Authoritative, comprehensive, up-to-the-minute reporting direct from Vertigo.
26 August 2008

Mojave Magic

Mojave. It sounds like a magic word, but it's really an experiment.

The Mojave Experiment: What do people think of Windows Vista when they don't know it's Windows Vista? Microsoft disguised Windows Vista as the next Microsoft OS, codenamed "Mojave", so regular people who've never used Windows Vista could see what it can do – and then decide for themselves.

Microsoft asked Vertigo to create a new Silverlight experience for the Mojave Experiment Website.

Vertigo answered this challenge by creating an unprecedented experience we fondly call, "The Cloud". The solution is a magical mix of high quality 320x240 video, 3D effects, Silverlight Deep Zoom, and Vertigo's BigPicture™ technology.

Magic isn't easy. Magic is actually, a lot of hard work.

Experience video on the web in a way you've never seen before. Buckle up, then pan and zoom your way through Vertigo's Video Cloud.

25 August 2008

Live from Denver, it's Silverlight! And our next President?

Today, Monday August 25th, marked the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Barak Obama will accept the Democratic nomination on Thursday, live from Invesco Field.

You can follow all of this live, and in HD courtesy of Microsoft, MOVE, Level 3, Verizon and Vertigo. Follow the video links from http://www.demconvention.com to install our Silverlight app and the MOVE player.

Or better yet, go direct: http://gallery.demconvention.com.

It's quite an amazing feat. We have over 150 Gbps of bandwidth allocated, plenty enough to give you a great experience.

We are also tracking the number of Silverlight downloads and are hoping for some impressive numbers. I also hope to see some Nielson rating numbers that rival broadcast TV. And since this one is not blocked outside of the US, everyone should be able to enjoy (our crazy) democratic process.

We have half a dozen Vertigo folks at the DNC managing the Internet broadcast. I understand it's been quite crazy there.

More links:
An early note on our website (http://vertigo.com/news)
The official provider list (http://www.demconvention.com/official-providers/)

What a week for Silverlight. First the Olympics, now the Democratic National Convention, and yes, there's more to follow...

14 August 2008

Stay Tuned: Vertigo Creates Silverlight 2 Live HD-quality video Application for the DNCC

Vertigo is named the Official Microsoft Silverlight Application Development Services Provider for the 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC).

Vertigo is creating a Microsoft Silverlight 2 application that will stream HD-quality video, live and on demand from the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which takes place on August 25 to 28 in Denver, CO.

The immersive user experience Vertigo is creating provides viewers an unprecedented opportunity to experience live convention events, remotely. Missed a live event? Viewers can go back in time and view recorded, on-demand video, from a searchable video archive.

Stay tuned and we'll let you know when the Silverlight 2 application launches.

For more information, read the DNCC's press release or visit the DNCC. You can also read about the DNCC's use of Silverlight in a recent CIO article and a ChannelWeb article.

21 July 2008

Scott Stanfield @ Bay.NET 7-23

Who says in life you don't get second chances. If you missed it the first time, Scott's back to present Silverlight: Deep Zoom Deep Dive at Bay.NET.

The Bay.NET User Group is a great place to see technology you care about. Unlike large conferences, you have a more intimate environment where you can ask questions, be heard, and carry on real discussions.

Silverlight: Deep Zoom Deep Dive
When: Wednesday, 7/23/2008 at 6:30 PM
Where: Foothill College Campus - 12345 El Monte Rd. Room 5501, Los Altos Hills, CA 94043

Event Description
Put your 10M pixel images to work on the web with the best new feature in Silverlight 2: Deep Zoom. The technology behind Hard Rock Memorabilia can be used on your site with little effort. I'll cover how Deep Zoom does its magic, the new Deep Zoom Explorer and code to make the experience better.

You can find more information and register on the Bay.NET User Group website.

16 July 2008

Vertigo Designer-Developer Collaboration

Microsoft interviewed Vertigo to find out how we use tools to collaborate and streamline our development process.

Collaboration is a theme that spans Vertigo's history of success. We've always understood the importance of continuously improving the way we work with each other, and how we work with our clients.

To improve project management and our customer relationships, we adopted SCRUM. When WPF and Silverlight came along, we adopted the Microsoft® Expression® suite of tools. Now our Design Practice and Engineering Practice speak the same language.

Collaboration and process is a huge topic, but this Microsoft "Designer-Developer Collaboration Case Study" provides a nice snapshot of how important the Microsoft Dev tools are to Vertigo's process.

18 June 2008

Hard Rock: Party in the Street

The Wall Street Journal covers Deep Zoom in Talking Tech. This article features the Hard Rock Memorabilia site as the prime example of what's possible with Microsoft's Deep Zoom technology. Deep Zoom, with the help of Vertigo's BigPicture™ technology, transforms a web site, into a Hard Rock experience.

17 June 2008

Scott Stanfield @ Bay.NET 6-18

The Bay.NET User Group is a great place to see technology you care about. Unlike large conferences, you have a more intimate environment where you can ask questions, be heard, and carry on real discussions.

Silverlight: Deep Zoom Deep Dive
When: Wednesday, 6/18/2008 at 6:30 PM
Where: Microsoft San Francisco Office, 835 Market Street, Suite 700, San Francisco

Event Description
Put your 10M pixel images to work on the web with the best new feature in Silverlight 2: Deep Zoom. The technology behind Hard Rock Memorabilia (http://memo.hardrock.com) can be used on your site with little effort. I'll cover how Deep Zoom does its magic, the new Deep Zoom Explorer and code to make the experience better.

You can find more information and register on the Bay.NET User Group website.

11 June 2008

Hard Rock: Yields Gold

Vertigo's work with Hard Rock, in partnership with our comrades at Duncan/Channon, will be honored at this year's Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston Texas.

We won Web Development Partner of the Year, which as a Gold Partner is certainly better than a Major Award.

 

 

11 June 2008

Scott Stanfield on .NET Rocks!

Scott Stanfield talks about Deep Zoom, PhotoSynth, his Mix keynote, and all the cool toys he gets to play with. Take good notes and then create your Deep Zoom app. Lots of download options here.

 

03 June 2008

Vertigo Tech•Ed Lineup

Vertigo is racking up road time this year and we're at it again. Scott Stanfield, Mike Hanley, and Petar Vucetin can be found roaming the halls of Tech·Ed North America 2008.

Look for their sessions:

Deep Zoom Deep Dive - Using Deep Zoom in Your Microsoft Silverlight Applications
Thursday, 8:30am, Room S230 A
Presented by Scott Stanfield and Mike Hanley

Come see how Deep Zoom was used to turn the world's best collection of rock-and-roll memorabilia into a unique Web experience. This session covers how this new Microsoft Silverlight 2 feature makes it possible to efficiently browse and zoom images, and how to create 200M pixel images. Learn how to tune Deep Zoom performance, particularly with thousands of image tiles comprising gigabytes of content, how to address design and UI challenges related to accessing an infinite canvas, and much more.

Microsoft Silverlight Moving Pictures at 24 Frames per Second with Video.Show and Slide.Show
Thursday, 2:45pm, Room S220 A
Presented by Scott Stanfield

Ever wanted your own Flickr and YouTube in Silverlight? Vertigo published two Silverlight JavaScript samples for Microsoft on CodePlex. This session demos both with tips and tricks on using video and static images in your Silverlight application. Video.Show supports any user-uploaded video format, with viewer comments synchronized to the playback window. The files are batched, converted on the server Media Encoder, then sent over to Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live via REST. Slide.Show is a fast slideshow component with over 300 knobs you can tweak. It demonstrates a clean, object-orientated JavaScript approach to building reusable Silverlight unmanaged controls. It's also on CodePlex so you can add your own star wipe.

Building Secure Web Services Using Windows Communication Foundation
Friday, 4:30pm, Room S320 A
Presented by Petar Vucetin

Securing messages between clients and services is essential to protecting data. The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) provides a versatile and interoperable platform for exchanging secure messages based upon both the existing security infrastructure and the recognized security standards for SOAP messages. In this session learn how to use WCF for transfer security and access control using familiar technologies such as HTTPS, Windows integrated security, X.509 certificates, SAML, and usernames and passwords, and also new technologies such as Windows CardSpace. This session also discusses how to extend WCF security to support custom security tokens, custom authentication methods, claims-based authorization, claims transformation, and custom principals.

28 May 2008

Vertigo Launches PDC2008 Site

This year's PDC site is live,live,live and ready for registration. We're proud of the Vertigo crew that pulled it together so quickly. Thanks!

As of this writing the PDC countdown timer says…we'll see you there in 151 Days, 11 Hours, and 53 Minutes. Sounds like a lot of time to procrastinate, but don't.

Register now and you can save $200 for some LA Party money.

You can find more information on Mike Swanson's blog.

 

28 May 2008

Silverlight Mobile with a Tasty Spin

Vertigo built a yummy game that you'll love. Actually more than a game; it's a sample of how to make advertising fun, and worth sharing with friends. The game demonstrated the potential of Silverlight Mobile to the advertising crowd in attendance at advance08 (aka: The Advertising Leadership Forum).

You can see a clip and get more information on Jeremy Cath's blog, the OffBeatMammal.

Doritos: Fight for the Flavor. Writing this is really, seriously, making me hungry. PS> Look for our old friend Clippy.

10 May 2008

Hard Rock Memorabilia: Re-Wired not Tired

Wired Mag's Blog, Listening Post got right to the point with this entry. Rock and Roll history (along with some good burgers) made Hard Rock cool. The Memorabilia site that Vertigo and Duncan/Channon created is all about sharing that vast collection of history with Rock and Roll fans, not just Hard Rock customers. That already makes Hard Rock cool again in my book.

I hope to see Hard Rock continue to expand its online collection, using more Deep Zoom. Everyone should be able to experience this stuff at nose distance.

 

05 May 2008

Vertigo Presents @ ReMIX08 Keynote

Vertigo was honored to be a part of Scott Guthrie's Keynote at this year's Silicon Valley ReMIX. Scott Stanfield, Vertigo's CEO, showed off the Hard Rock Memorabilia site using Deep Zoom. Vertigo created the site in partnership with our pals at Duncan/Channon.

 

05 May 2008

Vertigo at NAB Las Vegas

Microsoft asked Vertigo to attend NAB, the Broadcasting event of the year. Vertigo showed off its collection of Silverlight 2 apps, including the Hard Rock Memorabilia site, which we developed with our partners at Duncan/Channon.

 

08 April 2008

The Seat of Capitalism and Capital of Spin

Washington DC hosts the 2008 IAA World Congress.

Scott Stanfield, Vertigo's CEO, demonstrated the benefits of Silverlight to the international community of advertising executives attending this year's event.

Microsoft asked Scott to show off the work we did with Duncan/Channon and Hard Rock as a fantastic example of Silverlight's creative potential.

Using Silverlight's Deep Zoom Technology allowed Vertigo and Hard Rock to give the world up-close and personal access to its ginormous collection of Rock and Roll history.

21 March 2008

MIX08 Show Off’s

Vertigo's own Paul Osburn and Liam Molloy are no showoffs; however they do fantastic work, worthy of bragging. They both entered apps in the Mix08 "Show Off" competition this year, and out of all the entries, they made the cut.

Paul entered: "40 – My Life in Silverlight 2"

Liam entered: "Dragon's Lair"

If you're interested you can view the top 5 entries here on Mike Swanson's blog.


 

18 March 2008

The Hard Rock “Buzz Tour”

The entire Vertigo crew worked extremely hard to get to Mix this year, even the simple roadies like me. Once there, many didn't see daylight (or sleep) for a week. But it was a huge success and worth it.

"With a little help from our friends", here's a raw and unapologetic tour of the Hard Rock / Vertigo Buzz that was found.

TechCrunch

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/05/seadragon-in-silverlight-the-coolest-bit-from-mix-keynote-one

CNET – News.com

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9886559-56.html

The Flash Blog

http://theflashblog.com/?p=351

Microsoft Press Pass

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/mar08/03-05HardRock.mspx

Blogs

29 February 2008

Scott Stanfield Speaking at MIX08

Don't miss Scott Stanfield's (our CEO) super secret "blacklisted" session at the Microsoft MIX08 conference at the Venetian in Las Vegas. All we can say is that it is going to be awesome. Fortunately, we've been able to secure a few key details:

22 February 2008

The Signal Episode 11: Scott Stanfield and Guitar Grease

Scott Stanfield, Vertigo's CEO, was recently interviewed by Thomas Lewis and Mike Swanson on the Signal. Scott gives a semi-authorized peek behind the scenes of Vertigo and Mix 08.

It's packed full of good stuff…here's a list of topics that I noted in the first 10 minutes of the show. Maybe ADD should have been added to the list.

  • Vertigo
  • Geek toys
  • Mix 08
  • Tactical Bags
  • Velcro
  • Kindle (iPod for books)
  • Insomnia
  • Post Singularity
  • Respect my time with a MacBook Air
  • Atari
  • UX
  • New Acronym– WYNWYNI

Check out the last 26 minutes, 34 seconds here.

22 February 2008

Vertigo at SD West 2008

Vertigo is contributing two sessions to the "must see" SD West 2008 line-up. Dave Britton and Petar Vucetin from Vertigo will present on two technologies that we think you'll definitely want to know more about, Silverlight and LINQ.

Petar Vucetin: LINQ for ASP.NET Developers

Time to let go of ADO.NET (finally!) and embrace the unbridled power of LINQ. Seriously, if you've been building ASP.NET sites using classic ADO.NET, there's a whole new world to learn with LINQ. You can query and update databases, call stored procedures and execute joins, all without leaving the comfort of VB.NET or C#. This is a great session if you're new to LINQ but have experience with databases or if you just want to see some cool technology with lots of demos.

Dave Britton: Arcade Games with Silverlight

After "Hello World" in Silverlight, you need a more interesting challenge in which to test your Silverlight skills. That's why at Vertigo we set out to remake our favorite arcade games in this new (and sometimes difficult) technology: Asteroids, Pong and Dragonslayer. This course will show these and other games, dig into the code and discuss how they're built.

15 February 2008

Vertigo Design?

We were recently invited to join the Microsoft Mercury Program. It's an invitation only program for influential agencies around the world who are using Silverlight and WPF as tools for building creative products. The program offers its members a chance to influence the technology and inspire others to take advantage of these exciting tools.

Being invited to join the program got me thinking. I realized that our customers know something that other folks may not.

Vertigo has had a dedicated UX and Design Practice for 9 + years. We saw the value in combining good design with technology right from the start. I'll be honest though, in the beginning (pre .NET days), our customers had to be convinced that it was worth paying for. Nowadays customers know the value. Our design practice is hard at work, and in growing demand.

At Vertigo, our Engineering and Design/UX practices equally share the credit for our customer's success.

12 February 2008

Video.Show Leaves the Nest

They grow up so darn fast! After a couple of preview releases, Video.Show 1.0 has shipped and is a blueprint quality reference. Best of all, you get it free with just a click.

Video.Show provides everything you need to create a website for uploading, encoding, cataloguing, publishing and commenting on videos, using Silverlight, Expression Encoder and Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.

I could say more, but why bother when Tim Sneath says it best. You might be interested in Video.Show if…..

01 February 2008

Slide.Awesome

I'm sure you've seen those mint condition Comics, being  carried around in 3 mil, Mylar sleeves.

But, have you seen Comics wrapped up and delivered in Silverlight?

 The "Heroes Happen Here" crew (which we just created a Silverlight banner app for) used Vertigo's Slide.Show as a Comic Book viewer.

Wish I had thought of that.

Comic

28 January 2008

Slide.Show Climbs the Charts

Vertigo closed out '07 with some big Silverlight releases, including Slide.Show.

Like proud parents do, we like to follow the progress of our creations, so we decided to check in on Slide.Show. It's thriving! Here's the proof.

Even more exciting news coming soon, to the .Show family. Stay tuned