AN IRISH software company that designed the autocue system used by US president Barack Obama during live television speeches has unveiled expansion plans that will result in the creation of nearly 50 high-grade technology jobs.
Action Point Technology Group, specialists in technology services and software development and based at Plassey Technological Park in Limerick, has designed the autocue programme used on top American television shows, including the MTV Video Music Awards, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
Speaking at the announcement of its expansion plans yesterday, company director John Savage revealed Mr Obama had also read from the system designed by the Limerick company, established in 2005 by Mr Savage and fellow University of Limerick computer graduate David Jeffreys, the company’s chief executive.
“For a brief period about a year ago we had Barack Obama reading his speech from our autocue system, which we designed for the Los Angeles company Cutech Telepromting,” Mr Savage said.
“The system is very reliable and allows for four or five people to work on a script at a single time, it works across a network and allows the producers to see what’s going on very clearly, and on a paragraph by paragraph basis the script can be changed as it’s going live on a show,” he said.
The jobs announced by Action Point Technology Group will be mostly created in the software development side of the company’s operations, with the first phase of the expansion, incorporating seven of the 50 posts, currently being finalised.
The next phase of recruitment, of 30 software developers, begins immediately, with the remainder to come on stream between now and the end of 2014.
The announcement was officially made by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick.
Action Point Technology Group ( actionpoint.ie) anticipates an 84 per cent increase in turnover in the current financial year alone, to €3.2 million.
Overall growth targets for the next three years will bring employment levels from 26 to 69, with the majority of these new posts created at its headquarters in Limerick.
Action Point Technology Group also has offices at Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, and the National Software Centre, Mahon Point, Cork.
