales) – The Phish Phanatic app allows me to look at every setlist Phish has ever played since 1983.  It also updates in real time for the shows that I can’t attend, so that I’m able to follow the setlist as they are being played. I also like JamBase, which allows me to perform a search of any and all bands that are playing. I can search the entire United States or I can search regionally/locally.  It makes planning my weekends pretty easy when I’m not in front of a PC to look to see what band may be playing where.

Hunt Grogan (Test & Repair) – GTunes Music app is my favorite. I can download music whenever I want.

Wallace Krebs (Product Marketing) – My favorite app is Camera Awesome from Smug Mug. It contains essentially every feature you could want in a camera app. The camera section is very fast and has numerous settings. There are dozens of filters, textures, frames and the fun “Awesomizer” button for tweaking your captured image. Finally, it’s connected to the top photo sharing sites, including Facebook and Twitter. So many features packed into one creative app!

Dale Sanders (Production) – My favorite app is the flashlight app.  The app has different settings from standard flashlight to strobe light.

Jodi Caldwell (Marketing) – Zillow is a great tool if you are looking to buy or sell a home. It is not a site just for realtors to post on – anyone can list their home. While you are preparing your home for market, you can see photos of comparable homes to see what modifications you need to make for staging your home to be competitive. After you get your home set to sell, you can use Zillow to locate your future home without driving around or contacting a realtor to get a peak. You can simply view the photos of the house you are interested in and then decide if you want to take it to the next level of contact. The filter ability on Zillow is pretty sweet too. You can set a location for a certain neighborhood and set requirements from price range, bedroom/bathroom count, square footage and lot size.

Timmy Sanders (Production) – I would say my favorite app is the ESPN Radio app. I have a Blackberry, so this is possibly the only app I use. But I do use it every day to listen to all my sports news.  I love to keep up with all the latest sports news, and the app helps me do that.

Randy Barkley (Operations Director) – My favorite would be MyBizScan. It allows me to scan a business card and upload it to my contacts (at least in the paid version). Sometimes I have to clean up a file or add it to a different category, but overall, it’s a great time saver.

So, why is it that career fairs in college are so much more stimulating and interactive with numerous company representatives, individual attention and, of course, swag? Obviously, there is a level of recruiting at the college level geared toward graduating seniors entering the workforce, but there must be at least some value to reaching kids earlier than college. It works for athletic programs, why not academics?

Thankfully, our local Liberty High School was able to recognize the disconnect between assembly-style career fairs and the generally short attention span of high school students. In an effort to create a more engaging environment for their students, the LHS faculty and staff requested the presence of local businesses and community organizations at their recent career fair. Since Sealevel has a long-standing relationship with LHS and several of our employees are graduates from the school, we were more than happy to attend. In fact, there were a surprising number of local company representatives in attendance offering students the necessary variety required to peak their interest levels.

The students were dismissed from classes by grade levels for thirty-minute sessions and allowed to visit the various company displays, speak with representatives, ask questions, gather literature and collect swag. At the Sealevel booth, we handed out one-page flyers with a short description of our company, and we gave away t-shirts and pens with our company logo on them. Obviously, our swag made us a big hit with the students, but there was also lots of interest in learning more about Sealevel and what goes on there. Overall, I thought the event was successful and beneficial to both the students and the community businesses/organizations. Who knows, we may have just discovered the Lebron James of engineering for Sealevel before he/she even graduates high school.

Many people know Chuck for his music, but he’s also a dedicated conservationist and tree farmer. He co-founded the Mother Nature Network,  owns a 2,500-acre pine tree plantation in central Georgia and has written several books on sustainability and conservation. If you have a minute, I encourage you to watch this short video on tree farming that Chuck filmed during his visit to Sealevel.

Click here to read more about Chuck’s work at Charlane Plantation

Don’t forget to get tickets for the one-night only Chuck Leavell show at the Little Theater in Greenville, SC.  VIP seating is selling out fast, and we would love to see you there!

* If you’re looking for the connection to Betty White, click the first link!

Josh Can’t Live Without Kindle

I received a baseline Amazon Kindle for Christmas this past year. It doesn’t have any of the advertised bells and whistles, only a Wi-Fi feature so that I am able to easily download new books to my device. The Kindle is about the same size and weight as a thin paperback book, which is fantastic when you compare it to the size of a 1,000 page novel.

The two features I love most about it, though, are the e-ink screen and the availability of reading material. The e-ink screen is unlike any electronic device’s screen out there. It is slow to update, taking about as long as turning a page in a book, but it looks and feels just like you are reading a page from a book. There is no eye-strain from the screen because the screen is not a light source. It is also incredibly low-power, because aside from updating the screen, no power is used to maintain the image.  If the Wi-Fi is turned off, the battery, charged fully in a few hours with my micro-USB cell-phone charger, will last for weeks.

The availability of books has been one of my favorite features of the Kindle. I don’t have to go to the store, library, or a friend’s house to pick up a book I want to read. I simply search on Amazon.com or through the Kindle Store on my device, and buy or borrow the book I want. Seconds later, I have the book or novella downloaded to my Kindle ready for me to curl up under a blanket for an hour to wind down before going to sleep.

Todd’s go-to gadget? Chromebook.

The gadget I could not live without currently, because gadgets come and go, is my Chromebook. The Chromebook is less powerful, has fewer features, and costs less money than the traditional laptop or netbook. Even with less, it accomplishes everything I need it to do. Today people fight over which operating system is best (we all know Linux is the best), but those same people rarely use any feature other than the browser. That is why a Chromebook is so perfect. When you want to buy something on Amazon or look up a YouTube video while watching TV, nothing is easier than this gadget. The 8+ hour battery life is great as well. When compared to an iPad, the Chromebook has a larger screen, equivalent battery life and even includes a keyboard for hundreds less! It provides every function I need. That is why I couldn’t do without my Chromebook.

Tony’s Sticking with His Smart Phone

Everybody has a smart phone today and they are very useful.  I feel lost without one.  They definitely fill a need both for business and for pleasure.  Another gadget that I love is my smart body scale, by Withings.  This Wi-Fi connected scale not only measures your weight, it also captures and monitors your fat and lean mass.  It uses this data to automatically computer your body mass index (BMI) and provides that data through a free internet service to your mobile devices and your computer.  But there’s more…It manages this data for up to 8 people automatically recognizing each person just by stepping on the scale.  Users can choose to share or not share the data and graphs with others as well.

When watching TV, I am one of those annoying people – I even annoy myself some times when I can’t remember what channel to go back to – that changes channels at every advertisement to see what else is on. I’m always thinking there must be something more interesting than what I am watching.  A few weeks ago, we misplaced our remote control, and after many trips from the chair to the cable box to change channels, I finally decided just standing beside the cable box was much easier. This worked fine for a while but it didn’t take long before this got old. At that point, I decided that spending my time looking for the remote was a lot more useful than standing beside the cable box changing channels. I spent the rest of the evening looking for the remote without success. The next evening was basically a repeat of the previous one – still no luck finding the remote.  At this point, it became too much work to even try to watch TV, so I gave up.  After about two more similar evenings, I was ready to buy a universal remote when we found the remote buried under some papers on the desk in an adjoining room. It was probably me that left it there in the first place. I was now able to watch TV again! While I really don’t watch that much TV, it is now clear to me that without my trusty remote, the TV is pretty useless…which a lot of people would claim it is anyway even with a remote!

As USB charging has gained popularity, the 500mA minimum found on other USB 2.0 hubs has become insufficient for devices requiring higher charging rates. The HUB4PH ships with Port 1 configured as a Charging Downstream Port (CDP) capable of supplying up to 1.5A of current to the downstream device. CDP is USB Battery Charging Specification BC1.2 Compliant, perfect for charging batteries or powering high-current USB peripherals.

The remaining three ports are configured as Standard Downstream Ports (SDP) capable of supplying up to 500mA of current to the downstream device. The included power supply outputs 5VDC @ 4A and has a locking DC connector to prevent accidental removal of the power cable.

The HUB4PH integrates Sealevel’s SeaLATCH USB ports, which are fully compatible with standard USB cables. When used with the included USB cable with a SeaLATCH USB type B connector, the metal thumbscrew provides a secure connection to the device and prevents accidental cable disconnection. The hub’s four SeaLATCH USB Type A connectors can secure downstream USB peripherals to the hub in the same way.

The HUB4PH is also available in a board only (HUB4PH-OEM) version and an iPorthole design (HUB4PH-KT) suitable for mounting in customer applications.

Supported in Windows, Linux, and other USB aware operating systems, the hub requires no separate drivers and is easy to install. Simply provide power to the hub using the included power supply, plug the hub into an available USB port with the included cable, and the hub is automatically recognized. Standard operating temperature range is 0⁰C to 70⁰C and extended temperature range (-40⁰C to +85⁰C) is available. All products are in-stock and pricing begins at $159.00.