Historic First for National College of Ireland Business Incubation Centre

The National College of Ireland Business Incubation Centre recorded an historic first this week as journalist Mark Little conducted a live webcast interview with incubation centres from Limerick Institute of Technology and the Tipperary Institute, using online meeting room technology. The session was initiated by Bernard Goldbach of the Tipperary Institute.

From NCI’s Dublin campus, Mark moderated a discussion in which Adrian Skehill and David Conde from Calom Technologies – one of 11 innovative start-ups housed in NCI’s incubator - explained the features of their media integration software to interactive audiences in Limerick, Tipperary and Kerry.

Calom Technologies recently won in the Dublin Emerging Company Category of this year’s Intertrade Ireland Seedcorn Competition.

The interview occurred inside Online Meeting Rooms, an Irish video conferencing technology. By using high-speed HEANET connectivity inside the National College of Ireland Business Incubation Centre, the interview was shared on a large projection screen with 28 entrepreneurs at Limerick Open Coffee in the Absolute Hotel.  

The session looked and sounded like a television interview, causing some in the Limerick audience to ask, "Isn't that the Prime Time TV presenter?"

This was Ireland's first known use of broadcast-ready interactive reporting conducted live from three locations concurrently. Mark, who recently announced his one-year sabbatical from RTE to pursue his own digital media and crowd sourced journalism, effectively utilised the technology to tap into the innovation skills of three business incubators simultaneously.

Halfway through his 25-minute interview, Mark Little took questions from the Limerick audience, including one from Ronan Skehill, brother of the Calom Technologies founder, and All-Island winner of Seedcorn. Ronan had finished explaining his well-regarded mapping solution, one involving electronic pin points on mobile phones and desktop maps.

The National College of Ireland Business Incubation Centre is home to 11 innovative start-up companies in the areas of finance, business and technology. Calom Technologies was founded in 2008 by Adrian Skehill – who lectures in Software Engineering and Distributed Systems at National College of Ireland - to deliver the next generation of on demand TV.

The company develops software that integrates Internet media content, live TV streams & social networks and delivers this using an online website optimised for televisions (http://ipic.tv). Calom Technologies is recognised as an Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-Up company.