REACT Technologies, headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire UK has joined BelAir Networks Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Channel Program.

BelAir Networks offers VARs award-winning wireless mesh network solutions that deliver industry-leading broadband performance and scalability as well as carrier-class capacity and reliability for a wide range of environments including hotel and venue networks, public safety networks, municipal networks, port and mass transit installations, defense applications, and plant deployments around the world.

BelAir Network’s technology and market leadership are an excellent fit for our customers and our business.

said Jess Thompson-Hughes, Managing Director, REACT Technologies, Ltd.

BelAir Networks has the most comprehensive product portfolio and a proven track record delivering high-performance, highly reliable wireless networks for leading venues and cities around the world – that’s just what we want for our customers.

REACT Technologies has already deployed BelAir Networks equipment at popular theme parks in the UK to support both employee communications and Point-of-Sale (POS) applications and will also be featuring  the technology at Wireless08, May 21-22, 2008, at the Olympia, London.

REACT Technologies strong commitment to delivering best-in-class networks to its customers positions them to leverage BelAir Networks industry-leading portfolio,

stated Dave Park, Vice President, Product Marketing, BelAir Networks.

REACT’s extensive background in wireless networking and their strategic focus on the hospitality market expands BelAir Networks deployment opportunities in the UK.

REACT Technologies is at the forefront of secure mobile networking and converged communications. As a distribution solution provider, REACT delivers professional services and operational support. The company assists with all aspects of network deployment from initial consultancy and design, to test, commissioning and subsequent maintenance.

Basingstoke based Cohort Technology has been appointed as an Authorised Training Centre for security and WAN optimisation vendor Blue Coat.

The partnership sees Cohort - founded by Grahame Smee in 2008 and now based in Grove House, Basingstke - provide training for Blue Coat resellers at its Basingstoke and London outposts. (more…)

Farncombe Consulting Group, the privately-held Basingstoke-based communications technology consultancy, has launched a new dedicated strategy practice, Farncombe Strategy. Farncombe Strategy joins Farncombe Technology in the newly-formed Farncombe Consulting Group.

Farncombe Strategy is a joint venture with TMT Strategy Advisors, a firm focused on providing strategic advice to leading players in the telecoms and digital media sectors. It will be led by two highprofile consultants from the Technology, Media and Telecoms sector: Tom McKeever, Managing Director of TMT Strategy Advisors, and Adriana Menezes Whiteley, previously a Director at Ovum’s consulting division.

Farncombe Strategy will concentrate on strategy consulting and transaction services support in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sectors. It will be based in London, UK, and draw upon its dedicated team of experienced strategy consultants as well as a network of industry experts to deliver strategic advice to its clients globally.

This new joint venture not only combines media with telecoms expertise, but adds extra resources in strategic and financial analysis to our existing core technology competencies,

said Dr Stephen Upton, Managing Partner at Farncombe Technology.

It will further strengthen our ability to provide the type of end-to-end consultancy service, from Business Strategy, through Technology Planning and into Implementation, that many customers are now seeking.

Tom McKeever, Managing Director of TMT Strategy said,

As convergence between television, Internet and telecoms develops, technology is adapting very quickly and playing an increasingly significant role in strategy

With the technical expertise and knowledge of Farncombe Technology, our new sister company, to draw upon, we can provide clients with complete strategic advice, from commercial to technical. For both Farncombe and us, it’s the perfect marriage. We look forward to being part of Farncombe’s continuing expansion.

For more details, visit www.farncombestrategy.com.

Basingstoke storage manufactuer, Origin Storage, has been recognised by leading partner, Thecus, for consistent and growing sales of a range of storage devices. During 2006-7 the company increased sales by 300% and they have entered the Thecus top 20 distributors list.

Origin Storage were also recognised for their outstanding marketing effort, having Thecus products reviewed in some of the largest IT magazines in the UK and following the PR up with advertising promoting the Thecus brand.

Stuart Eling, Origin’s Thecus specialist made the following comment:

Thecus are an excellent brand and a great company to work with. I rate their systems above any other in the market, and it is amazing to receive this award and be appreciated for the work we do.

Founded in 2001 and based in Basingstoke, Origin Storage Ltd. is fast becoming one of Europe’s leading IT storage manufacturers. Its wide‐ranging product portfolio includes branded hard disk drive solutions, RAID solutions and OEM parts.

The business has grown year on year and now supplies to main distribution and reseller partners in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Holland and Belgium with many more European countries being introduced over the next year.

Voyager Software, the SME recruitment agency software specialist based in Basingstoke, today announces the senior appointment of Jayne Tanner as Support Manager. Tanner will be responsible for implementing the wave of upgrades to the software suite across all product lines, ensuring Voyager remains on the cutting edge of recruitment technology.

The new appointment bolsters the 34-strong Team at Voyager’s new Head Office in Basing View. Tanner will oversee the team responsible for upgrading the existing Voyager technology, with an eye to developing the next generation of recruitment software for small and medium sized agencies. Tanner said,

Innovation and product enhancements are the lifeblood for our customers as they help them achieve better efficiencies in placing candidates

Paul Thompson, Sales Director at Voyager Software, commented:

The appointment heading the Support team is a strategic decision, re-enforcing the groups continued effort to improve the Customer Experience yet further.

Jayne returned to Voyager having spent recent years working for BT Global and so has hit the ground running. Jayne was originally employed on the Helpdesk department in 2001 so has the experience and knowledge ready to take on this new challenging role. Jayne added,

Supporting 1000’s of customers worldwide on a range of technical platforms has its responsibilities, but we have a great team and skill base. It has been great to see such progress; Voyager is a very different company now.

Story via Online Recruitment

Basingstoke based test and measurement manufacturer OmniTek has announced that Pepper as purchased four XR image analysis systems for use in its newly refurbished post production facility in Geek Street, London. Pepper, which has recently completed work on ‘Waking the Dead VII and He Kills Coppers will use the OmniTek XRs for integrity checks in various high profile projects. The XR which this year won the Queen’s Award for Innovation has already been used by Pepper on Sky One Drama, The Colour of Magic and the new feature film Three and Out.

We already had OmniTek equipment in place so selecting the XR systems was a logical choice,

confirms Scott Holmgren, head of operations at Pepper.

In addition to familiarity with the user interface, we also liked the flexibility of the XR as it allows our editors and colourists to view the signal however they prefer. Because it is a PC based system, the configuration of the XR also enables us to route through to any of our multiple finishing rooms – effectively giving us a ’scope in each room’ along with the associated cost savings.

The OmniTek XR is the first and only image analysis system specifically designed for colorists and post-production editors working in a high- definition environment. It provides users with compatible monitoring equipment for the HD and High Resolution image formats and colour spaces to offering a detailed analysis of the colourimetry and levels of the specific material processed.

In addition, The OmniTek XR has a number of unique features not available on any other monitoring system, such as “extreme resolution” waveform and vector displays for total image analysis; real-time colour histogram displays in a variety of different gamuts; support for all 2K and dual-link input formats, with user-programmable LUTs to correct for non-linear inputs; support for “XYZ” colour space inputs for users working in digital cinema.

The image formats being handled in post-production are rapidly changing with HD, dual-link, 2k and 4k resolutions are all becoming commonplace, while additional colour spaces such as XYZ are beginning to emerge,

confirms Roger Fawcett, managing director, OmniTek.

We have met the need to monitor these formats and as a result OmniTek’s award winning XR extreme resolution waveform monitor and image analyzer represents the state-of-the-art in waveform and vectorscope monitoring for post-production today.

Across Basingstoke up to 10% of households with a BT line are still unable to connect to Broadband.

In Basingstoke there are about 40,000 lines connected to the BT Exchange and some of these line users are unable to get Broadband, or have a poor connection. The areas that have issues with Broadband connectivity are what we call ‘notspots’ and appear to be clustered around Kempshott and Chineham. We would like to hear from anybody that is having problems with their broadband connection in Basingstoke and Deane.

As the internet has become a key element of life at home and at work, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, in partnership with eHampshire are keen find out about these problems, and would call for those affected by this issue to get in touch.

Residents and businesses can check the service that their phone line should be able to support by visiting Sam Knows Broadband and entering their phone number and post code.

Once you have checked your service, help us to help you by registering these details at www.ehampshire.org/notspots.asp or by calling eHampshire on 01962 846381.

OmniTek, the product division of Image Processing Techniques Ltd based in Wade Road, Basingstoke, has today joined an elite group of companies by winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for their OmniTek XR image analysis system.

The OmniTek XR is specifically designed for colorists and postproduction editors working in a high-definition, dual-link and 2k digital cinema environments and since the launch in 2005 it has become the system of choice for high-end post-production facilities around the world from Soho to Hollywood. Mike Hodson, president of OmniTek commented:

The UK has an impressive reputation for innovation in TV and film technology and therefore to win one of the UK’s most prestigious awards for business performance in our tenth anniversary year is a major achievement. It cements our growing reputation as a true leader in the broadcast test and measurement industry.

The OmniTek XR provides the highest precision video and audio analysis capabilities available on any waveform monitor, allowing detailed examination of the colourimetry and gamut of the specific material being processed. The OmniTek XR is now being used for image analysis and quality control in many of the world’s leading post-production facilities including The Mill, Framestore CFC, and Molinare. The XR has been used on high-profile projects such as the new Dr. Who and Harry Potter film series. Hodson continued:

We are delighted that the OmniTek XR has been recognised through the Queen’s Award, and this achievement will provide a springboard for our continued commitment to develop some of the most innovative products available for the broadcast test & measurement market. For example: watch out for our new DataLab – the first and only 3Gbit/s compatible full-motion signal generator combined with a comprehensive data analyzer – unveiled at NAB 2008 just last week.

Customers of Image Processing Techniques have included Sony Broadcast, Tandberg, Harris, Wolfson, Pandora, Cine-tal and Quartz and the company’s engineering team has an international reputation for excellence.

Portix staff have moved into Micro Peripheral’s offices following the sale of the distributor by Manchester-based eXpansys. Micro Peripherals, also known as Micro-P, is an IT and technology distributor with offices in Chineham Park, Basingstoke, near Portix’s old headquarters. It is believed that Micro-P paid £1.15m for Portix.

Expansys managing director Roger Butterworth said:

Micro-Peripheral is keen to develop the business further and will aggressively chase new contracts with the likes of Sony Ericsson and Nokia.

They have seen opportunities in the mobile space, and following other mobile/IT partnerships like Computer 2000 and Brightstar, there are definitely important developments in convergence taking place.

Motorola said that the acquisition of Sendos R&D team and patent portfolio in June as well as the relocation of its mobile division to larger offices in Basingstoke this month showed that UK growth continued. It is understood that UK job cuts have been insignificant.

We havent broken the figures down by country claimed EMEA director of communications Mark Durrant. Staff that have been affected have been informed already so the filing to the SEC was not new to them.

The headcount wont necessarily go down anyway because of the acquisitions including the Sendo R&D facility in the UK an i-mode development team in France and lots of engineering and manufacturing elements.Via. Mobile News International