When the sun warms up the skyline in New York, all it's creatures venture out, and the practically balmy Thursday night on March 9th drew the darlings of the Net out. I started my night at Audio Base's Audio Bash at the spacious Milk Studios where I met this nicely funded company's David Haynes (pres. & CEO) and Rhys Ryan (CTO). An investment banker-band member, David was frustrated with the morass of plug-ins needed to play audio on the web. He devised a plan, and pitched Rhys on it; and Rhys pitched him on his technical capabilities. The result? Similar to to when The Talkies put Silent Movies in the archives -- instant sound on the web. Clients like 1800-flowers, British Airways, Ford, IBM, Nick.com and Starwood are using their audio solutions to create a richer user experience on the Web.
Silicon Alley was busy Thursday, March 9th as the spring party season blossomed. Among the night's offering's I started at Audio Base's Audio Bash in the Milk Studios where I joined a small group sucking on lollipop radio transistors that actually played songs through your mouth as you bit down on the pop! Such amusements didn’t deter me from a demo by Pres & CEO David Haynes and talking with CTO Rhys Ryan before dashing off to Dash.com's office expansion soiree. Red lights lit the loft and I snacked on a rice cracker with tuna as I chatted with Troy Tyler and Vernon Steward of SmartRay. Two strapping freres, David and Jason Tardio, of Lumina and Cox Interactive respectively, also came to celebrate and meet the "dashing" CEO, Daniel Kaufman.
The childhood rhyme kept me and many of the other New York interneters running between Tribeca lofts and midtown spaces.
I started my trek at the spacious Milk Studios in Chelsea for Audio Base's Audio Bash on March 9th. A bash it was too! While the space is great for new media parties, and even though there were special speakers for the audio demos, I couldn't help think they might've wanted to take over a production facility with sound rooms so you could really hear the quality of their product.
A professional investment banker and amateur musician in a band, president and CEO of Audio Base, David Haynes was frustrated with downloading clunky plug-ins for less-than-average audio. Together with Rhys Ryan, CTO, they developed technology for audio solutions on the web from a houseboat in Sauslaito. Soon after, Charles Schwab joined their board. And then, there were the clients--representatives from Agency, Sony, Starwood and Discovery Health were their representing their clients like British Airways, 1-800-Flowers.com, and Weather.com. Different stations demoed the various websites with the sound files, in perfectly clear audio, despite the din of the party. After popping in a mushroom tart I spied a group of people gathered around a table all sucking on what appeared to be walkie-talkies. Lo and behold they were actual radio transistors that played music through your mouth as you clamped down on the lollipop on top! La Vida Loca came tin-ily through my teeth as I was introduced to Kirsten Bartok of Hambrecht & Quist, one of the lead investors in Audio Base. The darling Colette Ballou introduced me around to a few other nice people and with a song in my head (literally!) I jaunted on to the next par-tee.
