http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/ epic software Blog Feed en anthony@epicsoftware.com Copyright {gmt_date format="%Y"} {gmt_date format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s%Q"} 60 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/the_cleanup_work_begins_-_days_2_and_3_-_gut_remove_and_dehumidify/ http://epicsoftware.com-561#When:20:07:26Z January 29, 2011 -On Saturday morning the cleaning crews from Blackmon Mooring arrived in mass. At times there were at least 25 people working on all areas of the building. The company was also hired by Silver Rock Productions to clean their offices (first and second floor). They did a really good job by removing  the small objects and cleaning them by hand. The walls and furniture were cleaned and the rugs shampooed.The air ducts were also cleaned.  They also has an technician who is an expert on cleaning and servicing electrical equipment. They cleaned the Silver Rock computers, and he looked at some of the epic gear that was in the studio and just feet from where the fire started. On Friday I took some photos with the camera and many of the photos were out of focus. The technician said the electronics in the equipment were compromised by the smoke and heat, and they will all be declared a loss. We will meet with the Hartford adjuster tomorrow to determine the amount of loss. Container Building 2012-01-29T20:07:26+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/epic_creative_co-op_suffer_a_fire_in_the_studio_-_everyone_is_ok_but_t/ http://epicsoftware.com-560#When:02:49:58Z January 27, 2012 - Tough day today. We had a fire in the epic Creative Co-Op. The good news is no one was hurt, but the studio portion of the building suffered extensive damage.  The day started off fine, but at 8:45am, Mike Huffine of Silver Rock Productions arrived and saw smoke coming out of the back of the building. He entered and realized the smoke was indeed from a fire inside the studio. He immediately came to my office, called 911 and he and I went out to see what we could do to stop the fire. Mike opened the studio doors and I got a garden hose. With the door open, we sprayed water onto the flames coming from the north west corner of the studio. The spray from the hose knocked the fire down, and several local fire departments arrived minutes later.    The fireman entered the building and with their hoses, and other tools quickly got the fire under control. The damage at this point was not bad – but it would get worse later.    Container Building 2012-01-28T02:49:58+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/lighting_grid_work_continues_-_it_moves_from_floor_to_ceiling_in_2_min/ http://epicsoftware.com-559#When:12:07:48Z January 20, 2012 - For the past two weeks we have been working on the lighting grid in the studio. This is a precision job with lots of moving parts (literally). Adam and Cliff began by fabricating the individual trusses they built in late December. Metal elbows and tees were welded in place. 3 inch heavy duty utility straps were affixed to turnbuckles connected to metal bars running across ceiling joists in the attic. These joists were engineered to take the weight of the grid (right now about 1000 lbs). Electric wires were installed to power the boat lift motor. After some adjustments were made, Adam threw the switch and the grid moved off the ground - it was pretty exciting to see this monster move from the floor to the ceiling in less than 2 minutes! Now that the unit was working properly, it was time to come up with a way to make it safer. Container Building 2012-01-23T12:07:48+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/building_the_overhead_studio_lighting_grid/ http://epicsoftware.com-558#When:19:06:55Z January 2,2012 - Happy New Year! It is really amazing that a year ago we had just finished setting the 11 cargo containers, and today we are down to just a short punch list of items to get the building finished. Over the past couple of weeks we got the rest of the trim done, and turned our attention to installing gutters and downspouts and building the lighting grid for the studio. The Aluminum Composite Panels from Mitsubishi and Grupo Daissa.made a great deal of difference to the building. We have learned to work with the material and have devised ways to use it for all kinds of things. For example, with the two panels we had left over from the job, Adam and Cliff fabricated a custom gutter system designed to channel all the water from the big roof away from the building. This is actually a big deal as we learned the hard way. Container Building 2012-01-07T19:06:55+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/khou_channel_11_cbs_houston_rents_epic_creative_co-op_for_video_shoot/ http://epicsoftware.com-557#When:18:57:05Z January 5, 2012 - Ready or not the epic Creative Co-Op hosted its first video production shoot for KHOU Channel 11 (the CBS affiliate here in town) for a commercial this week. Although we still have work to do on the overhead lighting grid, the folks at the station said it was not a problem. When they arrived, I understood why - they came with an over sized truck loaded with all kinds of gear. To say it was impressive would be an understatement! Chris, the Director of the shoot for KHOU quickly put his crew to work. The electrician checked out the power panel to insure it would be adequate for their lighting (it was, but he made some excellent suggestions which we will implement for the next shoot). The DP (Director of Photography) set up his camera (a Canon 5D), and the grip set up the lights and got the sound curtains placed around the studio. The teleprompter operator got his gear set up, and the script loaded into the computer for the shoot. This was one well oiled team, and I was humbled to watch it all come together so smoothly. Container Building 2012-01-07T18:57:05+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/deck_ramp_and_studio_floor_coating_-_armorpoxy_ii_and_armortex_-_part_/ http://epicsoftware.com-556#When:00:00:18Z December 18, 2011 - Following up on the work we started last week, this week we finished using the Armorpoxy products on both the exterior wood surfaces and the studio floor. ArmorTex was used to coat the wooden decks and ramp while Armorpoxy II was used on the studio floor. Both products were easy to apply, and we are confident will provide us with years of great service. We covered the application of the ArmorTex product in our previous blog entry, so in this one we will focus on the Armorpoxy II product. This is one really tough product, so it is easy to see why it is most often used in military or heavy industrial applications. We were glad we had all the right tools on hand as a result of ordering their "Job on a Pallet" kit. We also took advantage of their free technical phone support by asking several questions we had during the installation process. Container Building 2011-12-16T00:00:18+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/coating_the_studio_floor_and_the_ada_wooden_ramp_deck/ http://epicsoftware.com-553#When:03:49:04Z December 4, 2011 - This blog post will be dedicated to the Armorpoxy Company of Union NJ. The company has been very helpful in working with us to select the right protective coatings for the studio floor and the wooden decks/ramps. Turns out that they had products that were perfect for both applications. Their ArmorTex acrylic latex paint was used on the wood ramp/deck, and their Armorpoxy II concrete coating was used on the studio floor. We worked closely with Dan Blum, President of the company, who was very generous with his time and advice. The Armorpoxy products were shipped directly from their manufacturing plant in central, NJ to our jobsite in The Woodlands,Texas via common carrier. Armorpoxy features it's "Job on a Pallet" service. They work closely with the contractor or homeowner to insure you have everything needed to prep, apply and install their products on our job. Let's take a closer look at how these products were used on the epic Creative Co-Op. Container Building 2011-12-05T03:49:04+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/building_out_containers_9_and_10_-_planting_rye_grass/ http://epicsoftware.com-552#When:03:19:38Z November 27, 2011 - This week we focused on getting the interior rooms in containers 9 and 10 done. We finished the walls, and painted them along with the ceilings. We put down a hardwood floor that came from the dining room in my house. We had some damage from Hurricane Ike a couple of years ago, and the settlement covered a new hardwood floor. We were able to salvage enough good wood from the old floor to recycle it into this project. We also needed to get the studio ready for a music video that Silver Rock shot just before the Thanksgiving holidays. They projected photos of the singer on the walls, and used a Red One camera to film her singing the song. The lighting was awesome, and the video came out great.  Container Building 2011-12-05T03:19:38+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/recycling_and_project_clean_up_begins/ http://epicsoftware.com-551#When:19:59:07Z November 20, 2011 - This week we turned our attention to cleaning up the site, and even made a little money taking some of the iron scrap to the recycling yard in Houston.We also talked with a prospective tenant for units 9 & 10, and decided to build out one interior room for the unit. This required we clean up and organize the materials left over from the build. Throughout the project, when we cut out walls it resulted in drops from the corten steel. We also had drops from the tubing and pipe we cut for handrails and supports. We put the iron into two separate pile. One pile contained materials that could possibly be used somewhere else on the job, and the other pile was for scrap that was too small to reuse. We did this with both steel and wood. This week, we culled through the piles and took our first load of steel to the recycling yard and disposed of the wood that was not possible to reuse.The trip to the scrap yard was really interesting. Container Building 2011-11-20T19:59:07+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/getting_the_epic_creative_co-op_ready_for_leasing/ http://epicsoftware.com-550#When:12:02:02Z November 13, 2011 - We are making great progress on checking off the items on our punch list, and this week we worked on organizing the building. Now that we have a concrete floor under the ramp, we were able to move the Silver Rock utility trailer out of the studio and into this secure area. We also cleaned up in and around the building, getting our tools and materials organized. It is important from time to time, to stop and organize the site. Soon, we will start to formally show the building and look to lease out the remaining spaces. We continued work on the summer kitchen, and got the plumbing installed and working. We added concrete pavers in front and to one side of the counter, and painted both the inside and outside of walls.  Next week, we will add a footrest (a 2" OD steel pipe) to the front wall of the summer kitchen, and finish trimming it out. I visited Southwest Building Products and picked up a small sample of FuzeGlass counter top material. This product is really amazing. It is lighter than I expected, and the imbedded glass really bring the surface to life. Next week we will detail the installation of this low carbon cement and recycled glass product. Container Building 2011-11-14T12:02:02+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/my_epic_internship1/ http://epicsoftware.com-549#When:22:30:52Z November 11, 2011 – I started out my internship here at epic like I figured most people would at any other internship, cautious with nothing really to work on or do. Within the first day of my internship that changed. Unlike some interns who go and make copies or get lunch for everyone in the office for the entirety of their internship, I actually worked on meaningful tasks which helped me progress in both work know-how and familiarity with the field I want to pursue later in my life.I loved the work environment at epic, easygoing at times but hard working and focused more often then not.   General 2011-11-11T22:30:52+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/concrete_added_to_sidewalks_outdoor_kitchen_and_ramp_storage_areas/ http://epicsoftware.com-547#When:02:53:39Z November 06, 2011 - Try as we might during the planning stage, there have been a number of things we had to fix once the building was built. One of those items was the amount of flatwork needed around the building. Flatwork includes concrete walks, driveways, patios, and floors for the storage shed. This week we poured another 9 yards of redimix concrete to places we came up short on when we did our initial pours in August. For example, ADA codes required a 36 inch sidewalk around the building. We made ours 48 inches, but did not take into account that when the doors are open, they block most of the sidewalk. This caused people to walk in the dirt around the doors. Not good. For our wet bar area we thought we would use some old pavers, but that made for a less than smooth surface to walk on. So, we decided to pour a thin concrete slab on top of the pavers to make for a nice floor. Perhaps the most challenging pour came with our decision to pave the area under the ADA ramp which has become an important storage space. Container Building 2011-11-07T02:53:39+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/enjoying_the_epic_creative-co-op_-_a_sneak_peak_at_the_future/ http://epicsoftware.com-546#When:00:58:09Z October 30, 2011 - This week the weather turned great and it was nice enough for Scott of Silver Rock to take his computer outdoors and do his work from a second floor deck. Part of the dream of this building is for creative people to work in ways that are not possible in conventional/traditional office buildings. There are several private decks around the building along with one very public meeting area. And work continued on that public area with the summer kitchen build out. The framing work was completed, and we were able to get the walls, counter top, plumbing and electrical rough work done. We also had an unexpected visit by Brian Egan, the President of Southwest Building Products who stopped by early in the week.  He was impressed with our project, and mentioned his company distributes a variety of masonry building products. He told us about a very unique counter top he offers called FuezGlass which is a fusion of low carbon cement & 100% post consumer recycled glass.This material is very cool - let me explain... Container Building 2011-10-31T00:58:09+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/working_through_our_project_punch_list_-_3_pages_of_details/ http://epicsoftware.com-545#When:01:54:41Z October 24, 2011 - This week we revised the punch list of things we need to do for the construction of the project to come to and end, and the good news is we are down to 3 pages of relatively minor items. Most of the things on the list are from the outside of the building - trim, painting, deck and ramp coating, summer kitchen, and some flat work (concrete walk extensions). One item that was nice to check off was the large picnic table we built between the epic studio and the Creative Co-Op. This table will serve as a meeting and break area where we can socialize (without sitting in front of a computer). Container Building 2011-10-24T01:54:41+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/progress_on_landscaping_trim_picnic_table_and_tiki_bar_area/ http://epicsoftware.com-544#When:11:35:52Z October 16, 2011 - We continued our work this week on adding exterior trim, getting the picnic table and benches ready to be tiled and putting in some plants in the first phase of landscaping the property. We have also had several folks interested in leasing the space (even though we have not advertised it anywhere to date!). We began work this week by taking up the 3/4" exterior plywood outside the 2nd floor of the Silver Rock Deck. Silver Rock wanted something special there, and we installed 6" exterior deck boards which look great. The plywood decking we removed was re-purposed for the picnic table and benches.  With this wood in place, the picnic table is ready for a tile top, and staying true to form, we found some awesome porcelain tile at Emser Tile in Spring for just $.79/sq. ft. (reduced from $3.50/sq. ft.) . We also used some recycled brick pavers and AC unit bases for the floor of our outdoor kitchen. Container Building 2011-10-17T11:35:52+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/epic_delivers_3d_fly_through_animation_for_westbury_christian_sports_c/ http://epicsoftware.com-543#When:22:49:51Z October 14, 2011 - Imagine a private high school trying to raise over 7 million dollars for a new sports complex in today's economy. Talk about a challenge! How do you helps sponsors, alumni, families and friends understand your vision for converting a run down YMCA facility into a state-of-the-art athletic facility? This is the task given to Silver Rock Productions for their client Westbury Christian, a private school in southwest Houston. Silver Rock was charged with creating a video for a capital campaign gala with Bobby Bowden, the famous coach of University of Florida, would MC. This would have to be one emotional video to get the financial support they needed to buy and rebuild the old Y. Silver Rock asked epic to meet with Westbury Christian to determine if it would be possible to create a 3D animated fly through of the YMCA with all the specific detail they had in mind.  The head coach and Headmaster at the school had been thinking about their new facility for some time, and they had just about every part of it figured out. But at this point it was all in their heads - the only source material we had to work with was a small 2D graphic created for a post card the school used to promote the event. To make it even more interesting the gala was scheduled just five weeks from our first meeting. They did pledge to help us with the visualization every step of the way, and that made all the difference in the world.  Here is how we did it. Multimedia Productions 2011-10-14T22:49:51+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/trim_detail_work_continues_on_the_creative_co-op/ http://epicsoftware.com-542#When:10:06:49Z October 9, 2011 - It is amazing how some simple trim around the exterior of the building can make such a difference in how it looks. Each piece of trim has to be carefully cut, routed, bent, fabricated and installed. It is time consuming work that has to be done with precision, but it is well worth the effort. Other work we accomplished included getting the picnic table and benches installed, and we used the skid steer to move and shape the dirt around the building. Container Building 2011-10-10T10:06:49+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/building_trim_works_begins_and_continues_on_the_picnic_table/ http://epicsoftware.com-541#When:01:07:26Z October 2, 2011 - By the end of the week, we put the last aluminum panel on the front wall of the building and it came out awesome! During the construction of the wall, we did a time lapse so you can watch the wall take shape over the two weeks it took to build. We have some editing work to do on those photos, and as soon as they are ready, we will post them to this blog. With the big 3D wall out of the way, we turned our attention to the trim work on the building, and the large picnic table that goes between the epic Studio and the new Creative Co-Op building. We opted to use some of the Blue APOLLIC aluminum composite panels for the trim on the ramp.In addition to being decorative, the trim was designed to meet ADA standards (it has to be enclosed by a 4" high wall around the base of the ramp), and will also help channel water down the ramp and away from the building. We also had a surprise visit by the Mitsubishi ALPOLIC salesman who was very pleased with how we were using their product in a wide variety of applications. Container Building 2011-10-03T01:07:26+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/acm_work_continues_on_east_wall_on_the_large_picnic_table_and_dirt_wor/ http://epicsoftware.com-540#When:01:08:47Z September 25, 2011 - We made great progress on the 3D ACM (Aluminum Composite Material) wall this week, and only have a couple of panels to go to finish the entire east wall. Each of these boxes has to be carefully measured, scored, folded, and held together using corner clips. The box then has to be installed on the wall exactly 3/4 of an inch from the panels all around it. What makes it really challenging is the east wall of the building is not perfectly straight. As the wood used for the walls dried out over the months, it has changed shape. This has made it even more difficult to get the panels aligned. Adam and Alan are doing an excellent job on a wall that will help make this building even more special then a simple steel building. One example is our treatment of the large studio doors. Container Building 2011-09-26T01:08:47+00:00 http://epicsoftware.com/index.php/blog/read/vic_cherubini_interviewed_on_entrepreneurs_r_us_radio/ http://epicsoftware.com-539#When:16:35:32Z September 20, 2011 - What does it take to start and keep a small business going? This is just one of the many questions that Stephen J. Blakesley host of the internet radio show Entrepreneures-R-Us asked Vic Cherubini, President of the epic software group on this weeks show. If you have not yet tuned in, Entrepreneurs R Us is a gathering place for anyone who wishes to succeed in a business start-up. Blakesley, a Serial Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker has interviewed a number of successful entrepreneurs and provides the listener with ideas they can put to immediate use.  Click here to listen to the interview with Vic Cherubini.  You can read a transcript of the show below. Blakesley: "Good Afternoon Vic and welcome to Entrepreneurs R Us. Glad you can join us today." Cherubini: "Thanks Stephen - I am happy to be with and appreciate the opportunity to be on your show." Blakesley: "Tell us about your background before launching the Epic Software Group." Cherubini: "I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and attended The State University of New York at Geneseo where I got a degree in Photography. I worked as a professional photographer and taught Photography at Illinois Central College in Peoria Illinois in the mid-70's; I got interested in Industrial sales, and spent 15 years selling for Johnson & Johnson, Nitto Denko, and Shaw Industries. In 1987,I completed an MBA at The University of Houston, and launched the epic software group in 1990's; We are in our 21st year in business and operate epic from a state of the art production studio in The Woodlands, Texas." Blakesley: "What does Epic Software actually do? " General 2011-09-22T16:35:32+00:00