Mar 1 2012

Thanks to the new Emakina-developed mobile App, launched today at the Batibouw fair, Electrabel customers can now follow their energy consumption and expenses using any smartphone or tablet device. What’s even more exciting about the new App is that users can use it to switch on and off their home appliances. So on your next vacation, while sunbathing on a tropical island; you could easily verify if you have left your electric heating on before leaving your home. Or while at work, you could check whether your innocent-looking pet is not throwing a huge house party every time you are out (as brilliantly suggested in the new service’s ad).

But wait! If you’re on vacation, or busy at work you probably have other things to do than checking your energy consumption five times a day. We, at Electrabel and at Emakina, also thought about those with less time to spare. The new service can automatically send you an SMS or an email whenever irregular energy consumption is spotted. This way, if you really did leave your heating on before catching your plane, you will be notified right away, and not by discovering your next monthly bill…!

As a longstanding digital partner of Electrabel, this is the third mobile App we have developed for the Belgian energy provider. We are also highly involved in Electrabel’s website development; web communication; mobile and personalised applications. Our high level of mutual trust allowed us to even come up with a multiple-player tablet game which we offered visitors at the Batibouw fair to play simultaneously on a giant screen.

What makes this product so unique is that it goes further in redefining home automation technology. The App can produce separate statistical analysis on each appliance’s consumption, displayed per hour, day, month, or year! This is of real economic value for responsible consumers who try to lower their energy consumption and their consequent expenses. These are smart features, but above all we made sure the App is so easy to use that even your grandmother could get addicted to it.

The new App is already available for iPhones, Androids, and three other platforms. An iPad version is being developed and will be available shortly. To read more or order your own Smart energy box, check out the Electrabel website.

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Jan 25 2012

Electrabel a lancé la première solution en Belgique pour recharger les véhicules électriques. Dans le cadre de cette initiative, Emakina a développé la plateforme pour contrôler  à distance et gérer la consommation des véhicules. Le site dédié permet aux clients de planifier leurs rechargements et de récupérer les données de consommation dans des tableaux et graphiques.Le but est d’accompagner le client dans une gestion optimisée de l’autonomie du véhicule.

Emakina a également développé des applications mobiles pour iOS et Android ainsi qu’un site mobile pour permettre aux utilisateurs en déplacement de  contrôler l’autonomie de leur véhicule n’importe où, n’importe quand.

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Jan 13 2012

Electrabel launched the first solution in Belgium for recharging electric vehicles. As part of this initiative, Emakina developed the platforms to remotely monitor, control and manage vehicle consumption . The dedicated website allows customers to plan their reloads and to retrieve various data presented in tables or graphs. The result is the optimised management of the vehicle’s autonomy.

Users on the move can also benefit from a practical solution. With mobile applications for iOS and Android plus a mobile site, they can control their vehicle’s autonomy anywhere, anytime.

Emakina was in charge of the development of the different platforms, as well as the hosting.

A new video explains how the Electrabel’s Carplug solution works.

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Aug 29 2011

- By Brice Le Blevennec -

Online television, it’s the next great battle. Already today, it’s making the minds of many race.

Announced some fifteen years ago already, the infamous convergence between Internet and TV is becoming a reality today. By the end of the year, the major TV manufacturers (Sony, LG, Samsung …) prepare to flood the market with machines permanently connected to the web. For their part, telecom operators also prepare the merger between the two media.

Social tv

As you read this, Mobistar launched its platform close to the Apple AppStore, which adds features such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to the electronic program guide. And major players in the video game market like Microsoft and Sony have never hidden their dream to transform their respective consoles as privileged centers of all forms of digital entertainment.

Always online, television of tomorrow will also be mobile. Smart phones, tablets, laptops: the images begin to appear on all screens, a trend that will profoundly transform the way we consume television. Telenet launched Yelo, an application that allows you to watch (via wifi) a selection of channels on your iPad. Mobistar makes the same move, with 3G customers gaining access to a variety of broadcasters through an iPad/ iPhone application. And  Belgacom launched its mobile platform as well mobile in June. So  in short, welcome to television “AnyWhere, AnyTime, AnyDevice”, freed from the living room and dictated by the ceremonies linked to the schedule of TV programs.

A concept that we experimented with at Emakina in 2006  with VW EscapeTV, the first TV show that could be viewed via download on any mobile device.

American startups are already a step further and want to use mobile to combine the power of television with that of social networks. They are called IntoNow, Yap.tv, Miso, Philo, GetGlue … Some have already been bought up by large US “networks” or receive the  support of Internet giants (eg Miso is financed by Google Ventures).

Closer to home, the WizzChat application for the iPhone focuses on European channels and allows you to specify the TV program you are watching, share that information on Facebook and chat live with other users.

The beginnings of this trend arrived in 2008, during the U.S. elections. For the first time, televised debates did not stop at the end of the TV show; they continued on social networks. These social media became the natural ‘fora’ for comments and discussions between the viewers.

Mobile further accelerates this change: a study by Nielsen and Yahoo made ​​last year, indicates that 86% of mobile Internet users use their mobile device to talk live about a TV broadcast while they’re looking on their on their small frame.

Connected, mobile and social: these are the three attributes of the television of the future.
For advertisers, the consequence of these many changes is that the consumer’s attention is more fragmented than ever. Besides airing a 30-second TV spot, it will now necessary to be present at the same time on the major social platforms, if you want to activate your  brand by covering its entire target group.

For broadcasters, this “Television 2.0″ will also be a new, very different playing field. Regardless of the “format”, TV will have to be considered as an ongoing conversation with the audience, where both of these media mutually benefit from these interactions. Even if it was an abysmal idiocy, “Carré Viiip”, the already deceased reality TV show on TF1, was a fine illustration of this coagulation between two media: when the show ended, social networks took over and were used to generate content that was part of the next part of the competition.

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