The TEMPO Courseware Tool

Courseware development tools have usually been expensive necessities for the learning and development department. Many tools are priced per courseware author and often cost in the thousands of dollars per seat. Some actually charge per learner as well which can add up to tens of thousands of additional dollars. In addition, many vendors charge annual maintenance fees for the tools. In my experience, these costs can be quite substantial.

Globecomm’s TEMPO approach changes all that. You can use Microsoft PowerPoint® as your courseware authoring tool, a software tool that’s ubiquitous in most organizations. That means that your marginal cost for courseware authoring is zero. So those friendly little ppt files can be your courseware files as well.

If you don’t happen to have PowerPoint® available in your shop, I still have good news for you; I have tried TEMPO with OpenOfficeTM Impress files and it works well. It is available as a free download at www.openoffice.org . Since, Impress is an open source product, your courseware development tool investment can be exactly zero when you use TEMPO.

Of course, many products claim to be able to use PowerPoint presentations as input to their courseware system. But TEMPO takes it a step further. Not only are you creating your slides in PowerPoint®, but you can create your quizzes as ppt files as well.

So how does that work, you ask?

Those clever engineers at Globecomm have come up with a easy to use coding scheme. To signal to TEMPO that you want a slide to be a quiz, you just insert a text string such as %Q. at the beginning of the slide title. You label answers with similar short little tags. You specify distractors in the same way. It’s simple and straight forward. The same coding scheme works for both interactive live broadcasts and interactive, on-demand modules.

So you already have your TEMPO courseware authoring tool – and you already know how to use it!

Rick Darby
Rick Darby is President of SEDATA, LLC , consultants specializing in video-centric Interactive Distance Learning and technology-based training.

TEMPO Courseware Development

In my last post I told you how TEMPO uses PowerPoint and a simple coding scheme to allow you to build state-of-the-art interactive courseware while eliminating the need for expensive courseware development tools. In this post I’d like to show you how the TEMPO courseware development approach expands your reach and solves many common training problems.

Most mature training organizations that have a large number of people to train on a consistent basis have gravitated to video-centric training. There have been some very good reasons for this. People are used to getting their information from video. Its production techniques are well understood. The huge installed base of consumer television equipment has had pricing advantages. The broadcast industry has been a driving force for innovation for years.

But just as the bandwidth for video centric training across the Internet has become affordable for even the smallest organizations, the playing field has expanded. The job of delivering training has become much, much tougher.

More and more people are on the go and need training wherever they are: in the office, at home or on the road. Now you need to deliver training to TVs, desktops, laptops, smart phones and tablets. Most of these are attached to the Internet, but not all the time. Not everyone is on the same continent, let alone in the same satellite footprint. That means not everyone can participate at the same time, so you need the on-demand experience to be as rich as the live experience.

There have been piecemeal approaches to delivering training across all of these environments, so it’s possible to address each scenario individually with point solutions. But it is most ideal to address them with a single, integrated, video-based training and delivery platform. You need an enterprise-wide solution. You need a system that understands that it must be part of a complex environment with subsidiaries, divisions, regions and districts. You need a platform that integrates with your learning management system and yet can also track the training activities with more granular data.

TEMPO is the first of its kind video-centric delivery platform that addresses all these training needs using a single integrated tool. It allows you to deliver synchronous training to a remote class or a remote individual. Mobile workers on laptops, smart phones and tablets can participate in a live training event or catch up on their own time by viewing an interactive video-on-demand.

For the first time, there is an integrated platform that provides the high quality video-centric training demanded by business in the 21st century.

Rick Darby
Rick Darby is President of SEDATA, LLC , consultants specializing in video-centric Interactive Distance Learning and technology-based training.

Tempo Rocks...and James Brown Knows it!

Solutions Engineering: Noun: Assurance that products and services fit each customer, and that these services are applicable to both horizontal and vertical markets targeted for the use of Tempo!

Now let me introduce myself: James Brown, (yes, I can dance) Solutions Engineer.  I joined the Tempo team this week, and spent time in Hauppauge, NY meeting my new team members and investigating the technology that is Tempo.

I was excited to see the mechanics of technology creation in motion. The Tempo team defining, designing, documenting, and planning for the delivery of a digital signage feature.  But this was only a small subset of the truly focused, service-oriented delivery machine that is Tempo.  My initiation, (they call this jumping from the pot to the fire where I come from) to real service support was watching the team react in real time supporting a live customer's network. The immediate call to action of the team and the rapid resolution of the issue gave me a thrill to see that process, protocol, and engineering proficiency are native to the team I've joined.  I also jumped into the mix of determining the success criteria (internal and external) for the Tempo Satellite Challenge. It sounds "Field of Dream-ish", but actually is a fabulous idea based on taking a built out satellite network and extending a formerly limited audience network to any mobile employee anywhere. Cool!

My background:  For those that are meeting me for the first time, I bring a history of electronic design engineering, satellite system engineering, cellular networks and services design, and yes software products - as my last job was with KenCast as the Director of Sales and Marketing.

I am, as I mentioned, thrilled to be a part of the Tempo team, and look forward to focusing all my efforts on the global success of this service product that can reach any device, anywhere at anytime.    

Flying with Ann

The End User Could be Next to You!

Yesterday, I boarded a flight home following a week on the road.  The adjacent seat was occupied by a very sweet, southern lady named Ann.  She quickly introduced herself and advised that this was only the second time she had ever flown in an airplane and to excuse her if she got too nervous.  I did my best to assure her that everything would be alright.

We struck up a nice conversations that winded through her life in rural Georgia, her children, the Braves, and then onto her employer.  It turns out that Ann is a regular user of our Tempo platform.  This was my lucky day.

I inquired about her Tempo experience.  She shared that she is often intimidated by technology.  In both her work and home lives, change and new technology have recently been hitting her at "too wicked a pace."  As a result, she avoided Tempo for as long as she could.

When she finally had no other choice, she approached it apprehensively, logging in from a mobile device that she had only recently mastered.  After completing her first training course, she said that she felt empowered.  "Tempo is really easy to use."

She also shared that many of her co-workers have had a similar experience.  Whew!

The conversation served as an important reminder that although our Tempo team is deeply engrossed in the world of technology, our users are not.  Our solutions must always be simple and inviting, as should our service.  When someone calls our help desk, we need to always remember that our users may not be as technically sophisticated as we are.  We must be clear and competent.  Fortunately, we are.

After landing, Ann shook my hand and said she was going to tell everyone at work that she "sat next to The Tempo Man."  But the pleasure was all mine.  Thanks Ann.

Ed Behan, Vice President of Enterprise Services, Globecomm

As Markets Evolve: A Perspective From Streaming Media East

Ever since I first entered the streaming media market many years ago, Streaming Media's website, publications, and trade shows have been those reliable destinations for me to sharpen my view of the market, meet like-minded people, and help contribute to strategic direction of our Tempo platform.

This week, Globecomm exhibited at Streaming Media East in NYC. As always, the show provided me an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and meet new people who share a passion for streaming media. However, there was something unsettling about this year's show that I could not quite put my finger on.

Then I realized it was that many of those familiar faces, who helped define streaming media in the enterprise, were not in attendance. I sent notes to a few to ask why they skipped the show. The reply was almost unanimous: they were too busy tending to their networks and customers.

Today, many of those pioneers who created this industry are realizing their vision of a connected enterprise, with video content elevating discourse across their organizations. The scale and complexity of their networks continues to expand, as does the importance of their mission. As they look down the road, they see the applications for their services expanding to include digital signage, learning, and an explosion of mobile applications.

All of this results in exciting and busy times for media managers. For me, I find it bittersweet that a consequence of their wild success is that we do not get to catch up at events like this. I guess that is what happens as markets evolve.

Ed Behan, Vice President Enterprise Services, Globecomm

Strategy and Creativity Matters Most in Today’s Media Communications

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Spring Communications Media Management Association (CMMA) Professional Development Conference at McDonald’s campus in Oakbrook, Illinois. CMMA is the premier organization for media managers and provides professional development and networking for many enterprise organizations, such as Best Buy, Bank of America, Microsoft and Monsanto. Its always rewarding to hear that Globecomm’s Tempo product is the perfect solution to many of the challenges that Media Managers are facing today. With one platform delivering enterprise video everywhere, Tempo solves many of the headaches that these managers face within their organization.

This year’s conference was themed, “Get a Seat at the Table” and encourages Media Managers to become a strategic partner with all of their internal departments by:

· Consistently building and providing trust with their Senior leadership

· Continuously making a creative impact

· Defining an internal brand and promoting it within the company

The overall content of this year’s conference was fantastic and very well received from all attendees. I have two personal favorite keynote speakers from last week, which I would like to share.

The first was Ms. Bridget Coffing, Chief Communications Officer and SVP Corporate Relations, McDonalds. Bridget’s session was focused on the power and importance of strategic communications. From the moment Bridget began her presentation her honest and sincere perspective on the state of her business today was compelling. Bridget has been with McDonald’s since 2000 and she quickly reminded us that in 2005 McDonald’s was being slammed in the media from almost every direction as the company posted their first ever revenue decline. She discussed the importance of a team’s ability to develop and apply corporate messages in both favorable and unfavorable times as long as the over-all message “gets it right”. One of the most eye opening statements she provided was McDonald’s being mentioned in the media 22 times every second. Wow, that is a lot of communications to keep up with!

Another great keynote was delivered by Francesco Cordua, Director, Retail Design forMcDonald’s. Francesco leads the very talented team who transformed the McDonald’s brand strategy. With a direct, quick-witted confidence, his presentation focused on how design is strategic and creative decisions not only matter to the brand, but most times they define the brand. He provided examples of how McDonalds’s Creative Services overcame the challenge of finding their strategic partnerships and seats at the table.

Aside from the great content of this year’s spring conference the Tempo team also had a lot of laughs with our customers and prospective customers. One of my favorite moments was viewing the Tempo partner video. This was our first year to participate in the partner video segment and I think Tempo did a great job engaging the organization on our product. Our piece is different; a little edgy with a really cool soundtrack. We accomplished exactly what we intended to do; inspire intrigue and curiosity about Tempo.

“What is Tempo?”... exactly what people were asking after watching. That was precisely our strategy.

Check it out for yourself http://tempoeverywhere.com/videohome.html

Jennifer Flavin, Manager Enterprise Sales at Globecomm

A New World for Corporate Trainers

I remember how it used to be when I was the client using the old Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) approach to corporate training. We wanted to deliver high quality, video-centric content, but to get that beautiful full motion video experience; we had to put up with a lot of inconvenience and compromise. I also remember using those old two line black and white keypads to answer the instructor’s questions – the ones with umbilical cords strung all over the classroom. We had to tape the cords down just so folks wouldn’t trip.

These days, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately working with clients as they bring up their new TEMPO systems. The thing that strikes me the most is that TEMPO opens up a whole new world of convenience and flexibility to the corporate trainer.

Authoring courseware with an arcane set of PowerPoint add-ons used to require special PC software. We even had to upgrade our PC hardware just to get the add-ons to work. We would have to check for add-on patches and upgrades anytime there was a new release of MS Office. So basically, we ended up having to have special workstations just to be a courseware author. Our viewing options were limited, too. IDL meant only viewing on a TV monitor or a specially-configured PC. As the company went global, we were hamstrung by our North American satellite footprint. Operations outside the footprint were left in the dark, but bringing up additional satellites meant a huge increase in monthly charges.

Remarkably, TEMPO has changed all that. My TEMPO clients use full color, touch sensitive wireless keypads for interactivity. There are no wires to string and nothing for them to trip over. Anyone with PowerPoint, a browser and the right permissions can be a TEMPO courseware author. Tracking down add-on releases, patches and upgrades are no longer necessary.

My clients can deliver TEMPO courseware to a variety of devices: wide screen high definition TV monitors, PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones. These devices can be connected by Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Edge, 3G or 4G. They are no longer held hostage in satellite footprint prison. Their courses go wherever the Internet goes without paying those huge monthly satellite channel charges.

TEMPO has changed the IDL game for my clients. This platform offers flexibility and convenience all while delivering that beautiful HD full motion video experience.

I say, “Welcome to the New World!”

Rick Darby
Rick Darby is President of SEDATA, LLC , consultants specializing in video-centric Interactive Distance Learning and technology-based training.