| Izah Azahari |
PROGRESIF Cellular Sdn Bhd yesterday invited the media to a ‘Coffee and Chat’ session with Progresif and Itsybytes Company at Starbucks, Beribi, to speak about the telecom firm’s latest brochure which utilised augmented reality technology developed by Itsybytes.
Representing Progresif at the event were Devin Edwards, Chief Marketing Officer and Roger Plahay, Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Progresif, while Itsybytes was represented by Ikmalina Yunos, Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Huda Firdaus Jamil, Chief Creative Officer.
In his talk, Devin said that apart from developments in telecommunications, Progresif is also active in promoting its brand, building a sense of community and exploring Brunei’s progressive eco-system through the relationships they foster with people who are doing things in the market that no one has done before, and yet not well-promoted.
“One of the fundamental pillars of our corporate social responsibility is to raise awareness of these individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs who are doing things that we feel are progressive, and tie them to what they try to promote as a brand,” said Devin.
The Progresif brochure, Devin said, acts as a platform for these businesses or entrepreneurs to promote themselves, with the likes of a high school student who delves in Minecraft development, which Progresif partnered with to build the Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Mosque in Minecraft that can be seen in the latest brochure, and Itsybytes, which has helped in a relatively large project with Progresif to create the first augmented reality-enhanced magazine for Brunei.
Devin Edwards (L) and Roger Plahay (2L) from Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd (PCSB) and Ikmalina Yunos (2R) with Ejan Emran from Itsybytes Company. – BAHYIAH BAKIR
“We see this as a tool now, partially capitalising on the awareness that Pokemon Go has brought to augmented reality.”
As a company also involved in promoting the creative industry, Itsybytes actively develops game applications, animations and programming with the aim of providing enjoyment for the locals through their contents. Their application ‘kARya’ (‘art’ in Malay), which implements the augmented reality technology, can be used to scan the content of the Progresif brochure.
Devin added that the brochure is a big success as it is a starting point for growing awareness on what is progressive in Brunei, acting as a first real case study of putting something together that can be commercialised and can change the media landscape, or even changing the virtual reality landscape of Brunei.
Meanwhile, Ikmalina explained that as the first game studio in Brunei, Itsybytes is trying to bring game development into Brunei to revolutionise entertainment, bring joy to its people as well as increase local youth’s awareness of such technology, which will in turn help achieve both Brunei’s Vision 2035 and the vision of a ‘Smart Nation Society’.
“We have been developing augmented reality and virtual reality for a while now… We try not to limit ourselves to just developing games, because we really want Brunei to experience better technology,” said the CEO of Itsybytes. She added that they have been focussing more on augmented reality content for organisations, especially those requiring help in maximising their advertisements.
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