Tag: Digital

Dalata records one million guest interactions on new contactless platform from Granite Digital. #GraniteDigital #Dalata #Hotels

Granite Digital, Ireland’s leading full-service digital agency, today announces that it has delivered Ireland’s first fully contactless hotel guest services platform for Dalata Hotel Group, which has already reached one million guest interactions. Developed in collaboration with Dublin-based hotel booking software provider P3 Hotels, the innovative web portal is transforming the hotel guest experience, as hotels continue to adapt to operating under COVID-19 restrictions.

Dalata is Ireland’s largest hotel operator with two leading brands – Maldron Hotels and Clayton Hotels – as well as managing a portfolio of further partner hotels. The group has implemented the contactless solution across its 44 owned, leased and operated hotel locations in Ireland and the UK. Many guests will utilise the platform within it’s first 12 months.

The digital platform is designed to aid social distancing and COVID-19 safety protocols in hotels by enabling contactless check-in, check-out and hotel services, as well as securely and seamlessly facilitating the track and trace process for all visitors. Physical interaction is minimised, with hotel patrons accessing the platform through a link in their check-in email and using pick-up and drop-off boxes for room keys on arrival and departure.

Robert Carpenter, Co-Founder, Granite Digital and Stephen McNally, Deputy Chief Executive, Dalata Hotel Group

From the web-based portal, guests can browse hotel information and services, order in-room click-and-collect dining, reserve breakfast and dinner slots and book swimming and gym sessions. The portal also facilitates instant messaging so guests can order additional towels, toiletries, all linen supplies and cleaning services.

To guard against the spread of COVID-19, Dalata is also operating a revised cleaning regime for each hotel room and public space across its locations. It is working with global certification leader Bureau Veritas to ensure compliance and best practice with regards all health and safety measures in the hospitality sector. In combination with its newly launched digital platform, Dalata is seeking to offer guests peace of mind as well as a transformed visitor experience – leveraging technology to deliver convenience and more responsive services.

Stephen McNally, Deputy CEO, Dalata Hotel Group, said: “This new platform is now operating really well across the Dalata Hotel Group, and guest reaction has been excellent. The software is a landmark development for the hospitality sector in Ireland. It is the result of deep consultation with our innovative technology partners Granite Digital & P3 to develop a platform that can not only help achieve compliance with COVID-19 measures, but also revolutionise guest interactions for a more connected world.”

“The health and safety of our valued guests is paramount and the online platform is a cornerstone of our thorough approach to creating a clean and safe environment in each of our hotels. Looking to the future, we wanted to put digital at the heart of the guest experience so visitors can enjoy the same level of information, interactivity and responsiveness that they are accustomed to in other sectors. This platform helps us to do exactly that.” 

 Robert Carpenter, Co-Founder, Granite Digital, said: “Both the Maldron and Clayton Hotel brands are highly regarded and well-known in Ireland and increasingly growing in strength in the UK. It was fantastic to work with a true leader in hospitality who was so open to applying innovative ideas to address the significant challenges posed by COVID-19.

 “The clever application of digital technologies to traditional sectors and processes can be the key to unlocking these challenges and carrying Irish businesses through this crisis and beyond. By moving quickly to bring this platform to the market and rolling it out to all of its hotels, Dalata has demonstrated the almost instantly transformative impact that customised digital solutions can have.”

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council leverages digital mapping to keep community informed and support local business. #Mapping #GIS #Esri

Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), today announces that Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council is using its digital mapping platform to develop a number of interactive resources to keep the public informed and support local business throughout COVID-19.

Built using Esri’s mapping software ArcGIS, the council created an interactive Open for Business map, which shows what shops and services are available to the public throughout the borough. The map also shows business opening hours, delivery and collection information and what safety measures the business has in place, all helping to support local enterprises as they reopen.

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council COVID-19 Vulnerable and Isolated Persons GIS Dashboard.

 

A dedicated COVID-19 information and advice hub also built using ArcGIS is available on the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council website and homes a wide collection of resources with further information and advice for local businesses, vulnerable members of society and the wider community in the area.

The council’s COVID-19 Coordination Hub connects people to vital community support services and has had more than 1,200 referrals to date from Advice NI and the Northern and Western Health and Social Care Trusts. It helps provide an important continuation of services and access to supports for the most vulnerable people during the pandemic.

Formed in 2015 following the merger of four different councils, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council provides public services to more 144,000 citizens throughout the region. Since its formation, the council has worked closely with Esri Ireland to implement GIS across the entire organisation, digitally transforming its services to enhance engagement with the public and enable better, more informed decision making.

Esri’s software enables legal and finance teams to view all of the council’s agreements, leases and licences on one secure platform, eliminating the need to review unwieldy paper-based records and saving both time and money for the council.

Esri’s survey app, Survey123, enables field-workers to gather data on mobiles, tablets and laptops from anywhere in the borough. This information, for example on the condition of local facilities and amenities, can be made available to view across the entire council for analysis in real-time.

Philip McLaughlin, Client Manager, Esri Ireland, said: “COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of clear communication between local government and the public. Having already rolled out GIS across many functions, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council was well-placed to leverage the power of digital mapping to create numerous rich information resources that are proving incredibly helpful to local businesses and residents.

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has leveraged Esri’s digital mapping technology to create a number of interactive resources to keep the public informed and support local business during COVID-19. Pictured (L-R) are: Nial McSorely, Digital Services Manager, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council; David Jackson, Chief Executive, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council; and Philip McLaughlin, Client Manager, Esri Ireland.

 

“In both supporting people and businesses during COVID-19, as well as using GIS to transform its processes and services, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has shown what is possible for a local authority willing to transform how they engage and collaborate with their community.”

Nial McSorley, Digital Services Manager, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, said: “The biggest challenge for us as a council is in how to interpret the sheer volume of information that is available today. With Esri’s digital platform, we can compress all the different information channels into a single source, enabling us to meaningfully analyse and use data to make intelligent decisions.

 

“As we look to move on responsibly from COVID-19 restrictions, we will again leverage digital mapping to stimulate local tourism and support the reopening of businesses. Beyond that, we will continue to roll out GIS to further areas in the council and ensure all members of our staff can access and use the platform to enhance every aspect of the public services we deliver.”

Lighting technology pioneer Audi fields next-generation OLED technology. #AUDI #Motoring #Tech #OLED

In June 2020, the next generation of a lighting technology premiered in the Audi Q5: digital OLED technology. With organic light-emitting diodes (so-called OLEDs), Audi was a pioneer as far back as 2016. Now digitalisation is ringing in a new age. This technology promises to improve road safety and is the first to allow for personalisation of the tail light signature.

Dr. Werner Thomas, OLED technology project manager at Audi, explains: “Headlight technology has seen a rapid evolution at Audi in recent decades. In addition, we have been decisively driving the development of rear-lighting systems.”  In the latest milestone achievement, the brand is now the first car manufacturer to digitise the tail lights.

Why does Audi focus on OLED technology?

OLED light sources are panel radiators – unlike point light sources such as LEDs using semiconductor crystals. There are many benefits of OLEDs including their light being extremely homogeneous. It is infinitely dimmable and achieves very high contrast. It can be split into segments. These segments are individually controllable and can develop diverse levels of brightness, with minimal gaps between the segments. The lighting unit does not require any reflectors, optical fibers or similar optics. This makes OLED units very efficient, lightweight and flat, which considerably increases design freedom.

An OLED lighting element is just one millimetre thin, while conventional LED solutions require much greater installed depths of 20 to 30 millimetres. The energy requirement of an OLED is once again significantly lower than that of LED optics if the latter are to achieve similar homogeneity. Audi’s OLED technology made its production debut in the tail light of the Audi TT RS* in 2016. Up to now, Audi models using OLED lighting technology have had up to four individually controllable, complex lighting segments that could be used for an individual, defined lighting design.

What benefits do Audi’s new digital OLEDs offer?

The larger number of individually controllable segments can now be randomly activated, with continuous variability of brightness. In the Q5, three tiles of six units each, in other words 18 segments per lamp, are currently used. The high precision and great variability offer light designers a wealth of opportunities, using just one type of hardware. Q5 customers opting for digital OLED technology have a choice of three signatures in the tail lights when purchasing their car. In the “dynamic” Audi drive select mode, the lamps additionally switch to another signature. Moreover, animation effects such as coming-home/leaving-home lighting scenarios can be implemented, plus the dynamic flashing light has been integrated in the new lamp units as well.

How exactly do digital OLEDs differ from established OLED technology?

“Up to now, we have been using OLED segmentation with the Audi TT RS* and A8 for designing signature lighting. This has changed with the Q5,” says OLED technology project manager Dr. Werner Thomas. “Here the tail lights turn into a kind of display on the outer shell, which will provide us with ample opportunities and prospects in terms of design, personalisation, communication and safety going forward.” Thus, the year 2020 marks the threshold of a new age: a pure medium for signal functions is now additionally becoming a medium for displaying diverse types of content.

 

How do digital OLED lamps improve road safety?

In the new Q5, Audi has implemented a proximity detection feature for the versions using digital OLED tail lights. When another road user approaches a stationary Q5 from the rear within less than two metres, all the OLED segments light up. When the Q5 starts to move, it returns to the original light signature. This is just an initial example of the Q5’s car-to-x communication with its surroundings. Subject to legislative approval, predefined warning symbols are conceivable in the future as well. The development and approval of the first dynamic turn signals is a good example of Audi’s effective engagement in collaborating with approval authorities.

The developers present potential technologies and then adapt them as needed – which facilitates the homologation and approval of new ideas and concepts. Audi also shaped the developments around the digital OLEDs in advance in a way that made legislative approval possible for the Q5 in spite of differences in tail light design. Thus, the roads are becoming safer with lighting technology from Audi.

How will the development in this area continue?

Going forward, clearly more segments per tail light are conceivable, allowing for even greater personalisation of signature lighting. For instance, predefined symbols might be displayed to provide other road users with early warnings of hazards such as slippery roads or the tail ends of traffic jams.

Niio introduces Art for a “Digital Age” #NiioArt #Digital #Zoom #Tech #Art

Niio is fast becoming the standard, ‘go-to’ platform for moving image art, making premium video and new media art accessible on a global scale to a global audience, and offering a fresh alternative to the mundane and traditional streaming media.

The company was created to inspire and connect people through moving image art, which is perhaps the most relevant medium of this generation, while also empowering video and media artists to showcase, safeguard and earn from their art.

 

Niio takes a unique ‘collaborative ecosystem’ approach to enabling the medium, offering art professionals (including artists, galleries, curators and museums) the chance to each have their own branded account on the Niio platform, and to empower them with a broad set of dedicated technology tools to store, preserve, publish, privately and publicly distribute, and professionally play back their digital format works. This has in-turn has positioned Niio as the default moving image art repository and management tool.

Before the business was launched, the team had over 200 meetings with artists, collectors, galleries and curators. They found people placed value in the moving image art world and felt passionately about it, but the sector lacked a market or central hub that was accessible to all of the relevant stakeholders.

 

Artists wanted a platform through which they could store moving image artworks, sell directly to affluent collectors, and make some works available for loan on masse to reach a global audience. Collectors had their own concerns, as there was no platform through which to view and purchase exclusive works that they wanted to enjoy privately. Niio realised quickly that whether a gallery, curator, artist or collector, the digital art world was fragmented, and there was a necessity to create an ecosystem that satisfied all of those players.

We live in a digital age, defined by technology and the growth of the online world, and that is reshaping the way we experience art. Increasingly, it means software and film have become the paint, the screen has become the canvas and a new destination for art. Niio specialises in this new generation of moving image artworks.

 

The next generation of art enthusiasts and collectors consume and experience everything online, that is why Niio calls it the “digital age”, and that is what the art world is starting to adapt to. This has already extended to other areas of culture with the emergence of streaming giants in the film and music worlds. Art is experiencing the same shift, because people crave access and unique, meaningful experiences, and Niio was founded with a mission to meet that demand. The screen is the natural environment for that shift to take place: it is a digital canvas that is accessible globally, and creating artworks that are designed to be experienced through it is a solution that satisfies artists, galleries, collectors, and the art-loving public.

 

When the platform was set up, the greatest challenges facing artists and collectors were access and maintaining value. Art is a scarcity market, and typically you might associate a model that allows for streaming of artworks as being targeted to the mass market.

 

Niio’s answers to those challenges were rooted in the technology and giving complete control of the tools they developed to the artists. Just as when purchasing a physical masterpiece, collectors want to own digital artworks that are not consumed by the masses. Niio spent a lot of time early on implementing blockchain and AI technology to underwrite ownership of artworks obtained through Niio to ensure that people were confident in the integrity of the platform. 

 

Most recently in response to the COVID-19 situation, Niio has launched ‘Moving Art for Good’, a project to bring moving image art directly into people’s homes to give them that crucial dose of daily inspiration. The first step of this is the curation of a collection of moving image artworks as Zoom backgrounds. The collection includes a wide selection of artworks from leading artists, including Quayola’s Camouflage series of abstract landscape algorithmic paintings and Joe Hamilton’s Cézanne Unfixed, which blurs the relationships between painting and the museum. They are free to download and can be accessed here: https://www.niio.com/get/zoom/

Microsoft-UCD Digital Policy Programme. #Microsoft #UCD

In collaboration with Microsoft in Ireland and in Brussels, UCD has established the Microsoft-UCD Digital Policy Programme at UCD with the goal of building digital policy capability amongst the public and private sector in Ireland and across the wider European Union.

In today’s rapidly-evolving digital world, it can be a challenge for legislators and policy makers to keep abreast of the pace of change and its potential impact. This programme is designed to support those in government with the skills and knowledge necessary to amend existing legislation and plan for new legislation that will protect society and provide a relevant framework in which organisations can operate.

The features of the programme will fill a short term need while also building a sustainable pipeline of skills for long-term impact. It will build on existing expertise and curriculum already offered at UCD, while also recruiting leading academics to develop and oversee its success.

Under the direction of Programme Director, Professor Kalpana Shankar, the programme aims to fulfil this demand for digital policy knowledge and skills in the policy ecosystem. The Digital Policy Programme, which will welcome its first intake of students in September, includes the establishment of new educational programmes, including a Certificate course and a Masters in Digital Policy as well as the opening of the UCD Centre for Digital Policy under the leadership of Professor Eugenia Siapera. Elizabeth Farries has been appointed Assistant Professor for the programme and there are plans to appoint a Microsoft Newman Fellow in Digital Policy in September.

The last few weeks and months have demonstrated in a very real way, the transformative impact of technology. Digital solutions have been at the heart of the healthcare and societal response that we have seen – not just in Ireland and Europe but across the globe. The technology led response, driven by innovation and the creative thinking of public servants, has been done at a pace not previously imagined. The reality is that the policy environment and legislation are not, by their nature, as responsive. In addition to the need to create a policy environment that caters for a digital future, it is likely that there will need to be amendments to policy to reflect the rapid change that has already happened. This Digital Policy Programme will help equip those in decision making positions with the skills and capabilities that they need to help inform this important work.

Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland said: “Microsoft is proud to have worked with industry partners, the public sector and leading academics to help inform the development of a programme that will build digital expertise into existing policy making frameworks. This much needed and timely programme will help to advance capabilities amongst Irish and EU policy makers on legislative and policy matters that arise in the context of digital technologies. Irish policy makers have the potential to take the lead in Europe on the evolution of laws and policies that remain relevant in a digital world while also fostering innovation and building trust.  The Microsoft team here in Ireland and in Europe are delighted to partner with UCD in the development and delivery of this new academic programme.”

Professor Kalpana Shankar, Professor in UCD School of Information and Communication Studies said: “This MSc in Digital Policy is the first of its kind in Ireland. It is designed to offer graduates the opportunity to learn more about some of the core policy issues that are arising with the prevalence of digital and data technology in all dimensions of life. The course will build on the rich offerings in the School of Information and Communication Studies as well as the wider College of Social Sciences and Law through taught modules, independent projects, and interactions with policymakers and evaluators in the public and private sectors.”

For details on the Microsoft-UCD Digital Policy Programme log on here.