The 13th FINA World Water Sports Championships in Rome wrapped up this past weekend after a mammoth two-weeks-plus meet that was broadcast around the world in HD, with special cameras to the fore. UK participants made their mark on the event, with 15-year-old diver Tom Daley winning gold in the 10-m–platform category and SIS LIVE unveiling the latest version of its Halibutcam system.

For all of the consternation about the future of the media industry, Glenn Enoch, ESPN VP, Integrated Media Research, points to one underlying fact that means good news for all: it’s easier than ever for sports networks and leagues to engage with fans all day long.

HBO Sports has gone all HD for its boxing productions, thanks to the recently released Canon HJ14ex4.3B, the industry’s widest-angle portable HD lens. “We saw it at NAB with our friends at NEP and knew it would be perfect for us and serve a dual application,” says Jason Cohen, HBO Sports, director of East Coast Productions. “We can use it on our camera over the ring and shoot the entire ring and also use it on a jib for sweeping beauty shots.”

Fujinon and NHK will be awarded an Engineering Emmy Award for Fujinon’s Precision Focus Assist System by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during this year’s ceremony on Aug. 22 in Hollywood, CA. Fujinon and co-developer NHK won for “Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development.” Precision Focus Assist is a built-in feature within a lens that enables camera operators the ability to ensure fast, accurate focusing of high definition images under varying conditions.

MIRA Mobile Television’s fleet continues to grow with the addition of two vehicles acquired from the recent sale of National Mobile Television (NMT) assets. These additions include; a 53-foot, 10 camera digital expando; and 53 foot B unit. Both trucks are currently being revamped in MIRA’s maintenance facility in Portland, OR, receiving numerous equipment upgrades and improvements.

This week Mark Schubin’s Cafe item is serving up his musings on a simple question: is stereoscopic 3D required for the perception of depth?

Litepanels will be awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for its proprietary lighting systems. Litepanels fixtures are used on a variety of network television productions including such high profile programs as Desperate Housewives, Fox’s 24, and Without a Trace. The Emmy statue is the first in the Academy’s 61 year history to be awarded for television lighting technology, and will be presented on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.

Indoor-golf-simulation and analysis technology company aboutGolf deployed Canon REALiS SX6, SX7, SX80, and X700 Multimedia LCOS projectors as an image-display solution to go along with its 3Trak tracking technology, which collects data on each shot.

General Cable, which develops, designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes copper, aluminum, and fiber-optic wire and cable products for the energy, industrial, and communications markets, acquired Gepco International and Isotec, which manufacture and provide high-end cabling solutions for the professional broadcast and entertainment markets.

The New York Times reports that to the list of universal threats to football success — injury and indiscretion, a Tom Brady-led offense marching against your defense — the N.F.L. has added another: Twitter. For the complete story click here. As training camps opened last week, players were told that the same standard — read: paranoia — that applied to the flow of information to reporters also applied to Twitter. In Green Bay, players were told they would be fined if they texted or tweeted from team meetings or coaching sessions. And when Coach Tony Sparano met with the Miami Dolphins before Sunday’s first practice, he effectively outlawed Twitter, nose tackle Jason Ferguson said.

Sky will take on German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF for the TV rights to the 2014 Olympic Games from Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Games from a yet-to-be-determined site, reports Ed Meza of Variety.

USA Today reports that skeptics groaned after U.S.-based sports network ESPN secured rights to broadcast Premier League games in Britain, seizing a foothold in the home market of the world’s most popular and lucrative football league. Here it comes, went the thinking. American accents, easily excitable broadcasters — even cries of “PK!” for penalty kick. ESPN promises it won’t be that way.

Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network president and CEO Tracy Dolgin spoke with Multichannel.com news editor Mike Reynolds about the deal between Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which controls digital rights, and Cablevision Systems to allow the cable operator’s digital-cable subscribers who get New York Yankees Major League Baseball games on YES Network and subscribe to its Optimum Online high-speed-Internet service to stream the games on their PCs.

Will the U.S. Olympic Network ever see the finish line? NBC walked away from talks with the U.S. Olympic Committee, convinced that the USOC was asking for far too big of a stake in the channel, considering the fact that it holds no rights to major Olympic Games sports, Tripp Mickle and John Ourand of SportsBusiness Journal reported.

Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006. ”Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

An Arena Football League source told ESPN.com the league is “suspending operations indefinitely” and an official announcement would come soon.

When the Oakland A’s visit the Kansas City Royals Saturday evening, Fox Sports Kansas City will present “This One’s for You,” a special telecast of the Major League Baseball game to be carried live for U.S. troops worldwide on the American Forces Network.

Radio or TV? Dan Patrick can’t seem to decide, so he’s choosing both.

The sale of the Chicago Cubs is proceeding about as slowly as the team’s efforts to win its first World Series in 101 years, as Richard Sandomir of The New York Times reports that JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, involved in the financing for both bids, both received government bailouts and are both proceeding cautiously.

ESPN college-football analyst Lee Corso, who turns 74 Friday, is still focused on his goal of appearing on the Sept. 5 debut edition of College GameDay while continuing his recovery from a stroke he suffered in his Florida home May 16, Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports.

National Audio Systems will be the distributor of Fiberplex’s LightViper professional audio applications in Australia. Fiberplex also announced that its current LightViper distributor in Spain, Seesound, expanded its territory to include Portugal.

HBO PPV will distribute the rescheduled Gillette Young Arms Prelude to the Dream charity auto-racing event Sept. 9, after rain forced the cancellation of its original June 3 date, reports R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau told an FCC administrative law judge it does not believe regional sports network Mid-Atlantic Sports Network made its case for mandatory carriage on some Comcast systems, industry sources told John Eggerton of Multichannel News.

After 15 years, the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is still not a fan of ESPN’s X Games.

There seems to be some confusion over an earlier-reported offer by Verizon Communications of DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket National Football League out-of-market package “free” to subscribers of certain DSL-based bundles: DirecTV director of public relations Robert Mercer wrote in an e-mail to Todd Spangler of Multichannel News that the package “is not a free add-on as it was being characterized in the press.”

Members of the Chicago Cubs are not happy about ESPN’s upcoming documentary on Steve Bartman, the fan whose attempt to catch a foul ball may or may not have kick-started an eight-run inning for the Florida Marlins against the Cubs in game six of the 2003 National League Championship Series, depending on who you ask.

CBS is taking a different approach to ad sales for Super Bowl XLIV: Rather than setting a concrete price for 30-second spots, the network told ad buyers it is willing to create customized ad packages around the Big Game, then work together to determine a value, Brian Steinberg of AdAge.com reports.

Media 100 Suite, next-generation Media 100 software with MultiClip Editing and Boris RED, is now available, Boris FX’s Media 100 division announced, and the software package adds support for Matrox MXO2 and a new VoiceOver Tool for audio recording direct to the Media 100 timeline.

In a replay of sorts of last year's opener, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics will launch the 2009-10 NBA season -- only this time LeBron James has some welcome firepower in new teammate Shaquille O'Neal.

You may have already seen the HBO documentary "Assault In The Ring," but if you haven't yet, put it on your to-do list. Just in case you've forgotten that boxing is filled, top to bottom, with unbelievable scumbags.

Now that Brett Favre has “retired” from the National Football League, might the former quarterback be a good addition to a TV booth? Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at the pros and cons of a possible announcing gig for Farve.