Flow NBL Champions

Flow National Basketball League (NBL) champions Urban Knights celebrate victory after defeating rivals Tivoli Wizards 71-69 in game three of the finals on Tuesday, August 21 at the National Arena.

Kim-Marie Spence, Creative Industries Manager at  JAMPRO  enjoyed her time spent with the gentlemen of Columbus Business Solutions.  She shares our lens with Jamil Bennett, Account Manager - Government and Strategic Accounts and Jensen Sylvester, Director – Government and Strategic Accounts at the preview screening of the HBO documentary “Where the Music is Always Alive: JAMAICA Jazz and Blues 2012”. Flow and HBO partnered  with the Ministry of Tourism to produce the feature which highlights the best of  Jamaica’s music against the backdrop of the 2012 Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival and in commemoration of the 50th Independence celebrations.   The preview event was held at the Gardens at the Jamaica Pegasus on Wednesday, July 25.

Walter Elmore (centre), chairman, Art of Music Productions is flanked by Denise Williams (left), director of government and corporate affairs at Flow and Victoria Ferreira, communications associate, HBO Latin America at the preview of the HBO documentary special “Where the Music is Always Alive: JAMAICA Jazz and Blues 2012”. This is the second year that Flow and HBO have partnered to spotlight Jamaica  and its musical  tradition however, this  year special focus was placed Jamaica’s 50th year of Independence.  The event was held in The Gardens of the Pegasus on Wednesday July 25.

Lucky winners Ragston McLean, Marlon Hylton and Steve Evans will be decorating their living rooms with brand new 32” LED Smart TVs courtesy of the Flow Turn It On promotion. The trio received their prizes at a surprise presentation at Flow’s Courtleigh Retail Store on Thursday, August 9. 38 lucky customers have already won televisions and other great prizes from Flow. With 3 weeks to go in the promotion, there are more new and existing Flow customers  who are eligible to win one of 50 32” LED TVs, wireless routers and cordless phones by signing up for service or paying heir bills on time.

McLeish rues missed chance

After spearheading Runnin' Rebels' enthralling 72-71 victory over Urban Knights in the FLOW/National Basketball League (NBL) Southern Conference final with a game-high 22 points, 25-year-old Kemar McLeish is left disappointed after losing their semi-final games 2-0 to defending champions Tivoli Gardens Wizards.

McLeish finished the season with impressive statistics of 179 points, 67 rebounds, four blocked shots, 19 steals and 24 assists and is a leading contender for MVP of the Southern Conference, a feat he has accomplished over the past four consecutive seasons.

He pointed out that while the possibility of being named MVP for the fifth time is a grand accomplishment, his ultimate goal was winning the national title. "Basketball is a team sport; individual awards and accolades are all right, but our aim was to win the national title and celebrate as a team," said the Runnin' Rebels forward.

McLeish, who represented last year's beaten finalists Majesty Gardens Legends, was bent on playing a leading role for his new team to pull off a win over the west Kingston squad in the semis. "I was with Majesty Legends last year and went to the finals where we were beaten by Tivoli, so this year I wanted to turn the tables," McLeish argued.

The outstanding player is grateful that he has remained injury-free throughout the season, unlike previous seasons when he was dogged by knee, ankle and other injuries. "I have suffered no injuries this year. I played without even a bruise - nothing at all," McLeish said.

The former Calabar High School student recalls the difficulties he encountered initially at getting a chance to parade his talents when he visited the courts at his alma mater or in his Duhaney Park community.

The determined McLeish, however, refused to be sidelined by the "bigger boys" and got a jump-start to his career while he was a third-former at Calabar. He went on to represent his school in the ISSA Under-16 and Under-19 competitions from 2001-2004, during which time the teams became champions.

McLeish noted that growing up, his idols in the game were NBA players Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. He notes, however, that he is not seeking to be drafted into the NBA just now. Instead, he says, his immediate ambition is to pursue studies in January to acquire a degree in accounting.

He has singled out his former coach, Marland Nattie, general secretary, JABA, and Richard Rowe as his mentors.

"I look toward them. They talk to me when they think I am out of line. It is not just basketball when it comes to these people, it's life in general," said McLeish, who has represented the Under-19 and senior national teams.

Columbus Showcases Cloud Solutions for Enhanced Business Performance

COLUMBUS Business Solutions (CBS) has unveiled its latest cloudbased services to Jamaican businesses, a key target market for the company.

The Flow associate showcased its latest portfolio of enterprise-class cloud-based systems to companies recently at the Knutsford Court hotel in Kingston. The event featured demonstrations of the firm’s Video Conferencing, Coud Voice and Cloud Security services.

In the face of current economic challenges, local businesses continue to seek solutions that enable them to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency and minimise business risks. Cloud technology has emerged as a viable option that enables businesses to achieve greater efficiencies as it brings increased flexibility, scalability and cost benefits as well as applications that facilitates collaboration and real-time information exchange.

“Our new cloud solutions deliver real benefits to businesses by eliminating the need for capital expenditure to acquire hardware and reducing the total cost of ownership of IT resources,” said CBS vicepresident John Clear. “What makes ours different from all the other cloud solutions available here is that Columbus customers can be completely confident in the capacity, reliability and stability of the network that powers these services,” he said.

Cloud Voice provides the benefits of a multi-functional, feature-rich PBX system without the hardware installation, maintenance and costs that are typically associated with such systems.

Video Conferencing enables real-time, face-to-face communications thereby saving businesses time and cost associated with travel for business meetings and training. The solution can be used from anywhere securely and openly, and facilitates up to as many as 50 persons from anywhere in the world to participate on a video conference call with HD quality.

Cloud security provides businesses with a solution to manage the confidentiality and integrity of their IT network assets. Information security intrusion protection features include firewall protection, antivirus and anti-malware, URL filtering, anti-spam and email security.

One of the key drivers fostering the growth of the cloud has been the availability of broadband and the rise in the availability of internet bandwidth at increasingly lower costs. For the last six years, Columbus has been building out its fibre-optic network across the island and delivering increased bandwidth at lower costs to hundreds of businesses who are now able to take advantage of cloud and other technology applications for their business operations.

“Today, Columbus is the only company in Jamaica that operates its own end-to-end fibre network to power its cloud solutions. No other telecommunications provider in Jamaica can offer the same assurancesof the integrity of its cloud solutions as we can for our customers,” said Clear.

“With our infrastructure, and backed by our partners GlowPoint, CheckPoint, and Metaswitch, we are able to deliver the solutions that are scalable to meet the needs of all businesses regardless of size. Our solutions are robust and rich with features suitable for larger enterprises while still affordable for small and medium sized businesses,” he added.

Launched in March 2011, Columbus Business Solutions provides a comprehensive range of business class ICT solutions for SME, Enterprise and Government clients across the Caribbean and Latin America. The solutions are powered by Columbus' US$1billion regional fibre-optic network that connects 22 countries across the region, delivering the most scalable, high capacity, resilient connectivity available anywhere.

 

Historic OnePeople Documentary for Independence Day Premiere on Flow TV

Jamaicans will have one more reason to celebrate their national pride when the official documentary feature for the national celebrations of Jamaica 50, ‘OnePeople’, makes its international debut on Independence Day.   The documentary will premiere on Monday, August 6 at 4 p.m. simultaneously at the Jubilee Village at the National Stadium in Kingston and on Flow TV, channel 100.  The feature will also premiere at the O2 arena in London at 4 p.m. and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York at 7p.m. and 9 p.m.

The highly-anticipated feature was based on a simple premise of capturing the spirit of Jamaica by asking Jamaicans and friends of Jamaica locally and overseas, one question -“What does Jamaica mean to you?”

After fielding through thousands of entries and months of editing, producers of the film Zachary Harding and Justine Henzell, have compiled a riveting feature of contributed footage with candid and entertaining views of Jamaica.  The final product is anticipated to further stimulate a heightened sense of national pride on the day that Jamaica and the rest of the world celebrates the country’s milestone achievement.

According to Zachary Harding, “We were amazed with the number and quality of submissions. Our editors then did a mind-blowing job of stringing the footage together, to reflect the magic of what it means to be Jamaican.  Justine and I are proud of the final product, and hope that it will inspire and motivate audiences for generations to come.  As Jamaicans we need to see ourselves in a new light; energized and united as ‘OnePeople’ to make the best of the next 50 years."

He also thanked Flow for their partnership and their contribution to making the film possible. 

For her part, Michele English, president of Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, operators of Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, is happy to be associated with the documentary which highlights Jamaica's global reach 50 years after Independence.  “This is a very significant time for Jamaica and its people and we felt that it was important to support this project which we see as a ground-breaking piece of work from Jamaica's film industry," she said.  “We have continuously looked for opportunities for partnership in which Jamaica’s culture can be showcased to the rest of the world. 

The premiere of the OnePeople documentary comes on the heels of the recent launch of another significant documentary on Jamaica, set within the context of the jubilee celebrations, by HBO in collaboration with Flow, featuring the musical tradition of Jamaica through the Jamaica Jazz and Blues festival. 

Justine Henzell, endorsed the move by Flow adding that "Flow continues to support the creation and distribution of high quality Jamaican content with their sponsorship of "OnePeople - The Celebration." 

The production team for OnePeople includes Justine Henzell, Zachary Harding and Kevin McDonald (director of Marley and the Oscar-winning The Last King of Scotland) as executive producer.

Viewers will also have an opportunity to see the feature on Flow OnDemand on August 10.