Over the last several months Vertigo has been working with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District on some key customer facing applications.

The new system Vertigo is helping to build will bring this 50+ year old paper process to the web.

There’s still a lot of work to do and Vertigo is proud to play an ongoing role in this important project.

Microsoft technology is a vital ingredient in the success of “The District” project. A Case Study was recently published describing how this system will improve the Application and Enforcement process. There’s a lot of cool info here including some interesting history.

This one is worth a read.

The 2010 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is being held this year in our Nation's Capital from July 11th through July 15th. This is our second proud year of building the DWPC website and supporting the event.

On the website you’ll find tons of information, news, and tools to support you while you're there. You'll also have easy access to scheduling, and networking tools to help you make the most of your day.

If you're not a morning person treat yourself to a front row seat of the Keynote, right from the comfort of you're room. The live Smooth Streaming of the daily Keynote can be found on the DWPC homepage and viewed via Vertigo’s Silverlight Smooth Streaming player. Vertigo is happy to be working closely with our partner iStreamPlanet to bring you this great online experience.

We hope you enjoy the event and get a chance to take in a museum or two.

Vertigo is focused on delivering the ultimate fan experience for NBC Universal. For Wimbledon, the live and on demand HD video player experience was expanded to include a video on demand content explorer, real-time schedules and sharing functionality via social media. And timing could not have been better, as this year marked the longest match in Wimbledon history, when Isner defeated Mahut 70-68 in the final set of the first round of the Men’s division.

Watch the replay of that historic match, or live coverage of the Finals July 3^rd and 4^th from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. EST here – http://bit.ly/WimbledonLive

Our CEO, Scott Stanfield, summed up our recent experience this way. “We are very pleased to be expanding our relationship with NBC to include other marquee sporting events, such as the US Open and Wimbledon, based on our experience with the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Wimbledon represents our first live sporting event outside of North America, and we look forward to partnering with NBC on more events this fall.”

Read the full press release here.

NBC Sports partnered with Vertigo to create an engaging online live and on-demand video experience for its coverage of the US Open. Once again, Vertigo has designed a unique experience that lets the audience watch these events in high definition on the Web while enjoying access to intuitive DVR controls and a full screen mode, along with in-stream advertising integration.

Vertigo is delivering this event via a Microsoft Silverlight-based online video player experience in true HD (720p) using adaptive streaming from Microsoft’s Internet Information Server Smooth Streaming Technology. Watch the US Open live now as Vertigo expands its sports coverage with NBC Sports.

Watch live here: http://usopen.nbcsports.com/Player.html

This weekend Vertigo is branching out and going camping! First stop – Portland. By way of our Portland office, Vertigo is teaming up with the Portland developer community to sponsor and lead sessions for Portland Code Camp 2010.

Our first session, Windows Phone 7 Tips & Tricks, led by Jesse Johnston, will focus on development techniques specific to Windows Phone 7 including Blend support for WP7, using WCF services, and solutions for resolving WP7 differences from the browser-based version of Silverlight.

Our second session, Reactive Extensions for Silverlight, led by Tim Greenfield, focuses on how to use reactive extensions (Rx) to help simplify events handling, asynchronous programming and managing multiple threads.

Not to be outdone, our fearless leader, Scott Stanfield, will be attending the Central Coast Code Camp this weekend and returning to his alma mater, Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

Vertigo is very proud to announce that our work on Sunday Night Football Extra for NBC Sports has been nominated for an Emmy!

The Sports Emmy® Awards recognize outstanding achievement in sports television coverage. For over a quarter century, the National Television Academy has presented the Emmy® as a reward for excellence in Sports broadcasting and as an incentive for its continued pursuit.

Vertigo will be joining the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference along with featured partners including Inlet technologies, mDialog, Omneon and Microsoft. Come visit us at the Inlet Technologies Booth SL929 to see our online video player in action, or learn more about our strategic partnership with these key providers here.

Next week, Vertigo is back in Vegas for the second time this year to take part in another key launch event for Microsoft. Our CEO, Scott Stanfield, is proud to participate in the launch of Silverlight 4 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 at the 2010 DevConnections conference on behalf of Vertigo. We also developed the online video player to provide live and video on demand coverage of the launch announcement, conference keynotes and sessions. Learn more about our full support for Silverlight 4.

You can watch the live event here: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/watch-it-live

Each year, Microsoft asks its employees to make a difference by giving back through its annual Giving Campaign. One component of the Giving Campaign is the auction site managed by Microsoft IT and redesigned with help from Vertigo. This year, Microsoft wanted to create a new experience that would enhance the visual design of the auction site, while leveraging the Windows Azure platform to enable the site to scale dynamically during peak traffic.

Vertigo worked with Microsoft to create the user experience and visual design using SketchFlow from Expression Blend 3. This approach expedited the design process and allowed for rapid development of initial prototypes. It also enabled both teams to simulate the user experience with simple animations for various user actions.  By using custom behaviors and triggers, the designers were then able to drag and drop components using the visual toolset in Blend 3 to create rich interactive experiences within the application.
Once the design and prototypes were completed, Vertigo built out the Silverlight 3 application, while Microsoft IT completed the backend development effort on Windows Azure (see case study). The site demonstrates some key Silverlight 3 features including Pixel Shaders and 3-D Effects, such as Perspective Transforms.

Since its launch, the site has been successful in helping Microsoft achieve their goals for the Giving Campaign and was recently referenced in Bob Muglia’s keynote address at the 2009 Professional Developers Conference.

Please check out these case studies for more information:

• Microsoft IT Moves Auction Tool to the Cloud, Makes it Easier for Employees to Donate
• SketchFlow Helps Deliver an Ambitious New Auction Tool - Meeting Tight Time and Budget Constraints

Don’t let the title scare you. This is a great overview of Deep Zoom using fantastic examples. This session hits the perfect level of geek.

At PDC09 Scott Stanfield kicks off the session with a demo of the NBC Olympics site and then Bill Crow takes you on tour. Bill put together a great presentation of how innovation and magic happens at Microsoft Live Labs.

Check it out here:

The Silverlight Media Framework (SMF) is part of the technology that made the Sunday Night Football experience possible and it can help you get a jump on your next Silverlight streaming project.

The Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework helps developers build Silverlight applications that deliver next generation video content using IIS Smooth Streaming.

You can find more information regarding the Smooth Streaming Player Developer Kit and the Silverlight Media Framework on CodePlex.

At the bottom of this news post you’ll also find some helpful How-To Videos that we created for the project.

Player Elements

Play / pause

Rewind

Fast forward

Replay

Slow motion

Next chapter marker

Previous chapter marker

Timeline Scrubber

Current position / total position

Go to live

Bitrate meter

Volume

Full screen / restore

Advanced Features

Brand your player - Use Blend to re-invent how users experience your content!

Emphasize defining moments by embedding Markers in your Timeline.

Communicate and respond to bandwidth utilization by using the Bitrate element.

Integrate external data sources using the Data framework.

Deliver differentiated Live and On-Demand experiences.

How-To Videos

Embedding The Video Player
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Embedding-Video-Player/
Styling And Templating The Video Player
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Styling-Templating-Video-Player/
Extending The Video Player
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Extending-Video-Player/
Out Of Stream Data Access
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Out-Of-Stream-Data-Access/
Using Application Settings
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Using-Application-Settings/
Creating Custom Timeline Markers
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Creating-Custom-Timeline-Markers/
Building A Custom Bitrate Meter
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Building-Custom-Bitrate-Meter/
Using SMF Logging
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Using-SMF-Logging/
Live Mode vs. VOD
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Live-Mode-vs-VOD/
Hosting VOD using IIS Media Services
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/Silverlight-Media-Framework/Hosting-VOD-using-IIS-Media-Services/]]>http://www.vertigo.com/News.aspxTue, 17 Nov 2009 23:10:55 GMTvertigonews

Vertigo has been doing some cool things with Take Comics. Stay tuned and keep an eye Scott Stanfield’s blog.

While you’re waiting you can find out how Take Comics leveraged Microsoft’s BizSpark program on Microsoft’s PressPass.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/nov09/11-17pdcbizspark.mspx

Today, Vertigo launched the Silverlight Live Smooth Streaming Player for the 2009 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC09 <www.microsoftpdc.com>). The keynotes will be streamed live in HD at 720p from 8:30am to 10am PT on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 18 and 19^th. Vertigo also capitalized on our experience with live events, player design, social media and data integration to provide a live Twitter feed, conference schedule and news. Microsoft Channel 9 will also be streaming content live throughout the conference.

To learn more, visit PDC09 (link) or check out the blog <http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/scott/Blog/archive/2009/11/16/vertigo-at-pdc09.aspx> of our CEO, Scott Stanfield.

Check out the Tweet traffic too!

The SIlverlight player made by Vertigo is really cool, Great picture quality in Switzerland ;)

PDC09 keynote smooth streaming is insanely good fwd'ing rewinding stream position is instant. Awesome!

PHX free wi-fi is awesome...streaming the PDC keynote great with nice clarity. Shows how good IIS smooth streaming is.

Watching the PDC Keynote from home with Silverlight and Smooth Streaming in HD, super impressive and awesome quality!

Watching #pdc09 keynote on my macbook, the quality is fabulous. Silverlight smooth streaming rocks.

Back in September Hard Rock International launched it’s new cafe on the Las Vegas Strip.

As part of the Hard Rock grand opening Microsoft interviewed the folks responsible for bringing the Surface to Hard Rock. That’s Vertigo and our friends at Duncan/Channon.

Vertigo’s Surface mastermind, Paul Osburn, is also interviewed and he provides some nice insight into the development and design of the project.

Check it out.

We’re scaling out with a full-service Portland office packed with creative Oregonians. The new office will help Vertigo meet the overwhelming demand for our web, mobile, and multi-touch design and development services. We're proud to be a part of the thriving Pacific Northwest community of designers and developers.

If you'd like to be among the first to celebrate with us, Vertigo CEO Scott Stanfield will be the keynote speaker at the first Portland Silverlight User Group meeting (http://www.portlandsilverlight.net/) on December 8.

Scott will discuss how Vertigo uses Silverlight, Blend, SketchFlow and a handful of development techniques (“Blendability”, MVVM and View State Manager) to enable our design and development teams to move quickly and build great apps like the Winter Olympics, Sunday Night Football, and Hard Rock International.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, or just plain curious please join us. More event details to follow soon.

If you’d like to join our Portland team please email Jobs-Portland@Vertigo.com.

]]>http://www.vertigo.com/News.aspxMon, 09 Nov 2009 16:28:45 GMTvertigonews

iStreamPlanet and Vertigo formalize partnership to provide all inclusive, best in class, rich media services to their clients. This partnership combines the creative force of two award winning companies to deliver On Demand HD and End-to End HD Managed Services. Vertigo’s 13 years of experience as a premiere design and development firm, combined with iStreamPlanet’s high profile events with worldwide reach, make a winning combination.

]]>http://www.vertigo.com/News.aspxFri, 06 Nov 2009 17:25:00 GMTvertigonews

Scott Stanfield, Vertigo CEO, will share our experience building the official Silverlight Media Player for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The event is NewTeeVee Live and will be held at the Mission Bay Conference Center on November 12, 2009.

Here’s a short blurb from NewTeeVeeLive that describes what to expect.

2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, Online

For the first time, every sport venue will be covered live, in stunning HD. NBC Universal is making highlights and full event rewinds available on demand during the games. And as of last week, viewers can access clips for Torino and upcoming athlete spotlights. The video and still photo gallery experience was built by Vertigo, Scott’s company. He’ll give us a quick tour of the highlights and let us know what to expect when the games begin, February 12, 2010.

The talk will begin around 12 Noon. Exact times and room number to follow.

Vertigo is proud to be recognized as a Microsoft™ Surface™ Strategic Partner, the highest level of the partner program.

We’re off to a great start with customers like Hard Rock Cafe International on the Las Vegas Strip. Hard Rock has several Surface machines installed where you can see our apps.

Next time you’re in Vegas, take one for a a spin.

Tonight is the first game of the 2009 NFL season matching up last year’s Super Bowl contenders: The Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans!

And now you can watch the game in High Definition with the NBC Sport’s Sunday Night Football Extra live HD Silverlight video experience. Vertigo created the player in collaboration with NBC Sports and Microsoft to bring the action of the game to viewers in HD by using Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming Technology in a highly interactive experience filled with features you won’t find on TV.

You can watch all of the action live at http://snfextra.nbcsports.com.

The SNF Extra application is packed with features for football goodness:

• HD Quality video (watch in full screen mode to enjoy a 3.45 Mbps HD feed at 720p)
• Watch the game at every angle with 5 different camera angles
• Uses Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming to provide adaptive streaming to provide the best experience based on your computer and internet connection
• DVR style controls put you in the driver’s seat to control the game
• Interactive Timeline letting you jump to key plays instantly
• Live interactive Q&A with NBC’s Mike Florio
• All the Stats you need to analyze the game
• Highlight clips for the game’s biggest plays

We’ve already started to see some press on SNF Extra player from NBC Sports, Contentinople, and Streaming Media. Microsoft has a nice blog post on MSDN.

Make sure to check out the SNF Extra player tonight and every Sunday night during the season!

It all started with the award winning Hard Rock Memorabilia website. This site provided an up-close-and-personal view of Hard Rock’s memorabilia collection without having to travel. The site now features 1,100 priceless pieces of rock history and will continue to grow by the thousands.

Vertigo recently helped our friends, the cool kids at Duncan/Channon, create three new interfaces for Hard Rock. These new applications break free of the web and show up on the Las Vegas Strip. The new Hard Rock Cafe boasts 38 booths with touch based interfaces and several Microsoft Surface machines, the multi-touch, multi-user, interactive tabletop.

Guests can browse memorabilia from around the world, check out merchandise from the famous Rock Shop, and vote on what upcoming music video should play next.

Need a reason to visit Vegas? Glad we could help. Can’t make it? Check out these videos and pics.

]]>http://www.vertigo.com/News.aspxThu, 20 Aug 2009 11:15:26 GMTvertigonews

To support Mad Men, the top award winning drama this fall season, AMC is sponsoring a special 1960's-only run of PlayboyArchive.com.

Vertigo built the magazine platform for Bondi Digital Publishing which launched at Mix09 last March.

The platform continues to evolve and now supports even more sophisticated full text search through the use of FAST technology.

We’re in New Orleans this week with thousands of other Microsoft Partners, trying to keep it cool. The one thing this muggy heat teaches you, is how to stroll.

A stroll is a welcome relief to the pace we’ve been keeping to get here.

We have three projects that came together for the conference, and every one of them was mentioned in a keynote. Here are two of them. Stay tuned for news on the third.

www.digitalwpc.com | http://hub.digitalwpc.com

Vertigo is proud to launch the Microsoft Digital WPC2009 website. The Big Easy will host this year’s event, so prepare yourself, there is no way to avoid mixing business with fun in this city.

Come join us July 13th – 16th.  I’m in no way advocating this, but you might think about packing your spare liver and some energy drink. Stay tuned for updates.

Vertigo continues to innovate and improve http://memorabilia.hardrock.com with our partners at Duncan/Channon, and it’s paying off.

It’s not first place, but heck, being in the top 15 out of nearly 10,000 entries worldwide - ain’t too shabby.

Not bad by itself, but the Hard Rock Memo Site actually made it to the top 15 in two separate categories. Totally brag-able.

Best Use of Photography and Music.

This is our second year at NAB, the premiere event for content professionals, now in its 80th year.

This year we’re demonstrating our work with MTV Networks.

Vertigo has redesigned the MTV Archive Library Information Access System (ALIAS), using Silverlight. Our design provides significant improvements in performance, features, user experience, and workflow. The system tracks more than 2 million archived assets and serves all of MTV Networks’ diverse brands.

Vertigo and MTV were included in a Microsoft press release that provides more detail. You can view it here.

Update: A more detailed Microsoft Case Study is now available. Please check it out here.