Electric Rain Transforms Presentations With STANDOUT Presentation Solution for Windows Vista

Electric Rain, a company known for motion graphics software for video and the web, has announced the release of STANDOUT, a presentation application that makes PowerPoint look like Print Shop.

On Monday I discussed STANDOUT with Mike Soucie, Electric Rain CEO, and came away with a few basic notions about STANDOUT and the thinking behind the product:

• Electric Rain finds the current state of presentation software abysmal
• STANDOUT is bleeding-edge technology, which may be a bad thing to some (note the reliance on Windows Vista)
• There’s a divide between software that is easy to use but makes lousy presentations (PowerPoint) and software that looks great but is too complex for many users(Flash)
• STANDOUT’s product structure is unique in that it tries to marry the skills of the designer to the needs of the end user or presenter

There’s lots more, but I will publish a more in-depth article on my interview later. For now, here is Electric Rain’s official release, which goes into great detail:

PRESS RELEASE

BOULDER, CO. January 30, 2007 – Electric Rain, a software company with a vision of bringing easy-to-use multimedia creation and editing tools to business and design professionals, is ushering in a stunning new era of presentations with the announcement of its new STANDOUT Presentation Solution. This innovative desktop presentation software is one of the first full-featured designer and line-of-business applications built for the Windows Vista operating system, and introduces design firms, presentation creators, presenters and their audiences to a vastly improved presentation experience.

Making optimal use of the rich graphics capabilities and technology built into Windows Vista, STANDOUT allows designers to build custom presentation templates that are dynamic, feature amazingly crisp motion graphics, and far exceed the visual impact and quality of traditional slideshow applications. STANDOUT enables business professionals to easily edit and personalize these broadcast-quality presentation templates within an intuitive interface that exemplifies the next-generation user experience possible with Windows Vista.

“With STANDOUT, not only do designers profit from the ability to create amazing custom templates with graphics that jump off the screen, but business presenters can now develop jaw-dropping presentations that engage all of the senses,” said Mike Soucie, CEO of Electric Rain, a Windows Vista Premier Launch Partner. “Thankfully, we can all say goodbye to the era of boring, text-heavy slide shows expected to engage an audience with a series of bullet points.”

STANDOUT Presentation Solution blends the simplicity of editing a slideshow…