IFA: 3D Adds Depth to TV Landscape

Chris Nuttall of the Financial Times filed this report from the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. Nuttall said that the rumored Toshiba eyeglass-less 3D TV was not demoed. The report also had a list of what Nuttall considered to be the “best gadgets” at the show, including Apple’s “Apple TV”.

Graeme Wearden of The Guardian also highlighted Panasonic and Sony’s 3D announcements including a 3D projector by Sony. Panasonic announced a 3D IPTV service that would allow stereo movies to be downloaded to it’s TVs and Blu-ray players.

Audio Follows Video, Right?

I very seldom watch the 10 PM news on the Fox New York O&O (WYNY – aka “Fox 5 NY”), but tonight my wife and I were watching “Glee” and I hung around for the newscast. At the end of one of the live field reports on Hurricane Earl (at the Jersey shore, in the dark, in front of a snow fence), up comes the two-box and away goes the field reporter audio (cutting off the sig-out and eliminating any chance of 2-way banter.) I guess that’s what happens when you use an automated system instead of an audio person…

(I’m not even going to comment on how instead of doing a live shot where you can’t see anything – the truck operator would have been better used as an audio board operator in the studio. It’s the news, stupid and the reporter HAS to be LIVE on the scene even though there is NOTHING TO SEE.)

ABC News Reduces London Staffing Again

ABC News has further reduced its London bureau staffing to a single 9 hour shift on weekdays. This comes just days after ABC News President David Westin announced reporting changes at the organization’s NY headquarters.

The staff at World News Now said goodbye, but you will have to go to Google’s cached version of the show’s Facebook page to tell.

Sad times at the house that Roone built.

Samsung’s “Free The TV Challenge”

In addition to throwing some ad dollars at their “Free The TV Challenge“, Samsung has also been generating some media buzz. This past weekend I heard mention of the contest on one of WCBS-AM’s business reports.

For those of you who have not heard, Samsung is running a contest for developers to write applications for Samsung’s line of HDTVs and Blu-ray players that share common programming interfaces for third-party video, gaming and internet-based apps.

You can read the original press release here, and the one about the August 31st “Developer Day” here.

Next on FiOS: Holographic TV ?

In a CNET article, Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir said his company has been playing around with sending holographic images of someone’s head across its FiOS network. OK, that is a bit out of context but Kheradpir said this could be a very useful application for doctors and other medical professionals.

Verizon recently announced that it had field tested the first ever 1Gbps link to a business using Verizon’s existing FiOS infrastructure. According to CNET, Kheradpir has also been testing the 1Gbps service in his home. On a tour of his home earlier this month, he said that holography is the type of application that would require these higher speed connections.

3D Tennis Added to US Open Coverage

According to this release from the USTA, CBS will be providing 3-D coverage of some Center Court matches from the Arthur Ashe Stadium during the US Open. As of now, some matches will be available on DirecTV’s n3D channel with the possibility of carriage on some cable systems.

And according to Broadcasting & Cable, CBS Sports Exec VP of Operations and Engineering Ken Aagaard says that the network plans to produce the middle weekend – Saturday, 9/4 through Labor Day, 9/6 – and the final weekend – Saturday, 9/11 & Sunday, 9/12 in 3-D. According to B&C, CBS has secured a sponsorship deal with Panasonic, who also underwrites DirecTV’s n3D channel.

UPDATE (9/2): It looks like 3-D coverage will be exclusive to DirecTV.

H.264 vs VP8

MPEG LA fired another salvo in the H.264 vs VP8 war today by announcing that it will continue to offer a royalty-free license for their AVC/H.264 codec patents to sites that offer free video streams to consumers. Implied, but not specifically stated due to the legalese involved is that the license will be in perpetuity.

NewTeeVee suggests that this is in response to the growing acceptance of WebM, the open-source set of standards backed by Google and soon to supported by Firefox 4.

(Thanks to philiphodgetts.com.)

ABC Phones-In The News With Skype

I’m glad that Steve Rosenbaum noticed (and the Huffington Post picked-up on) the growing use of Skype at ABC News that Andrew Tyndall and I first blogged about in early February.

Rosenbaum correctly notes that the increasing use of Skype is not to get the story on the air faster, but to save money – lots of money.

You can read my original blog post here.

A Little Knowledge Is Dangerous

At the end of February I accidentally took the blog off-line by trying to be fancy in my WordPress “General Settings”. Woe was me! Today I finally had the time to explore my hosting company’s “phpMyAdmin” control panel and was able to fix the error of my ways.

The lesson: “If it’s working, DON’T fix it!”
(That applies to equipment as well.)

TV Should Create Its Own Online Store

On BNET, Catharine Taylor gives four good reasons why the TV networks should bypass iTunes and create their own online store. (The main point being that it would allow the nets to set the price of a show.)

READ THE COMPLETE POST HERE.