Tinopolis Interactive

 Tinopolis has struck up a new relationship with serviced apartment’s provider ‘acityabode’.  We are working with acityabode to deliver a full technical backend infrastructure and bookings management system as well as a customer facing web refresh, mobile applications, and much more…..

 

As more and more people demand comfort, space and value for money when looking for a place to stay, whether it’s for a city break with friends, a business trip, or for longer term city centre accommodation, the serviced apartment market is becoming increasingly popular.

 

acityabode is a serviced apartment provider specialising in high quality apartments for short or long term stays. The stylish and sophisticated serviced apartments offer an alternative to hotel accommodation, providing luxury, relaxation and flexibility.

 

As part of a programme of ongoing work, Tinopolis has helped acityabode to be able to continue to rapidly expand their business by facilitating the switch to more system dependant bookings, allocation and management of the portfolio of properties. Mobile applications allowing customers to search for, book and manage their reservations while on the move will go live on the app store in the coming weeks, followed by marketing campaigns and ongoing technical support. 

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The Chair of Skillset Cymru, John Geraint, has announced the appointment of five new members to the Skillset Cymru Board, replacing a number of members who have completed their term.

Representatives from the key areas of television, animation, facilities and digital media will join the existing fifteen-member Board to help guide Skillset Cymru through the next exciting stage of its development.

Alan Morgans, Director of Llanelli-based Tinopolis Interactive, which forms part of the Tinopolis Group, one of the UK’s largest independent media producers, will strengthen the board's understanding of skills issues in new media. Alan’s work encompasses a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the design and building of education materials, e-Learning solutions, mobile solutions, non-broadcast video and game development.

Also joining him will be Catrin Evans, Senior Producer at Tinopolis, who has three decades of experience as a journalist and TV producer and brings a highly-experienced perspective on issues affecting the industry’s workforce on the studio floor.

Other members joining the Board include Hywel William, Head of Broadcasting and Telecommunications at Ofcom, and Aron Evans of Wales-based animation company Dinamo.

Chair of Skillset Cymru, John Geraint, said: “Skills and training are central to delivering the growth in the Creative Industries and Skillset Cymru is uniquely well-placed in its knowledge and understanding of the skills needs of business to drive this forward. At this crucial time, it's a real delight to welcome these outstanding talents to our Board, with all the wealth of additional experience and insight that they bring”.

http://www.skillset.org/uk/cymru/

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As part of a growing relationship, Tinopolis has recently completed work on a Future Vision promotional video for the global company ‘Cargotec’.  The production involved location filming in HD, and used a combination of motion graphics, green screen technology and 3D modelling to bring to life the aspirations of Cargotec in today’s technologically advanced world.   

Cargotec is the world's leading provider of cargo handling solutions whose products are used in the different stages of material flow in ships, ports, and other heavy industry. Cargotec improves the efficiency of cargo flows on land and at sea – wherever cargo is on the move. 

Cargotec’s daughter brands Hiab, Kalmar and MacGregor are recognised leaders in cargo and load handling solutions around the world. Cargotec’s global network is positioned close to customers and offers extensive services that ensure the continuous, reliable and sustainable performance of equipment.  

This project serves as an excellent case study to demonstrate the breadth of capabilities and infrastructure of Tinopolis Interactive, as all aspects of the production were completed in house and in record time!

If you’d like to know more about what we can do to help visualise and communicate your brand, please get in touch with us through the contact us page or through info@tinopolis.com

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Tinopolis Interactive recently delivered the new stakeholder engagement website and custom mobile applications for the Scottish Government’s procurement of Glow, the national schools intranet. 

Glow, first launched in 2007, is a major ICT and telecommunications programme managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) and funded by the Scottish Government. It is the world’s first national intranet for education and has transformed the way the curriculum is delivered in Scotland.  In March 2011 the Scottish Government announced that the existing contract for Glow will be renewed in 2012.  

Glow Futures is about ensuring practitioners and learners have the tools they need to support the very best learning and teaching approaches today and tomorrow.  A national consultation is now underway to establish the hopes and concerns of current and future Glow users. To support the consultation Tinopolis Interactive was contracted to build and host an online portal and complimentary mobile application.  

The Glow Futures website provides a range of collaborative digital resources to support and encourage rich communications between stakeholders and the national team. This includes blogs, wikis, forums, social authoring & publishing tools and sharing of media resources.  Two custom built mobile applications for Apple and Android devices extend the online experience providing an alternative and instant means of accessing the latest Glow Futures content and discussions.  The mobile applications also needed to include Shibboleth integration, the secure sign on solution used with Glow.  The development team successfully achieved this leading to a first of its kind for Shibboleth on mobile devices.

Glow Futures website

Further info: Will Cooper, Account Director, 07792 555183

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Tinopolis Interactive recently delivered a series of online science engagement events for the NESTA funded 'Planet Science' service.  Weather Labs demonstrates the ability to use rich media and to leverage its many educational partnerships, in order to engage wide audiences in educationally valid online fun.

The Tinopolis editorial team at Planet Science worked with partners including broadcaster S4C’s weather service, BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory, National Science Week, Manchester University, Futuremorph and Science Made Simple to produce a schools web experience with video, podcasts, and interactive data tables around weather forecasting. Partners produced supporting resources such as video and podcasts, or contributed traffic – for example we negotiated with the BBC to link exclusively to Weather Labs on bbc.co.uk web pages supporting the 10^th March special edition of Bang Goes the Theory on the subject of weather.

One feature of Weather Labs is its interdisciplinary approach. Launching in Science Week (11-18 March) we worked collaboratively with the UK science community to support the Science Week theme of “Communicating Science”. Weather Labs offered kits and widgets which allowed students to set up as forecasters, and broadcast local weather bulletins in web and audio format, based on our highly localised weather data. Thus, Weather Labs was also an event for communication and media skills, which secured tangible outputs in many learning areas. 

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Tinopolis Interactive have produced a suite of soft skills mobile apps for Ufi learndirect, the online learning provider.

Entitled ‘Fit for the job’, the apps cover key skills to help individuals get a new job or progress at work such as assertiveness, time management, interview skills and delivering presentations.

Tinopolis Interactive oversaw all elements of the application design, development and content production process with Video Arts providing relevant clips from its vast library of video based training titles. learndirect recruited the talents of Matthew Horne to introduce each application via a professionally shot green-screen video introduction. 

“Apps offer a quick and convenient way for people to develop their skills,” said Peter Shufflebotham, Head of Learning Content at learndirect. “In the current economic climate, there are more and more people who want help to find a job. We wanted to create apps that would be useful to a wide audience, not just first-time entrants to the workplace but people already in a job who are looking for something better, as well as those who’ve been made redundant. These people don’t necessarily need the basics, such as what to wear for interviews, but they may need to brush up on sales skills, for instance. These apps can help them to do this in a timely way, like on the train or bus travelling to an interview or a meeting.”

Innovative in their design the apps make optimum use of in-app purchasing functionality, self-profile quizzes, video clips, custom interactive learning templates and text based tips. The apps also link to external content hosted by learndirect. 

They are available to download via Apple iTunes and the Google Android Market.

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 In Partnership with Scottish Government, Tinopolis Interactive was nominated as a finalist at the recent e-Government awards. The ‘Engage for Education’ website was short listed in two categories; ‘Central e-Government excellence: Team’ and ‘e-Government excellence: Innovation in strategy on a national level’. 

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We are delighted to be working in partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) and the Herald & Times Group on development of a new online news service for Scottish schools, due to go live in August 2010.

Available through Glow, the Scottish schools intranet that supports the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence, the news service will feature specially written daily news stories in English and Gaelic throughout the school year designed to appeal to the 9 to 16 target age group. The service will also feature support for teachers in lesson development and planning, using tools accessible through Glow.  

The content will be developed in partnership with the Herald and Times Group and will be written to closely support Curriculum for Excellence by a team of professional journalists and educational advisers. Herald and Times Group Managing Editor, Tom Thomson, said: 'We are delighted to be associated with this exciting initiative to bring quality news and comment to the young people of Scotland.' 

Andrew Brown, Head of Glow at LTS, said: 'I’m delighted that the news service will soon be available through Glow, providing a safe and secure environment for users to access the service. This new partnership with tinopolisinteractive and the Herald and Times Group is an exciting opportunity for us at LTS, and a great development for users of Glow.'

To follow developments over the coming months click here.

For further info:
Will Cooper, Account Director
T: 07792 555 183
E: will.cooper@tinopolis.com

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The Scottish Learning Directorate and Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS) engaged us to deliver a new online social hub which allows anyone with an interest in Scottish education the chance to share their views and engage directly with the Government. 

‘Engage for Education’ is aimed at teachers, young people, parents, school staff and others across the wider education community. Participants will have the opportunity to influence government policy by providing feedback on the key issues facing Scottish education.

The site offers a series of online ‘workshops’ exploring current topical issues; links to Glow and popular social media channels, providing a place to leave comments and ideas; and includes blogs from the three Scottish education Ministers, as well as regular guest bloggers, to share views about current issues and trends.

http://www.engageforeducation.org

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