The BBC has chosen SIS as its preferred bidder for the Outside Broadcasts division of commercial subsidiary, BBC Resources Ltd ("BBC Outside Broadcasts"), subject to contract. BBC Outside Broadcasts, part of the BBC's commercial subsidiary, BBC Resources Ltd, owns a large fleet of 15 television production units plus sound, support and communications vehicles and award-winning special cameras, and operates out of self-contained premises in Langley. The business supports events from music festivals, drama productions and major state occasions, to Wimbledon, the Olympics and World Cup football.

Most workers frustrated by a poorly trained assistant simply ask for another one. As a reporter for Canada’s The Score network, when David Lanys was frustrated with his interns, he did something about it. In November, 2007, Lanys founded The College of Sports Media, Canada’s first private school offering an exclusive sports broadcasting course. After only six weeks of advertising prior to starting classes on Feb. 1, 2008, 16 students (out of a capacity of 40) are now one month into the inaugural semester, and business is humming.

Ascent Media Network Services has opened a new Media Centre at its London headquarters to provide facilities for coverage of major sports events, as well as for encoding and preparing material to be played out from the company's European Transmission Centre (ETC). With the ETC concentrating on transmitting 14 television channels across Europe, including Disney Cinemagic in French, the media giant's first branded HD service, and Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), a facility was needed to ingest and transcode programmes and offer studio facilities for more occasional customers.

When ESPN made the jump to HD for the Winter X Games required an accelerated learning curve for ESPN but also its vendors as EVS and Avid offered an industry first: direct file transfer Between EVS servers and Avid editing systems. Stephen J. Raymond, ESPN Event Operations coordinating technical manager, says the big discovery was the amount of bandwidth required to move around 7.5 TB of HD media. "We're now looking for opportunities to use the workflow at other events like the French Open or Wimbledon," says Raymond.

ARCTEK Satellite Productions, LLC, has upgraded its Tandberg encoders and decoders to DVB-S2. The modulation scheme allowed SKY Sports London to transmit two HD signals on half the bandwidth for its pre-game show from the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. last month.

Utah Scientific has completed the delivery of a large package of routing switchers for use at the upcoming summer games in Beijing. The package consists of four large UTAH-400 HD routers for use in the main broadcast center and 34 smaller UTAH-100 HD routers for use in the various event venues.

Companies looking to build third-party applications for the iPhone can get started now that Apple has released a beta of iPhone 2.0 software, including both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks. the The beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.

University of Texas fans are enjoying a new way to watch and replay their favorite Longhorns sporting event via the Internet. The innovative university has embraced streaming technology from Viewcast to further advance its collegiate athletic programs and broaden its reach to a much larger audience.

Clear-Com Communication Systems is bringing control of its Eclipse Digital Matrix Intercom System to the user’s fingertips with the new compact V-Series Desktop unit. This latest addition to its family of V-Series Panel products can sit on a tabletop or be wall-mounted for quick access and increased convenience. A leading innovator of communications solutions for the broadcast, live performance, government and commercial markets, Clear-Com will be showcasing the new V-Series Desktop at Prolight + Sound 2008.

Harman Pro North America (HPNA) has expanded its support personnel by appointing Shane Morris as principal engineer for Soundcraft and Studer's digital console offerings. Although Morris is primarily tasked with providing technical sales, engineering, and support for sound reinforcement customers using Soundcraft Vi Series and Studer Vista Series consoles, he also serves as a resource for both brands' broadcast client base as well.

Digital Rapids a developer of scalable solutions for media ingest, encoding, transcoding, protection, streaming and delivery has joined the Microsoft Silverlight Partner Initiative. Digital Rapids also announced immediate support for Microsoft Silverlight in Digital Rapids' award-winning encoding, transcoding and streaming solutions.

Solid State Logic, a manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals, announces a continuing strong demand for its highly popular C Series digital consoles.

EVS Broadcast Equipment is further strengthening its operations in the Middle East with the opening of a Dubai office this month. Located in the Studio City, part of the state-of-the-art Dubai Media City, EVS Middle East will have a fully equipped demo and training centre showcasing a complete integration of EVS recording, editing and playout systems.

MediaFLO USA will feature more than 300 live college basketball games this season including the Men's College Basketball Tournament games through its FLO TV service, giving sports enthusiasts the flexibility to catch all of the action anytime, anywhere from the convenience of their mobile phones.

Fast Forward Video (FFV), a recognized innovator of digital video recorder (DVR) technology for broadcast, industrial video, presentation, and military applications, has forged new agreements with four national manufacturer's representatives. Effective immediately, Emerald Communications, Heartland Media Group, Marketec, and Omnivue are exclusively representing the full line of FFV's DVRs to thousands of broadcasting system dealers and resellers across the United States.

Panasonic will install a total of some 2,000 units of surveillance camera systems at various venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games which begin on August 8.

Ascent Media, a provider of services to the media and entertainment industry has completed agreements with World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. that expand the existing relationship between the two companies.

RF Central, a digital microwave technology provider, is debuting its new RFX-RMR-II 2 GHz and 5.8 GHz rack-mounted receiver units at NAB 2008 (Booth C6622).