Tightrope Media Systems

Fall '09 Channel Designs Now Available!

2009-11-06T11:35:14-06:00

Fall '09 Collection

New to the Store this season:

Clean click for details

Fresh click for details

Opera click for details

Modern Lobby click for details

Examples of icons and templates included with every channel

Tightrope Appoints Eric Henry as CEO and Jim Morical as Chief Business Development Officer

2009-10-16T11:11:11-05:00

JJ and I are happy to formally announce that Eric Henry and Jim Morical from the audio visual manufacturers representation firm Kodo James have joined Tightrope Media Systems as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO), respectively.

Eric and Jim, through Kodo James, have represented Tightrope Media Systems in the upper Midwest for the past eight years. They are both very familiar with Tightrope’s products and did a fantastic job representing Tightrope within their territory. We are very excited about the two of them joining Tightrope as it allows us to employ their services full-time in these very key roles while at the same time freeing JJ and I up to follow our true passion; developing and building great products. JJ can finally focus on being the Chief Technical Officer and leading the development of Carousel, Cablecast and Zeplay. I have been tagged as the Chief Visionary Officer, a role in which I can ensure that the features required to cement our leadership in the marketplace continue to make their way into our products.

Prior to partnering with Jim at Kodo James, Eric spent 6 years at American Express where he gained valuable experience in a professional environment with exposure to the decision makers of a top Fortune 500 company. He has a strong passion for the audiovisual marketplace honed through five years building and managing the business at Kodo James. His experience representing Tightrope Media Systems to dealers and end-users provides valuable insight that will help Tightrope during this period of active growth, and will also provide Tightrope with hands-on leadership as we build the company going forward. Eric Henry graduated with a degree in Business, Accounting and Finance from Bethel University in St. Paul.

Jim was the Vice President and Director of Education Sales at a local AV integration company for 14+ years before starting Kodo James, where he and Eric represented 20 manufacturers for the past 6 years. At Kodo James, Jim was personally involved in the sale and deployment of hundreds of digital signage systems using Tightrope Media Systems products. His understanding of the needs of the audiovisual marketplace, and his thorough knowledge of digital signage and its various uses, will help ensure Tightrope’s growth. As CBDO, Jim will focus on developing partnerships, vertical markets, and growth internationally. Jim Morical attended the University of Minnesota where he earned his degree in Speech Communications with an emphasis in broadcasting

This is a very important milestone in Tightrope’s growth, and one that we are sure will help the company as we continue to expand in the markets that we serve.

Best regards,
Andrew Starks
Co-founder, Tightrope Media Systems

Summer '09 Pre-Configured Channels for Carousel Now Available

2009-07-14T15:52:54-05:00

Summer '09 Collection

We're so excited about our new channel designs, we want everyone to have one! All pre-made channels are now available for just $200. That means you can be up and running with a beautiful new Carousel channel in no time. Each of our pre-configured channels are JAM-PACKED with a channel layout, a themed background, and TONS of new templates that were created exclusively for our Creative channels.

New to the Store this season:

Business Casual click for details

Executive click for details

Foyer click for details

Dossier click for details

Convention click for details

Examples of icons and templates included with every channel

Announcing Carousel 5.2.6: New Weather!

2009-06-30T15:54:57-05:00

Carousel 5.2.6 has been officially released!

To those of you who have been patiently waiting for your weather bulletins and crawls to update, your wait is over! Carousel now retrieves weather data via WeatherBug rather than the National Weather Service FTP site. Gone are the days of battling the firewall to open the FTP ports, as access to firewall-friendly HTTP port 80 is the only requirement.

We tried to keep the user-interface changes as minimal as possible, so if you knew how to use weather bulletins before, you know how to use them now. The only big difference is that you now use a ZIP code instead of selecting your State and County. We'll automatically find the closest WeatherBug station to your location and use it as your weather data source.

Weather crawls have another bigger change, namely that you can now specify the exact format of your weather crawl. The Carousel manual has been updated accordingly, so check it out.

Finally, the number of data fields you have access to has increased dramatically. Here is a partial list of the available data fields:

#City# = Saint Paul
#Country# = USA
#Currently# = Cloudy
#DewPoint# = 51
#ElevationFullString# = 922ft
#GustWindFullString# = 27mph NNW at 8:01 AM
#HumidityFullString# = 66%
#PressureFullString# = 29.71"
#RainMonth# = 2.32
#RainYear# = 5.58
#State# = MN
#TemperatureFullString# = 63°F
#WindFullString# = 3mph NNW
#outlook# = Tuesday: Mostly cloudy. Scattered sprinkles. Highs 65 to 70. Northwest winds around 15 mph. Wednesday: Partly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Highs around 75. North winds around 10 mph. Thursday: Mostly sunny. Highs around 80. North winds 5 mph.

We've been working incredibly hard on this, and we sincerely thank everyone for their patience while it was under development.

To request this update, please email our support team at support@trms.com. In your email, please include:

Your name and organization
Your current version of Carousel (How do I know what version I have?)
If you haven't yet filled out a customer registration form, please head over to http://www.trms.com/registration and fill one out.

To see the full release notes for this version, please see our forum post.

Thanks!

Announcing Carousel 5.2.5

2009-06-04T12:58:13-05:00

Today we’re excited to announce the release of Carousel 5.2.5!

This release contains several usability and stability improvements. Specifically, touching on the Clone Tool, Interactive, Display Engine, and the updating of RSS, web picture and clock bulletins. Check out the release notes for the nitty-gritty.

To request this update, please email our support team at support@trms.com. In your email, please include:

Your name and organization
Your current version of Carousel (How do I know what version I have?)
If you haven't yet filled out a customer registration form, please head over to http://www.trms.com/registration and fill one out.

To see the full release notes for this version, please see our forum post.

Thanks!

New Cablecast Release: 4.8.3

2009-05-11T12:29:47-05:00

Today we're happy to announce the release of Cablecast 4.8.3.

A few highlights:

The SX and VOD servers are better about memory and thread management, particularly when there are a lot of shows to transcode to VOD.
Projects area of WebUI now works again.
Various minor fixes to web service, X-list, public site, and block copy

You can find the full release notes on our forum.

As always, to request this update, please email our support team at support@trms.com. In your email, please include the following items:

Your name and organization.
Your current version of Cablecast.
If you haven't yet filled out a customer registration form, please head over to http://www.trms.com/registration and fill one out.

TRMS at MinneDemo

2009-05-04T10:56:22-05:00

Join the TRMS development team for a night of cool tech and free beer at MinneDemo, the Twin Cities' premier technology demo and networking event, this Thursday, May 7th at 7pm.

We'll be one of the ten presenters this time around, and we'll be giving a demonstration of Zeplay (PDF), our new instant replay video server for live sports events. We're really proud of this product, and can't wait to see what the tech community in Minnesota thinks!

We'll also be showing off some Carousel Digital Signage in the main lobby areas, featuring presenter spotlights, event sponsors, and the schedule for the evening. Thanks to our our outstanding TRMS Creative department for providing the beautiful channel design.

Important info:

Date: Thursday, May 7
Time: Demos start at 7pm, networking before and after.
Location: Intermedia Arts 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408 (map)
Attendees: All are welcome! Please RSVP

As of this posting, there are only 74 (free) tickets remaining, so sign up now before the event sells out! RSVP at http://minnedemo.eventbrite.com/

We'd love to see you there!

Tightrope Training, May 20th, in Burlington, VT

2009-04-27T16:04:15-05:00

Tightrope Media Systems has scheduled a day of training in Burlington Vermont, for the day immediately prior to the ACM Northeast Conference. The conference is on May 21 and 22 in Burlington, and Tightrope Training will be held on Wednesday, May 20th, starting at 9AM at the Hilton Burlington Hotel.

We will hold advanced training from 9AM to 3PM, and general training from 3PM to 5PM. The general training session is suitable for new owners of Cablecast systems as well as for those who are evaluating Cablecast systems. Advanced training will cover such topics as exporting QuickTime and H.264 files to play back on Cablecast SX servers, integrating VOD and streaming into your Cablecast automation system, block copy, using zones in Carousel, etc. For the advanced training, feel free to suggest topics that you'd like to see covered.

In order to help defray the costs of the advanced training, there will be a registration fee of $25. The registration fee will help defray the cost of lunch and coffee breaks, which will be provided by us. There is no registration fee for the beginning training that starts at 3PM.

To register, for additional information, or to suggest advanced training topics, please use this signup form.

And if you are going to Burlington for Advanced Tightrope Training, and you are not registered for the ACM Northeast regional conference, please visit the Alliance for Community Media Northeast web site or download the conference brochure(PDF) and see what they have to offer. It looks like a great conference.

We hope to see you there!

Spring '09 Channels from Tightrope Creative

2009-04-02T09:27:46-05:00

Tightrope Creative has added 5 new channel designs to the online store. "Boardroom", "Clinic" and "Scholastic", all 16x9 horizontal channels, are designed for corporations / organizations, medical facilities and school systems, respectively. Organizations in community media will enjoy a new channel, "Wave", which has been created in the 4x3 aspect ratio, and is ideal for displaying schedule data and community announcements. Lastly, a new vertically oriented channel, "Plaza", was designed with malls and shopping plazas in mind.

Visit the store to view the new Spring '09 catalog.

Boardroom

Clinic

Scholastic

Wave

Plaza

New Cablecast 4.8 Guide

2009-02-16T14:13:41-06:00

The user manual for Cablecast has been recently updated! Weighing in at 317 pages, Cablecast: The Manual includes all of the information needed to get the most out of your Cablecast system, including:

Theory on how Cablecast works
Suggestions for how Cablecast can integrate with your work flow
Planning and executing the setup of a Cablecast system
Using the basics of Cablecast
Using Cablecast's reporting and X-List features
VOD and SX-LIVE setup
much, much more!

Even if you have used Cablecast for years, you'll want to download a copy of this guide! You are sure to find something that will make your work even easier!

To get your copy, simply visit: www.trms.com/community/documentation