Sure Shot Transmissions is building a new 40-foot high-definition (HD) multiformat sports and entertainment production truck, based around a full complement of multiformat equipment from Thomson. The order includes six Thomson Grass Valley LDK 8000 HD cameras, a Kalypso HD 4 M/E production switcher, and a Concerto Series 32x32 compact HD/AES/analog router.

Solid State Logic is best known for its audio consoles. Now, the arrival of its long-anticipated Gravity Media Production Management System at NAB 2008 puts a new face on a familiar company. The system represents a new generation of hybrid solutions combining content acquisition, preparation, production, media management and monitoring suitable for the needs of the emerging multiplatform media universe. It is a provocative product that challenges traditional engineering notions. With Gravity, the race for dominance of mind and market share for such integrated suites is on.

At Sunday’s HD Radio press conference, NAB Chief David Rehr introduced the HD Radio Technology Advancement Task Force’s nearly completed development project. What’s been in the works for the past year is an “embedded exporter” that makes it cheaper and easier for broadcasters to jump on the HD Radio bandwagon.

Arena Media Networks (AMN) opened the 2008 Major-League-Baseball season by announcing the successful expansion of its high-impact out-of-home advertising to four new ballparks: Nationals Park (Washington D.C.), Turner Field (Atlanta), Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati) and Tropicana Field (Tampa/St. Petersburg). AMN now has a presence in 34 venues nationwide—including 21 of the 30 Major-League Baseball parks—and reaches over 90 million passionate fans.

Telecast Fiber Systems has launched SuperBooth, an exclusive suite of fiber optic systems packaged for demanding and specialized mobile applications, and is also shipping two new fiber optic communications modules in support of the award-winning openGear terminal equipment platform.

Thomson Kalypso HD and Kayak HD video production switchers are both getting some new features at this year's NAB. Kayak HD can now handle more sources from different formats than ever while a new SetDef option allows for up, down, or cross conversion to output formats.

The 28th London Marathon took place yesterday (Sunday, April 13), with live coverage on BBC One television and the BBCi interactive service. The broadcast involved a total of 35 cameras, with some mounted on six motorbikes, two helicopters and an overhead circling aeroplane. Interactive 'red button' technology gave viewers who did not fancy braving the rain a number of options for a more comprehensive experience, including live individual footage of the Men's and Women's events and non-stop coverage of the finish, with replays of the end of the mini-marathon.

On2 Technologies has licensed its Flix® Engine encoding and publishing platform to Eurosport, a leading on-line sports brand. By using Flix Engine, Eurosport will standardize its online video programming to On2 based video for Adobe Flash, and will migrate its archive programming across Europe and China to the On2 format.

New from Sennheiser at NAB is the EM 3732 receiver, a rugged piece of equipment with a 90 MHz switching bandwidth that makes finding available frequencies easier than ever.

Holophone continues to expand and enhance its lineup of surround sound microphone systems with three new products for NAB 2008. The PortaMic 5.1 is a basic surround mic for grabbing ambient sound. The N-CODE and D-CODE are portable Dolby ProLogic II units, and as the names suggest, an encoder and decoder.

Utah Scientific today introduced the UTAH-400/XL, the first router in the industry to offer a 1056x1056 matrix in a single equipment rack while using industry-standard BNC connectors. Adding to the company's widely successful UTAH-400 routing switcher product family and the recently introduced UTAH-400/528, the UTAH-400/XL was developed to provide a single platform for all digital router applications requiring extremely large matrix configurations.

Studer marks six decades in the pro audio business at NAB 2008 with the introduction of the OnAir 2500, an all-in-one console designed for radio applications as well as enhancements to existing products including a Dolby E decoding card for the Vista and OnAir 3000 series consoles.

ESPN Analyst Sal Paolantonio will be interviewed over HD video from the Glowpoint Booth from 1-3 p.m. PDT April 15, taking questions from reporters and show attendees regarding the upcoming NFL draft and other sports-related questions.

At NAB, Fischer Connectors is showcasing its industry standard 1051 and 1053-series fiber-optic HDTV broadcast camera connectors, the company’s basic line of products used throughout the industry.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) says the broadcasting industry is on track to develop standards and launch services for mobile digital television (mobile DTV) in 2009. The group stated that recent Independent Demonstration of Viability (IDOV) trials showed that DTV-based mobile video technologies are feasible.

New from Neutrik USA at NAB is the ConvertaCon connector, a versatile double-duty connector that has both male and female converters in the same wire.

Band Pro Film & Digital has teamed with optics manufacturer Schneider Kreuznach to produce a new line of HD C-mount lenses, specifically designed to enhance the performance of leading one-third inch chip HD cameras like the Iconix HD-RH1F and Toshiba IK-HD1.