When the Dallas Cowboys officially unveil their new $1.2 billion stadium this weekend on Sunday Night Football, the evening may be as focused on the so-called eighth wonder of the world as on the football being played in it. NBC has made an effort to highlight the stadium throughout its programming this week, and the Sunday Night Football production team will slightly shift its philosophy to accommodate the larger-than-life facility — and to see if anyone punts a ball off the scoreboard.

The outside-broadcast area at IBC has been among the most striking aspects of the show in recent years, but 2009’s offering did not have the same visual impact, possibly because there seemed to be fewer trucks and the whole display was overshadowed by the shiny new Elicium building.

New York Giants fans will get to enjoy a brand-new stadium beginning in fall 2010, but the Giants players and staff are already enjoying a state-of-the-art facility at the Timex Performance Center. The practice facility is a state-of-the-art, video-centric complex that relies on technology from Sony and XOS to run as efficiently as current technology allows.

Securing a big sale at a trade show is a major coup for companies, but, more often, contracts are signed and sealed weeks before. So Gavin Davis, managing director of Glensound, could hardly contain his delight after Belgian facilities operator VideoHouse bought six GDC-6432 digital commentary systems on the stand over the IBC weekend.

IBC has always offered a spread of technologies and products, both big and small. But during the late 1990s and into the 2000s, the show was about the big installation and, particularly, the big OB truck. There were some behemoths on view this year, but a new market is opening up for smaller vehicles packing compact cameras and new-media links.

At 113,000 sq. ft. and nearly three acres, the green roof atop the Target Center is the largest green roof in Minnesota, the fifth-largest in the United States, and the tenth-largest in the world. “It looks like a 2.5-acre farm in the sports central of Minneapolis,” said Mike Christenson, director of community planning. This week, the rooftop opened, giving area residents a first glimpse of the green revolution. “It’s a glimpse of now; there are green roofs in all of Minneapolis,” said Christenson…

ESPN’s Monday Night Football opening-week doubleheader delivered the two largest cable audiences of 2009. The host New England Patriots’ 25-24 win over the Buffalo Bills drew a 10.3 rating, 10.224 million households, and 14.001 million viewers, and the visiting San Diego Chargers’ 24-20 defeat of the Oakland Raiders earned an 8.9, 8.774 million households, and 11.945 million viewers.

The defending National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals will use two Panasonic AJ-HPX2000 2/3-inch 3-CCD P2 HD camcorders and one AG-HPG20 P2 Portable recorder to boost the image quality and turnaround of their coaching video, replacing digital cameras the National Football League club had owned for nearly 10 years.

The Associated Press announced a strategic alliance with PictureGroup under which the company will license photos through the AP Images platform, enabling it to distribute its content to more than 57,000 global users.

Game Creek Video’s Legends HD video-production truck made its National Hockey League debut at Tuesday night’s preseason tilt between the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York, loaded with 12 Sony HDC-1500R multiformat cameras, seven Sony BVM-L170 LCD critical-evaluation monitors, and two LMD-2450W monitors.

CBS will climb back into the mixed-martial-arts octagon with Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers Saturday, Nov. 7 at 9 p.m. ET (delayed PT), and the four-bout card will be produced by Showtime Sports. The world’s No. 1-ranked MMA heavyweight fighter, Fedor Emelianenko of Russia, will face undefeated American Brett Rogers of Minnesota in the marquee match-up.

Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia will air 71 regular-season Philadelphia 76ers National Basketball Association games during the upcoming 2009-10 campaign, and sister channel The Comcast Network will present 10 regular-season road games. Every contest on CSN Philadelphia will air in HD.

With the 2009 Major League Baseball regular season winding down, Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network says it is on place to post the best baseball ratings ever on a New York regional sports network, with this season’s ratings up 10% year-to-date.

Comcast SportsNet California will drop the puck on its inaugural season of broadcasting the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks with 75 exclusive games during the 2009-10 regular season, and at least 50 of those will be in HD.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks and former Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Rams wide receiver Drew Bennett joined ESPN2’s First Take as analysts for the 2009-10 National Football League season.

Does Fox want to bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, or not? News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox Sports chairman David Hill have sent mixed signals, writes Michael Hiestand of USA Today.

“Cowboys Stadium suffers from its own form of nostalgia: Its enormous retractable roof, acres of parking, and cavernous interiors are straight out of Eisenhower’s America, with its embrace of car culture and a grandiose, bigger-is-better mentality. The result is a somewhat crude reworking of old ideas, one that looks especially unoriginal when compared with the sophisticated and often dazzling stadiums that have been built in Europe and the Far East over the last few years.”

One-minute hourly tennis update Court Report was added to Tennis Channel’s nightly programming schedule and will appear regularly mornings and evenings throughout the year, Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports.

Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune is urging residents of the Windy City to take a different approach when pondering whether it is a good idea for the city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martín Del Potro had already experiences some endorsement success in his home country of Argentina before upsetting Roger Federer, but his star is set to soar, Valentina Vescovi and Aixa Rocca of AdAge.com wrote.

Auto-maker Hyundai bought two spots during CBS’ coverage of Super Bowl XLIV Feb. 7 from Miami, and the network has now sold approximately 70% of its inventory for the Big Game, Brian Steinberg and Rupal Parekh of AdAge.com reported.

Former Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) was named as the new president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, succeeding David Rehr, who resigned this past spring after leading the trade group for three years, TVNewsCheck reported.

“Harwell said good-bye Wednesday night not for the first time, but probably for the last,” Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press wrote of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers’ salute to longtime broadcaster Ernie Harwell. “He is almost 92 years old. He has inoperable cancer. He has lived so long, and has been part of the fabric of Michigan for so many years, that it was easy to think he’ll always be here. But on this night, reality hit: We might never hear Ernie Harwell’s voice again.

Last week, Kevin Allocca of TVNewser polled the White House correspondents to get their takes on who will win the Bowl Championship Series title in college football. This week, Allocca moved up to the National Football League, asking TV news anchors for their Super Bowl picks.

Serena Williams’ outburst during the 2009 U.S. Open Tennis Championships may have cost her any chance of coming back and winning her match against Kim Clijsters, but most marketing experts believe it won’t cost her any of her endorsement deals, Rich Thomaselli of AdAge.com reports.

Jeff Schultz, a defenseman for the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, has a very entertaining Twitter feed at @jeffschultz55, with tweets such as, “Pasta for breakfast? Oh yeah. Gotta carboload for practice today. Must teach that Carlson kid this is MY blueline,” and, “Have spent the past few days packing up back home and saying goodbye to all my ladies. Schultzy got game.”

AccuScore’s sports-forecasting service will be featured on all Fisher Communications-owned TV stations and their respective Websites under terms of an agreement between the two companies, TVNewsCheck reported.

Fred Cusick, the play-by-play voice for the National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins for 45 years, died Tuesday at the age of 90 due to complications from bladder cancer, Bryan Marquard of The Boston Globe reports.

World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon is pondering an attempt at getting elected to the one place that may be crazier than the wrestling ring: the U.S. Senate, reports Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is considering a deal with the New Jersey Nets to help fund the construction of their new arena.