July 28, 2015 Chris Huppertz
America's Largest Independent Advertising Rep Firm Chooses Country's Leading Cable & Telecommunications-Focused PR Agency to Drive Growth Viamedia, and subsidiary, placemedia, the most successful and sought after independent cable TV outsource company for...
July 28, 2015 Chris Huppertz
Public Celebration Featuring All Award-Winning Wines, Food and Music on Aug. 8 from 6 – 9pm in Palos Verdes
This year’s Long Beach Grand Cru judging concluded with a surprise winner in one of the highest award categories possible. In a stunning upset, an unusual varietal made from the Geisenheim grape, hailing from Wisconsin, “crushed” the competition to walk away the sweepstakes winner for white wines! The award-winning wines will be available to the public in a spectacular public tasting, from 6 – 9 pm on August 8 at the South Coast Botanic Garden high atop the scenic Palos Verdes Peninsula. Tickets and additional details for the event are available online at www.longbeachgrandcru.com or by calling (213) 640-3894. “This is particularly important for our competition because it’s so unusual,” said Long Beach Grand Cru chief judge, Dan Berger. “Normally you would see a more standard varietal winning, but this is something that our judges say can only happen in Long Beach.” He added, “This is a big win not just for that specific winery, but for the winemaking region of Wisconsin and for all winemakers of that grape varietal. This is also an indicator that our competition is unbiased and open minded toward unusual varietals and regions, and also signifies the quality and level of judges that we have.” The Long Beach Grand Cru is a nonprofit wine competition benefitting the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and its partnership with The Children’s Clinic in Long Beach. More than 800 wines from domestic and international vineyards received awards from a field more than 1,000 entries. This year, the medal-winning wines were judged July 18th and 19th at the Long Beach Petroleum Club. Utilizing an extensive, double-blind judging process that divided the varietals into several categories and subcategories, the competition gave judges the chance to rate entries as Bronze, Silver, Gold, Double Gold (equivalent to a unanimous Gold rating by all panel members) and Chairman’s Best of Class. Only five entries were honored with the prestigious Sweepstakes Award in the categories of Red, White, Rosé, Sparkling and Dessert wines. All sweepstakes- nominated wines are tasted by all 27 judges, who then vote for the five sweepstakes winners: Best Overall Red:Daniel Gehrs, Rocker Rarities, 2012, Central Coast
Best Overall White: Elmaro, West Prairie White, 2014, Reserve, America (Country Appellation)
Best Overall Rosé: Goose Watch Winery, Cabernet Franc Rosé, 2014, Finger Lakes
Best Overall Sparkling:Gloria Ferrer, Royal Cuvée, 2006, Carneros
Best Overall Dessert: Red Soles Stillhouse, Limoncello (New Brandy infused with lemons), NV, Paso Robles, CA. Tickets and additional details for the event are available online at www.longbeachgrandcru.com or by calling (213) 640-3894. For a full list of the winning wines, please visit www.longbeachgrandcru.com.
July 9, 2015 Chris Huppertz
International Grand Cru and Culinary Tasting Benefits Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
The Long Beach Grand Cru, the country’s only non-profit wine competition, benefiting Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and its partnership with The Children’s Clinic in Long Beach will celebrate its 21st anniversary in a new location — the lush 87-acre South Coast Botanic Garden, with an evening of wine, food, one-of-a-kind silent auction and live music on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 6 pm – 9 pm at 26300 Crenshaw Blvd. in Palos Verdes Peninsula. Since its establishment in 1995, the Long Beach Grand Cru has become one of Southern California’s most popular wine and food tasting events featuring over 1,000 wines from more than 300 international & domestic wineries with unlimited pours, and tastings from 25 regional restaurants. This year’s Grand Cru will raise funds to benefit LAFLA’s Greater Long Beach Community Medical-Legal Partnership. In 2014, the public tasting attracted more than 1,200 attendees and helped raise more than $300,000 to support LAFLA’s frontline law firm services for poor and low-income people in Long Beach. Since its inception in 1995, the Grand Cru has raised over $3.9 million to support LAFLA’s services in the greater Long Beach/Harbor area and across metropolitan Los Angeles. This year’s competition will feature all styles of wine from domestic and international vineyards. Medals are awarded to winners in the following categories: Chairman’s Best of Class, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Sweepstakes. “The Grand Cru is the only event where wine enthusiasts and wine collectors can together change the lives of thousands of poor people who turn to LAFLA when they need legal assistance for a crisis that threatens their shelter, health and livelihood,” said Silvia R. Argueta, Executive Director of LAFLA. According to Dan Berger, Grand Cru Chief Judge and syndicated wine writer and publisher of Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences, “Producing a fun-filled evening and elite but fair judging competition is a challenge and a passion for all of us. Most importantly we know they every sip we take is for a good cause.” Event sponsors include: Laura M. Wilson & Associates; Adelson, Testan, Brundo, Novell & Jimenez; California United Bank – 1st Enterprise Bank; Christopher D. Baroni; Ensemble Investments; Grace McAdams; Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear LLP; Law Office of Alexa Socha; Law Office of Cantrell Green; Lynn Etkins; Norm Wilson & Sons; Pierry & McAdams, LLP; Samuelson, Gonzalez, Valenzuela and Brown LLP; Silvia Argueta; Stephen Brickley; Tran Law Group & Courtland Palmer; Watson Land Company; Windes, Inc.
July 8, 2015 Chris Huppertz
Market-leading encoding software enables Ultra HD satellite distribution trial to European football fans
Envivio (NASDAQ: ENVI), a leading provider of software-based video processing and delivery solutions, provided fans with an Ultra HD vision of the future of soccer telecasts when it supplied encoding support to Canal+ Group for its satellite and OTT distribution trial of the UEFA Championship League soccer final concluded on June 6, 2015. The Champions League final is one of Europe’s most prestigious and highly viewed football tournaments. It features the top European football clubs and traditionally is viewed by more than 350 million European TV households. Canal+ Group leveraged different vendors for the transmission of this event and Envivio Muse™ Ultra HD was used for the final compression and satellite distribution in France. “Envivio is glad to provide once again expertise and technical support for the enhanced delivery of this great soccer contest,” said Julien Signes, CEO, Envivio. “The month of June was packed with thrilling sport events and in the space of a few weeks, we have supported major sport broadcast transmissions in Ultra HD, testing the delivery of the world’s most desired events: from sailing to tennis and now soccer, the most popular sport in Europe. We are at the side of innovators such as Canal+ Group every step of the way and we are very proud of the praise received for the quality and flawless transmission of the UEFA Champion’s league final. ” Envivio Muse Ultra HD is a high-quality video encoding/transcoding solution that offers a new TV experience for end-users desiring to watch ultra-high quality live programming on Ultra HD (UHD) compatible devices. Muse Ultra HD can encode up to 4K video resolution (4 times HD resolution) at 60 frames per second, and offers stunning image quality thanks to a larger color range with the new BT 2020 standard. Muse Ultra HD is integrated with the latest audio/video technologies and supports HEVC (H.265) compression in 10 bits, Dolby AC-4 encoding and pass-thru. More than 300 content and service providers around the globe, including eight of the Top 10 global mobile providers, nine of the Top 10 broadband and seven of the Top eight U.S. cable providers use Envivio to power their multi-screen and Pay TV services. Visit www.envivio.com to learn more.
July 8, 2015 Chris Huppertz
Senior Digital Media Executive Joins Global Leader in Media & Entertainment Services
Jaclyn Ranere, an accomplished entrepreneurial executive with extensive digital and interactive experience in music, video and film, will serve as Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. vice president of global marketing and communications, announced David Kassler, CEO. Ranere is charged with leading the global marketing and communication strategy at Deluxe. An industry veteran with significant experience, she has fulfilled marketing leadership roles across every facet of the communications spectrum. Ranere will report to David Kassler, chief executive officer and Maggie Williams, executive vice president, global head of human resources. “Jaclyn was at the forefront of the digital evolution of the music industry, bringing a passion to helping build and shape a company’s culture while propelling its growth. These skills are increasingly important as the entertainment industry adapts to a new content ecosystem, from capture to consumption.” Ranere joins Deluxe from The Orchard, where she led efforts to shape and communicate the company’s value to its record label, artist/artist management and filmmaker clients across the music and film industry in more than 25 global markets. She led a team covering corporate communications, interactive and digital marketing, digital advertising, audience development, licensing, strategic partnerships, lifestyle marketing, design, product positioning and analysis. While there, the The Orchard grew to become the largest supplier of digital music in the world. Before joining The Orchard in 2004, she ran Moonshoot Productions, a company focused on creating and using video to drive digital marketing campaigns. She is a graduate of Boston University’s Film & Television program.