MEGA 777s

MEGA 777s approached Onyx to produce custom hardware for a skill stop concept. Onyx was responsible for creating a cashless card-based system and an expansion card for Mega777s pachinko slots. In addition, Onyx agreed to oversee certification and review of the skill stop system by an independent testing facility. Eventually, Onyx’s skill stop system received approval and validation from the Mexican Government as a game of skill!

As work progressed on Onyx’s deliverables the client asked Onyx to evaluate their current production capabilities and timeline. Unfortunately, the stock on hand, personnel, state of the machines and the suggested delivery date clearly indicated a failure of this project. Onyx met with the stakeholders and clearly outlined their current situation. Not wanting this unique project to fail offered a radical solution: Onyx would bring Mega 777’s unfinished stock in house, take all responsibility for unit fabrication and charge Mega 777s a firm fixed price for each machine. The final time estimate was not the customers originally planned date, but Onyx made sure the target was achievable. Onyx successfully delivered the first locations machines on time and at a price reasonable to the customer!

TRAKSTAR

TrakStar had created an extremely robust audiological watermarking technology for use by Film companies. Onyx was contracted to design and develop a front panel display for their rack-mounted industrial unit in time for a major tradeshow. The prototype units were delivered on time and well before the show! TrakStar’s developers used the excess time to animate volume meters to create what they called “The Light Show”

After the successful completion of the front panel display, TrakStar reached back out to Onyx to do in-depth profiling of the watermarking algorithm. Onyx leveraging the latest in Intel compilers along with a line by line review of the source code was able to optimize the encoder for a 100 fold improvement. This allowed TrakStar to perform 100 concurrent encodings of high definition audio on a single PC! A massive improvement.

Trakstar, LLC ran up against a tight deadline to deliver a rack-mounted watermarking encoder for the Digital Cinema Initiative. We were blessed to be referred to as Chris and Onyx Research and Engineering, LLC. Chris ramped up instantly and ultimately rescued the project, developing both custom display hardware as well as core drivers for our DSP encoder card. Not only did he meet the insane deadlines, but Chris also developed a novel new software approach that improved our encoding system throughput from 3-6X real-time to roughly 100X real-time on the same hardware. Chris went on to help us re-write and securely package and license our software-only encoder product. In both cases, Chris has written some of the most elegant, performant, and secure software that I’ve ever seen, and his work remains the standard by which I judge my own work and that of my fellow engineers.

A. Gladstone
CTO
Trakstar, LLC

ARIZONA CUTLERY

Arizona Cutlery (AC) has been a family run business since 1890! Onyx has been providing support since 2005. Initially, AC had repurposed an existing DOS rental app for its operation. This system was antiquated and in dire need of an upgrade. At the time C# and .Net 2.0 had just come on the scene and Onyx leveraged this technology with an Access JET backend for transitioning to a full Windows Application! AC had specific requirements that all of the keyboard shortcuts and workflow remained the same. Onyx set out to document and understand AC’s workflow and needs consulting with office staff and collecting needs and features. In six months AC was able to start utilizing the new system. Onyx remained available for any support or issues that arose. Onyx continued to contract for small feature improvements and updates up until 2009.

AC reached back out in 2015. Their customer base had continued to grow and the application needed to be shared by multiple office staff. Onyx met with AC to discuss the different possible solutions, including a cloud-based solution or Onyx, could leverage WCF to produce a client-server architecture. AC comfortable with their existing process opted for the client-server expansion. In addition, AC requested a host of new reports and E-mail integration as a part of their invoicing. Onyx completed this extensive reworking of a stand-alone system to client server-based system in the same year.

As credit card payments increased AC opted for payment gateway integration into their system. Onyx was happy to oblige. During the review of the credit card process, Onyx’s team noticed several opportunities to further automate AC’s process. Onyx suggested the inclusion of document scanning of invoices and checks with OCR support eliminating the majority of hand keying and errors. AC has been a long time customer agreed with Onyx’s recommendations and requested the suggested support. Once these features were delivered over 90% of documents automatically populated and paid with no keying by the office staff!