Recently we sat down with the Vice President of Business Development and Marketing Dennis Ranck on their successful product the ViewClix Smart Frame and the history of the company and how the product grew out of a need.
The company was founded by his father Rob Ranck who wanted to stay and touch with his senior parents who lived 3,000 miles away. As written in the companies about page, since his dad had a notebook computer, Rob and his family tried video calls using Skype. That worked OK for a while, but too frequently, there were issues with setting up the calls (“Son, which button do I click?”) and if something went wrong with video or audio during the call, things were way too confusing. Unfortunately, Skype calling eventually became impossible due to his dad’s dementia and because Rob’s mom wasn’t very familiar with using a PC. Rob bought them an iPad but was surprised when that didn’t make things any easier.
After that, Rob tried a digital picture frame with built in Wi-Fi, with the idea of being able to easily share pictures with his mom. (Rob can’t remember how many times his mom asked, “Could you send more pictures of the family and especially the great grandchildren?”). But once again, the products and accompanying software just weren’t made for seniors that needed a simple, plug-and-play solution. Rob had to do a bunch of tinkering to enable family members to easily send photos to the picture frame. And that’s where ViewClix comes into the story.
Given Rob’s experiences and frustration, we were intrigued by the opportunity and founded the company to begin working on a solution. Together, we have many decades of experience with large companies (such as AT&T, Intel, and IBM) but we’ve also “been-there-done-that” as entrepreneurs with small technology start-ups. Plus,one of our founders has worked professionally for more than 20 years to provide caregiving to seniors!
With the ViewClix Mini, ViewClix continues to be the easiest solution for families to stay in touch with elderly relatives. ViewClix is uniquely designed to remove the primary challenges in online visual communication for seniors and the simple, intuitive system easily receives incoming video calls. When not on a video call, the HD screen displays a slideshow of photos that is curated by family members and provides a personalized viewing experience for the senior. Family members easily share photos using their Apple or Android smart phones, tablets or PC’s.The ViewClix frames’ settings are remotely managed by the family so that the senior watching the frame isn’t bothered with complicated account logins or learning new technology.
In addition to video calling and photo sharing, ViewClix now includes a special “Sticky Notes” feature to schedule pop-up reminders or send personalized digital “post cards”. ViewClix sticky notes are great for “reminding Mom that we’ll be there for lunch tomorrow” or “sending Grandpa some of the grandkid’s art”.
Video Calling, photo sharing, and sticky notes are accessed using the free ViewClix App (Apple and Google Play Stores) or using a desktop computer. There are no limits to the number of family members that can be authorized to connect with a ViewClix frame. Also, authorized family members can share pictures and communicate with multiple ViewClix Smart Frames.
The ViewClix 10″ is priced at $199 and the ViewClix 15″ model is priced at $299. You purchase them now at www.viewclix.com or click here.
