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digiGO! The Digital World... Featuring — digiBITZ (DirecTV, GizMac, CTC Media, DiGiCo + Neumann, The NPD Group, OmniGlobe Networks, Sci Fi Channel) — Aspyr Media — Avocent — CBS Interactive — DISH Network — Fujitsu — Microsoft + AT&T — NBC Universal — SES ASTRA — TV One —
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digiBITZ
Spending about 49M/USD in the acquisition of 180 Connect is DirecTV Group as they glom onto this satservices installation services company. This means DirecTV will now have what is referred to as a "significant" chunk of the installation ops for their service... but 180 Connect acquisition is also being shared with another transaction by UniTek USA LLC whose going to pick up their cable services section.The latter deal is for an undisclosed amount of money and also provides some DirecTV installation markets in exchange for some UniTek sat installation service areas.
GizMac Accessories LLC designs and manufactures a product line of equipment racks that reduce noise and the company has just announced their upcoming Studio version of the XRackPro2 specifically designed for studios, home theater or other apps not requiring servers. The shorter depth of the new XRackPro2 rack will allow environments with limited space to use the Studio version.
Paying $395 million in cash, the national Russian no-cost TV network DTV Group has been sold to CTC Media, with the sale having been completed on April 16th directly after the market closed. You may also recall that Viasat had announced their plans to initiate a DTV service in the Ukraine earlier this week. Why? This area is an enormous market when it comes to payTV subs...
In 2001, Neumann unveiled their Solution-D generation digital microphones. They conformed to the then-new AES 42 data transmission protocol that allowed their digital mikes to work with digital workstations. Now, console manufacturer DiGiCo enables Neumann's digital microphones to interface directly with DiGiCo desks. The latest Neumann product is the TLM 103D with an integrated, extremely fast peak limiter that guarantees optimal recording levels at all times. Plus, the Neumann A/D converter built into the mik eliminates the tedious experimentation with external converters and preamps.
The independent NPD Group monitors video game retail activity. During March more than 720,000 Wii systems were sold. This represents the highest monthly sales total outside of he November or December holiday buying season. The Nintendo DS sold through nearly 700,000 systems. Plus, Nintendo ended up with the top-selling U.S. game for March, that being Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with 2.7 million units sold.
OmniGlobe Networks has been named as one of the Top 25 Up and Comers companies in Canada, as listed in the prestigious 2008 BRANHAM300 survey. The list recognizes young companies that have demonstrated tremendous promise within the IT industry. OmniGlobe Networks distinguishes itself by creating unique and innovative satellite and wireless connectivity solutions that greatly facilitate the deployment of broadband, cellular and VoIP services in emerging markets.
Thirteen more installments of Ghost Hunters have been ordered up by the Sci Fi Channel. Also extended on the net is Destination Truth. This year, the new Ghost Hunters episodes and its Ghost Hunters International spin-off will close the season on Halloween night with their third annual Ghost Hunters Live event.
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CONTENT—Aspyr Media has released a free update for the Game Agent application for Mac. Aspyr’s Game Agent is free utility allowing you to easily match your computer hardware with the system requirements of Aspyr’s game titles. Game Agent will automatically identify which games will run on your current system and determine necessary system upgrades for any other Aspyr games, if needed. The utility also allows you to see what games will run on current Macintosh models, just in case you are looking to buy a new computer or want to check system requirements against a different machine. With the newly updated Game Agent application, users will now be notified automatically when patches or updates are available for Aspyr games installed on their Mac. The new Software Update feature is similar to the Software Update feature run through Mac OS X, and will periodically check your computer for any updates available for Aspyr games installed on your computer. Users can change the frequency at which Game Agent checks for game updates through the Settings in Game Agent Preferences, or can check at any time on their own by clicking “Software Updates” on the sidebar. Once updates are identified, users can select to implement those immediately or ignore them. The free Aspyr download is a free download is available here...
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DELIVERY—Avocent Corporation released digital KVM and USB matrix switching for the Emerge ECMS4000 extender and Emerge DM2000 desktop manager products. This enlarges their family of products to include switching and extension of audio, digital video, mass storage, and USB human interfaces for use within high definition video edit suites, allowing strategic placement of business critical workstations. These new digital KVM matrix-switching products permit expensive equipment to be secured in the machine room, keeping it cool and clean. Based on a Gigabit Ethernet switch fabric, computer resources can be accessed on-demand by engineers, designers, and support personnel. Graphics and sound editors are able to interact with edit systems within the environment of their edit suites, while support engineers have direct management access to systems from the convenience of their desks. The Avocent Emerge DM2000 desktop manager provides centralized management and control of Emerge ECMS4000 extender transmitters and receivers, enabling them to serve as endpoints of a high performance managed AV infrastructure. This provides media professionals with switched KVM access to broadcast and post-production video editing systems—Huntsville, Alabama
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BIZ + CONTENT—CBS Interactive comes to mecca — aka Silicon Valley...CBS Interactive, part of the company’s consumer-targeted, web-based enterprises unit, is branching out into Silicon Valley. They are setting up operations and opening a strategic satellite office in Menlo Park, California, enabling CBS to more easily create partnerships in Silicon Valley. This comes after some very interesting statistics regarding CBS’ ad revenues tabulated after this year’s coverage of March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. Yes, Web Heads, the cha-ching that the decision makers heard came not from ad revenue from per-air viewing, but rather from ad revenue per online viewer. Here are the folk setting up the new office: Steve Snyder, chief operating officer of CBS Interactive, will head up the Menlo Park office. Byron Rubin, currently senior executive of the corporate-development and mergers-and-acquisitions group for CBS, is now executive vice president and chief financial officer of CBS Interactive. Jed Kapsos will be senior VP of finance for the group, and Byron reports to Jed. Next, Michael Marquez, formerly of Yahoo, was promoted to executive VP of strategy and corporate development—Menlo Park, California
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LEGAL—An anti-piracy victory is being celebrated in the Canadian Courts by DISH Network/EchoStar and their security partner NagraStar and Bell ExpressVu. This isn’t the first of its kind, nor is the ‘perp’, Jeremy Corkery, who is already known as NagraGuy in other court cases and piracy circles. Corkery was found to be in contempt of a court order issued by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In fact, he is quite well know as a satellite piracy coder, as well as a primary officer of Blue Screen Computer Services. Corkery has a history — just last year, the court ordered Corkery to grant the companies access to a number of computer hard drives and electronic media of his. This was in an effort to preserve evidence for the suit, but gee, he didn’t want to cooperate. The court ruled that he purposely interfered and prevented the companies involved from exercising their authority. This is the fifth time that a satellite TV pirate in Canada has been deemed in contempt of orders. The four other pirates were all given time in jail. A sentencing hearing is to take place. Stay tuned . . . film at 11:00.
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DELIVERY—Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. has announced the latest version of its IP-9500 MPEG-4 AVC Encoder. The new IP-9500 includes Revision 3.0 firmware enables broadcasters to encode SD and HD video signals and is also equipped with a new motion latency mode ideal for transmitting sporting and other rapid-motion events. The IP-9500 facilitates exceptional picture quality at low bit-rates for ENG and SNG gathering applications. CBS News used the IP-9500 to broadcast the 2008 Presidential State of the Union Address in HD. Fujitsu’s MPEG-4 AVC compression technology, developed by Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories, enables transmission of high-quality HD video at data rates traditionally associated with SD television feeds. The IP-9500’s exceptional picture quality at low bit-rates and low-latency enables HD SNG and transmission of live events with little or no changes to the current broadcast satellite infrastructure. The Revision 3.0 firmware included in the newest version enables encoding for SD and HD video signals, simultaneous dual encoding of an HD and an internally down-converted SD signal, and eight channels of AAC audio encoding. The new motion latency mode is optimal for transmitting video rapid motion and supplements the IP-9500’s existing standard and low latency modes—Sunnyvale, California
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BIZ + DELIVERY—It's definitely NOT what appears on the Surface...not your ordinary coffee table, that’s for sure. Called Microsoft Surface it’s two, two, two tables in one. It’s a coffee table shaped touch-screen computer that serves as a marketing tool in a few of AT&T Inc.'s wireless stores. When they say a few, that translates out to 22 of these ‘Surfaces’ that are programmed to recognize eight of AT&T's wireless phones.
So, you think you want an AT&T wireless, you go to a store that has one of these gizmos, and then when you put one or more phones on the table, lo and behold… information about the phones’ features pop up. We’re told that shoppers can also check out AT&T's coverage map and learn about calling plans by moving their hands across the screen. Oh, and remember, these ‘Surfaces’ aren’t supposed to replace any of the salespeople, just help them.
Here’s a not-so-surprising tidbit. Microsoft released the Surface last May and stated that the Windows Vista-based machines would first appear in T-Mobile USA stores and properties owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. The abovementioned were supposed to have the product functioning by November, but the launch was delayed by several months. The marketing person representing Surface said that those companies were still working on software to accommodate their own brands and locations, and that all three plan on deploying Surface this spring. Pencil that one in your calendar—not in ink, pencil.
P.S. Apple's iPhone, which also uses touch technology, won’t be one of the phones that work with Microsoft's Surface, ya think?
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CONTENT—NBC Universal has plans, within the year, to launch a new global, subscription-based, video-on-demand service in Europe and Asia. They also plan to complete distribution deals in approximately five to 10 markets shortly. The new division will serve as a stand-alone pay service in some markets. In other areas, the service will be made available to customers paying for top-tier channel bundles. The TV Box service will offer current and classic NBC Universal series and its content will be regularly refreshed to maximize their service. Other temptations to subscribers will include providing key shows as a premium-priced on-off downloads ahead of the broadcast window. According to sources, the TV Box is considered the next step in the branded on-demand products, and is the TV version of PictureBox (which is subscription movie-on-demand)—London, England
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CONTENT + DELIVERY—SES ASTRA will launch ORF HD on ASTRA. The new channel will start broadcasting May 1st and provides the complete program of ORF1 in HD format including, most importantly, the 31 matches of the UEFA EURO 2008. ORF HD is the first regular HD channel launched by a public broadcaster in the German speaking countries. The company features Europe’s most extensive choice of HD channels from leading broadcasters in Europe including BSkyB, BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, CANAL+, M6, TF1 and Premiere. By the end of 2010, SES ASTRA expects to transmit around 100 HD channels. The agreement with ORF allows the use of additional capacity for the HD channel. In cooperation with the ORF service company ORS, it includes the possibility for further HD programs with which this new capacity will ramp up to a full transponder in January 2010—Betzdorf (Luxembourg)
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DELIVERY—TV One has debuted their S2-108HD 8-input SD/HD-SDI Switcher. Capable of switching between eight separate inputs of SD-SDI or HD-SDI signals, this switcher has been primarily designed to work with the C2-2000 series of switcher/scalers and down converters as an optional Input Expansion Module to provide additional SD/HD-SDI inputs via BNC connectors.The switcher can connect to the C2-2000 series using an included OPTION interconnect cable and is fully integrated into the control system of the C2-2000 unit to become part of a single Multi-Format Seamless Switcher. The S2-108HD can also be used as a standalone routing switcher and is fully compliant to SMPTE 292M and 259M. An automatic reclocking and equalization of the incoming signal is employed by the unit for HD-SDI sources from as far as 200m and SD-SDI sources from over 300m away. It has two SD/HD-SDI outputs (on BNC’s) available that will output the selected input source simultaneously and each input selector button on the front panel has a small LED light to signify which input has been selected for the output. This light will remain steady and constant when a recognised and accepted signal is connected and will begin to flash if the signal is not acceptable or the signal is lost. The unit can be controlled using an IR Remote Control and via RS-232 as well as front panel switches—Kent, United Kingdom
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