Volta, a leader in custom web applications for the beauty and entertainment industries, today announced the official launch of Simian™ — an innovative online presentation and workflow management tool for the commercial production community. With the debut of this software application, companies can easily create production presentations, organize workflow and customize reels for their select audiences.
 
To view a demo of the new software application, go to: www.gosimian.com
According to Brian Atton, co-founder of Volta and a leading developer of Simian, “The marketing and sales teams at production studios have been asking for a more streamlined and intuitive application to create reels and presentations for a long time. As a service provider, we pride ourselves on listening more than we speak. Simian is truly a result of listening to our customers and really hearing what is important to them.”


“We are very excited to introduce Simian as a cost-effective and competitive alternative to some of the other multimedia presentation tools currently available on the market today,” adds Jay Brooks, co-founder of Volta and chief technical architect for Simian. “We absolutely believe it’s a better product, but we also know it is more affordable which is critical in today’s economic environment.”

The Simian client roster includes: Moxie Pictures, Wild Plum, Prettybird, Spotwelders, Radium, KILT Studios, Beacon Street Studios and Rabbit. Head of Production Roger Zorovich at Moxie Pictures declares, “Simian’s development team has created a first-rate product that the production community can rely on. Superb customer service and quick on enhancements, Simian takes their clients’ needs seriously.” Wild Plum Creative Director Ben Ross states, “Simian has provided a stunning workflow tool that has all the features we require and ones we hadn’t even thought of! Their commitment to constantly evolve their platform will make them a powerhouse in the production community.”


Simian is made up of two components: “Projects” and “Reel Creator”
“Projects” allows for Advanced Collaboration between users immediately after a new project is created. With Simian, Reels and Projects are seamlessly integrated allowing users to share media or reels from their media library or past projects and include them in their final presentations. Posting comments and reviewing project reports, all as a cohesive team, is simple and easy. The “Projects” section also provides Beautiful Presentations. With just a few clicks, users can customize web presentations with their logo to keep consistent with their brand’s look and feel. There is no need to build PDFs or manually code web pages.

“Reel Creator” includes easy Portfolio Management, eliminating cumbersome DVDs and/or FTP sites. Simian makes it simple to upload media, assign credits and build a robust inventory of production assets online. Files are automatically iPhone compatible and social-casting spots can be done directly from a user’s library. This section also features Reel Promotion where users can create favorites of reels to use multiple times or build new reels to cater to a specific client. Users control viewer privileges and give clients exactly what they need. Simian’s reel analytics let users track viewing trends as well, so users can see what spots are being viewed (full or partial viewings).

Simian’s intuitive, innovative and intelligent features include:
• Enhanced user interface: Simian requires fewer steps and achieves faster results thanks to standardized data screens and simple file upload (no FTP is needed).
• Innovative media management: RSS feeds allow data to be managed in one place so videos and commercials can be easily pulled from Simian, customized for look and feel and integrated into the studio’s web site.
• Spots are automatically converted to an iPhone format (no need to manage or encode multiple formats).
• Projects/Brand-able Web-Based Presentations (eliminates traditional pre-pro books, and can be used for treatments, basically no more building PDFs).
• Integrated projects & media library provides ability to share data seamlessly back and forth including entire reels.
• Advanced reel tracking.
• Social Casting Features.
• Customizable categories & credits.

Latest Upgrades:
New features this month:

• Ability to send multiple reels in one email.
• Vanity URLs enable users to email presentations in customized links.
• Users will be able to manage their own iPhone-compatible company web site within Simian.
• Users can display spots and categories from Simian on their own company web sites.

Additionally, current users rave about the features that are completely unique to Simian. Category and credit fields can be filled in with users’ own designations rather than being held to pre-populated fields. Simian also lets users take advantage of reel analytics – clients can track, which spots were watched, how many times, and at a full or partial viewing. “Simian was created based on our users’ input,” concludes Brooks. “Therefore, functionality was determined by the very people who live and breathe commercial production. User feedback will always be a part of our development strategy because that’s what Simian is all about – it’s an ever-growing, ever-expanding, ever-evolving application.”