[Comunidad Emprendedora] 1-¿Qué es Aquadize Studios y cómo surgió la idea de llevarlo a la práctica?

[Ariel Brunetto] Aquadize es una empresa de desarrollo de tecnologias y productos para la industria audiovisual. Nuestro principal producto es Fuzion Media Asset Manager (http://www.fuzionassets.com), una plataforma para la gestion y almacenamiento de contenidos multimedia que se focaliza en el proceso de produccion de contenido para productoras de animacion, agencias de marketing digital y estudios de desarrollo de videojuegos. La idea surgio a partir de la pasion del equipo emprendedor por la computacion grafica, la demoscene y los videojuegos.

Comenzamos juntandonos los viernes a la noche en casa para desarrollar el Fuzion Engine, un motor 3D de tiempo real para el desarrollo de videojuegos. El framework fue creciendo, y en un momento obtuvimos un Fonsoft Emprendedores lo que nos permitio dar el primer salto y dedicarnos full-time al proyecto. Mas tarde, a finales del 2008 dimos el segundo salto, salimos del living, nos mudamos a una oficina, contratamos personal y comenzamos a darle forma a la empresa.

Toda la tecnología desarrollada fue aplicada a nuestros productos Fuzion Media Asset Manager y FuzionAR, una plataforma para el desarrollo de aplicaciones graficas de tiempo real, realidad aumentada y procesamiento de imágenes. Un ejemplo de FuzionAR es Fuzion Draw, un videojuego para chicos donde se puede dibujar en el aire! (http://www.fuziondraw.com).

[CE] 2-¿Qué dificultades se te presentaron en el camino empresarial?

[AB] Como todo emprendimiento el comienzo es duro. Comenzas con una idea, algo que queres hacer, y en el camino esa idea se va transformando, va creciendo, va madurando y hay muchas correcciones de rumbo y reenfoques, los que terminan, como fue en nuestro caso, en un producto distinto al ideado inicialmente, mucho mas solido y con una perspectiva de negocio mucho mas grande.

Lo interesante es que uno mismo, y el resto del equipo, va madurando y creciendo junto al producto. La primera dificultad, y tal vez la mas importante, fue realizar un reenfoque de lo que el producto debía ser. Fue desprenderse de la idea inicial para darle paso a lo que realmente el mercado necesitaba y no lo que nosotros creíamos que necesitaba. De esa forma fue como el negocio se abrió camino y desemboco en los productos de alto grado tecnologico que ofrecemos hoy y en los clientes que confian en nosotros día a día.

[CE] 3-¿Cuál fue tu mayor alegría llevando adelante este proyecto?

[AB] La mayor alegria fue ver Fuzion en plena accion en uno de nuestros principales clientes, en un equipo de trabajo de mas de 60 personas. Es impagable ver como tu producto le facilita el trabajo y hace felices a quienes lo utilizan. Ver como el mercado valora tu producto tiene un sinfin de sensaciones positivas, y diria que es un excelente indicador del camino correcto.

[CE] 4-¿Qué consejos le darías a alguien que está por iniciar su emprendimiento?

[AB] Haganlo, no lo duden. Hay un dicho que dice “Nunca es un buen momento para emprender y siempre es un buen momento…”. Es tal cual. Si uno espera tener “todo resuelto” para arrancar, no arranca nunca. Hay que largarse!. Y otro es que esten abiertos a aprender de su emprendimiento. Quiero decir que al principio uno empieza con una idea, y esa idea no deberia, a mi criterio, estar quemada en la piedra sino que tiene que ser dinamica, maleable, para que el recorrido y la experiencia le den la forma que realmente queremos. El ultimo, no emprendan solos, busquen un socio, armen un equipo.

[CE] 5-¿Cuáles son tus expectativas para los próximos años con Aquadize Studios?

[AB] Muchas!! Crecer el equipo de trabajo y especializarlo aun mas. Consolidar nuestro producto Fuzion Media Asset Manager en Latinoamerica y posicionarlo en los principales mercados internacionales. Y desde ya seguir innovando y creando productos y tecnologias desde Argentina para el resto del mundo.

Aquadize be present with our product Fuzion Media Asset Manager in the event Henry Stewart DAM Event New York 2012, an event dedicated to the art and practice of Digital Asset Management from the user’s perspective.

The event will take place on 10 and 11 May in the heart of the city of New York, USA. It will feature lectures on best practices, new trends, strategies used, case studies and debates, with the help of renowned speakers from industry, including professionals from American Express, PricewaterhouseCoopers, MTV Networks, Victoria’s Secret, Motorola, A&E Television , Pearson, Hasbro Inc., Adobe, Enrst & Young, among others.
These conferences are intended to advise companies on how to manage the growing amount of digital content, controlling access and distribution, and optimizing the working methodology.

About Digital Asset Management solutions

Globalization, new consumer trends and the increasing digitization of content are changing how creative and audiovisual companies work. Media files are growing in size, complexity and quantity. How to store and organize these files in an efficient and productive way, and how to work collaboratively and professionally, are the current challenges faced by these companies.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions help companies store, sort and distribute digital production assets, from the office or across the world. They facilitate the monitoring of rights of use of a file, and the catalog and search of content for reuse.
A robust DAM solution, in addition to the above, is able to distribute the workload across multiple servers, store millions of assets, search and present content in fractions of a second, and manage communication channels of input and output professionally.

Want to know if you need a DAM solution? Check it at http://anotherdamblog.com/2009/01/10/why-do-i-need-a-dam/.

About Fuzion Media Asset Manager – Media asset and project management at your reach

Fuzion is a Media Asset Management platform (server-client solution) that unifies media files version control and project management in one place, accelerating media production in creative and audiovisual companies.
Preview of 200+ file types, publish your images with just one click and get accurate feedback through visual annotations over images. Save up to 70% of storage costs (through deduplication technology) and up to 90% of time spent on searching and re-work thanks to faceted search system.

An ISO 9001:2008 super-quick install solution at an affordable price, with a great-looking, very easy to use GUI. Ideal for production and animation studios, marketing and advertising agencies, graphic design companies, game development studios, and any company in the need to efficiently manage their growing digital media assets.

Download the trial version!

Fuzion now offers an API for developers: Fuzion Python SDK version 2.6. You can customize and develop new applications using Fuzion SDK. With this API you can accommodate Fuzion to your needs:

• Connect Fuzion easily with other programs, or version control systems such as Subversion.
• Create plugins for design, 3D modeling or video editing 3rd party sofrware. For example, when performing a render in Autodesk 3DS Max, the software could connect to Fuzion and automatically import the generated sequence of images.
• Automate processes, automatically generate the tasks schedule or a folder structure, creating your own “templates” for your projects.
• Create your own graphic user interfaces for any platform (PC, Mac, Linux, mobile, web, etc.) with the options that are of more interest for you.
• … And much more. The possibilities are endless!

In this new version we have also launched Fuzion backup system (not available in trial version), for the backup of the contents of your projects, making it possible to store not only content but also the version history of files, information and permissions of users, tasks and notes. It is also possible to store only the latest version of the content, if you prefer to do so.

For more information, please visit www.fuzionassets.com/en, or download the latest trial version from www.fuzionassets.com/en/download.php.

We released version 1.0.12 of Fuzion, with the possibility of reopening a task, and add an asset to more than one task. Also improvements in task view filters and resolution of minor bugs.

Bugs fixed:

• TT#759: Streaming video does not work from the Internet.
• TT#718: “Open Containing Folder” does not work correctly.

For more information, please visit www.fuzionassets.com/en, or download the latest trial version from www.fuzionassets.com/en/download.php.

We thank the IECyT for the recognition and congratulations to the winners of the other categories!

The Chamber of Software and Computer Services of Argentina (CESSI) delivered last Thursday the Sadosky Awards 2011 at the Buenos Aires Auditorium. The awards were related to Human Resources, IT and Technology Industry that contribute to the development of local IT industry and a recognition of journalistic work.

Aquadize was the winner at the Computer Entrepreneur category, with our product Fuzion Media Asset Manager, a media content management platform. It was an honor for us to have this recognition as a venture in the IT industry and for the development of Fuzion. We started our operations formally in early 2009, and today, after more than 20,000 hours of development under ISO 9001:2008, we have a solid product that is being used by one of the largest animation producers in Latin America, led by Juan Jose Campanella.

We thank CESSI for recognition and we congratulate all other winners and finalists for the achievement!

For the second year in a row, Aquadize is a finalist for the Sadosky 2011 awards, the most prestigious award in the software industry awarded by the CESSI and the National Government.

The Chamber of Software and Computer Services of Argentina (CESSI) announced the finalists for the 7th Sadosky Awards, an award that recognizes the best efforts of the technology industry in Argentina.

Aquadize was finalist in two categories: IT Industry > Entrepreneurship Computer, with our product Fuzion Media Asset Manager, and in Technology> Technological Innovation, with Campo Preciso (precision agriculture). In the 2010 edition of the Sadosky awards, we were also named finalists with Fuzion Media Asset Manager.

The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday December 1st, 2011, at 18.00 pm., In the Buenos Aires Auditorium, Av Pueyrredón 2501 2nd floor, Buenos Aires, where the winners will be announced.

The Development Program supports young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 who have a project idea or a business plan in the sectors of industry, industrial services, IT, and research and development with the provision of Capital Semilla (Loan honor). The benefits depend on the category in which the entrepreneur is located, from having an idea to have a project already underway.

Aquadize was one of the winners of the 5,500 enterprises that applied to the 2011 edition of Capital Semilla. This loan of honor will boost the growth of Fuzion Media Asset Manager, with new features requested by the audiovisual industry.

We released version 1.0.8 of Fuzion, with general improvements in performance. Now you can import large quantities of files into Fuzion, in a quickly and smoothly way. Ideal for importing into Fuzion all existing files in your content database or existing projects, so they become available in the advanced search system, version control, preview of a variety of formats and much more! Learn more at www.fuzionassets.com, and download the latest trial version!