Kurt
Heitmann and the good people at CP Communications have established a
memorial trust fund in honor of ESPN and sports industry audio
legend Ron Scalise that will be used for the college education of his
three children: Rosario, 16, RJ, 11, and his daughter Brenna, 10. At
the request of the family this will be the only fund established to
limit confusion. For more information on donating to the fund please
click on this story.
All donations should be made out to the fund and should be sent to:
Kurt G. Heitmann
CP Communications, Inc.
200 Clearbrook Road
Elmsford, NY 10523
Third Annual Sports & Technology Research Study
The Sports Video Group and the Consumer Electronics Association has released the
third-annual “Sports & Technology Research Survey, highlighting the power
that sports content has as both a driver of HD set sales as well as other new
technologies. The survey includes our exclusive 2008 Super Bowl Briefing as
well as new data about consumer online sports viewing behavior.
And then there was one. This
weekend's British Open from Royal Birkdale is the last major global
sporting event that has not made the leap to HD. And with rumors
circulating that it will be in HD next year this is the last chance for
HD owners to complain about less-than-stellar HD images (although they
will enjoy widescreen SD images).
The size of the course has been a factor in the BBC deciding not to present the Open in high definition, even though other major golf tournaments are televised in HD. The international and domestic feeds are standard definition and stereo, although a BBC Sport spokeswoman said the situation was reviewed on an annual basis. "With the amount of cabling and number of crew involved, golf is an expensive sport and we have to balance the expectations of the viewers with the value for money we give them as licence fee payers," she said.
This year 200km (120 miles) of cable is being used on the course for approximately 10 hours of live broadcast coverage during each of the four days of the competition, although the OB and production teams will have been on site for two weeks by the time this year's champion receives the trophy on Sunday. A total of 56 cameras is being used around the course, including two commentator-cams at the commentary position, with one locked off and the other having remote pan and tilt.
SIS OBs (formerly BBC OBs) is providing three trucks - Units 2, 10 and 11 - plus two mobile control rooms. Other hardware includes nine camera hoists, the tallest of which can extend to 240 feet, generators producing 2 Megawatts of power and a blimp-mounted camera for aerial shots from up to 1000 feet.
When SIS (Satellite Information Services) bought BBC OBs, its chief executive, David Holdgate, said he wanted to see the outside broadcast trucks working closely with SISLink uplinking vehicles. For the Open, SISLink has sent two of its Dual Antenna Uplink vans, one of which is providing connections for ABC/ESPN, Turner Broadcasting and ESPN SportsCenter. This truck has two dishes, one a 36MHz SD feed (which will be up-converted to HD in the US) and a 18MHz SD signal to IS-3; the other is beaming a 18MHz SD feed to Telstar 12.
The two dishes on the second Dual Antenna uplink vehicle, which has been hired by IMG Media, are handling the World Feed, News Feeds and TWIi Press Feeds for Eut W1 and two 9MHz feeds on IS-3, respectively. The World Feed is being distributed to the US, Asia and Europe.
The Open is being seen in 163 different territories on 75 channels around the world, reaching an estimated total of 582 million homes. Editing systems are being provided for more than 30 international broadcasters and the difficult task of following a little white ball in the sky is being made easier through the use of the Trackman radar-based virtual reality tracking system.
