TORONTO.
November 4, 1998. When Roger Hodgson stepped out on stage last night
to launch the next leg of his Solo Tramp world tour, he did so in
support of the Northern
California Center for the Arts and with the backing of a Macintosh
application from Galleon Software.
Perhaps
best known from his days as lead singer of the British rock group
Supertramp, Hodgson now takes his breakfast in America and graciously
offered to perform a special home-town concert to benefit the arts
center located in Grass Valley, about fifty miles northeast of Sacramento.
But
with the final ovation still echoing in the hall, it is now the
job of Jason Turner of La
Vecchia to package it up for an Internet audience. This local
Web development company has made their reputation in audio and video
net delivery, and will be re-broadcasting Hodgsons concert
later this month in a series of pay-per-view cybercasts to thousands
of subscribers in five different time zones.
http://www.jps.net/ncca/cybercast
Were
really on the cutting edge here, says Turner, with enough
equipment and software to serve Real Video to as many as 20,000
people at once. The challenge is getting all those people to sign
up for the concert.
To
that end, hes been using good old-fashioned e-mail served
up by eMerge, a Macintosh application by Galleon Software that combines
broadcast e-mail with the mail-merge functionality found in most
word processors.
Were
using eMerge to manage our press campaign, says Turner. And
it took me no time at all to send a nice, personal announcement
to everyone on Rogers mailing list and to the thousands of
fans registered on the Official
Roger Hodgson Web Site.
But
the power of merged e-mail really comes to the fore at the box office.
Were using eMerge to create our cybertickets,
says Turner. Each with the unique user ID and password youll
need to sign onto our server. In fact, eMerge will import
any tab-delimited database file, merge it with a form letter, and
e-mail it directly to all the people on your mailing list. Everyone
receives their own private and personalized message, which makes
it perfect for just this sort of electronic commerce.
Since
its release early last year, eMerge has been gaining quite
a reputation among Internet-savy entertainment professionals, including
record companies, online resellers, production companies, fan clubs,
and impresarios like Jason Turner. For this Galleon Software can
thank the continuing popularity of the Macintosh in this industry
and their talent for recognizing a new and better way of doing things.
You
can learn more about eMerge on Galleon Softwares website:
http://www.galleon.com/emerge
See
how an online CD reseller uses eMerge to customize releases:
http://www.galleon.com/emerge/use/businesses
Or
download a demo version with full documentation from:
http://www.galleon.com/emerge/demo
Galleon
Software is a Canadian developer of desktop communications software
for small, specialized markets. eMerge is a trademark of Galleon
Software. RealVideo is a trademark of RealNetworks, Inc. Macintosh
is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
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