For the latest in 4K workflows, one had to look no further than the show floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center last month. From FOR-A’s FT-ONE 4K super-slow-motion camera to Evertz’s Dreamcatcher to Sony’s breathtaking consumer displays and every workflow component in between, 4K was the star of NAB 2013.

While much of the hype surrounding live-4K-production technology has focused on image capture, the biggest questions remain on the distribution end. 4K cameras are increasingly being used in HD productions to create ultra-hi-res replays, but producing a full 4K telecast and delivering it to the home is still likely years away.

Last week’s FutureSPORT Summit in New York City provided an opportunity to cut through much of the hype surrounding 4K and Ultra HD and get down to some of the pragmatic details. And, for a sports-production industry continually on the front line of next-generation technologies, it provided a solid wake-up call concerning what needs to be done today and what will happen tomorrow. More important, it gave enough information to enable professionals knee-deep in next-generation production planning to figure out how to approach 4K.

Less than a year after Guggenheim Baseball Management finalized its record-breaking purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team unveiled a $100 million renovation of Dodger Stadium, a massive undertaking affecting nearly every facet of the 52-year-old landmark.

As part of Dodger Stadium's $100 million renovation, the team completely gutted the existing SD control room to make way for new equipment and cabling capable of feeding 1080p content to the stadium's new HD videoboards. To tackle the project, prime contractor Sony tapped Diversified Systems, which had integrated the stadium's previous control room in 2001.

The Los Angeles Dodgers accomplished a massive, $100 million renovation of Dodger Stadium in a very short amount of time. Beginning the project in the fall of 2012, Sony, Diversified Systems, Bexel, and many others worked tirelessly to ready the venue for Opening Day 2013. Included in the project was a complete overhaul of the existing SD control room. Now nearly double in size and equipped with the latest technologies, the Dodgers’ new HD control room can push true 1080p content to the left- and right-field hexagonal video boards.

WiFi connectivity in sports venues is like indoor plumbing: it has gone from luxury option to expected amenity to absolute necessity. However, getting it into existing venues often isn’t easy, according to Verizon, services provider for MetLife Stadium, Auburn University’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, Sports Authority Field (Denver Broncos), and Petco Park (San Diego Padres).

A team in search of a new home isn’t that unusual in the peripatetic world of major-league sports. But a venue in search of a team is. So the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, capital of Canada’s most central province, was pleased to have the NHL’s Jets skate in last season and call it home, replacing the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose, which now play as the St. John IceCaps.

Compiled by Karen Hogan, Associate Editor, SVG

Ready or not, the warm-up for next year’s World Cup — the Confederations Cup — begins in a month at six stadiums across Brazil. It will be the first major international football tournament in this vast South American country since the 1950 World Cup.

On April 27, the stadium sound system at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, caught fire just before a match between Columbus Crew and D.C. United. According to Daktronics, its video display and scoreboard “were not the cause of the fire and did not catch fire.” As one of the first ever video systems in professional soccer, the video display and scoreboard were installed in 1999. This equipment was in working condition the next day and in regular use at the next match played at Crew Stadium.

The Super Bowl is headed back to the Bay Area for the first time since 1985. Houston didn't have to wait so long. NFL owners voted Tuesday at the NFL Spring Meeting to award Super Bowl L in 2016 to San Francisco. The game will be played in the 49ers' new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The result came as no surprise. San Francisco beat out South Florida for the honor of hosting the 50th championship game since the NFL-AFL merger.

The Sports Video Group is pleased to announce that its annual Sports Asset Management (SAM) Forum will be held on on July 25 in New York City. This one-day event will feature presentations by league and network executives designed to help you understand how each of them are approaching the challenge of asset management from ingest to archive. SVG sponsors will also be taking part as they discuss the latest technology developments related to this important and growing field.

The Sports Broadcasting Fund is requesting that any sports broadcasting professionals, freelancers, or employees of equipment manufacturers or production companies impacted by the terrible tornados of May 20 apply for assistance in the coming days. All applicants will require a second industry associate to fill out the application to verify its legitimacy.

The Sports Video Group is pleased to announce that Panasonic and Calrec Audio have renewed their premier sponsorships. Calrec Audio manufactures production and live-to-air audio mixing consoles exclusively for broadcasters. ChyronHego is a recently-merged graphics developer.

Crosscreek Television Productions is continuing to upgrade its fleet of mobile production vehicles with Bittree’s state-of-the-art programmable audio patching systems. Crosscreek’s newest project with Bittree is Voyager 11, an all-HD, 53-foot expando trailer that offers the largest production area of any truck in the company’s fleet.

Ross Video introduced Vision Tritium, a 3MLE production switcher with Vision Octane production power. Tritium combines Vision Octane’s feature set in a new, more cost-effective package. Tritium is a full 3MLE modular production switcher with 48 x 32 multi-definition inputs and outputs, 6 real 3D DVE’s, 16 channels of internal media stores, 16 keyers, UltraChrome chroma keys, built in Dual Head MultiViewers, and external device controls.

Rogers Communications has purchased a Quantel Enterprise sQ news and sports production system for its new Montreal operation, City Montreal, to serve the Quebec region of Canada. Rogers is in the midst of constructing a new Studio and Production facilities in the heart of downtown Montreal. Once completed this new HD station will be on air in mid-August 2013.

Pacific Television Center (PacTV), a provider of global transmission and live broadcast production services, is relying on FOR-A’s UFM-30FRC HD/SD frame rate converter for the company’s operations. PacTV owns three UFM-30FRC units and has been using its up/down/cross converting capabilities for wide-ranging format conversions to transmit feeds around the world.

Outside broadcast specialist United chose DPA Microphones’ 5100 Mobile Surround Microphone to capture the ambience of the Amsterdam Arena when SL Benfica played Chelsea in the 2013 UEFA Europa League Final. Huub Lelieveld, senior sound supervisor for United Outside Broadcast and Studios reflects on the broadcast in this interview with SVG Europe.

Sky Sports will use EVS’ C-Cast technology for the first time in the UK during the Champions’ League Final this weekend when it launches Sky Sports 360, a new multi-camera highlights feature available in its Sky Sports for iPad app. Found within the Champions League Events Centre of the app, Sky Sports 360 will effectively allow viewers to select and replay the action during the game from over 20 different camera angles.

The reigning World Series champions San Francisco Giants have purchased the FlashNet archive system created by Software Generation Ltd (SGL). The installation, which sees FlashNet fully integrated into the Giants’ Avid workflow, was carried out by systems integrator Cutting Edge.

FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Optical Devices Division will demo several of its latest products ideal for the film and video production community at the Cine Gear Expo, to be held at The Studios at Paramount in Hollywood from May 31 to June 1. The company will be in booth #43 and will showcase its Premier PL 4K+ cine lenses and Cabrio cine/ENG-Style lens series.

A few months ago, a 55” or 65” Sony Bravia 4K television would have cost both arms and legs.Now Sony has looked again and they’ll only cost one arm and a leg. ‘Priced to sell’ might be Sony’s mantra for these Bravia X9 LED beasts, which still come it at about $5,790 for the 55” unit, and a pricier $9,000 for the 65” display.

Microsoft and the National Football League (NFL) have signed a multiyear deal whereby interactive NFL television experiences will be delivered to the next-generation Xbox One and leverage Microsoft devices and services to evolve the in-game, sideline experience for coaches, players and other personnel.

For the third consecutive year, all Web video encoding for the Cannes Film Festival (Festival de Cannes) will be handled by Telestream’s Episode Engine professional video encoding application. Episode Engine was selected for the Festival de Cannes official website to replace multiple technologies that had previously been used to encode and deliver videos to multiple destinations. This year’s Festival is going on through May 26 in Cannes, France.

Artel Video Systems has begun shipping its DLM205 and DLC205 9-port Ethernet aggregators and optical transceivers. Integrating within the company’s DigiLink video transport platform, both single-slot modules are the ideal solution for broadcasters, CATV operators, telco operators, and video service providers looking to aggregate Ethernet traffic across a single optical or electrical connection.

Van Wagner Communications’ Sports and Entertainment division is joining forces with CineSport, partly owned by Van Wagner, to create and distribute original sports video content to digital publishers that carry online sports news. Under the terms of the deal, Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment will handle advertising sales, while CineSport will produce video content and help publishers monetize it, using proprietary technology that allows publishers to embed and promote video to build scale and engagement.

The Mountain West Digital Network has invested in the Panasonic AG-HPX600 P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorder as its primary acquisition camera, with back-up provided by a pair of AG-HPX250 P2 HD handhelds. Jesse Kurtz, as Executive Producer of its newly-formed Digital Network, has been outfitted with an HPX600 for wide-ranging production assignments. Panasonic’s latest P2 HD camcorder, the 6.2 pound HPX600 features native 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra recording and its future-proof options include an upgrade to AVC-ULTRA recording.

Don’t expect an ACC-branded TV channel to be launched any time soon. The biggest problem so far is a rights issue. ESPN needs to control the conference’s syndicated rights to launch a channel. But those rights are tied up until 2027 through deals with Raycom and Fox Sports Net.

Compiled by Jason Dachman, Managing Editor, SVG

NBC Sports’ coverage of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes drew 9.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched Preakness since 2009, and the fourth most-watched dating back to 1990. The viewership for the race is up 20% from last year’s Preakness (8.1 million).

Houston Mayor Annise Parker and top executives from Comcast SportsNet Houston and Suddenlink met face-to-face on Monday to discuss carriage for the regional sports network. The meeting was aimed at jump-starting affiliate negotiations between the RSN, a joint venture of MLB’s Houston Astros, the NBA’s Houston Rockets and Comcast’s NBC Sports Group, and the cable operator, which controls systems in the service’s TV territory encompassing Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico.

Mosart Medialab has named David Workman as CEO of Mosart USA as the company looks to expand its presence and reach in the U.S. market. The organization will complement and extend Mosart’s existing distributor-based sales channels and ensure that the company’s U.S. customers enjoy the same 24-hour-a-day service for which Mosart is known worldwide.

The deal’s finally done, with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment paying $10.25 a share — about $265M — for the cable channel. Outdoor Channel shareholders approved the deal in a special meeting yesterday with 19.3M votes in favor and just 758,969 against. The company initially agreed in November to sell itself to InterMedia Partners, which owns The Sportsman Channel, in a deal valued at about $8 a share. But that collapsed in March when Kroenke launched a bidding war.

Major League Soccer will add a 20th franchise and a second in the New York metro area, kicking off in 2015. Manchester City Football Club and the New York Yankees have acquired the New York City Football Club. Manchester City will be the majority owner of the new club, with the Yankees serving as an active member of the ownership group. Given the Yankees' ownership stake, the YES Network, the regional sports network home of MLB's New York Yankees, figures to air NYCFC matches locally, when they don't conflict with Bronx Bombers' telecasts.

In sports, one person’s greed is another person’s sound business decision. So, while greed may ultimately determine how many top-tier sports events move to cable, making money generally is not a crime. A harbinger of the balance could come as the NBA negotiates its next TV contract, where ESPN and Turner are the incumbents. Nearly all playoff games are on cable, though the finals have remained on ABC.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will become acting chair of the agency, effective Monday, May 20, according to an FCC spokesperson. She will be the first woman to hold that post. May 17 is the last day for both FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and Republican commissioner Robert McDowell's last day is today. Both are headed to think tanks, at leat temporarily: Genachowski to the Aspen Institute, where he will rejoin his former National Broadband Plan czar Blair Levin, McDowell to the Hudson Institute.

Ken Venturi, 82, died last week, little more than a week after his induction in absentia into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He had been hospitalized following surgery for infections in his back. Fate cast Venturi with "an incurable" stutter that had him seek the isolation of golf and he became a U.S. Open champion. Fate robbed him of the dexterity in his hands and he became the longest-running lead analyst in television sports history.