The sports production community is beginning to feel the pinch of the credit crisis as National Mobile Television, one of the nation’s largest remote production vendors with a fleet of more than 20 trucks, took drastic steps to improve its chances of being sold or recapitalized. “We aren’t closing the doors and walking away,” says Frank Coll, NMT SVP of operations.

CBSSports.com chief Jason Kint was excited about an anticipated 50% jump in online viewership for this year’s March Madness this year. So how does he feel now that the numbers far exceed what once seemed like optimistic projections? “We’ve seen a two-and-a-half times growth in viewership over last year, and it is accelerating," he says. "It's been consistent, just bigger across the board than expected," adds Kint. "It's also sustained consumption. We didn’t see short pops of usage with people checking it out then leaving."

Major League Baseball fans will have more chances than ever to catch their favorites teams in HD as more than 3,000 MLB games will be telecast in HD via regional cable networks, local TV stations, and national networks. According to a survey of local TV stations and regional cable networks by the Sports Video Group (SVG), more than 51% of this year's games are available in high definition. And for the first time ever both ESPN and Fox Sports will offer all MLB coverage in HD.

Last year during a crucial MLB game at Yankee Stadium last year, play was halted so the umpires could discuss whether a fly ball down the line had hit the foul pole or whether a fan interfered. The umpires made their call based on their visual from the field. But Fox Sports Senior Audio Mixer Joe Carpenter, just like a crime scene expert, has access to a set of audio tools that let him discover the truth. Welcome to CSI: Yankee Stadium and the world of audio forensics.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a column on White Spaces by Lee Gomes that, if it wasn't in such a well-respected newspaper would be laugh out-loud funny. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal has some clout and an article like the one below is incredibly dangerous. That said, in the interest of fun (and a quasi-rebuttal) we give you the following deconstruction of the column...

NBC Olympics has selected five Omega with Bluefin consoles as part of its coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The 56 fader consoles will provide audio mixing for a number of events across several venues. Two consoles will provide audio coverage for both the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics; a further two consoles will be used for gymnastics and trampoline, and a fifth will be utilised for beach volleyball.

The fruits of Omneon Video Networks’ acquisition of Castify Networks last December will be laid bare at NAB with ProCast CDN, a new content delivery system that can zip, for example, a one hour DV25 file from Los Angeles to London in three minutes via a 450 Mbps connection. The technology holds much promise for sports leagues and networks looking to transfer massive HD melt reel files and other content over long distances.

This weekend, the nation’s best hockey players ages 10 to 18 will take the ice in Hackensack, N.J. and Williamsville, N.Y., to compete for the USA Hockey Youth National Championships. Thanks to a renewed partnership between USA Hockey and B2 Networks, parents stuck at home thousands of miles away will have a rink-side seat for the live competition. “A lot of the parents can’t travel to watch their kids play and this is very important to them,” explains Bruce Levine, senior vice president of sports programming for B2 Networks. “This partnership gives them an opportunity to see their kids have a big moment on the ice.”

Beginning Monday the International Fight League (IFL) will reach fans via on the Web via a new relationship with Neulion, an IPTV provider that provides similar networks for the National High School Coaches Association and the National Hockey League (more than 1,700 NHL events have been broadcast online via Neulion). The deal complements IFL TV deals with Fox Sports Net and on Mark Cuban’s HD Net.

Cisco Systems, a supplier of networking solutions for the internet has joined the Sports Video Group as a platinum sponsor. Screen Subtitling Systems, a provider of subtitling and electronic captioning solutions and Inlet Technologies, a provider of encoding solutions for new media have both joined the Sports Video Group as corporate sponsors.

When Sweetwater Digital Productions recently built its newest high-definition video truck named Cobalt, they chose to install Riedel Communication’s Artist digital intercom matrix. Sweetwater specializes in the rental of video production trucks, custom control rooms and other production equipment used in the entertainment industry. Sweetwater's clients include most network and production companies in Los Angeles and their credits include shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live and American Idol.

At the recent running of the Daytona 500, Telecast Fiber Systems' HD POV fiber optic video/data transceiver modules helped to give NASCAR enthusiasts a unique "gopher's-eye view" of the action at track level. The HD POV system provides the signal transport component for the "Gopher Cam," a specialized remote-camera system developed by Inertia Unlimited and commissioned by FOX Sports and NASCAR Media Group for coverage of several NASCAR auto race events.

Camera support leader Vinten, a brand of The Vitec Group, delivers a range of innovative products for ENG, EFP, OB and studio environments, including the Vector 750, Vector 950 Active, both pan & tilt heads, and the Vision iScript prompting solution.

Vizrt, a provider of real-time, integrated broadcast graphics software has joined forces with Escenic, a provider of content management and publishing for the web.

Omneon, Inc. and Interra Systems have worked together to deliver the industry’s first grid-powered quality assurance application, the Interra Baton. The Baton application harnesses the inherent media processing capabilities of the Omneon MediaGrid active storage system. Employing the Omneon MediaGrid Processing Framework, the Baton software is now able to use the MediaGrid system’s many CPUs in parallel to deliver automated quality control of media files, while eliminating the need for separate QA hardware and additional external storage to perform the quality control (QC) function.

Sennheiser is introducing its new MKH 800 Twin microphone at the 2008 NAB Show. Based upon Sennheiser's legendary MKH 800, the MKH 800 Twin offers polar pattern switching after the recording session.

The New York Times today reports on the new Casio Exilim EX-F1 camera. The hook for sports leagues and networks? The $1,000 camera shoots six-megapixel images at 60 frames per second. It also has stero microphones and even a jack for an external mic. Why? Because it can shoot video at up to 1,200 frames per second. As a final time trick, the F1 can display, on its 2.8-inch screen, a slow-motion version of what the camera is “seeing.” Your preview falls further and further behind real time — but you now have the luxury of patience as you decide precisely when to snap the shot.

While Google continues to look for free handouts and becomes more obnoxious every day (is it time for a world-wide one-month "Google strike" to show them who is boss?) the Wall Street Journal today reports on the ambitious plans AT&T and Verizon Wireless have for the 700 MHz spectrum they acquired for $19 billion dollars. Don't expect any developments soon as it will be at least three years before the fourth-generation technology will hit consumer's hands. Interpretation? At least three years really means at least five years. The good news is we can all feel comfortable about buying a 3G Apple iPhone without fear of it becoming obsolete any time soon.