When ESPN goes live from the U.S. Open in New York City on Aug. 31, the network will complete the first-ever TV Tennis Grand Slam. Its U.S. Open coverage will mark the first time a broadcaster has televised all four tennis Grand Slam events — and ESPN did it in a single year.

While Usain Bolt’s new 100m world record of 9.58 at the 12th IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World Athletics Championships in Berlin has captured the headlines, the event is technologically significant as the first HD transmission by German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD.

Citi Field, home to the New York Mets, has increased its fan amenities to include mobile interactivity. In partnership with Verizon Wireless, the Mets have launched an in-park mobile campaign, powered by mobile-marketing company Txtstation, that allows fans to interact with the HD scoreboards in real time throughout the game.

For college coaches, video analysis has evolved from a hobby to a requisite daily ritual. The more detail a coach can see, the better that coach can scout opponents and prepare the team. So, when Sportstec released the latest version of its SportsCode software with native-HD capabilities, college coaches across the country began taking their game to the next level.

The Premier League football seasons in England and Scotland — the EPL and SPL, respectively — began this past weekend (Aug. 15-16), and there was as much expectation on how the broadcasters would fare as on how the teams would. ESPN has made its first moves into British football after picking up EPL rights packages previously held by Setanta Sports and is sharing the SPL with Sky Sports.

The fifth and final Ashes Test began Thursday at the Brit Oval in south London, and, with the series drawn so far, there’s going to be a lot of passionate noise coming from the ground, but steps have been taken to ensure that the PA system does not disturb non–cricket-loving local residents.

Calrec Audio’s newest audio console, the Artemis, will likely further cement the company’s lead in the live-sports-broadcast market. But the growing diversity in the OB sector offers plenty of good choices.

When ESPN goes live from the US Open in New York City on August 31, the network will complete the first-ever TV Tennis Grand Slam. ESPN’s US Open coverage will mark the first time a broadcaster has televised all four tennis grand slam events — and ESPN did it in a single year. In this week’s SVG Audible, Jamie Reynolds, VP of event production for ESPN, discusses the network’s production philosophy in its first year of US Open coverage, and how it plans to do justice to the year’s final Grand Slam event. Click through to launch the SVG Audible player or download the SVG Audible in iTunes.

A Kansas City, MO, architecture firm, treading where its competitors fear to go, has won a contract to design a $500 million “sports city” in Basra, Iraq. The designers from 360 Architecture were in Iraq’s second-largest city last month to participate in a ceremony to launch the massive endeavor. It will include a 65,000-seat soccer stadium, a 10,000-seat practice stadium, dormitories, and training facilities on a 360-acre, fortified campus. If all goes according to plan, Basra Sports City will host the Gulf Cup of Nations in 2013. The premier soccer tournament is held by Arab nations in the Persian Gulf region every two years…

The Sports Video Group is pleased to welcome our newest corporate sponsor, Illumination Dynamics Inc., an ARRI Group Company. ID provides portable redundant power systems to the sports broadcast industry.

Panasonic Broadcast will roll out a new Camcorder Studio System in October that will be compatible with its AG-HPX300, AG-HPX500, AJ-HPX2000, AJ-HPX3000, VariCam 2700 (AJ-HPX2700), VariCam 3700 (AJ-HPX3700), AJ-HDX400, and AJ-HDX900.

Miranda Technologies will launch its NVISION Compact CQX 16×2 router at IBC2009 at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam Sept. 11-15.

Sweetwater Digital Video Productions purchased a new Grass Valley Kayenne video-production center for use in its Cobalt HD mobile-production truck, replacing a Grass Valley Kalypso HD switcher.

Center stage at last weekend's PGA Tournament was Y.E. Yang's victory over Tiger Woods, of course. But TV cameras also regularly caught gallery members sporting what looked like oversize Bluetooth transmitters. More than 35,000 people used these devices, known as Live Sports Radios, to listen to the Sirius XM Radio broadcast of the tourney while enjoying the ­action in person at Hazeltine Country Club in Chaska, Minn.

All 32 games of the Little League World Series from Williamsport, PA, will air on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 in HD, and all ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts will be simulcast on broadband network ESPN360.com.

Just one day after the National Football League and NBC announced that they extended their Sunday Night Football rights agreement for two years, through the league’s 2013 season, the two parties announced that the 17-game will again be streamed live on NBCSports.com and NFL.com.

Panasonic Broadcast’s AG-HPX300 P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorders are Players on Spike TV, as the cable network is using the 10-bit, 4:2:2 professional HD camcorders to shoot its new comedy series.

Broadcast Pix teamed up with ADC to establish offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Guangzhou to service resellers, integrators, and customers of its Slate integrated production systems in the China region.

Jerry Remy will return to NESN’s booth on a part-time basis starting with Friday night’s Major League Baseball clash when the New York Yankees visit Fenway Park to take on the Boston Red Sox. The longtime Red Sox color commentator took a leave of absence in May to fully recover from the effects of cancer surgery, which included a bout with depression.

After further review, the National Football League will roll out super-slow-motion replays during the upcoming season, debuting them during NFL Network’s Nov. 19 presentation of the Miami Dolphins at Carolina Panthers game, reports Michael McCarthy of USA Today.

A week ago, 16 teams of 11- and 12-year-olds arrived in Aberdeen, Md., with their sights set on a Cal Ripken World Series championship.

If you want to watch live hockey games played by NHL teams not owned by RIM's Jim Balsillie -- that would be all of them, by the way -- you need look no further than the warm glow of your Storm's display now that Verizon has brought its V CAST Video service to the device. Starting today, users will be able to download a dedicated VCAST Video application to their Storms, bringing a host of feature-length and live programming that makes us thank our lucky stars for high-limit data plans. Sure, it'll set you back $10 a month and kill productivity -- but isn't wasting money and time what life is really all about?

Strange days, indeed -- we never would have thought it, but in the second quarter of 2009 plasma was the only large screen (greater than 40-inches) TV technology to show growth in the US market. Compared to the first three months of the year, plasma was up 31-percent in volume and 35-percent in dollars according to research firm Quixel. Take the DTV transition and add in the soft economy, and you've got a recipe for moving low-priced and good-looking 42-inch, 720p plasmas -- a whopping 40-percent more units. Even plasma fanboys like us wouldn't mistake this as a comeback, but we're happy to see evidence that consumers are using their eyes for more than peeping spec sheets when figuring a set's value. The revenue figures clearly show plasma's 50-inch battle line -- a large decrease in 46 - 50-inch 1080p sets was outweighed by gains in 1080p sets larger than 50-inches, and the 237-percent increase in sets 60-inches and up shows the way forward.

Smartphone applications have changed the way many small businesses operate. Now, more firms are turning to these apps to enhance the way customers interact with their products and services–and even boost their bottom lines.

Showtime and Spike TV both reported mixed-martial-arts ratings victories Saturday night, as Spike’s airing of highlights from Ultimate Fighting Championship’s UFC 100 pay-per-view event averaged 2 million viewers, while Showtime’s live Strikeforce card, highlighted by Christiane “Cyborg” Santos’ victory over Gina Carano, averaged 576,000 total viewers, Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable reports.

Spanish soccer fans will soon be able to get 90-second to three-minute highlight packages on their mobile phones following talks between rights-holder Mediapro and the country’s cellular providers, Emiliano de Pablos and John Hopewell of Variety reported.

TV critic Linda Stasi of the New York Post awarded four stars to a reality show, and it wasn’t American Idol, Big Brother, or Survivor: Rather, it was Animal Planet’s Jockeys, which is based on the experiences of a group of riders at Santa Anita Race Track in Los Angeles.

It’s understandable if fans of the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers or New York Jets are miffed about “retired” quarterback Brett Favre signing with the Minnesota Vikings, but Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News wants to know why the media are up in arms about it.

Satellite-TV operator DirecTV notified its customers that Versus is in danger of being dropped Sept. 1 unless the two parties can work out a carriage agreement, Mike Farrell of Multichannel News reports.

Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers are going bilingual Sunday, in a Hall of Fame way. Prime Ticket and FS West will provide two different broadcasts of Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against the visiting Chicago Cubs, each in a different language and each led by a Hall of Fame broadcaster, reports Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times.

It’s time for Universal Sports to get on its horse: The network will air live coverage of the U.S. Steeplechase Championships in October following a three-year agreement with the National Steeplechase Association, reports R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News.