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From: sokay@richard.mitre.org (Steve Okay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Multimedia Show
Message-ID: <118657@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 30 Aug 90 13:31:05 GMT
References: <112@stbimbo.UUCP>
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Reply-To: sokay@richard.mitre.org (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
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>I thought everyone would like to hear about a big presentation that Entre
>Computers and Commodore did here in Atlanta at the Embassy Suites Hotel.
>There was an add in the paper for a "MultiMedia Presentation' for the
>Commodore Amiga, sponsored by Entre. Entre Computers, a chain of computer
>dealers aimed at businesses, picked up the Amiga line about 2 months ago.
>As a die-hard Amiga user since October of `85, I was thrilled to see it.

[Lots of stuff deleted]
>Fortunately for me, we have a really good Amiga dealer in Atlanta that stocks
>hardware, software, parts, magazines, accessories, has a knowledgable staff,
>and does repairs (Ampex, for those near by). But I feel sorry for those 
>people who first/last/only encounter is with a dealer like Entre. They may
>have glitter and gloss, but no content. On the other hand, the fact they
>carry the machine enhances the Amiga image somewhat.
>
>Personally, I don't think John Foust was that far off in his .Info article.
>
>Anybody else out there attending events like these for Amiga and Amiga only?

I recently went to one over here in Reston, Va. at CBM "Federal Headquarters".
The first thing I noticed was every desk had an Amiga on it. There were no
Macs, IBMs, etc. in sight. The presentation was to a group of architects by
MicroDec computers, a local "solution supplier" that has been True Blue for
as long as I can remember and has just recently picked up the Amiga. This in 
itself had me very excited. Yes!, the tide is starting to shift.
Their pitch was to use Sculpt 4D, Turbo Silver, Digiview and some custom 
software they had written to design architectural models for walk-through
animations and then sock the ANIMs to tape for sales demos to prospects.
It was pretty slick. The group present was your typical business type who
is wowed by blocky GIFs, and still pronounces DOS 'Dose'.  One of the guys
from CBM who was helping out scanned in a 5x7 picture using the new Sharp
handscanner, save it as an IFF, outlined the image with dpaint, then used
Interchange to turn the outline into a sculpt object. *Poof* in 5 minutes he
had a 3D wireframe of a building front up on the screen. Needless to say, all
were suitably impressed and drooling at the mouth.

I too dropped by the store afterwards. There was a CBM guy there, still wrapping
up details with the staff, and there were a few salesdroids who were pretty knowledgeable
about the system in general(as far as salespeople go). The one thing I picked up from them
was that they were clearly selling Ami as a bundled system of A3000, software, peripherals 
, etc. They don't have any plans to stock the Amiga line on a item basis.They would order
things like a 2630, genlock, etc. though.  This now brings to 5 the number of Amiga dealers
we have in the area. I would say things are definitely looking up.