TW05 goes interactive with Cat and Mouse

Visitors to Technology Wales 2005 are to experience the thrill of a quiz show audience as they will be able to use the very same wireless voting keypads used in the ITV game show, "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" to select their favourite new technology innovations.

The Cardiff-based company, Cat and Mouse, is Wales’ leading supplier of interactive audience response technology and will provide the delegate voting systems for both the New Product Showcase Seminar and at TW05 Evening Award Ceremony at TW05.

TW05 is the largest IT event in Wales and will take place on Friday 13th May at the Cardiff International Arena (CIA).

During the innovative "Hot Shots Gallery", five companies will have five minutes each to demonstrate their project and appeal to the public. Then members of the audience will vote for the best technology and the winner will be announced at the evening awards ceremony.

The audience will have another opportunity to understand the full functionality of the wireless voting keypads, as wi-fi keypads will be provided for a quiz game during the gala awards dinner taking place later that day.

Such voting systems have already been used successfully in TV shows such as the BBC’s Test the Nation and The National Lottery Winning Lines, and ITV’s Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. Cat and Mouse' cost effective, quick and reliable voting systems are in use on game shows throughout the world.

Full international language support means that the company can handle overseas or multilingual projects with ease. Nathan Barnes, technical manager at Cat and Mouse, comments: "As the preferred supplier of voting systems to the makers of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’, we have installed thousands of handsets in studios from London to Azerbaijan and New York to Kuala Lumpur to guarantee a fast, accurate and cost effective response when contestants choose to ‘Ask the Audience’."

However the use of its keypad systems are not only limited to TV game shows. Cat and Mouse technology, as well as its new wireless system, is now available to a wider audience. Voting systems are ideal for corporate events and meetings, market research and conference voting applications.

Nathan Barnes explains: "The views of delegates at a meeting or conference can be instantly polled, displayed, discussed or stored away for future analysis using industry standard tools. Our powerful control software can link in with existing or specially created PowerPoint presentations to allow speakers or presenters to control the voting process and examine the results immediately."

Ask your audience questions about themselves – whether it’s their age, gender, department or the number of children they have - and all future responses can be broken down by these groupings for deeper analysis.

As well as providing invaluable feedback from your audience and an insight into their views, Cat and Mouse voting systems can also bring life and entertainment values to subjects that could otherwise be less than interesting.

Each keypad is cable of playing ‘Fastest Finger’ type challenges, selecting options or entering numbers, and the expertise and experience to create games and puzzles that can help engage your delegates at the same time as getting your message across.

Trisha Howard, from TW05 organisers TH Events Ltd, says: "TW05 aims to help people to understand the importance of new technologies. To see those technologies and to experience them is the best way of achieving this. We want the event to be fun and interactive and Cat and Mouse voting keypads are just what we need."
ENDS (585 words)

Notes to editors

About TW05

Speakers on the day will include:
 
• Michael Eaton, Director of the Welsh Assembly Government's Broadband Wales initiative,
• Dr. Peter Waggett, IMB UK Emerging Technology Programme Leader
• Linda Young, SME Director, IBM Wales.
• John Coulthard, Head of Small Business, Microsoft.
• Andy Mulholland, Global CTO, Capgemini
• Richard Baker, Managing Director of Sequence,
• Peter Harman, Deputy Chief Executive of UK Business Incubation, and
• Dr. Colin Lucas of Xenos, the Welsh business angels network.
 
Exhibitors and sponsors include: NESTA, BT, Capgemini, O2, HSBC, LogicaCMG, the @Wales Digital Media Initiative, Net Regs, the Welsh Automotive Forum, Wales Trade International, The Welsh Assembly Government, Mistral, WDA, Hugh James Solicitors and Morgan Cole.

For interview requests, logos or images, contact:

Beverly Francis
Tel: 01633 876 204
E-Mail: bfrancis@themltd.co.uk

About Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse Systems offers a complete range of show control solutions, allowing TV production companies and live events organisers to manage all aspects of their show… from the click of a mouse.

The company has over two decades of experience in using computers for TV production.

Some of their on-going projects include:

"Boys And Girls"
"Popcorn"
"Winning Lines"
"Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"
"The People Versus"
"Britain’s Brainiest Kid"
"Gibberish"
"Chain of Thought"

For further information, contact

Nathan Barnes
Tel: 029 20 393 393
E-Mail: info@catandmouse.tv