Shocking news
Motorola has filed a report with the Consumer Product Safety Commission concerning a potential electrical shock involving DCT2000 interactive digital set-tops manufactured between late February and the end of May and installed beginning in March. Digital cable subscribers should not remove the power cord from the rear of the box unless the cord is unplugged from the energy source. To date, Motorola has had no reports of shock or injury. The company has stopped shipment of potentially affected units and is screening all DCT2000s in transit to operators.
AccuWeather hits desktops
AccuWeather has signed on with Fox News and WABC-TV New York to provide desktop-based information to visitors of the two organization's Web sites. FoxNews.com visitors are now able to access AccuWeather's AccuWeather.com Alert interactive weather product, with an e-mail-based personalized weather alert. WABC-TV viewers can access AccuWeather.com Desktop, a downloadable computer application that sits on the user's computer and has localized weather, news and traffic alerts.for more than 43,000 ZIP codes. WABC-TV customizes it to the station brand.
Williams hole in one
The Golf Channel has selected Williams Communications to handle streaming-media for TheGolfChanne.com. The company will be the preferred provider of golf-related audio and video streaming for content like Golf Central
and Golf Talk Live.
Ikegami at the Core
Core Digital and SWTV's new hybrid HD and CCIR-601 digital standard production truck is using 11 Ikegami HDK-790E/79E cameras with 2.2 million-pixel 2/3-inch FIT CCDs to capture action. The cameras will be used alongside the TFC/TFH-790 fiber-to-triax converter "Mongoose" system to transmit pictures up to 3,300 feet using standard triax cable. The company is already using more than 100 Ikegami cameras, so the additional 11 are no surprise.
Digital in Carolina
South Carolina Educational Television hit a lottery of its own last week when Gov. Jim Hodges signed lottery-spending legislation to give $18.5 million to SCETV for DTV conversion. According to the SCETV, the legislation means the network's 11 stations will make the conversion to digital, and all the stations are expected to be on-air by next May.
BBC chooses Artesia
BBC Technology has selected Artesia's TEAMS enterprise digital asset-management system for its integrated broadcast- and media-technology products. According to BBC Technology, using TEAMS will help users work more easily toward goals that enhance efficiencies, manage distribution of content, and protect those assets that are distributed.
TVN gets erotic
TVN Entertainment's VOD system has been selected by new Frontier Media to handle VOD demands for the company's The Erotic Networks. The TVN system uses the ADONISS asset-management system to distribute and manage the VOD titles, and TVN Entertainment is now delivering close to 1,300 hours of on-demand content to its MSO partners.
Cumulus prefers dielectric
Cumulus Media has signed a preferred-customer agreement with Dielectric for the supply of antennas, transmission line and RF systems for its 254 AM and FM radio stations. The stations are located in 53 markets throughout the U.S. and Caribbean.
Charter taps nCube
Cable operator Charter Communications has deployed nCube's video-on-demand equipment in six markets; additional markets will be on board later this year. The six current markets, which use Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola set-top platforms, are Birmingham, Ala., Fort Worth, Texas, Newtown, Conn., and Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena, Calif.
CNN selects architect for New York studio
Kostow Greenwood Architects, New York, has been chosen to design CNN's New York broadcast studio, which will be located at the AOL Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. The 240,000-square-foot facility will include CNN's broadcast, production and post-production operations.
