New Computer System Tracks Everything From Ticket to Beer to Jersey Sales in Real Time in New Meadowlands Stadium

By: SCOTT CACCIOLA

Before a Dec. 12 game against the Dolphins, Jets owner Woody Johnson stands in the owner's suite at New Meadlowlands Stadium in front of his computer program that monitors in-game business.

On a recent trip to Rome, Jets owner Woody Johnson visited the Colosseum. It was neither his first visit nor his second, though he always considers the experience to be an education. As he said of the architects who designed the amphitheater two millennia ago, “They did some good stuff.”

Now that he has an ownership stake in New Meadowlands Stadium, Mr. Johnson has a vested interest in stadium planning. As he walked about the Colosseum, he found himself studying the entrances and exits, and he imagined epic bottlenecks.

“You can organize people when they’re coming in,” Mr. Johnson said before a recent home game. “But when they all decide to leave after the gladiators do their job, everyone’s in a big rush. No matter how many exits or escalators, it’s always been a problem.”

Mr. Johnson considers it his job to do what the ancient Romans could not, and his goal of eliminating crowd congestion after Jets’ victories—or (gasp!) losses—is just the start. To that end, Mr. Johnson hired Roundarch, a digital design agency, to conceptualize and construct a computer system that monitors virtually every single in-game business activity at the $1.6-billion stadium.

It is known among Jets officials as Mr. Johnson’s “Command Center,” and thousands of pieces of real-time data—everything from hot dog sales to bathroom lines—are available at his fingertips on a 42-inch touchscreen display that hangs in his owner’s suite. If this all sounds Big Brother-ish, well, it is—and Mr. Johnson and his staff are unapologetic. It is all designed to enhance the fan experience, they say. And if it helps the franchise become more profitable in the process, then the Jets will have no complaints.

“You can look at every piece of information in 360 degrees,” said Thad Sheely, the Jets’ executive vice president for finance and stadium development. “You’re able to see what’s happening as it happens.”

The program’s home screen is called “The Pocket,” and it has a four-panel layout that highlights separate categories: tickets, parking, merchandise and concessions. Tap on “Tickets,” and Mr. Johnson can see how many fans have entered the stadium, when they entered and which gates they used. Tap on “Concessions,” and Mr. Johnson can see gross sales and how that figure compares to previous games. Every ticket and parking pass is barcoded and scanned; every beer sale, processed and recorded. All that information is instantaneously uploaded to the Command Center.

It bears more than a vague resemblance to a video game, with its bold graphics and vivid colors, and Mr. Johnson was asked if he sometimes has fun just fiddling around with it. “Oh, totally,” he said.

He often extols the virtues of simplicity to his staff: If you can’t explain something in very basic terms, then you must not understand it well enough. So he asked Roundarch, which has offices in New York and Chicago, to create a system that was painless to operate and produced information that was easy to understand. By his own admission, Mr. Johnson is no tech geek. But also appears to be progressive.

“If you look at older stadiums and venues, these things were not run as well as traditional businesses,” said Geoff Cubitt, president and CTO of Roundarch. “But Woody is clearly a business guy, and he’s looking at it differently. He’s looking at it as the CEO of an organization.”

While the system operates on a macro level, Mr. Johnson—and the other executives and merchandisers who have access to it—can analyze metrics on a micro scale. The Command Center features a map of the stadium with icons that represent the exact locations of all 941 concession and merchandise outlets. Tap on any of them, and a cornucopia of data spills forth in surprisingly digestible form.

Say Mr. Johnson wants to monitor one of the merchandise booths up near Section 345. He can see gross sales for the afternoon, or for the past 10 minutes, or for a 15-minute period two hours ago—all thanks to a scrolling timeline. He can get an update on sales of merchandise subsets, such as jerseys, women’s apparel or hats. Then he can check out subsets of those subsets: How are Mark Sanchez jerseys selling at that booth? How does that total compare to last week’s game? To other booths on the same concourse? Are they running out of No. 6 jerseys? (Which, believe it or not, can happen if Mr. Sanchez is having a strong game.)

With that in mind, Roundarch has implemented an automated system that tracks inventory and sends alerts if any booths need to be restocked. Mr. Johnson also has access to live feeds of hundreds of security cameras, and the stadium is heat-mapped to monitor crowd flow. The whole idea is to take the guesswork out of game-day operations and reduce it to a futuristic science. “You can reduce lines and areas of congestion by re-routing people,” said David Vanslette, vice president of Roundarch. “And honestly, this is just the beginning. We’ll be able to tailor the experience for fans in ways that weren’t possible before.”

The idea for the Command Center was hatched in June, and Roundarch sliced the process into four stages. The first essentially entailed launching the system, which was completed before the start of the regular season. The Jets are now in the second stage, part of which involves making improvements based on the data the system collects.

The Jets already have made a couple of pregame modifications. First, Mr. Johnson said, opening the gates three hours prior to kickoff proved to be too early. Fans, he said, are more interested in tailgating than milling about inside the stadium, and the Jets were wasting resources—and money—by staffing concession stands for an extra hour. So now the gates open two hours before kickoff.

But Mr. Johnson and his staff still want fans inside the stadium before kickoff, and he found there was only a slow trickle before the Jets were host to the Cincinnati Bengals on Nov. 25. So to provide some incentive before they played the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 12, the Jets announced a 25% discount on food and non-alcoholic beverages for the first hour. Sales increased by 50% during that hour—fans came through the turnstiles at a brisk rate of 400 per minute—and were up 20% overall compared to the team’s previous two home games.

“Without the program, we wouldn’t have been able to track that,” Mr. Sheely said.

The final two stages of the process seem to excite Mr. Johnson the most. They revolve around what the team describes as “fan engagement,” and Roundarch is expected to unveil a mobile application next year that fans will be able to download to their hand-held devices.

Mr. Johnson said he anticipates a wide range of uses. Which bathrooms are the most empty? Are there any traffic issues near the stadium? Mr. Johnson even suggested using the app to announce beer discounts at various concession stands as a way to control crowd flow.

“I can see fans controlling the huge video boards through the app,” Mr. Johnson said. “We want that sort of interactivity. They’ll decide what they want to see, what music they want to hear. We’re even working on something where they’ll be able to predict plays, a sort of contest—although they won’t be able to call plays, at least for the moment.”

The Command Center, Mr. Johnson said, is limited only by “the imagination”—and by its inability to score touchdowns.

Write to Scott Cacciola at scott.cacciola@wsj.com

From: WSJ.com

By: Tom Van Riper

Selling a few more cold beers or team caps may not recoup the revenue that Jets owner Woody Johnson lost out on by not selling all his PSLs, but every little bit counts.

During the Jets’ opening Monday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens, executives from Roundarch, a Chicago-based builder of web and mobile applications, showed off the new revenue-tracking device they built for Johnson and Jets brass in the company’s Meadowlands Stadium suite. It’s a 42-inch touchscreen that spits out up-to-the minute sales figures for concessions, tickets, parking, and merchandise. Call it the Woody Johnson command center.

The Jets are the first major sports team to try the Roundarch product. Company execs, hoping it will catch on, plan to demonstrate it around the NFL this season. Visiting Ravens executives were checking it out Monday night.

The application breaks everything down by category and individual item, while highlighting the best and worst performers. If Diet Pepsi is a particuarly big seller at a refreshment stand on the upper concourse, Johnson will know immediately. If a given parking lot that’s usually filled to capacity is a quarter empty today, he’ll know that too.

Traditionally, team executives wait until after game day to review stadium sales data and make adjustments for the following week. The idea behind real-time tracking is the ability to change promotions and adjust inventory on the fly to nab additional customers. If Mark Sanchez jerseys aren’t selling well at one of the team stores, Johnson can alert his merchandise manager, who could display them more prominently or, conceivably, mark down the price a little.

With thousands of potential customers walking the stadium, “the idea is to spur action between the tailgate and the seats,” said David Vanslette, a Roundarch vice president.

For Johnson and the Jets, game-day revenue tracking might prove to be a mere first step. Drilling down to individual customer behavior – who’s buying what, who’s not in his seat, who’s leaving early – yields even more valuable information. “I told him he ought to put RFID on every ticket,” said Vanslette. Tempting as that is, management isn’t yet ready to infringe on fan privacy to that degree. But in the new world of wired sports stadium, can it be far behind?

From: Blog.Forbes.com

A look inside New Meadowlands Stadium’s clubs (PDF)

New Meadowlands Stadium will feature what’s billed as revolutionary technology after Verizon and Cisco combined to provide digital video and wireless content over a network that requires 10,000 data ports and thousands of miles of cable.

The technology allows for branding, such as the stadium turning from blue to green depending on the host team. Video screens throughout the stadium range from offering food menus to in-game video to statistical information. In addition to the four high-definition video scoreboards in the stadium, there are more than 2,200 HD video displays throughout the facility.

“There’s highly interactive capabilities,” said chief technology officer Peter Brickman, who gave the example of wishing happy birthday on a video screen to a customer at a concessions stand.

“Plus, we have capabilities of tracking what’s being purchased, the popularity of how it’s selling, the popularity of our sales people. … We have ways to monitor and make sure our concession stands are working more efficiently.”

The Jets are also independently working with technology providers FanVision and Roundarch. The former offers handheld devices to fans that show video of the game from different angles. The latter provides real-time stadium data to the Jets in an effort to enhance the fan experience.

“Technology is key to the operation of this building,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said.

The technology has advanced so much, in fact, that some of it was not yet invented at the conception of the stadium. The fiber optics are now installed, though, so Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said the only issue is keeping the software up-to-date with advancements.

Of course, the $100 million invested in stadium technology means little if the product on the field is not satisfactory.

“I’ve been in this business long enough to know that nothing enhances the fan experience more than putting a winning team on the field,” Giants owner John Mara said. “But having seen what other stadiums around the country have accomplished, we decided very early on that we wanted to be the most technologically advanced stadium in the world.”

From: NJ.com

By Burton Podczerwinski

Recently, the Chicago Flex users group raffled off two tickets to the 360|Flex conference.  I was lucky enough to be one of the winners! The conference will be held in Washington DC this year, from September 19^th – 22^nd.

This year Roundarch will be one of the sponsors alongside Adobe, O’Reilly and APress to name a few. As well as sponsoring the event, Roundarch will have a booth set up for the many social events in between the scheduled seminars and workshops. Roundarch rock stars Adam Flater and Jesse Freeman are also scheduled to speak.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to attend this unique community event and there will be a lot to gain from it. This conference provides an exceptional opportunity for Flex novices, and ninjas alike, to learn from community experts and industry leading engineers. With the tremendous line up, attendees will also have the rare opportunity to meet the authors of the great blogs and articles that we as developers come to rely upon.

Some of my top level goals:

- Be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as possible.

- Heckle Adam and Jesse during their presentations (just kidding)

- Meet Doug McCune, because he is hilarious.

- Represent Roundarch!!!

Stay tuned for my detailed re-cap after the event. For more info on the conference see the links below.

About 360|Flex

Schedule

Speakers

Chicago Flex

Chicago Flex(LinkedIn)

“360|Flex is the first and still the best Adobe Flex developer conference in the world.’”

From: Roundarch Blog

[Roundarch mention for Jets Touchscreen App]

By Samantha Murphy, TechNewsDaily Senior Staff Writer

The National Football League is often hailed as one of the most technologically savvy sports operations in the world. To keep up with the demands of those involved in the game and those watching at home, the league will be testing a myriad of new technologies this season, from a new type of game clock that keeps the refs in the loop to its first 3-D broadcast.

The league’s tech goals this year, as in other years, are clear: boosting the fans’ experience by getting them deeper inside the game.

“The closer you can get to the game, the more you feel a part of it,” said John Chambers, chairman and chief executive of Cisco, during a recent webcast press conference. “There are many game changers on the horizon.”

NFL embraces 3-D

The NFL often gives technologies a test run during the preseason; for instance, referees’ use of TV instant replay to review calls debuted during a preseason game in the 1990s. During this preseason, the NFL launches its first 3-D broadcast Thursday, Sept. 2, when the New York Giants host the New England Patriots in the Giants’ new stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Although this won’t be the first 3-D telecast by a professional league – Major League Baseball and the FIFA World Cup already have tested the three-dimensional waters – it marks the start of a long experiment by the NFL involving several stadiums.

The 3-D game is being carried subscribers of Verizon FiOS TV in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Viewers need a 3-D TV set, 3-D glasses and a high-definition set-top box to see the special effect.

Working with a company called 3ality Digital to power the telecast, Verizon is using two cameras attached to one rig — one camera for the left eye and one camera for the right eye — to create feeds that are beamed to a truck stationed outside the stadium and are combined to form a 3-D signal.

Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon’s chief executive officer, said the New Meadowlands Stadium, which the Giants share with the New York Jets, will be among the NFL stadiums experimenting with 3-D technology in the next few years.

“You will see a lot of 3-D at the New Meadowlands Stadium over the next two to three years – and then you will start to see it pop up more elsewhere,” Seidenberg said during a press conference.

What happens at the stadium, he said, “will impact the football viewing experience in the future.”

New game clock

The effect of new technologies will also be felt on the field. The NFL has had its eye on the Precision Time System currently used by the National Basketball Association, which allows on-field officials to control the pace of a game with the touch of a button.

Four officials — wearing battery-operated packs attached to their belts — will be able to activate or stop the clock system. They will work in concert with the game clock operator in the football stadium’s booth.

The NFL started testing out a new Precision Time System game clock during four preseason games to increase accuracy and cut back on downtime between plays.

“If we have the potential to time our games with more precision, then we will pursue all avenues, including experimenting with alternate methods to accomplish that goal,” Carl Johnson, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, told USA Today.

The NFL could roll this out league-wide in the near future, once a full evaluation of the test has been completed.

In-game video

Also debuting this season is a handheld device called FanVision that will allow fans in the stadium to watch the game as if they were back home on the couch. FanVision offers 10 video channels, including multiple camera views, out-of-market games, fan-controlled instant replays, game highlights, comprehensive game statistics, and real-time scores from around the league.

It can be used in the parking lot and inside the stadium only.

The devices — part of a venture owned by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross — are currently available for 12 teams, including the Dolphins and Jets. Fans will be charged $200 for the devices.

“This is of great interest because it gives fans access to information they wouldn’t necessarily have while at a stadium,” Thad Sheely, executive vice president of finance and stadium development for the Jets, told TechNewsDaily. “It enhances the game that much more for them.”

Team tech

The Jets also are trying out new technology in the skybox this season. Team owner Woody Johnson will be testing a touchscreen device to keep track of various game-day operations, such as which concessions and merchandise are selling fast, ticketing information and if there’s a jam in the Meadowlands parking lot.

The touchscreen “command center” — built by design agency Roundarch — is a first for an NFL team.

“Woody loves technology and wanted access to the entire stadium’s data flow in real time to oversee everything that’s happening,” Sheely said. “If each game is three hours and there’s only ten games, that gives us only 30 hours of action to get it right for our fans. We don’t want to have any lost opportunities, so having the device at our fingertips is key.”

Johnson said the new technology has the potential to revolutionize how NFL teams manage in-game operations in the future.

“The application that Roundarch is developing for us will help us to understand, analyze and then improve the experience each and every time fans come to the stadium and interact with our team,” he told TechNewsDaily.

Internet viewing access

To cater to the needs of on-the-go game viewers nationwide, DirecTV is offering its NFL Sunday Ticket package to the online world, giving non-subscribers the chance to watch out-of-market games. Those who want to watch football via a computer or smartphone can pay $350 for access to streaming video of the games and the Red Zone channel.

“In this widget-app-driven world, mobility is the name of the game,”Robert Mercer, a spokesman for DirecTV, said in a telephone interview. “Consumers are demanding more access to entertainment and information wherever they are. As broadband and mobile services continue to increase in popularity, and now with the introduction of new devices like the iPad that provide an even better mobile viewing experience, we expect that trend to continue.”

The move follows a year-long test of the service in the New York market.

“We’ll see how we do with this national launch and use that as a strategic guide for 2011 and beyond,” Mercer said.

From: TechNewsDaily

DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Roundarch, a leader in digital design and implementation for Fortune 500 companies, has opened an office in Denver, the company’s fourth office. Roundarch currently has locations in Chicago, New York, Boston and key market penetration in the Washington DC area. The office is led by Adam Flater, a technical architect and evangelist for Roundarch.

“It is an honor to have the opportunity to bring Roundarch to my home city”

“The new location in Denver will provide a Western base for which to provide our digital design and implementation expertise coast to coast,” said Jim Butler, senior vice president of services at Roundarch. “From a strategic standpoint, this office will bolster client service while simultaneously enabling Roundarch to acquire new business in the Mountain and Western markets.”

“It is an honor to have the opportunity to bring Roundarch to my home city,” said Flater, a resident of Denver. “I am thrilled with the chance to grow Roundarch’s presence in the West and bring new, forward thinking clients on board who share our vision of creating outstanding digital experiences to solve business problems.”

As leader of the Roundarch Denver location, Flater is tasked with managing the newest office, along with finding and growing new business while creating superior digital experiences for existing clients as a technical architect.

Roundarch will host an office opening party at 1955 West 32nd Avenue, Unit 1, Denver, CO on Thursday, May 13 between 6 and 10 p.m. for the entire Denver business community. Please join us to celebrate this exciting event and learn more about Roundarch and the transformative work we are doing for our clients. Please RSVP to Paul Buranosky at pburanosky@roundarch.com.

About Roundarch

Roundarch designs and implements digital experiences for the world’s largest organizations. Roundarch delivers web sites, rich web applications, mobile apps, social media applications, digital marketing campaigns and more for clients such as Avis, A&E, Hershey’s and the US Air Force. Roundarch’s unique blend of breakthrough user experience design and enterprise-class technology implementation is perfectly suited for the most complex problems in the digital space. Roundarch has offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York. For more information visit www.roundarch.com and the company’s blog at http://blog.roundarch.com.

From: Business Wire

Roundarch, Inc. has opened an office in Denver, the company’s fourth office. The office is led by Adam Flater, a technical architect and evangelist for Roundarch. Roundarch will host an office opening party at 1955 West 32nd Avenue, Unit 1, Denver, CO on May 13 between 6 and 10 p.m. for the entire Denver business community.

From: Bloomberg Businessweek

When and why did you become a software developer?

The when…

I began developing/hacking software when I discovered CTR+BREAK on my Laser Apple IIe clone back in 3rd grade. A family friend showed me the trick and a little bit of AppleSoft Quick BASIC and I was off and running. I ended up going to a few programming camps as a kid and taking a few classes in Pascal in high school before studying Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, WI. Since finishing my bachelors degree I’ve been in the consulting business for all but 1 year of my career. I began building Flex applications when the Flex 2 beta was released and have worked for RIA consulting companies like EffectiveUI, Universal Mind and am currently with Roundarch.

The why…

I love seeing and making “things work”. Academically I guess this is referred to as Human-computer interaction (HCI). Having also studied a good deal of Sociology, I’m fascinated by the role technology plays in human life. I want to always strive to be a part of creating a better experience around technology and feel lucky to have been given the chance to work along side so many talented folks in the User Experience and Experience Design disciplines. I believe strongly that the convergence of technology with UX and design leads to the most compelling and innovative solutions in our space.

Which programming models do you prefer?

I think Amelia Earhart said, “The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” I am very hesitant to accept models that force the inheritance of considerable overhead. That said, I do believe that a good engineer evaluates each problem and creates a plan to solve that problem based on two main factors: efficiency and maintainability. In a large team setting efficiency means something different. Using tactics that help to effectively parallelize development is a clear win. That may lead the team to adopt conventions. Typically these conventions are presented in a framework. I do believe in using frameworks, but I do not believe that any one framework is a solution for every problem, both in terms of efficiency and maintainability. Extending frameworks in a way that helps them to be more domain specific to the problem is often a very effective for larger teams. Most of what I’ve said here is fairly abstract, but it comes down to looking closely at the problem and the skills of the team that will solve the problem. If you are able to select a methodology, framework, and even technology stack through the lens of the problem and the team, you’re off to a great start.

Describe the project in which you have used the most advanced technology
At Roundarch we are are currently working to release a Merapi related application with our client that manufactures cell phones. I can’t say too much about the client or the project until it’s live, but I’m really excited about the way Merapi enables a consumer browser experience that is unparalleled to anything else we’ve seen in the space to date.

If you where a software application you would be…

Well, I’m not sure that I can describe it exactly, but Flater 2.0 is going to have so many bug fixes and new features… I can’t wait.

What do you see as the future of application development?

The continuation of efficiency through abstraction and the ubiquity of immersive technology. Computing has a fairly short history compared to other areas of business or academia, but one trend is constant; abstraction. Our languages in computing continue to be abstracted to higher levels from machine code to assembly to high-level languages, etc. At the same time the way we couple systems is being abstracted with newer concepts like cloud computing and real time operation systems. All of these advancements help to hide the complexities of problems that have been solved generically and allow for building better, cooler apps.

Ubiquity and immersion is a trend that’s been accelerating in the last 10-15 years and will continue at an increasing rate. The ability to connect people to information is easier now than it’s ever been with desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile internet devices, set top boxes, kiosks, etc. The list of devices that are becoming web-enable is growing by the day. This means that the options of reaching the user of an application are also growing by the day. Software developers must now consider where their applications will most effectively meet the target user. Again, this trend of ubiquity and immersion will also lead to further abstraction in the methodology and tools we use to build software.

Can you give to us 10 good reasons to use the Flash Platform?

Why should I use Flash? That’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot. Say my buddy is working at his developer job. Somebody puts a software requirement on his desk, an app nobody else can build. Maybe he takes a shot at it in HTML and maybe he builds it. And he’s real happy with himself, ’cause he did his job well. But maybe that app doesn’t work worth a damn in Internet Explorer. Once it’s in production it crashes all over the place. Fifteen million users that he never met and that he didn’t have no problem with are now left with a pile of crap they can’t use. Now the project managers are sayin’, “Internet Explorer support was not a part of the original project scope” ’cause they didn’t buy into Flash in the first place. It won’t be their code over there, crashing left and right. Just like it wasn’t them decidin’ what platform to use, ’cause they were off writing a project plan or meeting with the business. It’ll be some developer takin’ the blame for the bugs. He comes to find out that the job he used to have has been replaced by a Flash Developer because they now need to rebuild the entire app. Meanwhile he realizes the only reason he wasn’t using Flash in the first place was so more users could view his app. And of course Flash is the most installed piece of software in the world, a cute little ancillary benefit, but it ain’t helping my buddy who just lost his job. They took their sweet time building that HTML app, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring a bang up QA team, but now my buddy’s out of work and he can’t afford to buy red bull or techno music. So what do I think? I’m holdin’ out for somethin’ better. I’ll use Flash.

1. Consistency. The Flash platform presents a deployment mechanism that allows developers to deploy consistent solutions. This is an area that Adobe continues to improve in and has always been a core feature of Flash.

2. Flex-ability. Clearly I’ve built a lot of Flex applications and I’m pretty partial to it as an RIA framework, but Flash also offers so much flexibility in the way of animation (2d and 3d), video, and scale (browser, AIR, mobile).

3. Community. Flash developers are the best group of technologists I’ve worked with so far. Their are so many passionate developers, designers, and user experience professionals who are all extremely passionate about creating great solutions. I’m fortunate to collaborate with many of these greats.

4. Open Source. Open Source. The amount of quality material released through blogs and other traditional open source outlets is astounding. The Flash world really has a great amount of people giving back through open source.

5. Adobe. Almost everyone in the community has made their criticisms of Adobe, but they have so many people that genuinely care about supporting and developing a pretty killer platform.

6. Conferences. The Flash community provides many great conferences for learning about Flash and networking. The 360 Conferences and Flash Camps I’ve spoken at are my all-time favorites. As a side bonus, no one is shy about buying drinks in the Flash world.

7. Integration. Not only is a Flash app able to integrate with a myriad of server technologies, the integration of Adobe tools is better in every release. The fact that this brings developers and designers closer is an extremely compelling reason to use Flash.

8. Future-proof. Although Flash typically lives in a browser, it’s not bound by the browser and as a technology Flash can easily out live the browser.

9. Acceptance. From media companies to the enterprise world, as a platform Flash has a very high acceptance rate.

10. Innovation. So much exciting innovation happens in the Flash Community and inside Adobe.

Can you describe the need for Merapi and what drives you to release it in open source?

Merapi enables bridging web UI code with native code in a rapid, easy manner. It helps elegantly solve the problem of bridging code that enables access to hardware devices and integration of legacy code currently using Flash, Flex, AIR, JavaScript, Java and C#. We wanted to make Merapi free and open source to develop a standard that has community momentum behind it. We are currently using Merapi on a number of interesting projects at Roundarch and find that making it available to others only strengthens the maturity of the platform. The feedback and uses from the community has been amazing. Just recently a Merapi enabled application called “Piano Marvel” (pianomarvel.com) was selected as an Adobe MAX Award Finalist and release in the Adobe AIR Market Place. I hope to see more and more adoption and developments around Merapi in the months and years to come.

What’s does the word “sexy” mean to you?

I assume this question refers to our recent Roundarch t-shirt that combines the core areas of our business; strategy, user Experience, and Technology as something like this:

Strategy
User EXperience
TechnologY

For many of our clients, that’s just what we do. We combine strategy, user experience, and technology to create an application that is most definitely “sexy”. And I’ll leave it at that.

From: ActionScript.it

LOS ANGELES–Executives and engineers from interactive software pioneer Roundarch and leading electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors will outline the next-generation driving experience at Adobe MAX 2009, one of the world’s most popular developer conferences.

Roundarch, a leader in digital design and implementation focused on building enterprise class Web sites, Web applications and next-generation “screen-based” experiences, and Tesla, the only automaker producing and selling highway-capable EVs, will focus on the development efforts behind the Model S prototype. The all-electric family sedan, expected to debut as a 2012 model-year vehicle, features a unique infotainment system — a 17-inch, fully customizable touchscreen display that can serve as a digital canvas for drivers and passengers.

Dave Meeker, Roundarch director of emerging technology, and Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen will lead a theoretical discussion Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center on how the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer is using rapid prototyping to shape the user interface. Engineers from both companies will provide insight on how the conventional bricks–and-mortar dashboard will be transformed into a touch-based digital experience.

“We believe the next generation of cars will be connected directly to the Internet, and Roundarch, Tesla and Adobe are leading the charge,” said Meeker. “Adobe’s mix of tools from Adobe Suite, Adobe Flex and Adobe Air increased our efficiency in designing and developing the Model S prototype, so this is a very appropriate forum, and we look forward to a lively discussion.”

“The Model S will embody Tesla’s uncompromising attitude toward customers and a big part of that will be the in-car experience and the personal infotainment system,” said von Holzhausen. “We’re already very deep into development of the Model S, and we’re confident it will be the best example of a truly Web-enabled car.”

Tesla and Roundarch Sessions at Adobe MAX

Tesla is the only automaker producing and selling a highway-capable electric vehicle. The all-electric Roadster sports car – faster than a Porsche but greener than a Toyota Prius — will be on display at booth 435.

The companies will host the following sessions:

* “Reinventing the Driving Experience: The Tesla Model S”: von Holzhausen, Meeker and Roundarch creative director Zach DeBord discuss elements of the design process behind the Model S.

Time: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 1:30 p.m.

Location: Room: 406A

* “Behind the Technology in the Tesla Model S”: Engineers at Tesla and Roundarch will discuss how they developed the software and hardware technology that powers the user experience in the Model S infotainment system. Presenters include Meeker and Roundarch architect /evangelist Adam Flater, along with Brian Finn, Tesla senior manager of interactive electronics, and Evan Small, Tesla senior interface developer.

Time: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 3:00 p.m.

Location: Room: 406A

About Roundarch

Roundarch designs and implements digital experiences for the world’s largest organizations. Roundarch delivers web sites, rich web applications, mobile apps, social media applications, digital marketing campaigns and more for clients such as Avis, A&E, Hershey’s and the US Air Force. Roundarch’s unique blend of breakthrough user experience design and enterprise-class technology implementation is perfectly suited for the most complex problems in the digital space. Roundarch has offices in Boston, Chicago and New York. For more information visit www.roundarch.com and http://impost.roundarch.com/.

About Tesla Motors

Tesla sells cars online and has delivered more than 700 electric vehicles to customers in North America and Europe. The company’s goal is to produce increasingly affordable cars to mainstream buyers – relentlessly driving down te cost of EV technology. Tesla achieved overall corporate profitability in July, thanks to strong demand for the Roadster, the highly acclaimed sports car that’s faster than Porsche 911 or Audi R8 yet is twice as energy efficient as a Toyota Prius. With an EPA-estimated range of nearly 250 miles per charge, it costs less than $5 to refuel. Roadsters qualify for numerous incentives, including a $7,500 US federal tax credit, sales tax waivers and credits in several states, and incentives throughout Europe.

From: The Auto Channel