19 Jul 2012 12:00 Africa/Lagos
Getting Oil And Gas Personnel Places Where Others Fear To Tread
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Avia International Travel/HRG is thriving in an industry which many experts say is dying. As more and more travel agencies are closing their doors, Avia International is hiring, expanding, and poised for tremendous growth.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120719/DA24936LOGO)
The folks at Avia International Travel have never been to most of the places they send their clients. And that's okay because the firm—headquartered in Houston—sends people to places most don't want to go.
Avia International/HRG serves the travel needs of the energy, offshore, and marine services industry. The firm moves not just executives, but the people who work on oil rigs and ships. Avia gets drillers, derrick hands, geologists, and engineers to some hard-to-reach places. A typical morning might include routing a Ukrainian rigger to Luanda, Angola; an Irish machinist to Port Harcourt, Nigeria; and a Saudi engineer to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. No basking on beaches or sipping pina-coladas for these travelers.
When Antonella Ballatori, president, launched the firm in 1997, oil was $10 a barrel and the travel industry was in turmoil. Many travel agencies were merging, shrinking, or closing, yet Avia flourished. The agency has experienced tremendous growth, yet maintained an exceptionally high level of service to their clients. So how did the company succeed?
INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS
Getting people to oil rigs and ships around the world requires an expertise not easily duplicated. Crews regularly cycle on and off rigs and ships. Crews must often get to areas where flights are limited, governments are unstable, and visa restrictions are complex. Avia's agents must have a minimum of 15 years experience in international travel. Their expertise goes beyond booking tickets and hotels. Agents advise clients on the right visas, vaccinations and worldwide events that may impact their travel. "Our employees are the Special Forces of the travel industry, and our clients are the Special Forces of their industries," Ballatori says. "We understand that many of our travelers make huge sacrifices, leaving their families for extended periods. And there's one aspect we take more seriously than all others: getting our clients home safely."
ALWAYS AVAILABLE – ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
The company, which also has a London office, provides global 24 hour emergency travel service by an Avia employee. When you call Avia, you always reach an international travel expert ready to assist in any emergency and knowledgeable of your company travel policy. When traveling to the remote areas of the energy world, a traveler stranded at the airport needs travel assistance fast so they look to Avia, whose average hold time is under 20 seconds, to assist them quickly.
GLOBAL REACH
An affiliation with the Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), which has offices in more than 120 countries, over $16 billion in sales, and a staff of 12,000,further expands Avia's global reach. It allows Avia International Travel to better serve its multinational clients and deliver lower costs through combined buying power.
For more information, visit www.aviainternational.com
Contact:
Ilia Fox, Marketing Manager
Avia International Travel/HRG
(281) 436-5031
ifox@aviainternational.com
SOURCE Avia International Travel/HRG
Web Site: http://www.aviainternational.com
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Thursday, July 19, 2012
Africa’s First World Class Film Studio Attracts Hollywood Filmmakers
Africa’s First World Class Film Studio Attract Hollywood Filmmakers
Do you know what Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blood Diamond, 3D action movie Dredd, super hero thriller Chronicle and Denzel Washington’s Safe House have in common?
They are Hollywood blockbusters made in the Cape Town Film Studios in South Africa. It is the first state of the art world class film studio in Africa opened in 2010.
“It is amazing,” commended Jim Dodson, an executive producer of Chronicle, the 20th Century Fox movie that was made with about $15 million in Cape Town, and made over $120 million at the box office.
You will spend half of the budget of Hollywood blockbusters at the Cape Town Film Studios as noted by Andrew Macdonald, producer of Dredd.
“Film that looks like $100 million can be produced for less than half that figure.”
Nico Dekker, the CEO of Cape Town Film Studios is proud of their achievements.
“We give life to film projects that were seen as unaffordable in the US or Europe,” he told Kristin Palitza in an interview published in the July edition of Forbes Africa.
The location of the studios is perfect with awesome beaches, mountains and vineyards.
“It offers beautiful locations and an incredible variety of landscapes, all within a three-hour radius,” Dekker emphasized.
South African filmmakers no longer need to travel to America or Europe for studio work like post production and visual effects, because they can now do all that in the Cape Town Film Studios. Producers can start and wrap their movies in the studios and get real value for their money.
Forbes Africa reported that at full capacity, the Cape Town Film Studios can add about $180 million to South Africa’s GDP! The South African film and TV industry has an annual turnover of $175 million and creates jobs for over 30, 000 people.
The building of the 17, 000 square metres studios cost $41 million The complex has four stages, support rooms, production offices, green screens, workshops and a cinema on 200 hectares of land and it only takes you 40 minutes to get there from main Cape Town and 10 minutes from the airport.
The Hollywood Reporter ranked it among the top ten film studios in the world. The private investors made of up of a consortium of South African stakeholders are happy with the successes achieved so far.
~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
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Politics of Hollywood’s Half of a Yellow Sun
Politics of Hollywood’s Half of a Yellow Sun
Written by Carmen McCain and first published by the Weekly Trust on Saturday, 04 February 2012 05:00
For the past week there has been much brouhaha over recently released details of the upcoming film version of Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s bestselling Biafra war novel Half of a Yellow Sun. The film will reportedly be directed by Nigerian playwright Biyi Bandele, with financial backing from the British Film Institute and unnamed Nigerian financiers. British producers are Andrea Calderwood, producer of Idi Amin bio-pic Last King of Scotland, and Gail Egan, producer of The Constant Gardener, both films which feature white protagonists set against crisis in Africa.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Darfur Diaries: Message From Home
Darfur Diaries: Message From Home Synopsis
The documentary Darfur Diaries: Message from Home features interviews with many victims of the devastating genocide taking place in the area. The filmmakers seek to shine some light on this dark chapter in human history, encouraging people to make a great effort for humanitarian relief in besieged Darfur.
Directed by:
Jen Marlowe
Adam Shapiro
Cast:
Abdullah
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African Women Pledge To Fight for Economic Growth in Lagos
16 Jul 2012 14:35 Africa/Lagos
African women pledge to fight for inclusive growth at Lagos economic summit
LAGOS, July 16, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The Second African Women's Economic Summit ended on 14 July with a unanimous commitment by hundreds of entrepreneurs and professional women to campaign vigorously for the economic empowerment of their gender as the surest means to banish poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth.
Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/african-development-bank.jpg
“It has been great these past three days. I will not miss the next meeting. I want to see a change in my lifetime”, said Cecilia Akintomide, Vice President and Secretary-General of the African Development Bank (AfDB) (http://www.afdb.org), which jointly organized the event with New Face, New Voices, a women's network founded by Mozambique's first lady, Graça Machel.
“I don't want my daughters to be in the same kind of summit in the coming years discussing the same issues,” said Ms. Akintomide, who represented the AfDB president, Donald Kaberuka, at the summit which took place between 12 and 14 July.
Businesswomen including chief executive officers, bankers, industrialists and entrepreneurs, together with gender activists and top government officials, urged policy makers, corporate organisations and political leaders to step up measures to promote women empowerment and remove barriers impeding their development.
Earlier, Nigeria's finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, set the tone of the meeting In a keynote address emphasizing that women's economic empowerment was no longer simply an option because investing in women, who constitute half of the continent's population, was the only way to sustain the growth recorded across the continent at this times.
“Women are the third largest emerging markets in the globe. Women are the third largest source of growth. One of the fastest ways to sustain current growth is to invest in women,” said Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, who was a candidate in the recent election for World Bank president.
She suggested that a specialized bank be established to cater for the financial interests of women, who do not have access to investment finance for a host of reasons.
Also addressing the gathering, New Faces, New Voices executive director, Nomsa Daniels, said the organisation would focus its attention over the next two years on developing a database on women's participation in entrepreneurship, financing and the economy.
She said the group, which currently has chapters in 16 countries, would also organise capacity building programmes, financial education and enlightenment courses for women.
New Faces New Voices Advisor and former AfDB chief operating officer, Nkosana Moyo, explained that finding ways of empowering women with quality health, education and finance was of the utmost importance. “Women are actually a huge market segment and the most essential tool we need for the development of the continent. So we need to develop financial products that can help to fully utilize their potential”, he said.
“We should recreate a society in which women are regarded as equals and not playing second-fiddle to men”, stressed Mr Moyo.
The gathering explored new perspectives on how best to harness the potentials of women for the development of the continent.
In a video message, Mrs Machel said the Lagos summit would unlock the value that is inherent in the female economy in order for women to take their rightful place as equal partners in tackling Africa's development challenges.
“We see this as an opportunity to engage with decision makers in the financial sector - policy makers, regulators, commercial banks and prominent women entrepreneurs to find ways to accelerate the inclusion of women in Africa's growth story. We are not only looking at increase in numbers of women but also of their inclusion in key decision-makings positions and higher responsibilities,” she stressed.
The AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka, also sent a message reiterating the AfDB's commitment to continue to partner the African Women's Economic Summit in its efforts to scale up women's participation in the economic development of the continent.
Mr Kaberuka explained that women have always played a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of Africa. As farmers, entrepreneurs, traders and innovators, they are key economic actors in the continent, he said, adding: “I believe, strongly believe, investing in women differently is essential to revitalize our economies.”
The summit received more than two dozen pledges of various kinds of support including providing education and training to its members, logistics to support new chapters, knowledge production and dissemination, and funding.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Development Bank.
Contact: Félix Njoku – f.njoku@afdb.org – Phone: +216 71 10 26 12
Source: African Development Bank (AfDB)
“In the House of Dogs” is an unapologetic mirror of the contemporary Nigerian society with... Read more
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
How Mr. Nobody Became Mr. Somebody
Creston Mapes made a fair living as a freelance copywriter in Atlanta, but he dreamed of working for himself as a published author. He burned the midnight oil for many years, working hard during the day to pay the bills and using the night hours to write two full-length novels. He made dozens of contacts with editors, sent out scores of proposals and sample chapters, and kept on striving despite receiving hundreds of rejections during an eight-year span.
Finally in 2004, Creston caught the attention of a publisher who offered him an attractive three-book contract. His hopes soared. “But as many authors will tell you,” says Creston, “getting published doesn’t mean you have ‘arrived.’ In my case, that was the farthest thing from reality.”
Creston’s publisher released his gritty, inspirational thrillers, one per year. Nobody, Full Tilt, and Dark Star are tension-filled suspense tales about larger-than-life but deeply flawed individuals—a rock star on trial for murder, a homeless millionaire, mobsters, psychics, and meth addicts. Underneath the glitter or the dirt, Creston’s characters all search for peace, contentment, and the meaning of life, just like the rest of us. Critics swooned.
“I thought, ‘This is it. You’ve made it. You’ve broken out. The world is going to read your stories!’” Reality, however, was harsh. “During the next eight years of doing all that was humanly possible to market my books, they sold less than 20,000 copies combined—a sales performance my own publisher would later call ‘dismal.’
“Ah, but like Cinderella, we writers are resilient. You see, I still believed in my three books with every fiber of my being. In contrast to sales, the reviews were off the charts. I’d also heard from inmates, addicts and terminally ill readers who said the stories had drawn them closer to God.”
Creston was certain that the books deserved a bigger audience. So, he decided to take advantage of Amazon’s independent self-publishing platform, which allows any author to bring their books directly to market. He got the rights back to those three novels, put his own covers on them, and used the self-service platform to put them on Kindle.
“That’s when the magic happened. Kindle Direct Publishing enabled me to promote my newest book, Nobody, for free during one weekend in February. I told my author friends, and they helped share the Kindle Store link for Nobody with their circles of friends and readers.”
Creston smiles. “Blast off,” he says.
“Nobody became the No. 1 book in the Kindle store that weekend, and has gone on to sell thousands of copies since then. I used Amazon’s technology to blow through all the traditional gatekeepers. Can you imagine how that feels, after struggling so hard, for so long, for every…single…reader? Now inspirational fiction-lovers I never would have reached are enjoying Nobody and my other two novels on the Kindle.”
“I’ve always wanted to write a Cinderella story,” says Creston. “Now I have—my own.”
Creston Mapes is one of thousands of authors being discovered by Amazon customers.
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GUESS To Partner With Tiesto
17 Jul 2012 13:00 Africa/Lagos
GUESS To Partner With Tiesto
LOS ANGELES, July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GUESS, the denim-based lifestyle brand, announces that the company is embarking on a comprehensive collaboration with legendary DJ and producer Tiesto that will include a limited-edition capsule collection and branded performances around the world.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120717/NY41172)
"When I first met Tiesto, I was really so impressed," said Paul Marciano, CEO and Creative Director for GUESS? Inc. "We connected right away on both a personal and professional level. He is more than just a DJ - he is very multi-faceted and truly understands what it takes to build a brand. There is no better choice in music today to represent the free-spirited, adventurous and sexy GUESS lifestyle."
"GUESS has been a pioneer in fashion for 30 years," said Tiesto. "I've been a fan of the brand for a long time. It's really an honor to have been selected to partner with them in such a global way. The opportunity to work with Paul Marciano and his company is truly invaluable as I continue to build my clothing brand, CLVB LIFE."
Beginning in August, the Limited Edition Tiesto watch by GUESS, a new multi-functional style, will be available worldwide in GUESS stores and at department and specialty stores. The apparel collection will follow in October for women and men. The 22 piece line is inspired by the growing power of electronic music and lifestyle surrounding it in today's pop culture. Included in the offering are skinny-fit jeans for men and women in black and indigo treatments with zipper detailing, graphic print T-shirts reminiscent of the digital light shows and video projections during a Tiesto performance, and leather jackets and coated twill jackets that add an edgy sexiness using moto-jacket details. This all comes detailed and trimmed with the custom GUESS/Tiesto logo in black and electric blue.
Tiesto's performances will span the globe beginning July 23rd in Ibiza continuing through 2013 and will include locations such as Paris, Milan, Las Vegas, Dubai and Sydney, among others.
A dedicated microsite, with the URL of tiesto.guess.com, will include product details, performance schedules, ecommerce and a global sweepstakes. Fans can join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #guesstiesto.
ABOUT TIESTO
Tiesto has transcended musical genres to create a global "Tiesto" brand. His achievements include: a Grammy nomination, numerous MTV awards, performing at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games to an audience of billions, and even a wax statue at Madame Tussauds. With over 12 million friends on Facebook, 1+ million followers on Twitter, more than 300 million hits on YouTube, a globally syndicated Club Life Radio Show and his Club Life Podcast (#1 music podcast on iTunes globally), not to mention having played to millions live around the world, Tiesto has truly become a universal phenomenon. Tiesto has worked with superstars such as Kanye West, Coldplay, Gotye, Katy Perry, Nelly Furtado, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Goldfrapp and many more. 2012 has seen Tiesto achieve new heights in his stellar career - launching his very own Club Life Radio Channel on Sirius XM, releasing his AKG by Tiesto headphone range and iPhone app, along with his hugely successful Club Life - Volume Two Miami album. Headline performances at festivals around the world, residencies at Pacha in Ibiza and the Wynn in Las Vegas, as well as his upcoming Club Life College Invasion Tour in October, all promise to make this year Tiesto's biggest yet.
ABOUT GUESS? INC.
Established in 1981, GUESS began as a denim company and has since successfully grown into a global lifestyle brand. Today, GUESS designs, markets and distributes full collections of women's, men's and children's apparel as well as accessories. Throughout the years, the GUESS image has been portrayed in unforgettable, innovative campaigns that have made the brand a household name. GUESS is distributed throughout the world in fine department and specialty stores, its retail and factory stores, and on its online store www.GUESS.com. GUESS has licensees and distributors in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. In addition to shopping online, you can find more information on GUESS at www.GUESS.com.
SOURCE GUESS? Inc.
CONTACT: Jenia Molnar, GUESS? Inc., +1-212-852-0526, jmolnar@guess.com
Web Site: http://www.GUESS.com
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What Is So Special About the New Microsoft Office?
Microsoft unveils the new Office
Delivers Office as a cloud service while harnessing innovations enabled by Windows 8
Delivers Office as a cloud service while harnessing innovations enabled by Windows 8
SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, available at office.com/preview. The next release features an intuitive design that works beautifully with touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across new Windows devices, including tablets. The new Office is social and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note-taking, meetings and communications and will be delivered to subscribers through a cloud service that is always up to date.
"We are taking bold steps at Microsoft," Ballmer said at the press conference in San Francisco. "The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8."
Office at Its Best on Windows 8
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
"We are taking bold steps at Microsoft," Ballmer said at the press conference in San Francisco. "The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8."
Office at Its Best on Windows 8
- Touch everywhere. Office responds to touch as naturally as it does to keyboard and mouse. Swipe your finger across the screen or pinch and zoom to read your documents and presentations. Author new content and access features with the touch of a finger.
- Inking. Use a stylus to create content, take notes and access features. Handwrite email responses and convert them automatically to text. Use your stylus as a laser pointer when presenting. Color your content and erase your mistakes with ease.
- New Windows 8 applications. OneNote and Lync represent the first new Windows 8 style applications for Office. These applications are designed to deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet. A new radial menu in OneNote makes it easy to access features with your finger.
- Included in Windows RT. Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which contains new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications, will be included on ARM-based Windows 8 devices, including Microsoft Surface.
- SkyDrive. Office saves documents to SkyDrive by default, so your content is always available across your tablet, PC and phone. Your documents are also available offline and sync when you reconnect.
- Roaming . Once signed in to Office, your personalized settings, including your most recently used files, templates and even your custom dictionary, roam with you across virtually all of your devices. Office even remembers where you last left off and brings you right back to that spot in a single click.
- Office on Demand. With a subscription, you can access Office even when you are away from your PC by streaming full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.
- New subscription services. The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription service. As subscribers, consumers automatically get future upgrades in addition to exciting cloud services including Skype world minutes and extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive multiple installs for everyone in the family and across their devices.
- Yammer. Yammer delivers a secure, private social network for businesses. You can sign up for free and begin using social networking instantly. Yammer offers integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics.
- Stay connected. Follow people, teams, documents and sites in SharePoint. View and embed pictures, videos and Office content in your activity feeds to stay current and update your colleagues.
- People Card. Have an integrated view of your contacts everywhere in Office. The People Card includes presence information complete with pictures, status updates, contact information and activity feeds from Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
- Skype. The new Office comes with Skype. When you subscribe, you get 60 minutes of Skype world minutes every month. Integrate Skype contacts into Lync and call or instant message anyone on Skype.
- Digital note-taking. Keep your notes handy in the cloud and across multiple devices with OneNote. Use what feels most natural to you — take notes with touch, pen or keyboard, or use them together and switch easily back and forth.
- Reading and markup. The Read Mode in Word provides a modern and easy-to-navigate reading experience that automatically adjusts for large and small screens. Zoom in and out of content, stream videos within documents, view revision marks and use touch to turn pages.
- Meetings. PowerPoint features a new Presenter View that privately shows your current and upcoming slides, presentation time, and speaker notes in a single glance. While presenting, you can zoom, mark up and navigate your slides with touch and stylus. Lync includes multiparty HD video with presentations, shared OneNote notebooks and a virtual whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming.
- Eighty-two-inch touch-enabled displays. Conduct more engaging meetings, presentations and lessons, whether in person or virtually, with these multitouch and stylus-enabled displays from Perceptive Pixel.
- Office 365 Home Premium — designed for families and consumers. This service also includes an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype world minutes per month.
- Office 365 Small Business Premium — designed for small businesses. This service also includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD webconferencing.
- Office 365 ProPlus — designed for enterprise customers who want advanced business capabilities and the flexibility to deploy and manage in the cloud.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.CONTACT: Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, +1-503-443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com
Web Site: http://www.microsoft.com
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Monday, July 16, 2012
Planet NI Program Expands To More Developing Countries
16 Jul 2012 17:39 Africa/Lagos
Planet NI Program to Benefit Small and Medium Enterprises in Eight Additional Developing Countries
AUSTIN, Texas, July 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
News Highlights
- The eight new countries joining the SME Benefit Program are Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, the Philippines, Cameroon and Nigeria.
- The SME Benefit Program, as part of Planet NI, is designed to nurture local innovation and support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs developing products and services that improve their communities.
- The program includes a wide range of support activities, including technical consulting, reduced pricing on NI tools, access to world-class training and technical support.
Because SMEs make up more than two-thirds of the local economy in many emerging regions, their success contributes greatly to sustainable economic development. The program has been very successful in countries such as India and Mexico, where Planet NI has helped more than 200 SMEs thrive since the program's inception four years ago. Companies currently active in the program are developing products for rural villages, designing specialized machines for local industries and building solar-powered systems.
Quote
"Engineering startup companies in developing countries often lack the funds to acquire cutting-edge technologies, which puts them at a significant disadvantage," said Victor Mieres, vice president of sales and marketing for Asia and chairman of the board of Planet NI. "The skills and expertise of the engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs in these regions continues to impress us, and, through Planet NI, we can provide qualifying companies with NI technology to empower this local engineering talent and support innovation."
Click to Tweet : New from @NIGlobal: Planet NI is helping #engineering startups in 8 new developing countries #CorporateResponsibility http://bit.ly/ND8LGt
Planet NI is an initiative designed to empower engineers and students in developing countries to achieve economic prosperity and sustainable development through access to NI technology. To learn more about the Planet NI program, visit www.ni.com/planetni.
About National Instruments
Since 1976, National Instruments (www.ni.com) has equipped engineers and scientists with tools that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery. NI's graphical system design approach to engineering provides an integrated software and hardware platform that speeds the development of any system needing measurement and control. The company's long-term vision and focus on improving society through its technology supports the success of its customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders.
National Instruments, NI, ni.com and Planet NI are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
Editor Contact: Sarah Beck, (512) 683-5126
SOURCE National Instruments
Web Site: http://www.ni.comTop Reports
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