by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 23, 2017
HardwareCon, March 2017 – HardwareCon, the 2-day conference devoted to helping hardware startup founders & CEOs take their startup to the next level takes place this Friday and Saturday March 24th-25th at the Zero Net Energy Center in San Leandro, CA. In it’s third year, the show boasts a packed agenda filled with keynotes from Mark Hindsbo the CMO of ANSYS, who will be presenting their new innovative simulation tool for digitizing hardware prototyping and a fireside chat with Euan Thomson the Head of Johnson & Johnson’s medical device team who will discuss how large corporations and startups can work together to advance innovation.
Hardware entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to meet & learn from industry veterans and have their toughest business & engineering questions answered during one of their many breakout sessions. Some panels will focus on how to optimize your manufacturing for scale, how to create a defensible hardware product using software & data and online and brick & mortar retail strategies for consumer product businesses. Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn from our panel of thought leaders around the world about what is happening in their local hardware communities including the the surge of interest in hardware from their local governments and investors.
“We’re pleased to be able to include more international entrepreneurs and companies in this year’s HardwareCon event,” said Greg Fisher, co-founder of HardwareCon. “Our Hardware Massive partners are bringing in attendees, startups and experts from their 26 chapters around the globe and this brings even more insights and opportunities to our participants.”
HardwareCon will also be featuring a wide array of local & international hardware startups on Hardware Blvd. On the final day of the conference 5 hardware startups will compete to win the 24k grand prize package. These startups went through qualifying rounds at Hardware Massive’s chapter’s around the world and we’re carefully selected by the conference delegation. The 5 finalists are:
- AXIS – AXIS Gear is the first ever retrofit smart device to motorize and automate your existing window shades.
- MendUX – keeping cognitively impaired seniors safe from wandering while maintaining elder care facilities bottom line through prevention
- BBQbot – Good barbecue is amazing to eat, but very difficult to make. BBQbot allows anyone to easily make competition quality barbecue by converting their cheap barbecue grill into a smart, automated, professional quality barbecue smoker.
- Lumos – The world’s safest commute backpack
- PhysioCue – Consumer digital health and therapy device company that empowers people with high blood pressure conditions to live healthier, happier and longer lives. PhysioCue has developed a completely new approach for hypertension management that combines the latest bio-sensor (PPG & ECG) technology.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 15, 2017
Bright Blue Innovations’ coverage of the 2017 Winter NAMM Show included interviews and product announcements that were aired on Comcast, AT&T & Ustream by it video production partner Roadway.Media in February 2017 on Bright Blue Innovation.
Bright Blue Innovation with host Lidia Paulinska, continues their coverage of the Winter 2017 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. With the assistance of M&E Tech’s Music Editor Peter Chatterjee, the show interviewed several executives and industry leaders in the music industry. This included executives from Gibson, Cakewalk, PRS Guitars, Roland, OWC, Sennheiser, and Neumann. The interviews also included musicians Dr Epiphone, Andy Summers, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis who received recognition from Roland.
The episode can be found at Roadway.Media as Bright Blue Innovation S2 Ep3
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 15, 2017
In the era of electronic presentations and global collaboration via video conferencing the office environment has been changing rapidly and need more better suitable tools. Not that long ago the laser pointer was broadly used by the presenters but had some flows. The main one was – it could not be seen by other parties in shared video calls or on conference room flat screen monitors. Now this problem is solved. Logitech has introduced a new presenter tool named Spotlight that has advanced pointer system that’s better than a laser. Spotlight not only is better by putting the highlighting function into the image created by the computer before it gets to the display, but also more stylish and more functional.
Magnify Capability in New Logitech Spotlight Presenter
Stylish – three buttons and one large one in the 3 different colors bodies – gold, black and silver. Functional – It has a long range of 30 meters (100 feet) so a presenter can walk freely in the room while giving a presentation. It has 3D cursor to play videos and open links. It manages time by giving vibration alerts. It charges fast! Only 1 minute for 3 hours of presentation. When is fully charged a battery last up to 3 months.
The functions are programmable and can be customized to a user needs.
The details: it supports slides and presentations integrated with AV, slides can be send forward and back and control with the gestures; a volume can be raise on embedded media. Spotlight runs on both Windows and Mac for programs including Powerpoint, PDF, Google Slide and more. It operates by the Bluetooth connectivity or 2.4GHz USB wireless connection. A presentation is enable by a software that is new on the market. The software has three modes if item focus on the screen. Spotlight – circular highlight on the screen while the rest of a picture dims; Magnifier – that changes the spotlight to magnifier to show the details of the image; and the third mode that changes the circle area of the magnifier to an outline circle.
by Lidia Paulinska | Mar 5, 2017
Fathom events, March – The Metropolitan Opera’s magnificent production of Antonin Dvorák’s 1901 opera Rusalka was enjoyed by audiences world-wide on Saturday, February 25, 2017. It was viewed in hundreds of cinemas throughout the world through “The Met: Live in HD” series, an invaluable cultural treasure presented by Fathom Events.
The New York Times had hailed this stunning production as “a shockingly dark, sexy drama,” an unlikely description of an opera, especially one based upon “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale. The Times goes on to observe, “the mysterious look of the production, fantastical and ominous, combines with sensual singing by a handsome cast to create a romantic energy rare at the Met — or at any opera house.”
The visually rich production, the work of Mary Zimmerman, is indeed fantastical, with shimmering sea-green flowing costumes on the water nymphs against a background of a huge harvest moon projection and the huge Met stage dominated by an ominous giant snake-like Monterey pine which seems to quietly terrorize like a monstrous atrophied boa constrictor.
The superb cast is lead by the Lovely Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais who offers us a vocally lustrous and beautifully rendered performance as Rusalka, the water nymph who longs to become human and makes the mistake of falling in love with a handsome human prince, played by the compelling tenor Brandon Jovanovich. The vocally and physically imposing American bass-baritone Eric Owen powerfully commands the role of Rusalka’s father, the Water Gnome. The wonderful cast is completed by the performance of Jamie Barton as the evil witch Ježibaba who interprets the villainous role to perfection. There’s a theatrical tradition that occasionally calls for a villain to display hints of humor and irony, and Mr Barton doesn’t disappoint.
Conducting the Met orchestra was the renowned maestro Sir Mark Elder who interpreted Dvorák’s Romantic score with much spirit and passion.
Rusalka at the Met was delightful and a memorable operatic experience not to be missed.
by Lidia Paulinska | Feb 22, 2017
Bright Blue Innovation’s coverage from the CES 2017 tradeshow on for Television and Smart Home products was Broadcast on Comcast & Ustream in February 2017 by its media partner Roadway Media.
Bright Blue Innovation Host Lidia Paulinska shows highlights from the CES 2017 focusing on the smart home technology. Products shown are from the areas of Smart Living, Security, Appliances, and TV& Audio. Companies featured include: LG, Lenovo, Singled, CoWay, Hisense, Polaroid, Casio, Voxx, and Klipsch.
The episode can be found at Roadway.Media – Bright Blue Innovation S2 Ep2
