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digiBITZ
Get your American Idol show downloads exclusively at Apple iTunes. The site will offer streaming of the show and the iPod will become the series’ official music player. And iPhones will be the official mobile device, as well. This all came about through an idea that surfaced through a Simon Fuller and Steve Jobs friendship. When you go to the iTunes store, you’ll find a new Idol section… semifinalist performances will sell for $0.99 and the finalist performances for $1.99 Plus, some BBC shows will also become available on iTunes as Apple continues to cement into place exclusive arrangements for broadcasters’ content… and speaking of the iPod, just in case you had not heard, the 1GB iPod Shuffle is now re-priced at… $49! That’s correct, $49… that’s a really good value for this leading player that includes a clip for attaching to any piece of your clothing or furniture you wish when listening to as many of the 240 tunes the appliance can store. There’s free engraving on all iPod Shuffle models, it comes with earphones, a USB dock and the Quick Start guide and some really cool colors. More info here….
Toshiba is bringing to a close their manufacture of HD DVD players and recorders. The final run will be in March of this year. Now consumers can run amok flitting from Blu-ray disc manufacturer to Blu-ray disc manufacturer to find the best deals on those machines (Matsushita, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony). The Sony PlayStation is a Blu-ray machine, as well, while Microsoft’s XBox offers an HD DVD drive as an option. The HD DVD supporters included Intel, Microsoft and NEC. As there will be no long, drawn out battle between competing technologies, many analysts see Toshiba’s speedy exit from the market as reducing potential losses for the company and its technology supporters. The death knell for the technology was sounded when Warner Bros. announced they would only release their titles on Blu-ray, joining Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Company in that decision.
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digiBIZ
More than 13 million households with television sets that can only receive analog broadcasts are currently unprepared for the transition to all digital broadcasting, scheduled for February 18, 2009. This is a statistic revealed by the Nielsen Company. Another 6 million households have at least one TV set that will no longer work after that date. Nielsen found that adults over 55 are better prepared than younger households; and Whites and Asians are more ready than Blacks. More Hispanic households still rely on analog, over-the-air broadcast television than non-Hispanics. These estimates are based on the same national and local television ratings samples that are used to generate Nielsen television ratings. These samples are representative of the total U.S. population and individual local markets. Among the key findings reported: 10.1 percent of all households would have no access to television signals if the transition occurred today; 16.8 percent of all households have at least one analog television set that would not work after the switch; New York is the most ready local television market, with just 3.5 percent “unready” television sets.; and Portland, OR is the least prepared local market, with 22.4 percent of all households using only analog sets and over-the-air television.
The 2008 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2008) will be held from May 19th through the 23rd in Beijing, China. Under the theme “Communications: Faster-Higher-Stronger,” the conference will offer symposiums, tutorials, workshops, panel discussions and application sessions on the latest technical and business issues in communications and networking. Sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE ComSoc), the nine technical sessions at ICC 2008 will present current research and development results in such areas as networks and the Internet, communications QoS, communication software and services, security, optical networks, and wireless communications and networking. The conference keynote presentations will be delivered by the CEOs of China Mobile and China Telecom, as well as by Professor H. Vincent Poor of Princeton University and Dr. Bob Iannucci, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Nokia. Additional details right here.—New York, New York
PANORAMAdtv, the video products division of Wohler Technologies Inc., has launched Wohler Asia, a new Hong Kong-based division that will provide localized service, technical support, and Wohler products to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market. The new division will offer new and existing APAC clients convenient access to Wohler products and support services. Wohler Asia is led by Scott Fountain, who brings 15 years of experience within the Asian broadcast market to his role as Division Director—Hayward, California
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digiCREATION
Boris FX has released their Final Effects Complete 5 AE, a complete re-write of the Final Effects Complete filters. With a refreshed user interface, multi-processor acceleration, plus 16-bit color processing, these filters include the unique particle treatments of Mr. Mercury and Bubbles as well as the creation distortions of Griddler and Flo Motion. While including many of the new technologies from the company’s Boris Continuum Complete, Final Effects Complete 5 AE is fully compatible with all previous FEC versions, allowing users to open and adjust any existing After Effects project. For additional information regarding this new upgrade release, check out the product website.
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digiCREATION + DELIVERY
Lawo manufactures digital audio networking and console systems for production, post production, broadcast, and related apps. The company has announced the Version 2.8 upgrade for the company’s zirkon on-air radio console with significant enhancements to the system control and configuration software, as well as the company’s VisTool touch screen surface visualization software. The V2.8 update offers the new ‘Sig80’ DSP mode which supports an additional 40 DSP channels (mono/stereo) with EQ, Dynamics, and Limiting provided by the use of a second masterboard. This new card mode significantly enhances the zirkon’s functionality by providing dynamically allocated DSP resources, which provides support for far more complex mix configurations. Lawo’s new V2.8 firmware also includes a significant change in the transmission method used for VisTool metering data. Performance and communication has been improved by changing to UDP (User Datagram Protocol) as compared to earlier versions that use TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). The new V2.8 software also provides a new Logic Element UDP Matrix, which can be used, for example, to simultaneously route RDS (Radio Data System) information and/or audio with equipment from a variety of manufacturers using UECP (Universal Encoder Communication Protocol), providing increased functionality in a networked environment. Lawo’s new VisTool touch screen surface visualization software adds faster, more responsive metering in a networked environment as well as providing Surround Parameter Keys in Screen Parameters. Surround panning can be accessed by VisTool buttons and users can now display 24 channels simultaneously. Plus, the colors of EQ Parameters and markers may now be set. This change is designed to enhance workflow by making it easier to identify various aspects of the mix—Toronto, Ontario
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digiDELIVERY
A new plan will provide smaller cable systems to move to an all digital format due to an agreement signed between Comcast Media Center and Motorola. A one-stop shop will be made available to the smaller system operators where they can obtain STBs, digital-headend and hardware, plus content services, to offer their customers, all in a single digital system. Motorola will provide scalable, digital headend systems and advanced STBs. One example of the results offered takes a 330 MHz system expanding their system offering through the conversion of analog channels to digital, applying their HITS platform for programming, then taking that reclaimed bandwidth to bring in additional HDTV and SD channels as well as their VoD library of 2K+ titles. This would also enable their affiliates to take bring into play high-speed data, DVR, ITV and voice services.
GlobeCast has an exclusive deal that extends their relationship with IEC in Sports to provide contribution and distribution services until December 2009, ensuring a 10 year relationship for the firms that started in 2000. As part of the deal, more than 3,000 hours of live programming from more than 250 sporting events will be distributed worldwide each year via GlobeCast’s content delivery network, including downlink, uplink, capacity, encoding and encryption as well as station facilities. GlobeCast is also responsible for the European and Asian distribution of IEC’s four weekly television productions – World of Athletics, World of Tennis, FINA Aquatics World and Road to Beijing. The 26-minute magazine shows are distributed via satellite from GlobeCast’s London Technical Operations Centre at Brookmans Park, where the signals are encrypted and uplinked to a number of different satellites covering Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. IEC in Sports is the official television agent for a number of leading sports governing bodies including the world swimming association (FINA), International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Network Electronics will debut their new FRS-HD-DMUX, a high quality frame synchronizer combining electrical and optical domains, to the US market at NAB 2008. The FRS-HD-DMUX was designed following extensive customer research to offer high-quality HD/SDI frame synchronization to broadcasters and network operators. The product’s key features include SD-SDI and HD-SDI frame synchronization; one optical and one electrical input; automatic or user specified input select; four electrical outputs—one serving as a buffered loop-through of the input signal; sync input with un-buffered loop-through; and stereo audio out + AES out / stereo out + de-embedding of RS-422 options—New York, New York
Panasonic has debuted a 64-GB P2 solid-state memory card for its line of P2 HD and P2 solid-state camcorders and decks. With the arrival of the 64-GB card, Panasonic will have doubled the storage capacity of its P2 media from the current 32 GB capacity, providing HD recording time dramatically greater than any tape or disc-based system. The 64-GB P2 card, model AJ-P2C064, is scheduled for initial delivery in Q3 2008, at a price to be announced, and will be offered in addition to the current 32-GB and 16-GB P2 cards. A 64-GB P2 card is capable of storing more than four hours of DVCPRO footage (64 GB X 4 minutes per GB), more than two hours of DVCPRO 50 or AVC-Intra 50 (64 GB X 2 minutes per GB), or 64 minutes of AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD. With five 64-GB P2 cards installed, an AJ-HPX3000 P2 HD camcorder can record for 320 minutes in AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD, and 640 minutes in AVC-Intra 50 or DVCPRO 50—Wiesbaden, Germany
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