TECHNOLOGY
SYSTEMAGIC CELEBRATES BUSINESS BIRTHDAY WITH LANDMARK MOVE
Award-winning IT support company Systemagic is currently celebrating 18 years in business with a move to new premises in Bradford on Avon.
Following a period of significant growth, the firm has invested in their future to accommodate further expansion. Based in the Old Gas Warehouse on the Frome Road, the office space stretches over 4000 sq ft.
Systemagic’ s office boasts break-out space for staff, meeting rooms, shower facilities and a large, modern, open plan office space allowing the team to work closer together as they continue to grow.
The IT firm has grown from a team of 5 to 13 in just two years and is currently looking to appoint two new recruits to take the business forward. These include an account manager position and a space for their next apprentice. This bucks the trend of most IT firms, who get to a team of six and stop growing.
James Eades, managing director of Systemagic said:“ With such a growth in the team and more new staff to come, it was important to find new office space that can support our growth. Our new space allows us quick access to Bath and Bristol using the train network as well as easy access to our customers throughout Wiltshire, Somerset and further afield. It’ s a great environment and the local business community has been extremely welcoming.”
Systemagic provides IT support, cloud computing and connectivity solutions to South West businesses and prides itself on offering flexible 30-day terms on all its services. Notable Wiltshire clients include Elm Workspace, Sureset and Cobb Farr.
Exploring the capabilities of VR with Mark Miles of Rendermedia
Mark Miles is creative director of Swindon-based Rendermedia. The firm specialises in building immersive content for global brands using the latest techniques in virtual and augmented reality, alongside CGI animation and 3D Graphics. Here Mark discusses the power of understanding the context of your content.
In April, I attended the Virtual Reality Show 2017 at the Design Centre in London. It was a fantastic venue and the Show highlighted some amazing names in the industry, demonstrating the cutting edge developments in Virtual and Augmented Reality.
This select event, contained high-profile names including NASA, McLaren and BAE systems. It was a great opportunity to be able to share our insight into what Virtual Reality( VR) can do for industry. It was also fantastic for a small, but growing firm like Rendermedia to be representing the UK and our home town, Swindon.
VR is still a buzz word for a lot of people and educating audiences remains to be a priority, for audiences to fully understand the capabilities of this technology and the contexts in which it can be used.
I have an analogy I call‘ Caveman’ that I often refer to when describing how a person looks at content and context and it begins like this.
Imagine a caveman who sells his goods at market each day, he loads up his cart with square wheels and takes the gruelling trek to market each day to sell his produce.
Can you imagine the efficiency if you went up, chiseled and smoothed the edges of the wheels to be rounded then surely, he could make far more trips to market selling more goods.
The caveman is ecstatic that he can now make several trips a day and that his journey is made easier, he’ s very happy.
Now imagine that you turned up with a car, he simply could not comprehend what this could do for him because the comparison he is making, is between the cart with round wheels and the cart with square wheels he previously had. That is all he can compare it too.
Now imagine that the square wheels are a PDF, and that the round ones are 3D and CGI, then think about the car as VR. You can see that educating your audience depends on what their perception is and what they are doing now.
I have met a lot of companies and in auditing their content I still have conversations with people who still use PDFs, this is very much an every day tool and of course it still has its place. But, when people are open to what 3D and CGI animation can do for their business, it’ s amazing to see the penny drop in their faces when they see just how this can be used to bring their business to life.
You can only imagine what VR can do as a step up from CGI and 3D, therefore for the industry education with relevant and purposeful content alongside a case study to back it up, will really change the way VR and AR is adopted as a technology across business. The Virtual Reality Show this year in London offered a great platform for us to share with our industry an insight with our peers, and we look forward to sharing our knowledge with industry with our technology partners throughout 2017 and beyond.
Mark Miles speaking at the Virtual Reality Show @ rendermedia info @ rendermedia. co. uk 01793 533797
20 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017