Sports Video Group today launched the DTV Audio Group, an initiative dedicated to helping the industry fully exploit the capabilities of DTV audio (DTVA) with consistency and efficiency through education and communication.

The term primetime is self-explanatory: the evening hours are prime viewing time for television programming, including sports. However, NASCAR is going against the grain. Starting in 2010, 28 NASCAR events will begin at 1 p.m. ET, significantly earlier than the racing league’s afternoon and primetime starts of recent years.

Since the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro last week, ending Chicago’s hopes of bringing the Summer Games to the U.S. for the first time in 20 years, a flurry of criticism has been heaped on the U.S. Olympic Committee for angering the IOC, especially by announcing its intent to launch a proprietary television network. But, with the Games currently without a domestic broadcaster, attention has turned to other networks, those with an interest in winning the rights to broadcast the Rio Games.

Eight MLB teams have made the MLB playoffs, but another team, the one behind Adobe Air, also made the playoffs. The application continues to drive MLB.com’s OnBase application, introduced earlier this season.

While the tools to produce and distribute sports content in 3D make gains at every industry trade show and TV-set manufacturers promise to make it the next hot consumer product, the Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers (SMPTE) is hard at work on what may be the trickiest part of 3D: defining technical standards that will guarantee success.

The handheld microphone is one of the most basic pieces of gear for studio and field work. While there are literally hundreds of choices for those who want to be on American Idol, the pool narrows considerably if you want to be on SportsCenter or the sidelines, where key characteristics of a good interview microphone include durability, weather resistance, and high speech intelligibility. Here are some that meet those needs.

If anything annoys veteran broadcast engineers, it’s on-air talent who don’t know how to use a hand-held microphone. But there’s hope. Sound Institute, an online learning resource dedicated to audio, offers some suggestions that engineers can pass along to newbie talking heads for better handheld audio.

Norway is the happiest place in the world, according to a survey by the United Nations. While the mayor of Oslo attributes this to the countryside and eating lots of fish, two new premium sport channels have probably made the country’s sports fans even happier.

The Web is well established as a place for football fans to air views on the performance of their teams, but now the clubs themselves are embracing it as an effective promotional tool. Ajax of Amsterdam, one of the most successful teams in the world, is leading the way with a Website showing live action, video-on-demand, and multichannel feeds.

The International Olympic Committee is concerned that organizers of the 2012 London Games have yet to finalize plans for all the sports venues. The IOC’s chief coordinator for the London Games said this week that organizers are making “encouraging progress” overall in their preparations. But Denis Oswald, head of the IOC’s coordination commission for the London Olympics, voiced worries that a venue has yet to be finalized for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics. “London has still not yet achieved the final master plan. I have to express the concerns of these two federations that, three years before the games, their venue has not yet been finalized."

The first day of TBS’s coverage of the 2009 Major League Baseball post-season was the most-watched first day since 2005, as the cable network averaged 4.933 million total viewers for its three games and a 3.3 household rating, up 14% versus day one of the 2008 post-season.

The Sports Video Group is pleased to welcome our newest mobile sponsor, Spevco. Spevco, the Special Vehicles Company, began operations in 1973 to restore vintage automobiles. Today, the business has evolved into a single-source provider of vehicles for marketing, training, medical care, sports franchise experiences, and remote TV production.

Fujinon will showcase several of its HD lenses at HD World 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York Oct. 14-15, featuring its XA22×7BES compact studio HD lens, HA42×9.7BERD telephoto lens, and ZA series of lenses for 2/3-inch HD cameras.

JVC Professional Products’ GY-HM100 ProHD camcorder was used by Tracker Productions to shoot 1080p HD footage of the Canadian Rockies for promotional, corporate, and travel videos.

Level 3 Communications is delivering Denver Broncos National Football League home games from Invesco Field in Denver to the networks broadcasting them using an uncompressed HD video feed, delivered entirely via its fiber-optic network, and the company claims it is the first in the broadcast industry to enable end-to-end delivery of uncompressed HD video.

MultiDyne Video & Fiber Systems will use HD World 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York Oct. 14-15 to unveil new openGear solutions; new accessories for the SilverBULLET; new features for the DVI-6000 and EOS-4000; HDMI-ONE DVI/HDMI fiber link with HDCP; HD-3500 3G video with audio and data; COMMS-2000 two- to four-wire intercom bridge; and Fiber-Comms intercom fiber link.

RF Central, part of The Vitec Group’s RF Extreme business unit, will use HD World 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York Oct. 14-15 to showcase its RMR-X6-II-D six-way COFDM diversity receiver.

Comcast SportsNet California announced the launch of online radio show Halftime Live on its Website, CSNCalifornia.com, during its coverage of Oakland Raiders National Football League games.

Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium will use HaiVision Network Video’s MAKITO video encoder to deliver HD program return video feeds for the venues at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games Feb. 12-28.

Showtime will debut reality series FIGHT CAMP 360°: Inside The Super Six World Boxing Classic Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT. The reality series will follow the six participants in round-robin boxing tournament the Super Six World Boxing Classic.

ESPN Radio reached an agreement with the top-rated sports-radio station in New England, as the WEEI Sports Radio Network will begin syndicating ESPN Radio’s overnight programming and select weekend programming Nov. 2.

Multiplatform Internet-protocol-services and content-distribution provider Highwinds Network Group and streaming-solutions provider Octoshape teed up their respective technologies for streaming of the four PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup events on PGATOUR.com.

Turner Sports president David Levy is excited about the beginning of the Major League Baseball postseason and its impact on ratings for TBS, reports Bob Kimball of USA Today.

Qualcomm subsidiary FLO TV announced that the FLO TV Personal Television, a hand-held digital TV that receives FLO TV’s subscription service, will be available for the holiday season, Joseph Palenchar of TWICE reported.

The highlight of Panasonic’s display at the CEATEC Japan 2009 show in Chiba City, Japan, was its prototype 50-inch 1080p 3D plasma display, which uses active shutter glasses that enable the viewing of theater-quality images, Steve Smith of TWICE reported.

Speed Channel will air 17 hours of HD coverage of the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas starting Thursday, and SpeedTV.com will chip in with two hours, as well, Multichannel News reported.

The Cincinnati Reds will be represented during the Major League Baseball postseason despite the team not even coming close to qualifying for the playoffs, as former Reds Sean Casey and Barry Larkin will appear on MLB Network’s MLB Tonight throughout the league’s second season, reports Rory Glynn of The Cincinnati Enquirer.

The Ricketts family finally almost owns Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, as the sale of the team by Tribune has one more obstacle to overcome: a hearing in bankruptcy court, reports Ameet Sachdev of the Chicago Tribune.

After more than a century on the sidelines, golf will return to the Olympics at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. Rugby, last played in 1924, is coming back as well.

You’ve got a mobile phone that receives YouTube videos and a laptop to pick up “Daily Show” clips. But what happens when you have to use your mobile to actually make a call, or trot out your laptop to finally do some work? Now there’s a product for those people for whom no amount of TV is ever enough.

Even at $2.5 million-$3 million per 30-second spot, CBS has sold about 80% of its ad inventory for Super Bowl XLIV, Brian Steinberg of AdAge.com reports.

The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee apparently felt that the city’s bid was close enough to ask President Barack Obama to travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, and deliver the finishing touches. Judging by Chicago’s first-round dismissal, they were wrong.

Time Warner Cable in Manhattan had some issues with Wednesday night’s American League Division Series game one, in which the host New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins 7-2, reports Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.

Controversial Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick will star in BET reality show The Michael Vick Project, and the eight-episode series will chronicle Vick’s life since leaving prison and his return to the National Football League, Michael Starr of the New York Post reports.

“Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play.”

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post longs for the days of Curt Gowdy, Vin Scully, Mel Allen, Bob Costas, Tony Kubek, Jack Buck, Bob Wolff, and Lindsey Nelson, and is not a fan of Chris Berman, Joe Morgan, Steve Lyons, and Chip Caray.

TBS ran its commercials in an unfortunate sequence, as an ad touting a large-sized bottle of Captain Morgan rum that contains 40 shots was immediately followed by an ad for the network’s Major League Baseball postseason coverage that said, “Every game, the Angels honor their teammate, Nick Adenhart,” writes Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times.