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Pittsburgh Tech News RoundUp Featuring: Showclix, Voci, Compunetix, Cernostics and PIT

RoundUp Breaking news from major companies of the Pittsburgh area provide information regarding new Health Market Releases, World-Leading Conference Showcases, Diverse Ticket Sale Solutions, a company's Million-Dollar Raise and Insight following International Travel. These such companies are reaching out to the city of Pittsburgh to bring them knowledge and insight that potentially can affect their everyday lives.  

ShowClix Builds Momentum in Canada with New Toronto-Based Team 

ShowClix, a brand of Patron Technology, has recently established a Toronto-based team to help even more Canadian event organizers sell tickets and create memorable experiences for their attendees.   “ShowClix is looking forward to providing more Canadian event organizers with a robust and growing solution serviced by a team located in Canada,” said Bruce Morrison, General Manager of ShowClix Canada.  Morrison, who comes to ShowClix with decades of ticketing experience including past leadership roles at Ticketmaster and Ticketfly, is himself slated to present on a panel this week titled, “Who’s Got Tickets? (And How Did They Get Them?): The Industry Answers Back,” at this year’s Canadian Music Week Music Summit.   With a diverse roster of existing Canadian partners including Edmonton Airshow, NXNE Festival, Calgary Fringe Festival, and international events like Ice Castles and IMATS, ShowClix continues to make its mark in Canada and beyond.  “ShowClix provides a powerful system and a well-equipped team of client service experts to ensure the success of Canadian events of all kinds,” said Brian Arnone, President and COO of ShowClix and CRO of Patron Technology. “From event setup, to facilitating high-demand ticket on-sales, to on-site operations, it’s clear why event organizers continue to choose ShowClix as their ticketing and technology partner.”   

Voci Technologies Showcases World Leading Enterprise Speech-to-Text Technology at Genesys CX18

Voci Technologies, the leading provider of enterprise speech-to-text transcription, today announced it will demonstrate its V-Spark technology solutions at CX18, the industry’s premier customer experience event.   

As an App Foundry sponsor, it will demonstrate how its solution combines with the Genesys Customer Experience Platform to help businesses gain actionable insights from recorded voice to improve customer experience and call center efficiency.  Voci, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-out, employs artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning algorithms to deliver highly accurate transcriptions, as well as insights related to gender, sentiment, emotion, and speaker biometrics.   

Michael Smocer, CRO of Voci Technologies stated, "V-Spark enables Genesys contact center customers to transcribe 100 percent of their call center audio and quickly search and identify critical insights related to agent performance, call drivers and customer experience."    “We are proud to have our App Foundry partners contribute to an exciting agenda at CX18, focused on helping organizations harness technologies that enable a highly responsive, predictive and fully contextual customer experience,” said Jim Kraeutler, Vice President of the Innovation Group at Genesys.  CX18 is the annual conference that gathers together the strongest ecosystem of solutions, customers, partners and technologies that are pushing the boundaries and future of CX to provide the human touch in a digital world.     

Compunetix Releases Video Call Center™ for e-Health Market 

Compunetix, Inc. a global leader in high definition video collaboration solutions for industry vertical segments, is pleased to release the new Compunetix Video Call Center™. Designed as an agent-assist tool, the Video Call Center solution empowers e-health organizations to seamlessly connect patients, healthcare professionals, support staff, as well as others, in high definition video call sessions.   The Video Call Center is a web browser-based call solution built upon dynamic WebRTC technologies. WebRTC, or Web Real-Time Communication, is an emerging real-time communication protocol for delivery of high quality voice, data, and video using standard web browsers, without download.   As healthcare costs continue to rise, industry organizations strive to improve service while simultaneously streamline operations and reducing overall costs. Video Call Center takes direct aim at this challenge by giving those professionals the ability to embed easy-to-use video communications directly into their existing web pages or healthcare portals. Healthcare agents can view and speak directly with users to triage conditions and assemble resources, transfer to or conference additional consultations, or assist the user in scheduling the next phase of their care.   “This new level of e-health, or telemedicine, is designed around the needs of the providers and end users,” explains Antonio Capodieci, Manager of Video Sales at Compunetix. “It allows healthcare providers of nearly any size to offer video health services to their clientele in a personal and immersive way."   

Cernostics Raises $2.5 Million in Series A1 Financing, Led by Illumina Ventures 

 With this capital investment, Cernostics will be able to intensify its clinical and market development studies for the company’s TissueCypher® Barrett’s Esophagus Assay. Barrett’s esophagus, which affects more than three million Americans, occurs when chronic exposure to acid from the stomach causes the esophageal cell lining to deteriorate, creating an environment for cancer.    While early detection makes esophageal cancer preventable, both endoscopists and pathologists face challenges in determining which patients are truly at risk for progression of the disease. By validating TissueCypher against progression to cancer, the test helps to mitigate challenges associated with sampling error and subjective diagnosis of histology grade.  “Esophageal cancer is highly lethal. By selecting the right candidates for treatment, we have tools to prevent people from getting this cancer,” said Jacques Bergman, MD PhD, Professor of Medicine and Endoscopy, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam.   “The best successes in reducing cancer deaths have been achieved through the use of precision molecular tools to identify cancer early, combined with effective early intervention, such as with cervical and colon cancer screening programs.” said Tom Willis, Partner at Illumina Ventures. “The genomics revolution is ushering in a next generation of these tests, such as TissueCypher, and Illumina Ventures is seeking to enable their success.” 

Passenger Traffic Up 14.8 Percent in March at Pittsburgh International Airport 

In March 2018, 824,647 traveled through PIT as compared with 718,077 in March 2017. Year-to-date, 2,094,980 have traveled in 2018 compared with 1,871,175 total passengers in 2017.  

International charter service to the Caribbean, and year-round service to Europe on WOW air further contributed to increases. In March, Allegiant offered twice weekly charter service to Cancun and Punta Cana, along with weekly charter service to Puerto Plata. Delta and American also had weekend scheduled service to Cancun throughout the month, and WOW continues to provide nonstop transatlantic service four times weekly to Reykjavik, Iceland, which connects to multiple major markets in Europe such as London and Dublin.   International traffic at PIT was up 36.7 percent in March and 33.6 percent year-to-date, with more than 223,000 travelers flying abroad. International service will continue to expand in May with new nonstop flights to Montreal on Air Canada and the return of nonstop service to Paris on Delta on a larger aircraft and nonstop service to Frankfurt on Condor.  “These numbers indicate a very healthy market in the Pittsburgh region as travel continues to increase for business and leisure travelers,” said Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis.