A
Look At Windows Vista
Future
Meetings
Below is a list of dates the for 2007, these dates have been confirmed.
October 31st
November 28th
December 19th
Last Month….
Shopping
in Tescos will never be the same again. Last month Barry Gilchrist
gave us a fascinating insight into space planning for the retail
trade. No wonder we can never find anything, it’s all been
computerised!!!
Barry explained that he had worked in the software industry since
the mid 1970’s initially as a programmer and moving through
Quality Assurance into his present role of Development Manager.
A role admirably suited to him – sitting at home listening
to the radio and drinking tea and coffee and telling the developer
to sort out the odd bug he has found in their code. Sounds all
very laid back, but I am sure Barry has to work a little harder
than he has us believe. Software today, is extremely complex and
needs a high degree of scenario testing in a limited timescale
and it is one of Barry’s jobs to find these errors before
the software is released on to the unsuspecting client.
Onto the software. On show was a product called Space Planning
which is written for and aimed fairly and squarely at the retail
industry. If you are not involved in planning store layouts and
displays the chances are that you will never have come across
anything like it. The package is expensive – so don’t
expect a freebie off a magazine cover disc in the near future.
The basic setup costs around £20k and with database support
rises to around £200k.
Space Planning is a package to assist in the design of store layouts
including the type of display be it shelving, peg boards or cabinets
etc. Product can then be added, offering the designer the opportunity
to order, orientate, space and so on. Apparently the displays
are known as Gondolas in the trade and the electronic design is
called a Planogram. The Planogram is a bit like a design created
by a draughtsman with a Front elevation, End elevation and Plan
of the Gondola, allowing the designer full views of the overall
design. In this way the designer can maximise shelf fill and store
floor space. No one these days leaves the store design to the
local shop manager. The suits at head office have full control
now.
As Barry explained, the Planograms are created usually back at
head office by a dedicated department of store planners. Uniformity
seems to be the way – go into pretty well any Boots, Azda
or Tesco and the layouts are technically the same. Some leeway
is built in for local management advice on best selling products
and localised sale offers.
Next up, Barry demonstrated how relatively simple a basic Gondola
can be created in a matter of minutes. He then showed us how to
rearrange the product to maximise shelf space and add impact.
The designer has the ability to simply rearrange shelf height,
style, product position etc and the software will indicate if
the design oversteps the basic layout rules. For example if the
product size is too big for the shelf height the designer will
be informed. Once Barry had created his Gondola, he was able to
view it from the plan, end and front view. The icing on the cake
occurred when he hit a button and a 3D image of the gondola was
created allowing the developer to see exactly how it would look
in store.
The database holds the names of all the products and these can
be swiftly located onto the designed Gondola. This detailed information
can be further enhanced by actually adding miniature photographs
of the product labels for total realism. In fact, Barry explained,
there are a number of companies around the world who specialize
in creating these photographs for Planogram designers. Finally
He showed us some specially created designs that are used for
marketing the product. The display of the drinks Gondola was something
to behold. Not only were you able to see all the bottles labeled
but it was possible to look down on the gondola and through the
glass shelving to the bottles underneath.
The database is the hub of successful design and has to hold a
huge amount of data as no two retailer requires the same information.
It contains a very sophisticated calculation system that allows
the end user to build in their own design rules. Although the
cost of the database bumps up the cost by a factor of 10, most
retailers tend to go with it for the added information facilities
and design rules that can be built in.
Barry’s company is one of perhaps only 5 in the whole world,
who deal in this line of work and they have several thousand clients
worldwide including the majority of UK household names. Somehow
shopping will never be the same again – I am already thinking
of Gondolas (albeit the Venetian variety) as I push my shopping
trolley around Tescos.
Our thanks to Barry for an excellent and most informative evening,
allowing us an insight into the mysteries of store design.
Dave Robb
Digital Corner….
What’s
new in the digital world? Well, with Christmas just round the
corner the major players in the digital camera world have been
very busy and both Canon and Nikon have added to their impressive
range of cameras.
First
up Nikon announced two new cameras due to be available in November.
The D300, which is a direct replacement for the semi pro D200,
comes with a number of new features including a 12.3 Mp resolution,
a 51 point auto focusing system, 3” TFT monitor and a new
self cleaning dust removal unit. This model will also shoot up
to 8 frames per second. The body is robust, being made from a
magnesium alloy and has inbuilt weather sealing and weighs 825g.
This beast will set you back £1299 for the body –
lenses come extra.
The
second offering from Nikon is the D3 which replaces the flagship
D2X. Aimed fairly and squarely at the professional market it comes
with an impressive array of features and is built rugged enough
to withstand the punishment of a pro photographer’s working
day. This is Nikons first full frame D-SLR meaning there is no
focal length multiplication to take into account as with its cheaper
colleagues. The D3 offers all the features available on the D300
and much more including shooting up to 11 frames per second and
weighs 1240g. Again available in November, it will set you back
a mere £3,399 for the body.
Canon not to be outdone has produced two upgrades to their range.
The first being the EOS 40D which replaces the popular semi pro
EOS D30. It offers 10Mp resolution and will shoot up to 6.5 frames
per second. The camera has a 3” TFT monitor and sports its
own sensor cleaning system on power up. Built for durability it
has a magnesium alloy body and environmental seals, it weighs
in at 740g. The cost of this camera will be £899 for the
body and should be in the shops now.
The Canon EOS 1DS MKIII is the professionals dream and comes with
all the features one would expect and more. This camera offers
a massive 21.1Mp resolution and is another full frame D-SLR. There
is the cleaning system as fitted to its junior model and also
a live view system through the 3” monitor. It will rattle
off 5 frames per second for up to 56 jpegs (12 raw) before filling
the buffer. It weighs in at 1210g and will set you back the small
matter of £6000 for the body.
Also out about now is the Olympus SP-560 UZ which features a 27
- 460 mm 18X zoom lens and 8Mp resolution. Sporting a 3”
rear screen it also has 24 scene modes as well as the standard
P/A/S/M for creative shots. It will cost around £350. Samsung
have come out with the NV15, an unbelievable 12Mp resolution camera
with anti camera shake and a 3X zoom. Price around £250.
If it extra storage you are after then Western digital have produced
a 2 Terabyte (2000Gbyte) stand alone hard drive that can be set
to mirror its data using RAID technology. The unit will cost you
about £450 and is available from www.wdmybook.com
Still looking for a decent graphic package? Adobe Photoshop Elements
6 is now available with even more features to the already excellent
ones. It requires Windows XP or Vista and will probably cost around
£70. See the adobe website for full feature details. www.adobe.co.uk
Dave
Robb
Club Christmas Meal
Our annual Christmas dinner will be Thursday 13th December and
Ben has kindly volunteered to organise it again for us. The venue
will be the same as last year. “The Bowls Club Restaurant”.
Ben needs to have names, orders with the money as soon as possible.
The price of the meal this year is £12.95 + £1.00
towards the tip. Cheques to be made out to The Club House Restaurant.
The menu is on the back of the newsletter.
Ben
can be contacted on Tel 01664 454888
Next Years Meetings
The provisional dates for next years meetings are listed below.
We will confirm these dates as soon possible.
Jan 16th
Feb 13th
Mar 12th
Apr 9th
May 7th
Jun 4th
July 2nd
Aug 20th
Sept 17th
Oct 15th
Nov 12th
Dec 10th
At the last committee meeting we started to look at topics for
next year. If you have any ideas for topics please let us know
or better still you could put together a short presentation on
your favourite subject.
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