My first Lab Day in Axonista
‘A lab day? Eh I ain’t that good at science’ was my first reaction when Claire asked me to take part in Axonista’s lab day.
I recently joined the Axonista team as a Marketing Exec. I came from a less techy background so when I was informed of a Lab Day I didn’t know what to expect.
However there was no need to fear, there was no test tubes and thankfully no mice running around after me.
It was a lot of fun and an experience I am already looking forward to in the future.
In the morning we all gathered into our viewing room and each team leader went through their ideas and what was needed from people hoping to join their project.
There were several teams working on projects to do with AR, Design, App creation, and even flag design.
The following is what each team got up to and what it was like be a part of my first Lab Day in Axonista.
Team Flags
Members: Thomas, Andrew, Sandra, Ian, Dave, Jenny, Jace and Craig.
Objective: To create flags for the teams within Axonista. This included Ops, Marketing, iOS Developers, and more.
Craig and Thomas get their design juices flowing on a white board.
Sandra, who was working remotely helped too, here is her flag for the Q.A team.
How did they turn out?
Amazingly of course.
Here are some of the flags that one day will be in Axonista HQ. This gave an opportunity for people to work on a project that was not part of our normal work. However Thomas has informed me that he aims to be a professional flag maker in 5 years from now.
There was even a special shoutout to Andrew who got his own flag.
Team Horror B-Movie, F13.
Members: Ian, Craig, Lorna, Andrew, Jenny, Luke and Jace.
Objective: To make a selection of horror movies using our Ediflo system and to build an app on iOS and Android to show movie posters as video thumbnails.
How did this project turn out?
Scarily good! I was really impressed with the slick layout of the app and the creativity behind each mini movie. Some of the titles were as follows, Toasted, Pluto’s Revenge, Locked in, The Axeman, Office Shower and Lights On.
Team YouTube Importer aka Project HAL
Members: Kristijan, Chuck and Marko.
Objective: To allow YouTube channels to be quickly imported into Ediflo as a new account.
How did this project turn out?
Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan. Kristijan informed me that bots were created in the spirit of the bots they picked to theme our project as HAL.
The idea of the project was to import one YouTube channel (videos & playlists) into Ediflo and use them from there.
The UI was built out in the movies style taking these as inspiration.
Where the UI inspiration came from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
HAL demo from Kristjan
The Youtube API failed and resulted in the demo not being completed, however the below ‘lights’ actually serve as a progress bar, the amount of white parts is calculated per progress, it just randomises which ones light up to give the feeling of being almost alive.
Team Red5 Standing By
Members: Colin, Brad, Jace, Luke and Daragh
Objective: To get a stream running on the Red5 Server.
David and Colin working on their project. I think Colin was talking about bandwidth…
Jace, Daragh and Brad working on Red5..not their new Album cover.
\How did this project turn out?
To quote Daragh, “we created TV!”.
The project went to plan and looked amazing when it played on the screen. It was seamless. Now Ediflo has the potential to create live TV playout.
Daragh showing the feed for the channel as part of his demo.
Team Axonista Office Display
Members: Owen, Youssef and Marko.
Objective: To create a screen that can switch every few minutes displaying information that the company finds interesting.
Some of the content can be app news, website performances, analytics, promotional ideas, news, weather updates and even random facts of the day.
How did this project turn out?
It turned out really well. Owen showed an example of how our websites were running and how many people were on it in a live setting.
There was also an example of how a collective slide would look too.
This was a great project as it was all inclusive and could be changed to any situation or requirement.
Team AR Rotator
Members: David, Marco and Sergiy.
Objective: Create an app that allows users to place a 3D model on a surface using AR and to use it from any angle.
David showing that a play button could be added to the experience and when a user clicked it a video would play.
How did this project turn out?
This project turned out really well. It was one of my personal favourites as it showed a great use of new and emerging software. The team used various examples of how the use of VR could be used in museums, or for general fun.
David managed to do an epic dance to Rick Astley as part of his demo.
Rerun and future projects.
The final part of the day concluded with Jace and Youssef doing a demo of how a video interview series could work for Rerun.
It was filmed and edited quickly, but it was very well shot. The guys had everyone in the office laughing with how Youssef ended the video interview.
The effort put in by everyone in Axonista was something that really hit home with me.
This was a great way for everyone to work on different projects that they might not normally do, add an element of fun to their job, and work with others from different sections within the company.
Since Friday my creative mind has been in full swing for the next Lab Day.
I’m the Marketing Exec at the video technology company Axonista based in Dublin, Ireland. If you enjoyed this post, click the little heart to show me some love :)
