Astute Technology Develops State-of-the-Art Media Player for Oncology Society’s Annual Meeting

PRLog (Press Release) - Jul 13, 2009 -
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world’s leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer, offered its 2009 Annual Meeting “virtually” through a new state-of-the-art media player developed by Astute Technology.  The scientific and education sessions at the ASCO Annual Meeting were captured in full-motion video and distributed online within 24 hours using Astute’s Conference.CAST® technology, providing virtual access to the meeting in one of the most rich media experiences on the market.  “Our new state-of-the art player leverages Microsoft Silverlight technology and is one of the most sophisticated online media experiences with powerful search and navigation, all occurring while the main view continues to play,” said Jon Merrill, CEO of Astute Technology.  “The player is particularly effective for searching and retrieving content across multiple topic areas or tracks.”

The Astute player is the first of its kind in the conference space and turns the meeting/conference viewing experience into a polished delivery platform which provides for great efficiency in searching for and viewing content coupled with an exceptional user interface that physicians and allied healthcare providers appreciate.  The Astute player transforms the meeting into a powerful reference work and platform for collaborative learning.  “We are pleased with the power and functionality delivered to ASCO members and meeting attendees through our new virtual meeting player.  We’ve delivered Annual Meeting content online for many years through Astute’s technology, but this year we were able to add a significantly better and more streamlined user experience through the new video player which puts content and context together,” said Michael Glode, MD, Chair of ASCO’s Information Technology Committee.
Features include:
•   Powerful search and navigation across ASCO meetings from 2005 to date, covering thousands of presentations.
•   Searching of additional content while the current "presentation" continues to play.
•   Full screen play mode.
•   Each presentation is identifiable by a representative thumbnail.
•   Categorization and viewing of related or "top viewed" content.
•   Topic and track categorization, allowing for further drill-down in a topic area.
•   Subscription "lock" features to limit viewing of certain meetings or sessions to subscribers only.
•   Cutting-edge design akin to film and television-based media players.
•   The ability to 'multi-task'- enabled by continuous content play during search and retrieval of contextual information, additional resources and other information provided in the framework of the player.
•   Slide Player mode, showing poster presentations submitted by faculty.  This provides even more coverage, extending the Virtual Meeting beyond oral presentations.

The Astute Player was also utilized during the meeting at designated kiosks to view poster and oral presentations. The kiosks were highly trafficked and during the 5-day event, attendees viewed over 13,000 presentations.

Astute Technology's Conference.CAST®, powered by our patented Encore technology, allows for capturing of live training sessions, conferences, or symposia, and outputting those sessions online, to DVD, or to smart phones within 24 hours.  The technology captures everything on the screen including animation and embedded video so that the virtual participant can view the session just as if they had been in the room.  Train a live audience once, and then use that training to train the rest of the teams in a virtual setting, making sure the remote audience is getting the exact same message.

About ASCO
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the world’s leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. With more than 27,000 members, ASCO is committed to improving cancer care through scientific meetings, educational programs and peer-reviewed journals. For ASCO information and resources, visit www.asco.org. Patient-oriented cancer information is available at www.cancer.net.

About Astute Technology
Astute Technology is a technology and design firm based in Reston, Virginia specializing in website technology and design, and multimedia learning technology solutions.  Astute’s website design and services division enables leading firms to more effectively communicate their corporate message and brand through their online properties.  Through Astute’s products and technologies, corporations, associations and government agencies have developed, disseminated and monetized engaging multimedia educational programs.   For additional information, go to www.astutetech.com.