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Dremedia appoints broadcast veteran to board

Dremedia announced the appointment of Adrian Scott to its advisory board as part of a move to expand the team to include influential figures from the film, broadcast, and technology industries.

Scott has had a long and successful career in broadcast news. He started as a journalist at LBC, IRN, TV-am and ITN; and moved on to a number of senior roles at broadcast technology companies such as Director of Marketing for Autocue; VP of EMEA Marketing for iNews (formerly BASYS) and European Broadcast Market Manager for Avid Technology.

Scott will work with the Dremedia team to expand the business throughout Europe and grow the sales efforts of the company.

Asia Inroads connects overseas companies

Broadcast industry veteran Kevin Dauphinee and former Iwerks Entertainment Asia sales director Sam Woelm have founded Asia Inroads, a manufacturer’s representative company focused on the top five Asia entertainment technology markets - Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Asia Inroads will provide local distributor management for overseas entertainment technology suppliers. It was founded to improve communication and execution of local distribution channels in Asia.

According to its founder, Asia Inroads reduces the distance for sales and marketing managers of overseas companies responsible for growing their Asia businesses.

Asia Inroads was designed to help overseas companies expand their list of contacts and increase their market penetration.

Richardson Electronics and Rohde & Schwarz sign Mexico distribution deal

Richardson Electronics has signed a distribution agreement with Rohde & Schwarz. Under the terms of this agreement, the Broadcast Richardson Business Unit will handle all of the marketing, sales and technical support of Rohde & Schwarz products on an exclusive basis in Mexico.

The agreement will allow will Richardson Electronics to offer high tech, integrated solutions to the radio and TV market in Mexico. The partnership will offer high quality products such as a complete family of FM and TV transmitters, technical support, logistics, local inventory and financing to meet customer needs in Mexico.

New firm consults top Asia
entertainment technology markets

A new consultant firm has been formed to provide business consulting for the top five Asia entertainment technology markets.

Cathay Consultants will consult services to both local and overseas suppliers of broadcasting, teleproduction and rich media solutions in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Cathay Consultants will offer ‘on the ground’ resources to local and overseas suppliers to improve market penetration and modify their strategy to satisfy the particular requirements of Asia customers.

Cathay Consultants is located in Beijing, China.

Panasonic Broadcast names new president

John Baisley has been appointed president of Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company. Baisley will be responsible for all sales of the company’s wide range of broadcast, professional video and presentation products and systems.

Baisley has worked with Panasonic for the past 18 years. He has held numerous executive management positions, including Vice President of Planning and Sales Administration, Vice President of Business Development for Panasonic Broadcast, and General Counsel for the Panafax Corporation, which merged with Matsushita Electric Corporation of America in 1989.

Baisley holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Brooklyn Law School and a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Baruch College – City University of New York.

Baisley recently served as General Manager of Planning for Panasonic System Sales Company.

HDNet to broadcast baseball games in HD

HDNet and Major League Baseball have finalized plans to broadcast 80 Major League Baseball games in high-definition during the 2002 regular season.

HDNet will broadcast the games in a 1080i HD format. The 2002 HDNet MLB broadcast schedule begins with the Detroit Tigers-Minnesota Twins game on April 13.

Olympic documentary shot with Panasonic VariCams

Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD cameras were the first high-resolution HD cameras used to capture Olympic moments last month in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bud Greenspan and his independent production company, Cappy Productions, selected the AJ-HDC27 because it allowed digital cinematographers to capture film-like 24-frame high-definition progressive scanned images. The camera also provides a wide range of variable frame rates (from 4- to 60-fps in single-frame increments) for off-speed capture situations.

Cappy Productions equipped eight crews with Panasonic AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD cameras to acquire Olympic footage for a documentary that will premiere in Salt Lake City next December.

Cappy Productions also used the AJ-FRC27 frame rate converter at the Olympics. While shooting in the field, the AJ-FRC27 offered producers the ability to view the results of an “undercranked” or “overcranked” off-speed effect immediately.

Panasonic DVCPRO HD VTRs--the portable AJ-HD130DC and AJ-HD150 studio editing VTR--were used on location to screen dailies.

Lyon Video uses Fujinon lenses in new Digital Expando Mobile Unit 5

Lyon Video, a mobile production company in Columbus, Ohio, has purchased 11 Fujinon lenses for Lyon’s new all-digital expando truck, Mobile Unit 5, to be completed July 1st.


Lyon Video will add 11 HD and SD Fujinon lenses to its digital expando truck, Mobile Unit 5.

The Mobile Unit 5 will feature: two XA87x9.3ESM field HD lenses with OS-Tech image stabilizers, four Ah80x standard definition, four A22x7.8 telephoto ENG lenses with ratio converters, and one A10x4.8 wide-angle ENG lens with a ratio converter.

Lyon Video also purchased two XA87x9.3ESM HD field lenses and four A22x7.8 telephoto ENG lenses with ratio converters for its existing Digital Expando Mobile Unit 3. The new lenses are in addition to the Fujinon lenses already on board Lyon Video Mobile Unit 4.

Ten Ikegami HK-388 digital cameras have also been purchased for Mobile Unit 5.

Lyon Video mobile units are used to produce a variety of programming from sports events, entertainment, to corporate and educational.

KTech moves to a new location

KTech is expanding to a larger facility to accommodate its rapid growth in DTV Broadcasting Products.

KTech product lines include 100W to 3KW DTV Transmitters. The product line is designed to allow broadcasters to connect NTSC and generate DTV power transmitting signals. Included in the transmitter is a DTV Encoder, a Static PSIP Generator, 8-VSB Modulator with Automatic Linear and Non-linear Pre-correction, an RF Amplifier, a DTV Mask Band Pass Filter, and a Lightening Protector.

KTech's new address is:
21540 Prairie St., Unit B
Chatsworth, CA 91311
Tel (818) 773-0333
Fax (818) 773-8330

Or check out KTech's new building at its Web site: http://www.ktechtelecom.com/newbuildingmap.html.

Televisió de Catalunya rebuilds station with Chyron Duets

Televisió de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, will build a new graphics infrastructure using Chyron Duets. The Spanish regional television station selected 20 Chyron Duets to replace all of its existing character generators. Televisió de Catalunya has installed a variety of Chyron products to increase efficiency, reduce running costs and create a dynamic on-air look.

The Chyron Duet is a high-end character generator and graphics device delivering creative 2D and 3D text and dynamic animation for broadcast and multimedia applications. It is available in SD and HD formats. The range now includes Duet PCi, which allows users to create and playout content from their own PCs.

The 20 Duet systems ordered are a combination of Duet SD and Duet LE -covering production, post production, transmission and news. The installations are phased over an 8-month period and will be overseen by Clearcom, the Chyron Graphics distributor in Spain.

TSL installs new Greek Business channel

TSL has won a contract to install a new channel for the Greek Business Channel in Athens, Greece. On air 10-12 hours per day, 7 days a week, the new channel will broadcast live business news. The programs begin on April 8th.

TSL, as the main contractor, was responsible for the pre-wiring and factory inspection during February. Delivery, installation and training is taking place in March.

TSL is providing a fully flexible solution within the demanding timescale - supplying a range of TSL products as part of the tender: AMU's, VT and Monitor Trays and a UMD system.

Broadcast Engineering unveils new,
clickable NAB map.

Trying to find your way around NAB2002 or just looking for more information about key companies? Well click here to check out Broadcast Engineering's new interactive NAB Exhibit Hall map.

Click on any colored booth and we'll take you directly to the company's Web site. Booths that are too small to identify are listed beneath each map with its corresponding number. Rest areas and restaurants are also highlighted in gold.

NAB2002 takes place April 7-11, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

TANDBERG launches two new iTTV systems

At NAB2002 TANDBERG Television will launch two new systems for its iTTV range of packaged trial and commercial systems for broadband xDSL and FTTH (Fiber to home) operators.

The iTTV Delivery Platform is a carrier class system for xDSL and FTTH networks. It supports the delivery of television and video on demand services over both IP and ATM.

The iTTV Pilot is a "broadband in a box" headend solution for xDSL and FTTH trials that include all the components required to launch a technical TVoIP trial.

Kingston inmedia digitizes Europe's ESPN channel

Kingston inmedia, Kingston Communications satellite-centric broadband solutions provider (KCOM.L), has won a contract to provide digital playout and terrestrial communication circuits for ESPN Classic Sport, a new channel to Europe.

At its European debut, in March 2002, ESPN Classic Sport will broadcast to French satellite viewers by TPS and Canal Satellite. The service is to be played out from Kingston inmedia’s new digital playout facility in Gerrard’s Cross, in Southern England.

The MPEG-2 video stream will then be transmitted using redundant and resilient fibre circuits provided by Colt and Kingston inmedia’s sister company, Kingston infrastructure, to TPS and Canal Satellite in Paris, where the video is up-linked to provide direct satellite to home services throughout France.

Kingston inmedia’s new playout centre has been designed to combine the best technology of the broadcast and data world’s to offer functionality, flexibility and redundancy.

DST conducts first centralized distribution study

Digital System Technology (DST) is conducting a study on the economic and operational benefits of implementing a centralized distribution model for Cox Broadcasting television stations across the U.S.

The study is looking at the operations of 15 Cox Broadcasting stations in San Francisco, California (KTVU and KICU); Reno, Nevada (KRXI and KAME); El Paso, Texas (KFOX); Seattle, Washington (KIRO); Charlotte, North Carolina (WSOC and WAXN); Orlando, Florida (WFTV and WRDQ); Atlanta, Georgia (WSB); Dayton, Ohio (WHIO); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (WPXI); Steubenville, Ohio (WTOV); and Johnstown, Pennsylvania (WJAC).

DST is examining the operation of each station to discover which tasks if any, can be performed from a central location without impacting the stations local image or business flexibility.

DST began the study at the beginning of 2002 and expects to finish it in July.

Cox also plans to consider a future possible partial solution, with regions of the country centralized together.

Name this landmark

Name this famous broadcast landmark, photographed in 1967, and what important industry event took place in the city that year. Correct entries will be eligible for a drawing of the new Broadcast Engineering T-shirts. Enter by e-mail. Title your entry “Freezeframe-March” in the subject field and send it to: bdick@primediabusiness.com.

U.S. readers who send in correct answers by April 17th, 2002, are eligible to win. International readers who send in correct answers by May 17th,2002 are also eligible to win.

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