NBC Sports officially jumped into wireless HD coverage of its PGA events this past weekend with Total RF providing six wireless HD systems during The Honda Classic held at the PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. “Total RF did a spectacular job switching us over to HD RF on all our golf coverage,” says Ken Goss, NBC Sports vice president, operations. Expect future NBC Sports events like horse racing to also take advantage of the technology.

Remote production services provider Corplex is upgrading the audio desks in its Platinum HD mobile unit this June, incorporating Calrec’s Bluefin High Density Signal Processing system technology, adding flexible TFT metering, full 5.1 Surround Sound spill control, and 12 more faders (for a total of 60). The Platinum has been used on the Masters, PGA Championships, and in CBS football games and Super Bowl XLI.

The use of 3D Chyron graphics for sports coverage on TV has become a standard and now Chyron marks its entry into the world of Web-based graphics production at NAB 2008. Chyron Online will be a seamless platform to create, composite, manage and distribute graphic content over the Internet. “We are moving Chyron into a completely new environment,” says Kevin Prince, Chyron’s Chief Operating Officer.

After six month’s preparation, CBS Sports CTO Mark Kortekaas is ready for March Madness that is expected to bring record audiences online for the event. This year, March Madness on Demand’s (MMOD) capacity has been ramped up almost 50% from last year. The system will be able to handle up to 500,000 simultaneous viewers, up from the previous 350,000. What’s driving these expectations? For the first time, visitors will be able to access content without any registration.

NVision heads to NAB with the new NV5100MC master control switching systems, and a large-matrix router product line, based on their master control technology platform and router technology platform. Along with master control there will be announcements on extended technology and functionality for the NV9000 router control system, compact router series, and Synapse modular broadcast systems.

Steve Durr has been specializing in sports venue sound for two decades. He’s designed audio systems for venues including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City for football’s Chiefs, the Cincinnati Bengals’ Paul Brown Stadium and Sprint Cup tracks in Las Vegas and Bristol, TN. The wide range of facilities he has worked on has also helped him learn that stadium sound is about more than sheer volume. “The fan experience is enhanced when you invest in both good sound reinforcement and good acoustical design,” he responds. “At too many facilities, we’re not seeing both.”

New Pro Video a company that specializes in the buying and selling of used professional equipment for video production has joined the Sports Video Group as a corporate sponsor.

Vizrt will unveil updates to its powerful Viz Curious Maps Clients mapping software Version 8.0 at NAB Booths R129 and SL4805 this April.

China’s largest broadcasters are entrusting communication for their largest and most anticipated event of the year, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, to Clear-Com Communication Systems. CCTV, China’s National Broadcaster, for instance, has selected Clear-Com to provide an intercom network that will eventually span its entire broadcast operation.

The Thomson Grass Valley Ignite SD and HD integrated production systems will receive a number of enhancements at NAB designed to streamline the production process to make live sportscasts and other types of video productions faster and error free. Among the features is autoCORRECT, new facial tracking technology for the Ignite’s SDC/HDC robotic camera systems that allows for unmanned, automatic tracking of anchors and other on-air talent in a studio environment.

Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), the premier provider of broadcast services in the city of Abu Dhabi, has entrusted EVS with equipping their first High Definition Outside Broadcast Van, as well as with their first fully tapeless HD studio workflow.

Rick Chisholm, Executive Vice-President of Broadcasting for CTV-Rogers Olympic consortium, today announced Gord Cutler as Executive Producer and Don Young as Executive Producer, Features for CTV-Rogers’ coverage of the 2010/2012 Olympic Games.

Media Global Links Co., Ltd. (MGL), a developer and manufacturer of broadcast network infrastructure technologies, has been awarded an order from Fuji Television Network, Inc., a Japanese broadcaster, and its content producer, for a first of its kind video routing solution to be installed at Fuji TV’s new network operations center in Tokyo, Japan. The new network operations center will make Fuji TV the world’s first television station to deploy a fully IP-based internal and external video routing solution.

EVS Broadcast Equipment says its XT[2] server is now the first server on the market to be have full native support of the Avid DNxHD coded. This follows the recent news from Avid Technology, Inc., that DNxHD, a high-quality, low bitrate HD production codec, is the first to be compliant with SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) VC-3 standards.

MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems has introduced the NEW HD-3000 Series of 5 to 2970 Mb/s serial digital video fiber optic transport link. The fiber optic link supports the 1080p progressive 3 Gb/s HD format and will provide an economical solution for the fiber optic transport and distribution of virtually any digital signal from 5 Mb/s to 3 Gb/s, reducing risk for new formats in the foreseeable future.