High definition has become the norm in coverage of PGA golf events domestically and now broadcasters around the world will have the chance to broadcast in HD as PGA Tour Productions recently made its international feed control room HD capable.

There is no place like home and now the Tennis Channel feels that sentiment. In preparation for the Tennis Channel HD launch on DIRECTV, the Tennis Channel needed to build its own home with a master control room to accommodate their HD simulcasts and found it in Culver City, CA in a facility previously operated by Fox Sports. It contains a 5,000-sq. ft. production stage, a master control room and two production control rooms.

Show Partners, a provider of broadcast television production, crewing, and design services attained ESP Vision’s highly coveted Preferred VisionProvider (PVP) status, and concurrently launched its Design Services lighting studio. Show Partners Design Services provides set, graphic, and lighting services for events such as concerts, corporate events, and broadcast television entities.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., added to its extensive color line-up of imageRUNNER MFPs with the introduction of the Canon Color imageRUNNER C2550 device. With its sleekly designed and compact footprint, the Color imageRUNNER C2550 device is ideal for smaller offices and workgroups, and addresses today’s evolving and complex document management needs, including project collaboration and document security.

Snell & Wilcox announced iCR V3.0, a major upgrade to its multi-award winning integrated content repurposing platform. Version 3.0 adds dozens of new features to the iCR platform and enables users to industrialize and streamline their file-based video repurposing operations reliably while achieving higher quality and lower bit rates.

Linear Acoustic, a manufacturer of customer-centric multichannel sound solutions for digital broadcast, has announced the promotion of Erik Booth to the position of director of engineering. Previously a senior hardware engineer, Booth will now oversee all engineering and new product design, ensuring that system designs meet the company's development goals and delivery timelines.

DNF Controls has launched the Universal Switch Panel (USP). The USP is a panel of multipurpose, configurable push-button switches with an easy-to-use interface designed to meet the wide range of control needs for broadcast, production, A/V, and industrial environments. The USP emulates the operation of mechanical push-buttons, while adding a high degree of flexibility and application-specific functionality not available in conventional push-button panels.

OmniBus Systems, a provider of comprehensive broadcast automation and content management solutions, launched a value-added reseller (VAR) program for iTX, the software-based production and transmission solution. The program has been developed to enhance OmniBus' reach into different market sectors and allows resellers to target and provide a solution to a wide range of markets including traditional broadcast, IPTV, Internet and mobile TV applications.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) will license and resell the Ensequence on-Q Create suite for Blu-ray Java (BD-J) to major studios and independent Blu-ray development partners. Blu-ray Disc developers worldwide will use Ensequence on-Q Create for Blu-ray Java to develop advanced interactive features for Blu-ray Disc titles.

Adobe introduced an upgrade to its multimedia creation technology with the new Director 11. Adobe Director 11 is intended for content creators, game developers and eLearning application authors. Director 11 supports for more than 40 video, audio, and image file formats.

ESPN Deportes has acquired the rights to the 2008 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying. In addition ESPN360.com will cover the event on its broadband network. The 2008 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament will crown the Confederation’s champion and serve as a qualifier to the Men’s Football Tournament to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Nucomm is unveiling its new 7 Series HD and HD ready product at NAB 2008 (Booth C3007) and the company's entire ENG/OB product line is now capable of HD operation using built in encoding/decoding technology.

The FOX network affiliates group will use this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas as a platform to hold their own meetings. Over 100 broadcast executives from the FOX affiliate group will be in attendance, as will representatives from the FOX affiliate Governors Board. The FOX affiliate group, and the group's governors board, will hold meetings on April 14 and 15.

GlobeCast has extended its relationship with IEC in Sports in an exclusive deal to provide the sports marketing agency with contribution and distribution services until December 2009, bringing the relationship up to the 10 year mark.

The MorningCall.com has a great story here about how Lehigh University and Lafayette College are making it easier for fans to see their athletic teams live and in color, even when they can't make it to the games. While both schools have made use of local television over the years -- Service Electric, RCN, Channel 69 -- Lehigh and Lafayette are taking it to another level with live streaming video broadcast of home contests over the Internet. The webcasts of football, soccer, basketball, wrestling and other sports are becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons. They allow alumni and the athletes' families and friends to watch events, plus they are a recruiting tool.

Kilar, CEO of Hulu, an online video joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp, will present a keynote address at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday April 16, 2008. Kilar will discuss the trends and technologies that are enticing content providers to distribute and deliver content as never before.

The NAB Show will expand its IPTV offerings with a new conference series and super session that will provide telecommunications and wireless professionals with insight into converging technologies, state-of-the-art concepts and equipment for IPTV and other next generation video business. Telephony and Broadcast Engineering Magazine, in conjunction with NAB, will also feature an IPTV Pavilion showcasing the latest products and services centered on content distribution and delivery. The events will take place April 14-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Digital Rapids has begun shipping version 1.2 of the Digital Rapids Broadcast Manager live encoder management software, featuring a new graphical scheduling interface and a comprehensive Web Services API for integrating Broadcast Manager into third-party applications.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will present more than 150 games on television in 2008, including 50 from KCAL and 100 from FSN PRIME TICKET. For the second consecutive season, KCAL will air all of its games in HD. All home 2008 Dodgers games telecast on FSN PRIME TICKET will be available in HD; the regional sports network will announce the extent of its road game HD availability in March.

FSN Florida, and Sun Sports will broadcast 150 Florida Marlins games this year. All games will be produced by FSN Florida, with 100 regular season games scheduled to air statewide on FSN Florida and another 50 games available as special FSN Florida presentations distributed on sister network Sun Sports (offered by participating cable and satellite systems in Florida).

YouCastr is a live internet sports broadcasting network that allows anyone, anywhere to broadcast live sports commentary. On the website, users can easily broadcast live commentary on sporting events and create shows about their favorite local, high-school, college and pro teams. Unlike traditional radio and Internet streaming, YouCastr allows broadcasters and listeners to interact live while simultaneously watching or listening to sporting events.

TSN revealed its 2008 Toronto Blue Jays broadcast schedule and it features 20 regular season games in high definition. All broadcasts will be produced by TSN HD. This year marks the 25th consecutive year of Blue Jays Baseball on TSN. Blue Jays Baseball continues to draw strong audiences. The past three seasons (2005-07) Blue Jays baseball averaged 401,000 viewers per game.