It has been a long time in the making but the much-anticipated integration of EVS server systems and Apple Final Cut Studio 2 (and native support of the Apple ProRes 422 codec) is finally here. For sports broadcasters that means a drag-and-drop world whereby sports content recorded on EVS servers can quickly be sent to an editing station.

Hulu, the joint venture owned by NBC Universal and News Corp founded last March, will also offer clips and even full games from two of the nation’s biggest leagues: the NBA and the NHL. “Hulu fits in neatly with our strategy of connecting with fans on a number of platforms including the Web and mobile ones,” says Attila Gazdag the NBA’s SVP for Global Media Distribution. “We wish to offer our content broadly, but do so on a selective basis. Hulu has positioned itself as a premier destination for consumers, and this audience will be able to sample the best of NBA programming.”

There still might be a lot of particles in the air over Beijing when the Olympics commence on Aug. 8, but at least the audio signal passing through the air is going to be really clean. Beijing Broadcasting Company Ltd (BOB), China Central Television (CCTV) and Beijing Television Station (BTV) are coordinating their coverage of the events at 36 venues in and around Beijing in August. Surround audio is high on the agenda, along with HDTV. They’re being helped in a critical aspect of that with the addition of 58 ATI DSA106-XLR non-reclocking digital audio distribution amplifiers and 15 ATI ADAC-2 simultaneous A/DD/A & sample rate converters.

Just in time for March Madness, help has arrived for college basketball fans who can’t always get to a TV. MediaFLO USA began streaming college basketball games to cell phones on November 11, and through the end of the NCAA Tournament, the company will stream more than 300 live college basketball games to the cell phones of anxious fans nationwide. “CBS has a full-time 24/7 channel on our FLO TV service,” explains Mike Bailey, vice president of programming for MediaFLO USA. “In their mobile master control center, they will, in collaboration with us, select the most relevant matchups at any given time. It is part of their objective to put as many games on their mobile TV channel as they possibly can over the course of the tournament.”

The BBC successfully tested the potential of 3D stereoscopic sports coverage last week in London with a presentation of the England-Scotland rugby union match last weekend. The Calcutta Cup fixture of the 6 Nations tournament was shown live on a big screen to an invited audience of television industry types and journalists at the Riverside Studios, London, in a joint production between BBC Sport and the 3DFirm consortium.

This year’s NAB Show will have a forward-looking sideshow for audio professionals via The Surround Broadcast Conference, a joint venture between the National Association of Broadcasters and Pro Sound News. The new conference will focus on the production of digital, multi-channel broadcast audio and related issues, including recording and mixing, the consistency of the listener experience, and transmission and distribution of 5.1-channel audio that will accompany high-definition video.

CP Communications a leading source for the rental of production communications equipment and innovative services nationwide has joined the Sports Video Group as a mobile corporate sponsor.

Industry integration continues to be the rage as Omneon’s MediaGrid server system and Vizrt’s Ardome asset management system have been successfully integrated with each other. The Omneon media servers provide ingest and playout functionality with the MediaGrid acting as central storage, and the Viz Ardome system oversees all management of media operations, directing the flow from ingest through archiving including production and playout.

For the second consecutive year, broadcasts of the recent Australian Open tennis tournament were transmitted to U.S. viewers via a transoceanic fiber link provided by Genesis Networks. The Australian Open marks one of the first examples of a major international sporting event that has chosen a fiber infrastructure over satellite communications for global transmission of broadcasts.

Riedel Communications’ Artist Digital Matrix Intercom System is the focal point of Global TV’s recently updated studio complex in Toronto, Canada. The system includes 6 Artist mainframes (nodes) connected via fiber, over 80 control panels, Performer Digital Partyline and Connect Solo telephone interfaces.

During a one-on-one interview at the IMG World Congress of Sports, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner said that Major League Baseball team owners are wrestling with MLBAM, Baseball's interactive arm, over control and distribution of new media. "As everybody knows, there is a stalemate right now … in terms of in-market streaming," Werner said. "In-market streaming is good for the customer. But from our point of view, it has to be done in conjunction with our RSN and our affiliates, such as Comcast and Time Warner, in such a way that the product being offered to the consumer is complementary rather than competitive with the games that are on satelite and cable."

ITV Sport award a three-year British Touring Car Championship contract to outside broadcast company O21 Television. The contract will see O21 Television supply Unit 6, the latest addition to its high definition fleet. The unit will operate as the Presentation unit for ITV Sport, supported by Unit 3 that produces the world feed.

A new end-to-end production newsroom and automation system called iTX News from Omnibus that includes everything from graphics, to editing software, and more and is designed for the news and sports markets will be previewed at NAB.

International Games Broadcast Services (IGBS), the newly-named company born out of Doha Asian Games Broadcast Services (DAGBS), has been awarded the host broadcasting of the 1st Asian Beach Games Bali 2008.

Daktronics Inc. has designed, manufactured and installed new integrated video, scoring, and timing systems at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). Texas has upgraded the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center and the Penick-Allison Tennis Center with multiple Daktronics video displays and message centers that will allow spectators and participants to see up to the second video and statistical information.

FSN Ohio will telecast 71 Cincinnati Reds games in high definition in 2008. The Reds open the 2008 season at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, March 31 with a 2:00 pm start. Entering their 16th consecutive season, the Reds longest running TV duo, George Grande and Chris Welsh will call the action. Also back in the FSN Ohio broadcast booth for their second season is Cincinnati's own Thom Brennaman and former Reds pitcher Jeff Brantley.

Day two of the World Congress of Sports opened with a look into the immediate future of the media market, which by all accounts will be an interesting ride. Fox’s Ed Goren, HBO’s Ross Greenburg, NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, ESPN’s John Skipper and Turner Sports’ David Levy formed the panel that took center stage for the discussion at the main ballroom at The St. Regis Resort in a discussion of various topics confronting the industry.