Rupert Neve Designs - World Class Audio Engineer Hooks Up with Markertek !

Wimberley, TX - Markertek is the leader in supplying connectivity solutions to the technology creation field. We just provided TecNec interconnects to Rupert Neve at its headquarters in Wimberley,TX. Rupert Neve is a world famous engineer of high end pro-audio recording equipment, particularly notable for his microphone preamps, equalizers, compressors and large format mixing consoles. Rupert started his innovation and design of audio systems over 60 years ago and is considered one of the most respected audio engineers in the world. Neve is most famous for state of the art recording consoles used by the music and film industry's biggest names and in studios across the planet. Markertek is honored to provide technology solutions to such benchmarks as Rupert Neve who continue to innovate audio solutions to a vast media audience.

The Latest 'King of Thin'.

Squeaking in at just a tenth of a millimeter less, South Korea's Samsung Electronics has managed to steal the thinnest-TV crown from Philips Electronics of the Netherlands. The 40-inch LCD prototype which was unveiled last week measures just 7.9 millimeters thin. The previous title-holder, Philips, had just announced its 8mm-thin, 32-inch prototype at the IFA exhibition in Berlin in August. Like the ZX1 from Sony, both the Samsung and Philips prototypes achieve their remarkable thinness by having the tuner and other electronics systems separated into a box that's intended to sit alongside or below the screen itself. While Sony is due to begin selling the ZX1 this November in Japan and soon after in Europe and North America, no details of commercial production or availability have been announced from Samsung or Philips.

FCC Commissioner Cheers NFL Network.

FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate has officially commended the NFL Network and its partners - the Washington Redskins, Cox Communications, The President’s Challenge and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education for their national Keep Gym in School initiative. As part of the NFL’s youth health and fitness campaign, the Keep Gym in School program aims to motivate students to get active and to help keep physical education in America’s schools. The initiative will provide grants to public schools across the country to fund refurbishments for PE programs and hosting NFL mini-camps where each child’s fitness level will be assessed."I applaud these organizations for developing a unique partnership to combat this growing health epidemic," said Tate. It is currently estimated that over ten million children in the U.S. are obese, or at risk of obesity.

10 Million TV Households not Ready for Upcoming DTV Transition.

According to the Nielsen Company, almost 10 million U.S. households are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today. However, Nielsen also reported that the number of fully unprepared homes has decreased 1.4 percentage points from May 1 to September 1, 2008, leaving 8.4% of all U.S. households unready. Details from this report show that households headed by less educated, lower income and blue collar workers are least prepared for the transition. Consistent with trends in previous reports, older, white households are better prepared than their younger, African American, Asian or Hispanic counterparts. Among the 56 local markets Nielsen measures with electronic meters, Houston has the largest percentage (15.8%) of households that remain completely unready for the transition to digital TV. In contrast, the Ft. Myers, Florida market, with only 2.4% of homes unready, is best prepared for the switch. The company hopes that this new data helps the broadcasting industry better target and educate the appropriate audience regarding the transition. “Through its representative panels of television households, Nielsen is uniquely positioned to draw a complete picture of the impact of the digital transition,” said Pat McDonough, Senior Vice President, Insights, Analysis and Policy. “We hope this report will help the broadcasting industry and the government as they accelerate their campaign to educate consumers about the need to transition to digital television.”

World's Largest LED Video Display.

Atlantic City's Harrah's Resort and Casino is now home to the world's largest LED video display. Measuring a total of 33,000 linear feet, the LED fixtures that make up the display are mounted to the casino 10' apart vertically and 1.2" apart horizontally across all four facades of the 56-story tower. The four million square feet, or roughly 6 1/4 miles of light emitting diodes are capable creating images and animations with 1.5 million color combinations with visibility of up to 10 miles away on a clear night. In addition to using the building as a giant signage point for advertising the casino and its events, such as the World Series of Poker, the display also offers thousands of constantly changing abstract designs and color schemes. "It's a fresh design every time you see it," said Danielle Mohn, the casino's vice president of marketing. "You don't catch the same thing every time." According to Mohn, as Harrah's rolls out new, season-specific designs, the current autumn-leaves motifs will be followed by an equally appropriate snowflake experience. There will also be special Dec. 31 programming. "We're going to have a New Year's Eve countdown outside," said Mohn. "Something other than just watching the [Times Square] ball drop. Now you can watch the whole building!" See the world's largest display in action here.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Southern Calif. Gas Co.
Wind River Media
UC Berkeley
KUAT
UCF Men’s Basketball
John Deere
CNLTV
Rockwell Collins
WOWT-TV
Michigan Opera
Genesis Networks
Unalite Electric
Natl Judicial College
KOIN-TV
Del Monte Foods

CNN / Final Presidential Debate - History Making goes Live with Markertek !

Hempstead, NY - Markertek is the leader in supplying instant technology solutions to the broadcast news and media industry. We just provided patchbay interface products to the field engineering department at CNN for the on-location production suite at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. On Wednesday, October 15th 9pm. EST, current Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will take the stage at Hofstra for the final debate which will be watched by an estimated 70 million viewers. While many will watch it live on television, there has been a surge in the use of archived media (DVRs) and internet on demand / streaming content that is watched worldwide at a more convenient time. Markertek is truly honored to be part of history in providing technology solutions to broadcasters who bring important and exciting media to the planet.

The Race for DTV Transition Awareness.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty have teamed up to produce a radio and television public service ad campaign, which raises awareness among racing fans of broadcast TV’s switch from analog to digital on February 17, 2009. The Association is currently working with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to get the ads approved and with broadcast partners Fox and ABC to get spots aired on the networks and their affiliate stations. It's a race against time however, for Petty and NASCAR to educate race fans. The upcoming digital transition is scheduled to occur just days after the Daytona 500 which is on February 15, yet before just the second race of the NSACAR 2009 season.

Illuminate & Communicate - The Future of LED Lighting.

A new initiative funded by a National Science Foundation grant, aims to develop the next generation of wireless communications technology based on visible light instead of radio waves. Researchers expect to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to create “Smart Lighting” that would be faster and more secure than current network technology. This initiative, known as the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, is part of an $18.5 million, multi-year NSF program awarded to Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of New Mexico to develop the optical communication technology that would make an LED light the equivalent of a WiFi access point. According to the NSF, the overall goal is to build new communications capabilities into all LED lights while alleviating congestion in current RF bands. Boston University researches will focus on developing computer networking applications, notably the solid state optical technology that will form the network’s backbone. Funding for the BU portion of the program is expected to total about $1 million per year for the next 10 years plus additional funding from industrial partners. “This is a unique opportunity to create a transcendent technology that not only enables energy efficient lighting, but also creates the next generation of secure wireless communications,” said professor Thomas Little at Boston University. “As we switch from incandescent and compact florescent lighting to LEDs in the coming years, we can simultaneously build a faster and more secure communications infrastructure at a modest cost along with new and unexpected applications.”

FCC Names Chief Technologist.

Jon M. Peha, Ph.D., has been named Chief Technologist of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Dr. Peha will serve as a senior advisor on communications technology in the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. Currently, Dr. Peha is a Professor in the Departments of Engineering and Public Policy, and Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Wireless and Broadband Networking at CMU. Prior to joining CMU’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Dr. Peha served as the Chief Technical Officer of three high-tech start-ups and as a member of the technical staff at SRI International, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Microsoft. Dr. Peha is a Congressional Fellow of the IEEE and a Diplomacy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin praised Dr. Peha for his expertise in the area of communications technology, saying, “Jon brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Commission and I am pleased he has agreed to join us as Chief Technologist.  I am confident that Dr. Peha’s expertise will be beneficial to the Commission as it moves forward to address numerous complex, technical issues.”

PBS Gets LIVE with Xbox 360.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has announced that it will launch a broad selection of its full-length television programs for download on Xbox LIVE, the online games and entertainment network for Microsoft's Xbox 360. Although a gaming platform, the Xbox 360 includes a feature that allows downloading of videos, movies and TV programming in HD formats. Microsoft says more than 8,500 hours of premium entertainment content from more than 45 studios and networks is currently available for download. According to PBS, popular titles such as "Wired Science", "Carrier", "NOVA", "Ken Burns’ Jazz", "Ken Burns’ America" and "Scientific American Frontiers" are to be included as part of the Xbox LIVE programming. “PBS’s mission is to make our content broadly available to the public, and our commitment is to be wherever consumers are accessing media,” said Andrew Russell, Senior Vice President, PBS Ventures. “Xbox is a leading source for downloadable video, and we are excited to be offering our high-quality programming to its young and vibrant user base.”

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

CBS-5 New York
Hurst USA Inc.
Intelsat L.A.
LA DWP
RTCOM.tv
Fox News Washington
Afrowave Radio
Jobing.com Arena
Plexus Technology Group
Helicopters Inc.
WLUK-TV
RIO Hotel/Show In The Sky
The Cornell Daily Sun
Ross Institute
Ball Aerospace

Lucas Films / ILM - Movie Maker Magic goes on the Set with Markertek !

San Francisco, CA - Markertek is the leader in supplying the film and digital media arts industry with instant technology solutions. As such, we just provided interface products to the engineering department of Lucasfilm / ILM at its production location in San Francisco, CA. LucasFilm/ILM is one of the largest and most revered film and media creators in Hollywood, best known for producing genre defining fantasy films such as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Willow and many more. For over 40 years, Lucasfilm has been, and is the industry benchmark in developing new film technology for special effects, sound, and computer animation. Markertek is truly honored to supply instant technology solutions to the blockbuster film industry that keeps developing and defining new media for the world.

Panasonic Runs Global Eco Relay Campaign.

The Panasonic Corporation has announced that it is conducting a group-wide ecology campaign called 'Panasonic Eco Relay' 2008. Born of an idea that won the company's Eco Ideas Contest held last year among Panasonic employees, the Eco Relay event aims at fostering a global corporate environment in which each and every employee voluntarily thinks about how he/she leads the way with Eco Ideas and then puts those ideas into practice. During the key activity period of the program, 342 offices and factories in 39 countries and regions will engage in over 520 various eco-related activities such as environmental education, cleanups and tree planting. Overall, the company aims at reducing its annual CO2 emissions by 500 tons through tree planting activities alone. Panasonic has been actively involved in environmental conservation activities since October 2007, when the company announced its Eco Ideas Declaration consisting of three concepts: Eco Ideas for Products, Eco Ideas for Manufacturing and Eco Ideas for Everybody, Everywhere. The Eco Relay is scheduled to run October 4-16, 2008.

The Volvo Ocean Race goes HD.

What do you get when you take eight high-performance yachts and race them for nine months and 39,000 nautical miles around the world? The Volvo Ocean Race, of course. And this year, for the 2008-2009 competition, all of the action will be broadcast straight from the high seas to your living room, in high-definition. Five specialized Sony HDV waterproof cameras (with roll compensation and night vision), as well as windproof mics, Livewire's Media Desk HD system and Inmarsat's satellite transmission system have been fitted to each of the 70 foot boats. Each craft will have a crew of 10 sailors plus one media crew member for a total of 11 crewmen per yacht. These media crewmen will be responsible for catching all the action via handheld cameras while also managing the content streamed to the Media Desk system from the permanently fixed cameras on-board. The 1080i HD video will be compressed to about 4Mbps, and will take about 18 minutes to transmit from a yacht. Media crew members will also hand off HDV tapes for broadcast when the race stops at each port. The Volvo Ocean Race which is now in its 10th year, takes place every third year and was formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race, founded in England in 1972. The Race begins Oct. 4 in Alicante, Spain and ends June, 2009 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Senate Passes Child Safe Viewing Act.

The United States Senate this week passed legislation that will give parents more control over the content their children view on TV and the Internet. The Child Safe Viewing Act, originally introduced by Senator Mark Pryor in early 2007, requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fulfill its obligation under the 1996 Telecommunications Act to continuously review and implement blocking technology as it is developed. As part of the 1996 Act, Congress required television manufacturers to embed the V-Chip within televisions to allow parents to filter some content according to a rating system. However, Pryor said parents are alarmed at the increasing amount of sexual scenes and violence on TV and the Internet. He cites a 2005 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation that reports the number of sexual scenes on television has nearly doubled since 1998. “Today’s technology to protect children from indecency goes above and beyond the capabilities of the V-Chip. It’s time for the FCC to take a fresh look at how the market can empower parents with more tools to choose appropriate programming for their children," siad Pryor. "This bill is a pragmatic, sensible approach where parents, kids and technology can all benefit.” The legislation now must be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives before going to the President to become law.

MPAA and RealNetworks Face Off.

The Motion Picture Association of America and entertainment services company RealNetworks have declared war over Real's latest release, RealDVD. The new software from Real enables users to transfer or 'rip' Content Scramble System (CSS) protected Hollywood titles to their computer hard drive. In the lawsuit filed by the MPAA, the group accuses RealNetworks of allowing its customers to illegally copy DVDs through the RealDVD software. The lawsuit claims RealDVD violates the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by illegally bypassing the copyright protection built into DVDs. The industry group said RealNetworks is improperly making a product that allows users to circumvent CSS protections, and is looking for an injunction against the sale of RealDVD. RealNetworks' suit however, asks the court to rule that RealDVD legally complies with the CSS license. "RealDVD allows consumers to securely store, manage and play their DVDs on their computers. It does not enable users to distribute copies of their DVDs. RealDVD not only maintains the DVD's native CSS encryption intact, it also adds another layer of digital rights management encryption that effectively locks the DVD copy to the owner's computer to ensure that the content can not be improperly copied or shared. According to Real, the MPAA previously sued another company over a product similar to RealDVD. In that case, the trial court ruled to allow distribution of the product.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

AUTV - US Air Force
Mesa Channel 11
KUAT
Spirit Rock
Skyline College
The Brookings Institution
Kapiolani Community College
Galesburg Broadcasting
WBIR-TV
USS Warrior MCM10
Istream LLC
UK Athletics
Foxtrot Touring
Deep Dish TV
Automatika

Apple Inc. - Global Media Innovator gets Connected with Markertek !

Cupertino, CA - Markertek is the connectivity super source in providing cable and support products to the top innovators of the technology industry. We just provided connectivity products from TecNec to the Acoustical Engineering department at Apple Inc. world corporate headquarters in Cupertino, CA. An innovating cornerstone of the media development and computer industry for over 30 years, Apple Inc. is best known for their line of personal computers bearing the name Macintosh and more recently, has extended their technology arm to encompass the development of telecommunications, broadcast innovations and music/media distribution. The iPhone, Apple TV and iTunes are bringing new media formats to a very wide accepting audience of consumers. Markertek is honored to be part of the community that provides connectivity solutions to the technology industry by bringing new media innovations to the world.

Sanyo Announces Oregon Solar Plant.

Sanyo North America Corporation, the wholly owned subsidiary and the North American regional headquarters of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., has announced the company's decision to construct a new plant for the manufacture of silicon ingot and solar wafers in Salem, Oregon. Construction of the $80 million, 861,113 square foot facility is to start October 2008, and is scheduled to begin operation October 2009, with full operation panned for April 2010. The new plant is expected to have a capacity of approximately 70 MW, bringing the total ingot and wafer production capacity in America to approximately 100 MW. According to Sanyo, the company is augmenting its facilities with the necessary equipment and construction of new facilities for future growth in response to market demand, moving forward to reach goals set for an annual global production capacity of at least 600 MW by fiscal year 2010. Sanyo was the world’s first to commercialize amorphous-type solar cell production in 1980. The company currently manufactures silicon ingot and wafers in the US, solar cells in Japan, and module assembly plants are located in Mexico, Hungary and Japan.

IPTV Popularity Grows.

According to analysts at information technology research and advisory company Gartner, subscriptions to internet-based television platforms are on track to reach 19.6 million subscribers worldwide in 2008. A 64% increase over 2007, Western Europe leads with the most subscribers, while North America leads with the largest market for IPTV revenue. The company expects revenue from IPTV to climb 93% over last year to $4.5 billion. Gartner also expects the worldwide use of the format to grow from the current 1.1% to 2.8% by 2012. "The biggest change since 2007 is the rapid advent of new entrants making inroads in consumer video consumption and placing greater demands on IPTV operators to innovate," claims Gartner research director Elroy Jopling.

50-Megapixel Camera from Hasselblad.

Camera maker, Hasselblad announced its latest flagship camera this week at photokina 2008. Dubbed the H3DII-50, the new camera is the first on the market to utilize Kodak's 50-megapixel sensor. At 36x48mm, the Kodak-built sensor is more than twice the size of even the largest current DSLR sensors. The company also announced a 60-megapixel model will be released in 2009. According to Hasselblad, the H3DII-60 will feature a 60-megapixel sensor that provides 94% full-frame, 645 coverage. "We feel that it's important to emphasize the 94% coverage, because, although we hear the phrase 'full-frame' being used quite frequently, no manufacturer has yet achieved true medium format full-frame," said Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen. The H3DII-50 is available now at just under $28,000 (excluding lens) and the H3DII-60 is expected to sell for just slightly more at just under $35,000. photokina 2008 runs September 23-28 in Cologne.

Moore Releases Free Film via the Web.

Documentary maker, Michael Moore has released his latest film "Slacker Uprising" free of charge on the Web instead of the traditional (and profitable) method of release through theaters. The film, which was released September 23, documents a 62 city tour of what Moore calls "key swing states during the 2004 U.S. presidential election" and is intended to bring out new voters for the upcoming presidential election. With a budget of just $2 million dollars, the new film was funded entirely by Moore and the movie executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein. "This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans," Moore said. "The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November. "Slacker Uprising" is now available for download.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Humboldt State University
WDJT-TV
California Public Defenders Assn.
The World Bank
BCTV
Deutsche Welle TV
Federal Aviation Administration
Impact Radio Group
Westfield State College
US Naval Academy   
MGM Grand
NBC Universal
KFOR-TV
Western Washington University
Univ. Of Missouri – School of Medicine

Formula 1 Racing - Motor Sports Innovator is put to the Test with Markertek !

Jerez, Spain - Markertek is the solution technology super source in providing connectivity support products to the racing media industry. We just provided Triax signal diagnostic and testing products to the Formula 1 video assist crew at the recent test trials in Jerez, Spain. Formula 1 has been a benchmark motor sport industry innovator for almost 60 years, with races and trials that span the globe.  More recently, with the upgrade to HD, new media has become an important connection between the competition racing industry and it’s loyal fan base. With the advances of internet technology and cross conversion, live streams and archived events are being viewed by hundreds of thousands of fans weekly to monitor online stats and watch key racing events over the Internet. Markertek is once again, proud to provide support technology that keeps the motor sports industry bringing high definition media around the track and over the finish line!

SanDisk Announces slotMusic.

Flash memory storage maker, SanDisk Corporation has announced that the company and several major record labels have joined together to bring consumers a new physical music format, dubbed "slotMusic". The new format, essentially an album on a microSD card, features pre-loaded, high quality (320 kbps), DRM-free, MP3 music from artists of EMI Music, SONY BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. According to the company, with 1GB of capacity, in addition to music, the cards will also hold liner notes, album art, videos, and other creative content. Consumers can also add their own content to a slotMusic card, creating a personal plug-and-play media library. The cards will be packaged with a USB sleeve ensuring seamless interoperability with not only mobile phones and portable media players, but with all computers - Windows, Linux and Mac - as well. "slotMusic offers consumers an immediate, tangible, and high quality alternative to CDs and digital delivery," said Danielle Levitas, vice president, Consumer, Broadband & New Media, IDC. "This year, more than 1.2 billion mobile phones will ship globally, outstripping portable media players by nearly an order of magnitude - and this trend is accelerating." The new cards are expected to be available at retailers across the country in time for the upcoming holiday season, with a price of $7 to $10 each.

Greenpeace Releases Latest Guide to Greener Electronics.

The environmental lobby organization Greenpeace International has released the ninth edition of the Greener Electronics Guide. First released in 2006, the guide ranks the top 18 manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, televisions and game consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. Nokia takes the lead position this time with a score of 7/10, with Samsung in second and Fujitsu Siemens Computers in third place. On the bottom of the list is Sharp with 3.1, Microsoft with 2.2 points and Nintendo, with just 0.8 points. Apple, which was heavily criticized in the early editions of the guide, now lies in mid-table having made progress on eliminating toxics from new products. Apple recently announced that the new line of iPods would be free of brominated flame retardants, PVC and mercury. However, Apple needs to improve on recycling and energy, Greenpeace said. According to the organization, these companies should: (1) clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances; and (2) take-back and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete; while (3) improving their corporate policies and practices with respect to climate and energy resources. See the full report here.

Digital Transition Awareness Grows.

Consumer awareness of the transition to digital television (DTV) has grown 12 percentage points to 86 percent since the first of the year, according to new market research released by the Consumer Electronics Association. According to the CEA, the growth is attributed to the ongoing joint educational efforts of government and private sector entities such as the National Association of Broadcasters. The results also predict the continued success of the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA)’s converter box coupon program. With five months remaining before the transition date, almost one-third (32 percent) of households using an antenna on at least one television have already applied for their converter box coupon. Another 37 percent of antenna households plan to request their coupon within the year, while 21 percent don’t plan to request a coupon at all. This data suggests that antenna households will request an additional 14 million converter box coupons in the coming months, well within the available number of coupons remaining in NTIA’s program. "This survey is very exciting because it validates what our industries have believed for years: the digital television transition will be a huge success," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. "As we quickly approach this digital destiny date of February 17, 2009, we are pleased to see consumer awareness grow to 86 percent – a huge milestone. Through the completion of this transition, we look forward to continuing our award-winning consumer education efforts and our successful public/private partnerships."

IMDb to Offer Free Movies.

The Internet Movie Database has announced that it is now offering free streaming movies and television shows on the IMDb site. According to the Amazon owned company, IMDb has a selection of over 6,000 films and TV shows, both current and classic, available for immediate viewing with "minimal advertising interruption." Content is provided by CBS, Hulu.com, Sony Pictures Television, and more than 500 independent filmmakers. Taking advantage of an opportunity for Amazon to generate sales, title pages without free content available contain links to view the title on Amazon Video on Demand as well as links to purchase or rent the show or movie from Amazon directly. Col Needham, founder and managing director of IMDb.com, said, "We're excited to offer our users a simple online experience to watch full-length movies and TV episodes for free...our goal is to show our users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com."

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

USS Boxer
Harvest Church
KTNC TV 42 Tuvision
Bandersnatch
NASDAQ IT
American History Museum DC
ABC News - Live Blog
New Age Media - WPXT-TV
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Kennedy Center
US Geological Society
Beach Radio AVP Group
Wine Things Unlimited
Motorola Technology SDN/BHD
Nortronics Corp

Markertek Racing Does It Again - Five New World Speed Records at Bonneville !

World Land Speed Record holders, Team Markertek once again raced to glory this year at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah. Under the leadership of team captains Scott Kolb & Chris Bernard, the team managed to break last year's world record while going on to set five new land speed records. Markertek would like to welcome home and congratulate riders Kolb, Meola, Zaloom and the entire Markertek Racing Team on their recent victories. For all the details and plenty of photos from the Flats, check out the Markertek Racing page here.

30 Rock - Hit NBC Comedy Series gets Wired Up with Markertek !

New York, NY - Markertek continues to be the prime time television production supply source for broadcast solutions. We just shipped a load of Kings connectivity products to the set of 30 Rock in New York City. 30 Rock is a hit NBC series created by Tina Fey and features an ensemble cast of Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and many others. The plot of 30 Rock revolves around a fictional sketch comedy series, which is actually filmed in Studio 6H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Since it's inception in 2006, the critically acclaimed series has grown in popularity as well as being an Emmy award winning primetime comedy show. Markertek is proud to serve the entire television primetime industry by being the on the spot source for all connectivity products and solutions.

Best Buy Acquires Napster.

Big box retailer, Best Buy and music download giant, Napster have announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Best Buy to commence a tender offer for all outstanding Napster shares at a price of $2.65 per share in cash. The transaction, with an aggregate purchase price of approximately $121 million (or $54 million net of approximately $67 million in cash and short term investments of Napster as of June 30, 2008), is subject to customary closing conditions. However, the transaction has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of Napster, and Napster’s directors and executive officers have agreed, in their capacities as stockholders, to tender their Napster shares and otherwise support the transaction. Napster says chief executive Chris Gorog and the company's other senior executives will all remain in their post, and the company does not plan to relocate its Los Angeles headquarters. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth calendar quarter.

MPEG Approves New Audio Codec.

At its recent, 85th annual meeting, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) announced the Verification Test Report for MPEG-4 Enhanced Low Delay AAC (AAC-ELD, ISO/IEC 14496:2005/AMD 9). The newest MPEG standard for high quality conversational applications, AAC-ELD is based on MPEG-4 AAC Low Delay (AAC-LD, ISO/IEC 14496:2005) audio coding tools and adds recently developed MPEG-4 coding tools. Most notably, it incorporates the Spectral Band Replication tool (SBR), but in a form that provides significantly reduced algorithmic delay, thus delivering excellent compression with a low latency that supports conversational applications. The new codec, developed by Fraunhofer IIS and the VoiceAge corporations was elected after a rigorous testing procedure that involved approximately 80 listeners in 11 test laboratories grading a total of 65,000 subjective responses. The immediate applications of this standard are foreseen to be in high quality conferencing systems as well as in professional broadcasting equipment, where the MPEG-4 AAC-LD codec is already established. "We are delighted that MPEG regards our proposal as the best foundation for this important new technology," commented Bernhard Grill, head of the Audio department at Fraunhofer IIS. See the AAC-ELD official test report here.

Does (Flat Panel) Size Matter?

In a recent report released by research firm iSuppli, flat-screen television buyers in the U.S. say size doesn't matter. What does matter? Picture quality. According to the report, more than a third of consumers whose annual income is between $25,000 and $100,000 agreed that picture quality was more important than were factors such as size, price and brand name. In fact, less than 10% of those surveyed in that income bracket said size mattered most. More overtly, according to iSuppli, those making more than $200,000 per year were more concerned with brand name, availability and technology used when shopping for a new television. Riddhi Patel, principal analyst at iSuppli said "Since the inception of the flat-panel television market, much of the focus has been on size, with suppliers focusing on making larger panels at lower costs. However, in recent times, attention has shifted to picture quality, with consumers placing increasing value on television front-of-screen performance."

The Results are in on Wilmington.

Just days after Wilmington, North Carolina became the first to make the DTV transition, the FCC has announced the switch a success. According to the Commission, the vast majority of the 400,000 television viewers impacted by the change were aware of the transition and seemed to be prepared for it.  On the first day, an estimated 180,000 households, of which nearly 14,000 receive free over-the-air television programming with roof-top antennas or “rabbit-ears,” approximately 800 (797) area residents or less than one-half of one percent of area homes called the FCC helpline asking questions and seeking help with the switch-over to digital television.  By the second day of the transition, the number of calls decreased by almost 50 percent from the first day to 424.  FCC Chairman Kevin Martin directed his team of engineers and outreach staff to identify and understand the problems viewers were facing and work to resolve them to the extent possible. According to the Commission, a significant number of consumers who called the helpline with converter box, reception or other technical issues have already had their issues resolved. "While we believe that the transition in Wilmington is going smoothly, the measure of success in Wilmington is what is going to happen next February, and what we are able to learn from this experience and how we apply those lessons as we move this effort across the country," Chairman Martin said.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Boston Scientific Corp.
KNDU
Internal Revenue Service
Channel 4 San Diego
Beacon Broadcast Group
Colorado Plastic Surgery Center
Thermal Matrix
Commworld Of Chicago
Bolingbrook Television
New England Cable News
Mid Atlantic Sports Network
Detroit Public TV
CUNY Media Education
MIRA Mobile Television
Prince Music Theater
West Virginia University

The Ellen Degeneres Show -- Emmy Award-Winning Talk Show Amps Up with Markertek !

Burbank, CA - Markertek is the broadcast television industry super source for solution technology. We just supplied an array of Ocean Matrix amplifiers to the Burbank production location of The Ellen Degeneres Show. DeGeneres is a popular stand-up comedian, television host and actress. She currently hosts her Emmy Award-winning syndicated talk show with her trademark comedic slant on hot topic social, family and alternative lifestyle issues involving celebrity or interesting guests. Talk show programming has proven to be an extremely viable format for broadcast companies with tens of millions of viewers per week. Markertek is proud to provide the major market daytime talk show industry with up to the minute technology solutions.

Wilmington in Transition.

Despite the threat of tropical storms headed their way, Wilmington, North Carolina is on track to make the transition to digital broadcasting Monday, September 8, at 12 noon. The switch, which is the first in the country to come ahead of the nationwide digital television transition on February 17, 2009, will affect 197,760 homes in the five-county designated market area. The NBC affiliate, WECT-TV is the 135th largest market in the country, and was selected as the test market for the early transition in conjunction with the FCC and local officials. The Federal Communications Commission will host a press conference on the digital television transition and early switch by local broadcasters on Monday, September 8, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. at Thalian Hall, located at 310 Chestnut Street in Wilmington, N.C. Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, and Commissioner Michael Copps will headline the federal contingent along with National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO David Rehr, as well as Vice President & General Manager of WECT Gary McNair and Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo. According to the FCC, the early switch to digital in Wilmington will help assist the FCC and the nation to identify any issues that may need to be addressed prior the nationwide digital television transition on February 17, 2009.

Who You Gonna Call?

Computer hardware giant, PNY has teamed up with Sony Pictures Entertainment to announce the release of a new 2GB USB flash drive preloaded with the 80’s comedy classic, "GhostBusters". According to PNY, in addition to the preloaded movie, the drive will hold 12 hours of video play, 33 hours of music and 1080 images (depending on compression and resolution settings). The two companies claim that this marks the first time for the release of a full length movie via a USB flash drive. Andy Armstrong, UK, Managing Director for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment said, “Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is delighted to partner with PNY to offer the first full length movie preloaded on a USB flash drive and ready to play on your PC/Laptop. We are committed to giving the consumer more choice in how to experience their movies either at home or on the go.” No immediate information on pricing and availability has been released.

Better Living Through DVRs.

According to a new survey commissioned by digital TV technology provider, NDS, more than 80% of American DVR owners say they can’t live without a Digital Video Recorder. The survey, which had an international audience of just over 1,000 DVR owners in Australia, Italy, the UK and the U.S. asked users to rank the DVR in terms of relative importance among their household appliances. Americans rank the DVR as the third most indispensable household item, after only the washing machine and the microwave oven. The other countries involved also ranked the DVR as the third most important appliance except for Italy which ranked it forth after the hairdryer. The survey also reveals that it seems owning a DVR can make for a happier, less stressful home life. 81% of respondents with families believe that having a DVR has improved family life – allowing for more time to eat dinner together, fewer arguments over what to watch and more family time around the television. Having a DVR also seems to improve relations between the sexes, with respondents who have partners saying that using a DVR has improved their relationship with their partner (79%). “The results show how fast the DVR has become an indispensable part of many people’s lives in the US,” said Steve Tranter, Vice President, Broadband and Interactive Delivery, NDS Americas. "And if having a DVR also makes relationships with partners and immediate family less stressful and happier, it’s got to be a good thing.” See the full report here.

Hyundai Booth Raided at IFA.

Monday, at the 2008 IFA in Berlin, German customs police raided and seized the contents of the exhibit booth of Hyundai IT Corporation. The raid, which occurred during show hours in front of visitors, left the booth with nothing but wires and cables hanging. A German court had ruled that Hyundai and other companies were using and marketing unlicensed patented technology at the annual event. The court then authorized 69 raids. Norbert Scheidhauer of Berlin's customs investigation office would not name the other companies that were to be raided but did say that 170 televisions, 140 MP3 music players, 21 mobile phones and 57 DVD recorders had already been seized since the IFA event began on August 29th. "Hyundai had the chance today to show us that it had paid for the licenses - then we would have gone. But that was not the case. They could not prove they had paid so we took the devices away," Scheidhauer said. Hyundai has not commented on the raid but Scheidhauer added that they could challenge the seizures in a German court. IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics fair concludes September 3, 2008.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

30 Rock
KXTV
Brown University
CN8 Comcast Channel
Delaire USA
Howard College
City Of Fresno
US Geological Society
Dept Of Homeland Security
MIT Academic Media
Verizon
Signet Electronic Systems
Hanesbrand Products
Discovery Communications
KANU Radio  

Extreme Makeover Home Edition - Top ABC Reality Show 'Moves That Bus' with Markertek !

Geneva, NY - Markertek is the television industry field location technology source for display and monitoring equipment. We just supplied broadcast LCD monitors to the field set of Extreme Makeover - Home Edition at it's production location presently filming in Geneva, NY. The show is a heartwarming philanthropic ABC reality television series in which a specially chosen family has their house, including all rooms, exterior and landscaping, made over by a team of builders and designers in 7 days while the family goes off on a dream vacation. The Emmy Award-winning show is one of ABC's top-rated series and has become very popular due to its family oriented theme and the chance to radically change people’s lives. Markertek is proud to provide production solutions to television field operatives like Makeover which bring reality entertainment to prime time with a positive message.

Latest 'World's Thinnest Display'.

In the on-going battle for the title of 'world's thinnest display', Sony has emerged as the latest victor. The 40 inch, KDL-40ZX1 LCD television is a mere 9.9mm thin and weighs just 26 pounds. The display supports 1080p resolution and according to Sony, features 120hz MotionFlow for improved image quality in fast-moving sequences. In addition to a 3000:1 contrast ratio and a very decent 178 degree viewing angle, the ZX1 also includes a wireless HD base station. The base includes 3 HDMI ports, 2 component, a S-Video, VGA input, USB 2.0, LAN, a phone jack and allows wireless transmission to the display from as far as 20 yards. The world's current title-holder will be available in Japan this fall with a street price of approximately $4500.

Most Stations Ready for DTV Transition.

With just a little less than six months to go, a report by the FCC’s Media Bureau shows that over 96 percent of active full power television stations are either fully operational with digital service or are on track to have their full digital service operational by February 17, 2009. According to the report, 1,002 stations (56 percent of a current total of 1,798 active television stations) reported that they have fully constructed their post-transition DTV facilities and are ready for the DTV transition, while 41 percent of stations (736) have not completed construction yet but report making appropriate progress and expect to be operating their full digital service before February 18. There are however, 56 stations (roughly three percent) which will take advantage of the flexibility offered by the Commission in the Third DTV Periodic Review Report and Order and will be serving at least 85 percent of their service population on February 17, 2009, with final digital operations beginning sometime thereafter. Just one station forecasts that it will not be able to complete construction of its full digital facility until a few days after the transition date and will be dark for this brief time. Full power stations must terminate analog broadcasting no later than 11:59:59 pm on February 17, 2009, and broadcast only digital signals as of February 18, 2009.

Phillips Brings 3D to Blu-ray.

Phillips Electronics has announced that it will demonstrate 3D content on Blu-ray at IFA 2008. According to the company, the demonstration is geared to show off the company's new 2D-plus-Depth format which can be added to Blu-ray to immerse the viewer in a 3D experience. The 3D data format, developed by Philips 3D Solutions, is in the form of 'image+depth' (2D-plus-Depth). The depth information indicates the position of each 2D image pixel on the depth axis in or out of the screen plane. Rendering of 9 different views out of the 2D-plus-Depth data is done within the display by means of integrated hardware. These 9 views are spatially dispersed in front of the display by a micro lens layer. Using the 2D-plus-Depth format will allow viewers to watch the films either on stereoscopic displays, with the traditional red/blue glasses, or on auto-stereoscopic 3D displays which do not require the use of special glasses. Although Phillips currently manufactures a line of auto-stereoscopic 3D displays used mainly for digital signage, gaming applications in casinos, and 3D visualization, the company aims to bring this technology to the home. Jos Swillens, CEO of Philips 3D Solutions said "This demonstration of 3D on Blu-ray is a clear proof point of the flexibility and sustainability of our 2D-plus-Depth content format. It can bring high quality 3D content to the home on a variety of displays and offers a solution to the need for interoperability in 3D." IFA 2008 runs from August 29 - September 3 in Berlin, Germany.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Talk Radio Network
KSOL
Kinemetrics
Direct Shopping Network
Fresno State Music Dept
!mpossible Pictures
Yale School Of Drama
North American Theatrix
LA X-102FM
Maui Classic Charters
CBTV-17
Georgia Public Broadcasting
Radio Disney Chicago
KCDH TV-4
Nissan North America

Minissan - Markertek Clowns Around with Award-Winning Super Car !

Living up to the title of 'Home of the Unique and Hard to Find', Markertek recently supplied the final touches for Mike Guido's red-hot Minissan. Mike, who is also known as 'The World's Fastest Clown', built this totally custom, 375bhp asphalt-eating, Nissan powered, 1962 Austin Mini by dedicating his very own blood, sweat and tears to the project. "It's kind of funny that after over four years and 4,000+ hours of build time, that cable was the last piece of the puzzle," said Guido. The Minissan just won Best of Show and Wild and Hottest Engineered awards at a recent Hot Import Nights in Orlando. According to Mike, "the judges went nuts over the sound system, it helped put Minissan over the top overall." As The World's Fastest Clown, Mike educates kids about the dangers of tobacco and smoking, reaching thousands of children nationwide through his auto racing, magic shows, and media coverage. Markertek would like to congratulate Mike on the Minissan's recent success and wishes this clown many victory laps in the future.

Google Throws $10 Million Into the Ground.

In the continuing effort to develop electricity from renewable energy cheaper than from coal, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, has announced $10.25 million in investments in a breakthrough energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). While the traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam and hot water in the earth's crust, the EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine. This means EGS power generation is applicable world-wide, not just in areas located on continental plate boundaries such as California, New Zealand and Indonesia. A recent MIT report on EGS estimates that just 2% of the heat below the continental United States between 3 and 10 kilometers, depths within the range of current drilling technology, is more than 2,500 times the country's total annual energy use. "EGS is critical to the clean electricity revolution we need to solve the climate crisis, but EGS hasn't received the attention it merits. That's why we're pressing for expanded support from government and increased investment from the private sector. We're big believers in EGS and we're looking for more opportunities," said Dan Reicher, Director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google.org.

FCC Says No to Wireless 700MHz Devices.

Following a recent proposal from FCC chairman Kevin Martin, the Commission has unanimously voted to ban the use of wireless devices operating in the 700MHz range after the transition to digital next year. The Notice also proposes that the FCC prohibit the manufacture, import, sale, or shipment of devices that operate as low power auxiliary stations in the 700 MHz Band after the end of the DTV transition. These actions would ensure that low power auxiliary operations do not cause harmful interference to new public safety and commercial wireless services in the band. Low power auxiliary stations are authorized for such uses as wireless microphones, cue and control communications, and synchronization of TV camera signals. Of the 943 active low power auxiliary station licenses, 156 are currently authorized to operate in the 700 MHz Band.  Of those 156 licenses, most are authorized to operate in other spectrum bands as well, and only 30 are authorized to operate only in the 614-806 MHz band, of which the 700 MHz Band is a part. After the end of the DTV transition, low power auxiliary stations would be able to continue operating in additional spectrum bands that allow such operations on a secondary basis, including certain broadcast television channels below 700 MHz. The draft Notice also seeks comment on various requests recently made by Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) in its Informal Complaint and Petition regarding the use of wireless microphones. The DTV transition date is February, 17, 2009.

High-Purity Recycling from Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan has announced it has developed a technology to sort three kinds of plastics - polypropylene, polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene - from mixed plastics with purity levels of more than 99%. The new process, named "Large-Scale High-Purity Plastic Recycling", will allow the company to recover and reuse plastics from waste household appliances to make new products. Mitsubishi set up a household appliances recycling plant in 1999 and since then has recycled 600 tons of plastics per year into new products. However, due to the inability to separate different types of plastics, the actual amount of recycled materials is only 6% of the total weight of scrapped plastics. The company will now separate PP from PS and ABS based on the difference in specific gravity, and then separates PS and ABS from each other based on the difference in charging characteristics. This will allow the total amount of plastics recovered to increase to 7,000 tons per year. According to Mitsubishi, the new process will also cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 6,700 tons by curbing production of new plastics. The company said it expects the new recycling process to be launched fall 2009.

Olympic Gold for NBCU.

Shattering previous 'Olympic' records, NBC Universal has logged 200 million viewers during the first 11 days of the Beijing Olympics. Topping the 2004 Athens Games viewer number of 188 million and the 1996 Atlanta Games impressive 196 million, 83% of all households in the U.S. have tuned into NBC's coverage of the current Games. According to Nielson's People Meter, ABC, CBS and FOX all recorded record lows in total viewer averages last week. NBC said that page views on NBCOlympics.com has totaled 18.7 million since the games opened. This number is up 63 percent from the Athens Summer Games in 2004 and up 400 percent from the Salt Lake City games in 2002. "We found that the more content we make available, the more buzz we create," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. "There's an audience for the consumption of media that's super-strong in front of the TV and also strong when people are not. We have to make sure our content is made available to people wherever they are." The Games end Sunday, August 24.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Cirque Du Soleil - Zumanity
Chris Lord-Alge
Navteq
Duke University
Appalachian ISP Sports Network
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Salem Media of New York
Creative Audio Post
Dowling College
Youngstown State University
KSBI-TV
Optical Filters USA
Indiestar Films LLC
BNSF Railway
Georgetown ISD

Studio City - America's Largest Independent Broadcast Agency Processes with Markertek !

Valley Village, CA - Markertek is the broadcast industry's instant technology solution source for signal processing equipment. We just supplied Studio City with some important audio solutions at its main production facilities in Valley Village, CA. Founded in 1995, the agency has created results-driven on and off air marketing spots and campaigns for nearly every major studio in the entertainment industry. Operating in the California media epicenter between Burbank and Hollywood, Studio City remains one of the most important links in the chain for film and television marketing. Working with impeccable "A" list marketing plans, with such clients as "American Idol", "South Park", "Tyra", and dozens more, Studio City is one of the world's most respected entertainment agencies. Markertek is honored to work with such benchmark clients as Studio City to bring motion media to the planet with technology driven solutions.

Getting the Picture with TinEye.

Toronto-based software company, Idee, has announced the launch of TinEye image search engine. Unlike traditional search engines, TinEye allows users to search the web for images using an image not text. Instead of using tags or keywords as you would do with Google, for example, TinEye allows you to use an actual photo, or an image from the web, to quickly find almost anywhere that image has appeared on websites from all over the Internet. Users upload an image to be searched for, or direct the engine to a images file's URL, TinEye then conducts a pixel by pixel search across the internet, flagging up all instances of that image even if it's been cropped, merged or digitally altered in some way. According to Idee, the engine can currently search close to half a billion images and is regularly crawling the web and indexing images based on their individual digital signatures or ‘fingerprints’. “With years of experience in developing visual search algorithms, we have made a number of key breakthroughs in image search that go well beyond what anyone has done before.” said Paul Bloore, CTO and co-founder. “TinEye shows that we can scale our search technology and these are early days for us. We have already started web wide indexing of all digital multi-media content, including video.” Although currently in beta, you can find out more about the new search engine and try it out yourself here.

TecNec Announces New Tuffcat Cables.

Cable maker, TecNec, has unveiled its new, super-tough CAT5e field deployable cables. Dubbed Tuffcats, these industrial strength cables feature Belden 7923a DataTuff ® Twisted pair cable with rugged, CAT5e connector boots offering additional protection to the RJ45 connector ends. Tuffcat series cables are perfect on location for audio / video transformer balun applications, or anywhere a heavy-duty CAT5e cable is needed. Andrew Barth, Vice President, Tecnec said "Recently, we have seen a growing trend in the popularity of baluns and the transmission of audio and video over CAT5e. The Tuffcat series cables offer a robust and reliable solution for deployment in the field, or anywhere else for that matter". According to Barth, Tuffcat cables are currently available in a variety of popular lengths, and customs lengths are also available.

Intel Releases USB 3.0 Spec.

Chip giant, Intel, has released the draft specification for the next generation of USB eXtensible Host Controller Interface. USB 3.0 - also known as SuperSpeed USB - is expected to enable transfer speeds of up to 4.8Gbps, 10 times the 480Mbps supported by the current USB 2.0 specification. Designed to be backwards compatible with older generation interfaces, the 3 specification also supports the use of optical connectors. Originally announced last September, the draft specification is now available under royalty free licensing terms to all USB 3.0 Promoter Group members. Promoter Group members include HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments among others. Phil Eisler, corporate vice president at AMD said, "Lifestyles filled with [high-definition] media and digital audio demand quick and universal data transfer. USB 3.0 is an answer to the future bandwidth need of the PC platform. AMD believes strongly in open industry standards, and therefore is supporting a common xHCI specification." Intel said the new technology should become widely available in 2010.

CEA Considers Portable Device Standard.

The Consumer Electronics Association has announced that it is currently assembling a group to consider establishing industry standards for portable devices. Standardization of products such as MP3 players and GPS devices would ensure support for autos, home appliances and other portable devices without the need for manufacturers to work individually with other makers. Brian Markwalter, CEA vice president, Technology and Standards said "In many cases consumers would like to attach these devices to other CE products to enhance their experiences. CEA wants to explore whether industry technical standards might enable more robust connectivity between portable devices and other products, and whether such connectivity might help to grow consumers' interest in such products." The 2008 CEA Industry Forum runs from October 19 - 22, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Teleconnect Communications
Noritek
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
BBC - Beijing Field Unit
WWFM
Applied Materials
Skyworks Solutions Inc.
Air Force Space Command
Broward College
Shidler College of Business
Discovery Center
WBKI-TV
The Golf Channel - Field Ops
New Mexico State Univ.
Corp Roadie Productions

Silvercup Studios - Famous New York Mega-Studio gets Wired with Markertek !

Queens, NY - Markertek is the Film and Television industry’s technology super source for professional cable and connectivity products. We just same-day shipped a large load of cables to Silvercup Studios at it’s main production location in Queens, NY. Silvercup has produced groundbreaking television shows such as The Sopranos, Sex in The City, 30 Rock and feature films “The Devil Wears Prada”, “Gangs of New York” and many more. Starting in 1983 as an independent production facility in the old Silvercup bakery building, the studio primarily shot small commercial spots before evolving into the East Coast mecca for major motion pictures and popular television series. Now expanded into two locations, Silvercup East, the studios have advanced into providing studio location sets for still photography and major music video stages. Markertek is honored to work with groundbreaking clients like Silvercup to bring media to the world with up to the minute technology.

The Summer Games Come to YouTube.

Video-sharing site YouTube, has launched a channel on its site dedicated to the Summer Games and its host city, Beijing. According to the site, the Summer Games Channel is designed to provide news, recaps, features, profiles and the color and culture of Beijing all in one place. Content is provided by YouTube partners which include the Associated Press, The New York Times, Getty Images, Reuters, the Travel Channel, Ground Report, Euronews, France 24, and Paralympic Sport TV. “The Summer Games YouTube Channel is the ideal first stop for fans because it provides a comprehensive view of what’s going on in Beijing,” said Steve Grove, YouTube’s head of news and politics. Under an agreement with the International Olympic Committee, the IOC is also broadcasting a selection of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games clips through YouTube to 77 territories where the digital rights have not been sold or acquired on a non-exclusive basis. Directed mostly for the people of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the IOC's channel is available at www.youtube.com/beijing2008, but due to rights agreements, is blocked within each territory served. “For the first time in Olympic history we will have complete global online coverage, and the IOC will have its own broadcast channel and content production facilities,” said Timo Lumme, the IOC’s director of television and marketing services.The 2008 Olympic Games run August 8-24.

All-in-One Blu-ray Chip from NEC.

Japanese electronics company, NEC Electronics has announced that it has developed the world's first single-chip LSI to integrate the main functions of Blu-ray Disc players. According to the company, all of the main functions required for a Blu-ray disc player is incoporated onto the chip, including the digital conversion of analog data from optical discs, the digital decoding of encoded images and sounds as well as a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) for output to displays. Dubbed EMMA 3PF, NEC says the new chip will also include a multicore CPU that should greatly improve start up time for Blu-ray players. It also supports BD-ROM Profile 2.0, the latest Blu-ray Disc specification. This profile includes picture-in-picture playback, high quality sound, and network connections for downloading additional content. The company claims the EMMA 3PF will allow a 50% size reduction in Blu-ray players while reducing the cost of the players as well. NEC expects monthly production to be 1,000,000 units from the fourth quarter of 2008.

Sony to Wholly Own Music Company.

International media and entertainment companies Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann AG have announced that Sony has agreed to acquire Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony BMG. The music company will now be called Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SMEI). Once the transaction is completed, SMEI will be comprised of premier music labels such as: Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Records, and Zomba. Key recording artists will include Celine Dion, Alicia Keys, Yo-Yo Ma, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Usher and Jay Chou. As part of the transaction, the parties have also agreed to continue to share the company's manufacturing and distribution requirements between Sony's manufacturing subsidiary, Sony DADC, and Bertelsmann's services company, Arvato Digital Services. Additionally, Bertelsmann will be taking over selected European music catalog assets from Sony BMG. " This acquisition will allow us to achieve a deeper and more robust integration between the wide-ranging global assets of the music company and Sony's products, operating companies and affiliates. It enables us to offer a total entertainment experience to consumers," said Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO, Sony Corporation. Sony and Bertelsmann AG originally created the Sony BMG joint venture in August 2004.

Makers Set New Digital SLR Standard.

In an effort to make digital SLR cameras slimmer and lighter, Olympus and Panasonic have announced a new standard concerning the connection of interchangeable lenses. According to the companies, the new standard, "Micro Four Thirds System" in comparison to the current "Four Thirds System" will possess an approximately 50% shorter flangeback distance (distance between the mount and the image sensor), an outer lens mount reduction of 6mm and the number of electrical contacts increased from nine to 11 pins to cope with an increase in the number of control parameters. Users will be able to mount their existing lenses used for the current Four Thirds System on the new camera bodies that support the Micro Four Thirds System via an adapter. The move comes as a result of the companies trying to expand the SLR market by making the camera smaller. "We might say that digital SLR 'only' sold 7.47 million units in 2007," Olympus and Panasonic said. "There are many more users who want to enjoy shooting high resolution photos easily. We are positive that the potential size of the market is in excess of 20 million units."

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Anarchy Post - LA
ESPN - Beijing Olympics Field Unit
KSBW-NBC
Indie Fest USA Entertainment
KLCS-TV
Madhouse NYC
American Speedway Coalition
Maharishi University
Kellogg Company - Media Operations
Borders.com
Solus Music
Tri-City TV
First Horizon National Corp.
KIAH-TV
Cox Media

More News...

Smithsonian Institution - American Museum and Landmark Gets Patched with Markertek !

Washington, DC  - Markertek is the media industry’s one stop supply source for media routing and protection products. We just provided The Smithsonian Institution with professional cable solutions at its main institute in Washington, DC. The Smithsonian is America’s oldest and most respected museum and educational facility. Since 1843, the museum has curated the world’s rarest and most interesting artifacts, playing a key role in advancing education and evolving media via its vast libraries and location displays. SI has also expanded their presence throughout the country with different museum locations, a zoo as well as countless exhibition programs. The Smithsonian continues its foray into presentation media, with online tutorials, DVD's and podcasts. Markertek is honored to work with clients who blend historical and scientific information with the latest technology driven media.

Dept. of Homeland Security Announces New Search Authority.

The Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection Agency has announced it's latest policies regarding electronic devices. According to new border search policies, federal officers can "detain any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This includes laptops, hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes - as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report says. The Department claims the policies are applied to anyone entering the country, including US citizens, and are needed to prevent terrorism. The new policy, which has been in effect for sometime, has only recently been officially announced after civil liberties and business travel groups have been pressing for months to have the government disclose publicly these policies. Democratic Senator Russell Feingold has vowed to look into the new policies and plans to introduce legislation that will force the government to have "reasonable suspicion" for searches, and limit racial and religious profiling during searches. "The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Feingold. The full policy from the CBP is available here.

More Trouble for YouTube & Google.

In what seems to be a growing trend, Italian broadcaster Mediaset has filed suit against Google and it's video sharing site, YouTube. The media company claims the video site illegally hosts thousands of video clips that belong to Mediaset, and is asking for damages of 500 million euros ($778 million). Mediaset added that as of June 10th, "at least 4,643 videos and clips owned by us, equivalent to more than 325 hours of transmission without having rights". The broadcaster also noted that those videos equal to "the loss of 315,672 days of broadcasting by its three TV channels. YouTube says its policy is to remove infringing content if owners complain. "There is no need for legal action... We prohibit users from uploading infringing material and we cooperate with all copyright holders to identify and promptly remove infringing content as soon as we are officially notified," a YouTube spokesperson said. YouTube is currently facing a 100 million euro infringement suit from French broadcaster TF1 and a $1 billion infringement suit from US media group Viacom.

LG has Dolby Mobile on the Line.

The world's fourth largest mobile phone maker, LG Electronics, has announced a deal with Dolby Laboratories for its upcoming handsets. The deal allows the Korean company to be the first to incorporate Dolby's "Dolby Mobile" audio processing technology into a mobile unit. According to Dolby, Mobile is designed to allow customers to optimize and tailor multimedia audio for an enhanced entertainment experience. The features include a sound space expander, a high frequency enhancer and sound level control, as well as a mono to stereo converter and bass booster. Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said "We believe this technology will raise the bar for audio quality on multimedia phones and expect Dolby Mobile to help us create a new trend in the mobile phone industry. LG is committed to providing our customers with the best features available and our new collaboration with Dolby helps us deliver on this pledge." LG plans to begin launching multimedia phones that incorporate Dolby Mobile technology late 2008.

VOD is in Demand.

According to a recent report from media measurement firm, Rentrak, the popularity of video on demand continued to grow in 2007. The “State of VOD Report” shows an increase of more than 40% in the number of VOD programs ordered over the previous year, and nearly 30% in the number of set-top boxes used to watch them. With more than 3 billion programs ordered in 2007, TV shows saw the most significant growth over 2006. According to Rentrak there was a 120% increase in orders for this category, while Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) accounted for 27 percent and TOD accounted for 3 percent. “The Video On Demand industry continues to evolve and it is Rentrak's role to help operators, content providers and advertisers better analyze and understand this dynamic sector of the media and entertainment industry,” said Cathy Hetzel, president, Advanced Media & Information (AMI) division at Rentrak.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

KASA Radio
Natcom.org
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Sentinel Network Systems
Eaton Aerospace
Dupont Corp.
Florida Institute Of Technology
Chicago Tribune
Pietown Productions
Kentucky Governor’s Office
Intel
NC School Of Communication Arts
Stevens Institute
Cure International
Jackson Energy Authority

The Grand Ole Opry - Legendary Country Music Venue Connects with Markertek !

Nashville, TN - Markertek is the music industry super source for professional audio and technology  products. We just provided the Grand Ole Opry with Belden professional cable at their location in Nashville, Tennessee. The Grand Ole Opry is the mecca for country and western artists and their fans. Since 1926, country music performers have honed their craft via radio before settling into a public location to present live material before a studio audience. As popularity grew, the media and venue expanded to accommodate a large faithful audience. In this millennium, The Opry is now broadcast via satellite radio, on GACTV television and via the Internet to present their popular media for an ever growing, dedicated fan base. Markertek is honored to work with groundbreaking clients like the Grand Ole Opry to bring media and music to the world with up to the minute technology.

FCC Approves Satellite Radio Merger.

After 412 days of consideration by the FCC, the Commission has approved the XM Satellite Radio-Sirius Satellite Radio merger. Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate cast the deciding 3-2 vote on the condition that certain enforcement actions against the two companies were approved. The actions, which include a three-year price freeze, a la carte and family-friendly programming offerings and a commitment to interoperable radios and outside receivers, also requires a 8% set-aside (24 channels) for noncommercial and commercial independent programmers. While these conditions should satisfy concerns by consumer advocacy groups such as Media Access Project and Public Knowledge, the groups are awaiting the details of the commission's order to better see the degree to which the conditions will serve the public interest. National Public Radio and the National Association of Broadcasters oppose the merger. "While NPR, other public radio producers and public radio stations have had long and mutually beneficial relationships with both companies, this new monopoly -- wielding unprecedented control over spectrum and without the mitigating conditions we sought -- will limit the public-service mission of public radio and dilute the significant investment our community, our audience and Congress have made in HD-radio technology," said Dennis Haarsager, interim CEO of National Public Radio. The NAB said it was "considering all options," which included going to court to try to block the deal.

Mitsubishi to Launch First Japanese Communications Satellite.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said it has finished building the first Japanese-made communications satellite and has started preparations for its launch on August 13. The new satellite will be the successor to Space Communications' Superbird-C used for broadcasts, and will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket of France's Arianespace SA. It will remain at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers, 144 degrees east longitude in a geostationary orbit for 15-year operations. Mitsubishi Electric is in charge of the design and construction of the new satellite as well as its launch and performance tests. The satellite was manufactured at the company's Kamakura plant in Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo. All 18 satellites currently used by Japanese broadcasters and telecommunications carriers are U.S. made.

Mellencamp Goes HD.

Rocker John Mellencamp, has announced that his latest album "Life, Death, Love and Freedom" will be released in a CD / DVD combo package, the latter of which will hold tracks with "twice the sonic detail heard on most CDs." The tracks included on the DVD are stereo 24 bit/96 kHz uncompressed (Linear PCM) audio. According to album producer T-Bone Burnett, this level of quality ensures the audio on the DVD is virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes, and is significantly improved from a traditional CD. The DVD achieves the high resolution audio by using a process developed by Burnett called CODE. Mike Wanchic, who has played guitar in Mellencamp's band for more than three decades, said the end result "is comparable to sitting in on the original, in-studio performance."

Going Wireless with TransferJet.

Industry heavy-hitters, Sony Corporation, Canon Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Hitachi, JVC and others have announced an agreement to form a consortium to develop specifications for interconnecting products using "TransferJet" a new interoperable wireless transfer technology that enables rapid transfer of high resolution video, music and images. According to the group, TransferJet wireless technology enables a high speed data transmission rate of 560Mbps, while eliminating the need for complex setup and operation. Directly touching two compliant electronic products together allows files to be transferred automatically, without the need for an access point. For example, touching a TV with a digital camera enables photos to be instantaneously displayed on the TV screen. Alternatively, downloaded music content can be easily enjoyed by touching a mobile phone to a portable audio player. TransferJet will be used as a universal interface across all consumer electronics devices. Junko Sato, a spokeswoman for Sony in Tokyo said Sony hopes to put products incorporating TransferJet on sale sometime in 2009.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

KMGH-TV
Wake Forest University
Cinemation Films Corp.
Stanton Magentics
Verifone
Idaho State Police
Univision Radio Chicago
Butler University Theatre
Lasell College
CNN Washington HD
KPHO-5
Westinghouse
Radio Canada
Aegisound
The Journal News NY

Yum! Brands - Markertek Connects Global Food Franchiser with Kramer !

Louisville, KY - Markertek is the key HD source for professional application products. We just provided Yum! Brands (most commonly known for their franchises - KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and many more) with Kramer products at its facilities in Louisville, KY. Yum is the world’s largest system restaurant company with more than 35,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories. Markertek is honored to work with our large corporate clients to configure and supply them with the up to the minute technology solutions needed for advanced digital signage and electronic location displays.

Netflix Coming to Xbox This Fall.

This week at the E3 Media and Business Summit, online movie rental service, Netflix, Inc., and Microsoft Corp. announced an exclusive partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to their television via the Xbox 360 video game system. According to Microsoft, more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes will be available from Netflix when Xbox LIVE launches in late fall, with more choices added over time. The new service will be available at no additional cost to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers. According to Netflix, users will be able to add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant queues. Choices will be automatically displayed on the TV screen via the Xbox 360 and available to watch instantly. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix said, "For Netflix, it represents an important step forward in making instantly streaming movies on the TV more broadly available to our members."

IBM to Invest Big Money in Small Chips.

Global technology giant, IBM, is planning to invest $1.5 billion to boost its semiconductor manufacturing and research efforts in New York State, the company announced this week. IBM researchers are trying to accelerate the miniaturization of chip circuitry by researching at the atomic level for 32 nm and 22 nm semiconductors. Making chip circuits smaller allows computers to deliver performance gains without consuming more electrical power. Other chip makers such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are also constantly upgrading their manufacturing technologies to shrink chips. Intel switched its manufacturing process to 45 nm chips last year, and AMD is scheduled to make a similar move later this year. Intel hopes to shrink the features on its chips to 22 nm by 2011. "These new investments will spur continuing advancements in nanotechnology and semiconductor research and development -- including new efforts in semiconductor packaging," said John Kelly, IBM senior vice president and director of research. "We are going to be developing the tiniest structures that mankind can create," Kelly said.

This and DAT from HP & Sony.

HP and Sony Corporation have announced an agreement to create the next-generation Digital Audio Tape format - the DAT 320 - providing improved performance and capacity over existing DAT drives. With backup speeds of up to 86 gigabytes (GB) per hour with 2:1 data compression, the DAT 320 will offer up to 320 GB of capacity on a single cartridge - compared with 160 GB, available from the current DAT 160 format. The DAT 320 also will consume fewer watts per GB than previous generations and will be backwards compatible with the DAT 160. "Combining the expertise of two industry leaders that share a legacy of delivering proven DAT/DDS technology will result in a new standard for tape archiving with the low cost of ownership and reliability DAT customers have grown to expect," said Bob Wilson, vice president and general manager, Storage Platforms Division, HP. The two companies are jointly developing the DAT or Digital Data Storage (DDS) standard, but will separately offer their own DAT 320 tape drives and cartridges. Similar to previous generations of DAT/DDS, the DAT 320 will be an open standard, which ensures partners can continue to obtain license rights. General availability of the DAT 320 is expected in 2009.

Over 12 Billion Served...

According to recent data from Internet measurement provider, comScore, U.S. Internet users viewed more than 12 billion online videos during the month of May, an increase of 45 percent versus a year ago. Nearly 142 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 85 videos per viewer, with Google owned sites (which include YouTube and Google Video) attracting the most viewers (83.8 million), who watched an average of 50 videos per person. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (60.8 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (40.2 million) and Microsoft Sites (29.5 million). comScore also reported that 74 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video in May, watching an average of 228 minutes of video.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

RadioMiami.net
Walt Disney Imagineering
Gyrocam
WXMI-TV
Churchhill Downs
Elizabeth City State Univ.
Teliris
Sea-Land Chemical
Case Western University
KECY-TV
Brook Fine Arts Academy
Cinegraphics
Skyworks Solutions
Clear Channel Radio Seattle
Virginia Sports Properties 

The Space Needle - Seattle Landmark Goes to the Top with Markertek !

Seattle, WA - Markertek continues to be the industry’s instant solution source for technology conversion products. We just provided The Space Needle with media conversion products at its location display facilities in Seattle, Washington. The Space Needle is one of America’s most recognized metropolitan structural landmarks. Towering at 605 feet, the Needle provides some spectacular views of metro-Seattle (see the webcam), and has long been a cherished national tourist attraction. Within the Needle itself, there is SkySchool, an advanced educational area and electronic interactive environment for students and visitors. Markertek is honored to provide instant technology and support to projects that bring media all the way to the top.

The OLED Project.

In an effort to better compete with Korean rivals like Samsung Electronics and LG Corp, a group of Japan's biggest electronics makers has teamed up with the Japanese government. The goal - to develop key technologies needed to produce large-size next-generation Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display panels. The group, which includes Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi and several others will work to make OLED displays with a larger screen size that are more efficient and have a longer lifetime. The companies will also be working to cut production costs, which at present is too high for mass consumer production. OLED panels, seen by many as the next-generation of flat displays, use organic, or carbon-containing, compounds that emit light when electricity is applied. Since the panels do not require backlighting, slimmer, more energy efficient products are possible. According to The Nikkei Business Daily, Japan's Ministry of Economy will contribute 3.5 billion yen ($32.78 million) to help with the project, which will run from this year through 2012.

Seagate Launches 1.5TB Hard Drive.

Hard drive manufacturer, Seagate, has unveiled the industry’s first 1.5-terabyte desktop hard drive. By utilizing perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology, the new Barracuda 7200.11 drive marks the single largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives. According to the company, the drive packs 1.5TB on just four platters and offers a claimed data transfer rate of up to 120MB/second. Seagate also claims the drives can "withstand up to 1,000 Gs of non-operating shock" thanks to its free-fall sensor, which parks the heads away from the disk platters when the unit falls by as little as eight inches and within 3/10ths of a second. “Organizations and consumers of all kinds worldwide continue to create, share and consume digital content at levels never before seen, giving rise to new markets, new applications and demand for desktop and notebook computers with unprecedented storage capacity, performance and reliability,” said Michael Wingert, Seagate executive vice president and general manager. Shipments of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB are set to begin August 2008.

Canon to Build New Camera Factory.

In response to the increasing global demand for digital cameras, Canon Inc. has announced plans to build a new manufacturing base in Nagasaki, Japan. According to the company, construction is scheduled to start in January of next year and will be complete by November with operations beginning in December 2009. It will manufacture both digital SLR (single lens reflex) and compact cameras, and is expected to produce around 4 million cameras per year. According to a recent report from IDC, Canon was the world's number one digital still camera maker in 2006 and 2007. The company shipped 24.5 million cameras in 2007 to give it a 19 percent share of the global market. Over the next two and a half years Canon will invest ¥17.4 billion (US$163 million) in construction and operations at the plant, which will employ approximately 1,000 people when complete.

Pioneer Announces 400GB Disc.

Japanese electronics company Pioneer Corporation, announced it has succeeded in developing a 16-layer read-only optical disc with a capacity of 400 gigabytes. The standard 12 centimeter disc's per-layer capacity is 25 gigabytes, which is the same as that of a Blu-ray Disc (BD). Traditionally, it has been difficult to obtain clear signals from each recording layer on multi layer optical discs in a stable manner due to cross talk from adjacent layers and transmission loss. Utilizing the optical disc production technology that Pioneer developed in the DVD field, the company solved these problems by, among other things, using a disc structure that can reduce cross talk from adjacent layers, resulting in a 16-layer optical disc that can playback high-quality signals from every layer. According to Michiko Kadoi, a spokeswoman for Pioneer in Tokyo, the technology is about ready to enter commercialization, and that slight changes to the hardware on current Blu-ray drives would allow the new Pioneer discs to be used with existing players. Pioneer will present the details of this research at the International Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage 2008 (ISOM/ODS2008) to be held in Hawaii from July 13.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Australian Broadcasting Corp.
California Maritime Academy
UT School of Journalism
Pokercameras.com
Click Digital Post
Premiere Radio Networks
CSX Transportation
Wesson Companies
WSST-TV
Cox Radio Hawaii
Eli Lilly and Co.
Cold Spring Harbor Labs
Misouthmoms.com
KXAN-TV
Bickford Vehicles

Kennedy Space Center - NASA Blasts Off with Markertek !

Kennedy Space Center, FL - Markertek has remained the technology supply super source for  all walks of research and exploration agencies. We just provided The John F. Kennedy Space Center with power distribution products at its main testing facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida. For over 45 years, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has been the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center. KSC is currently the launch site for the Space Shuttle, using the Complex 39 Apollo infrastructure. In the future, KSC will be the launch site for the Ares I and Ares V rockets, which carry the Orion spacecraft. Markertek is honored to work with NASA in providing support technology to their projects and assisting the United States at the forefront of the most advanced space exploration program on the planet.

i-Movix Shoots for Olympic Gold.

Extreme slow motion camera maker i-Movix, has announced that its SprintCam Live 2 HDTV camera will be at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Belgian company's camera will provide extreme slow motion coverage in HD at up to 8000 frames per second with instant replay, for a variety of Olympic events. Launched in 2007, and created in partnership with Fujinon and Photron, the SprintCam Live V2 is the first broadcast integration for extreme slow-motion. The camera delivers a combination of extremely high frame rates with the instant replay essential for live broadcasting, together with real-time image controls. According to the company, host broadcaster Beijing Olympic Broadcast (BOB) will deploy and operate SprintCam Live systems in mobile units located at the major Olympic venues. “Being selected to provide the extreme slow motion solution for the Olympic Games is a tremendous accolade for a product not yet one year old,” said Laurent Renard, CEO, I-Movix. “SprintCam Live V2 is ideally suited to an event like the Games because its unique performance abilities are matched with outstanding ease of installation and operation. Camera operators find SprintCam Live V2 completely familiar and intuitive to use, and can be shooting with it after only a few minutes of training.”

YouTube Ordered to Divulge Viewers.

Google, parent of Internet video giant, YouTube, has been ordered by a federal judge to hand over the video site's viewer log to Viacom. The log, which contains the IP addresses, usernames and details of videos watched, comes as part of Viacom's copyright battle with YouTube. Viacom claims clips of its programs, such as South Park and Desperate Housewives, have been viewed 1.5 billion times on the video-sharing site. According to the court, Viacom must only use the information to prove its claims that YouTube is a prime source of piracy, and not for the prosecution of individual users. However, the ruling has caused an outcry from privacy groups. "The Court's erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube," the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement. Google has appealed to Viacom to allow it to strip personal data from the logs before handing them over. "We are disappointed the court granted Viacom's overreaching demand for viewing history. We will ask Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow us to anonymise the logs before producing them under the court's order."

Ricoh to Erect Eco-Powered Billboard in Times Square.

Ricoh Americas Corporation has announced it will erect a sign in New York City’s Times Square that will be 100 percent powered by solar and wind power. The electronic billboard, the first ever to be totally powered by natural resources in Times Square, will measure 47 feet high by 126 feet long, and will be illuminated by floodlights and powered by 45 solar panels and 4 turbines for wind generation. According to the company, by using all natural energy sources, Ricoh will reduce the amount of CO2 usage by 18 tons per year. If there is not enough solar or wind power, the Times Square sign will not be illuminated. Kirk Yoshida, Deputy President of Ricoh Company Ltd., and Chairman & CEO of Ricoh Americas Corporation said “By having the eco-friendly sign in Times Square, Ricoh will not only be able to promote our brand, but also show to the world that we are a leader in environmental conservation and at the forefront of sustainable environmental management for years.” The sign will be located at 3 Times Square at the corner of 7th Avenue and 42nd Street and is expected to be up and running by early December.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Yale School Of Art
XM Radio DC
Hoover Treated Wood Products
Alakai Technologies
Mitre Corp.
Salem State College
US DOT Volpe Center
Praxair
BoysTown
WiFi-Plus
Gulfstream Aerospace
CEI Sports
WMBF
Billy Bob’s Texas
Smarthome Theaters  

Dolly Parton Touring - Country Music Legend Hits the Road with Markertek !

Los Angeles, CA  - Markertek is the key music industry source for custom cabling and metal work. We just provided custom cables to Dolly Parton Touring for Dolly's upcoming tour starting this week in the UK. For almost 50 years, Dolly Parton has been an American legend in the music industry with a huge global fan base, selling millions of albums. Dolly is a seminal pioneer in modern country with a theme park, television variety show, active touring and recording schedule as well as garnering many top 10 hits and film appearances. Markertek is honored to supply Dolly, and other American touring legends with all the up to the minute solutions needed to keep a tour in gear.

Blu-who, Now?

According to a recent report by market watch company NPD, just nine percent of US HDTV owners plan to buy a Blu-ray disc player in the next six months. More interestingly, the report also showed that about 40 million US homes have at least one HDTV, yet only 45 percent of HDTV owners had even heard of Blu-ray or HD DVD (down 10% from a similar NPD survey conducted last year) meaning that 22 million HDTV owners were not even familiar with HD optical formats. NPD said most of those surveyed reported that they were more than happy with DVD picture quality and HD upscaling and that for now, Blu-ray was simply not worth the additional cost. However, those surveyed who already own Blu-ray, 80 percent said their next purchases will be BDs rather than DVDs, sighting picture quality as the main reason.

DTV Test a Success in Orlando.

This week, in a early test of the upcoming DTV transition, a group of 12 stations in Orlando, Florida ceased broadcasting their analog signals for 10 seconds. For the past month the stations have heavily promoted "turn-off" events scheduled for June, September and December. For 10 seconds at 7:59pm this past Wednesday, the stations stopped transmitting over-the-air analog signals. Viewers with digital ready televisions saw a message confirming they were ready for the DTV transition. Those with analog sets saw only a black screen. The test was conducted with an audience of 365,000 homes. Area cable operators report receiving only 501 phone calls complaining of the disruption. General manager of Cox station WFTV, Shawn Bartelt said the low number was not surprising as cable penetration in the market is 71% cable and 22% satellite, leaving only 7% of households as over-the-air only viewers. “It went off flawlessly across the market,” Bartelt added.

It's Official - Shareholders Approve Name Change to Panasonic Corporation.

At its 101st Annual Shareholders' Meeting today, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. shareholders approved a proposal to change the company's name to Panasonic Corporation. First established in 1918, the company was known as Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works, which was changed to Matsushita Electric Manufacturing Works in 1929. The company has been using the name Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. since its incorporation as a joint stock corporation in 1935. While the company used the National and Panasonic brand names over a long period, it decided in 2003 to unify its global brand to Panasonic with the brand slogan "Panasonic ideas for life." According to the company, the new Panasonic Corporation has renewed its group-wide commitment to putting the company's management philosophies into practice throughout the world -- to enhance its brand value and strive to become a globally excellent company. The name change and its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from "MC" to "PC" will become effective from October 1, 2008.

The Internet's 'Force' on Education.

Star Wars creator, George Lucas testified this week at a House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee hearing on universal broadband service and its funding. Lucas, founder of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, stated the importance of making high-speed Internet access for students, schools and libraries a national priority. Currently, schools and libraries are granted discounts to help bring in Internet access through the E-Rate Program. While Lucas admitted the importance of the program, he said the goal should be to provide access to schools and libraries for free. Lucas said telecommunications services are the new learning platform and "access to modern telecommunications tools should be viewed as a digital civil right." Lucas also proposed that some of the wireless spectrum currently being auctioned should be reserved for public use, or even a separate, educational, Internet.

NBC Olympics - Broadcaster Trains for the 2008 Olympics with Markertek !

New York, NY - Markertek is the industry's broadcast solution provider for test and maintenance products. We just provided NBC Olympics with testing equipment for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. As the entire industry is making final preparations for the August 8th start date, we have been shipping huge production laundry lists to all of our broadcast customers. This is the first Olympics to be produced and broadcast entirely in HD, and will likely attract upwards of four billion viewers via : NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, USA Network, Telemundo and Universal HD. Beijing confirmed to the Olympic evaluation commission "there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games." Markertek is proud to provide the entire broadcast industry with our experience and wide range of AV and media products to this high profile HD global media event.

New High Speed BD-R Media from Panasonic.

Panasonic, the first company to introduce the dual-layer 1X BD-RE Blu-ray Disc in 2004, has announced development of the world's first 6X write-once Blu-ray disc (BD-R). With a maximum data transfer rate of 216Mbps, the new media (25GB and 50GB capacities) records data 20% faster than 16x DVD-R discs. According to Panasonic, in an effort to improve drive capability, the company has designed the disc to provide a wide power margin able to compensate for a drive's laser power fluctuations. This enables high-quality recording, as the laser beam is able to focus to the right position despite the fast rotation of the 6X writing speed. LG Electronics currently manufactures drives capable of reading and writing data to and from the new 6X media. Panasonic plans to release its own 6X drive later this year. The new BD-R 6X disc recording specifications were approved by the Blu-ray Disc Association (Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver.1.3) in March 2008.

Advance Funds Approved for CPB.

A Congressional House Appropriations Subcommittee has agreed to continue to grant advance funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Subcommittee has approved a $430 million appropriation to the CPB for fiscal year 2011, a $10 million increase over fiscal year 2010. According to the CPB, although it had requested $483 million, it was "thrilled" with the approved funding. Additionally, CPB will get $40 million for the digital-TV transition and $27 million for public radio interconnection, both for FY 2009. The grant also provides $24 million for the Department of Education-backed Ready To Learn programming project. "We appreciate that the bill provides CPB with an advance appropriation, which affords public broadcasters a measure of certainty in their business planning, interconnection funding as well as an increase in funding for digital conversion, which will help public broadcasters tap the potential of digital technology." said CPB President Patricia Harrison in a statement.

Comcast's Great Wall.

Cable and communications provider Comcast, has constructed a $22 million dollar HD wall at its new Philadelphia-based Comcast Center. The giant display measures 27' x 87' (yep, that's feet) and crams 10 million pixels within the space. The wall is controlled by a central system containing 27,000 GB of info, six DX700 LED digitizers, seven Encore video processors, and three Matrixpro routers. To see this mammoth Hi-Def display in action, check out the video here.

Sony Bravia Goes Green.

Electronics giant, Sony has announced a new environmentally friendly series of its popular Bravia HDTV. The first available model will be the Bravia JE1, a 32-inch LCD television. With a 2,500:1 static contrast ratio and 720p output, the new television is said to use approximately 70 percent less power over the course of a year. According to Sony, the new power savings is achieved by using more efficient fluorescent backlights and highly efficient screen filters. The company says the JEI uses less lighting tubes than a standard HDTV by "generating more light and allowing more existing light to go through." Additionally, the components used in the set itself are made from recycled plastic, styrofoam, and optical film from recycled HDTVs. The JE1 is set to hit Japan late July with a retail price of $1,389 USD. No word on a North American release has yet been announced.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

NASA – Moffet Field
Bigger Than Texas HD
FOX News – Los Angeles
360 Systems
WSMV-TV
Regent University
Clear Channel –Jacksonville
Automated Digital Display Systems
Popstar Networks
National Boston
Annapolis Yacht Services
WKAR-TV
Carolina School Of Broadcasting
KNME-TV
Starwood Hotels

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

The Orlando Magic
Outdoor Living
Token Creek TV
Teledyne Brown Engineering
Freedom Court Reporting
AMC Theatres
Hollywood Edit
Gulf Atlantic Equipment
Electro-Mech Scoreboards
TSG Inc.
Rustic Kitchen
SUNY Plattsburgh
Five Borough Films NY
ESPN Ohio
American Bible Society    

N.O.A.A - Okeanos Explorer Dives Deep in Technology with Markertek !

Seattle, WA - Markertek is the technology industry's super source supplying instant solutions to scientific based research organizations. We just provided NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer with Kramer products onboard the vessel at its port location in Seattle, Washington. For over 200 years, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has played a critical role in the evolution of ocean exploration in the United States and around the world. Okeanos will be traveling the Aegean and Black Seas to further explore natural environments and to search for ancient shipwrecks. This scientific technology requires the ability to constantly upgrade and expand media systems that are necessary to produce new data and physical results. Markertek is proud in supplying such sciences with respect and acknowledgement of the preservation and history of our environment.

CALM for Television Commercials.

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA.) has introduced a new bill designed to limit the volume of commercials aired during television programming. The CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act would direct the FCC to enact within one year rules requiring that television advertisements not be excessively noisy. “Most Americans are not overjoyed to watch television commercials, but they are willing to tolerate them to sustain free over-the-air television. What annoys all of us is the sudden increase of volume when commercials are aired,” Eshoo said. According to Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president and general counsel of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the measure may not require a new law, but instead the expertise of the FCC. "Perhaps the most practical solution is to rely on the judgment of the technical and engineering experts at the FCC to determine an acceptable sound range or standard for commercials and content alike." Hoffman said. Rep. Eshoo was joined in her call for CALM by co-sponsor Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca.)

Vizio Sued for Patent Infringement.

Economy priced television manufacturer, Vizio is being sued for alleged patent infringement. A group of television makers that hold MPEG-2 video related patents, including Mitsubishi, Samsung, and JVC, have filed suit against Vizio, claiming the company owes licensing fees for components used in its televisions. Vizio claims their suppliers, the actual manufacturers of the parts, are responsible for the royalties. In a statement, the company said "Vizio's suppliers have licenses for the MPEG-2 patents, and Vizio believes that these licenses extend to Vizio's products, Vizio has notified its suppliers of the lawsuit and expects full support and cooperation by them in the defense of the lawsuit. Accordingly, Vizio does not believe that the suit will have a material adverse impact on Vizio's business." A similar case filed by LG was recently thrown out by the US Supreme Court. The court ruled patent holders are only entitled to collect royalties once on each component, and that companies which subsequently use the parts in other products aren't liable for any additional royalties. According to reports by DisplaySearch and iSuppli, Vizio ranked third in LCD sales during the first quarter 2008.

The Best Cables Money Can Buy.

Cable and connector supplier, TecNec has announced the arrival of its latest series of broadcast quality, professional audio / video cables. HDAV series cables offer (5) RG59 coaxial channels made from 99.9999 pure silver plated copper conductors to provide the highest level of signal integrity. This new, electrically superior cable design is terminated with high quality gold plated Neutrik RCA connectors. Specially designed for applications requiring component video with audio hook up, these cables will take the HD experience to the next level. Andrew Barth TecNec VP said "The HDAV series cables are a no nonsense, tell it like it is product, the best signal transmission that money can buy." Check out The HDAV series cables, and get the best cables money can buy at a low introductory price, for a limited time only!

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Rocket City Broadcasting
The Home Theater Society
Champion Racing
Pollstar.com
Paramount Pictures IT Dept.
USC School Of Cinematic Arts
Music Factory - Chicago
Gotham City Racing
Midwest Family Broadcasting
Weisman Art Museum
Hasbro Inc.
Gospel Music Today
Harborside Event Center
Rockwell Automation
City Of Vancouver  

Iron Maiden - Metal Heavy Weights Connect with AJA from Markertek !

Albuquerque, NM - Markertek is the supply source for world class touring acts that require those “must have” technology solutions on the road. We just rushed heavy metal masters Iron Maiden some AJA conversion products to the Albuquerque, New Mexico stop on their current 2008 World Tour. For over thirty years, Iron Maiden has been an integral force in heavy metal music producing a huge discography and dedicated fan base. The band remains a top draw touring act with concerts that feature stunning visuals which incorporate display screens, pyrotechnics and animated props, not to mention a high powered sound system. We wish Iron Maiden continued success and look forward to supplying all of the acts on the road this summer with the production essentials needed to keep a tour rocking from city to city.

Best Buy Wins Praise from CEA.

Big box electronics seller Best Buy, has received praise from the Consumer Electronics Association for recent measures to expand on its existing recycling efforts. One of the nation's largest electronics retailers, Best Buy says it has begun testing a new recycling program in 117 stores in the Baltimore (including stores in Washington and the D.C. and Maryland suburbs), San Francisco and Minnesota areas. The participating stores are accepting up to two units per day free-of-charge. Eligable items include TVs with screens up to 32 inches, computers, phones, cameras and peripherals. "The CEA is thrilled that Best Buy has taken this next step to explore how to make electronics recycling more accessible and convenient for consumers,” said Parker Brugge, vice president of environmental affairs and corporate sustainability. A complete list of the participating store locations is available here.

World's Largest 3D Display.

VMJ Japan, in partnership with Sharp Electronics has created the world's largest 3D display. Measuring 65" diagonally, the wide screen panel features 1,920 x 1080 resolution, 6ms response time and 120 degree viewing angel. Using Sharp's Parallax barrier technology, two unique types of images are delivered to both the left and right eyes to create the 3D effect without the use of special glasses. The new display will be available in June, and is expected to retail for approximately $30,000.

Veoh Downloads $30 Million.

Internet television provider, Veoh has announced it has completed the company's latest round of funding. Led by new investors Intel Capital, the global investment arm of Intel Corporation, Adobe Systems Incorporated and Gordon Crawford, senior vice president of Capital Research Global Investors, in combination with existing investors Shelter Capital, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, Time Warner Investments and Jonathan Dolgen, Veoh has managed to secure $30 million dollars. According to Veoh, the company will use the capital to further enhance its viewer offerings, strengthen its lead in video discovery, expand its advertising products and targeting capabilities, and extend its services across multiple platforms. “The world of Internet television has changed dramatically in the past year. No longer limited to short-form video sharing, viewers are now tuning in online to watch long-form, quality entertainment,” said Steve Mitgang, CEO of Veoh Networks. The company said it ended the first quarter of 2008 with a full roster of brand-name advertisers and more than 28 million unique viewers who spend an average of more than 100 minutes per month on Veoh.

Feeling Blu in Norway.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Norwegian orchestra, TrondheimSolistene has announced that its latest album DIVERTIMENTI will be released on Blu-ray disc. The album was produced by Lindberg Lyd and will be released by the Grammy-nominated record company 2L, which is known internationally for its audiophile quality releases. Recorded in the Selbu church in Norway, the HD recording features the following specifications:
2.0 LPCM 24Bit/192 kHz
5.1 LPCM 24Bit/192 kHz
5.1 DTS HD Master Audio 24 Bit/192 kHz
5.1 Dolby True HD 42 Bit/192 kHz
5.1 Dolby Digital 48kHz
The orchestra is also releasing a hybrid SACD packaged with the Blu-ray disc which features 5.1 Surround + Stereo produced in Digital eXtreme Definition. TrondheimSolistene's previous release MOZART, was declared a record to die for by Stereophile Magazine. The new album, the world's first audio-only Blu-ray disc is available now for pre-order from 2L.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

ASU-Cronkite School
Chilliwack Bruins
The GAP - Promotions
Seaworld - San Diego
Dolly Parton Touring
American Honda HQ
Editworks Chicago
Wazoo Sports.com
LSU Health Sciences Ctr
Vegas HD
Falkirk Mining
EMI Networks
Kasim Sulton
World Combat League
American Folklore Theatre
   

Missouri Lottery - Audio Support Technology Wins Big with Markertek !

Jefferson City, Mo. - Markertek is the instant solution source for all areas of technology, including the gaming industry. We recently supplied The Missouri Lottery with audio support products at its main headquarters in Jefferson City, Missouri. For over twenty years, Missouri Lottery has been a popular source of revenue for the state and attracts millions of players. The technology required for a secure multi-user lottery network is astounding, often involving intense security clearance, firewall programming and real time functionality. Markertek is honored to serve an industry that brings broad marketing and revenue to state agencies through forward technology and a bit of luck.

New from TecNec - EMC-XLR Inline EMI Protection.

Developed by Neutrik and perfected by TecNec, the new INLINE-EMCF/M is the most useful noise filter adapter that you can find. Connector design guarantees a continuous RF-Shield connection while solving a variety of problems like ground loops (no LF-shield connection), RF-interference and Pin 1 problems. Great for use in:
- RF sensitive applications (live and on-stage)
- Critical installations (recording studios, broadcast, etc.)
- Protection from nearby radio systems, cell phones, lighting installations, or other RF interference.
Circular capacitor around the cable shield enables low-inductive shield connection to connector housing. Female connector with circumferential ground spring provides an accurate connection to the mating shell. Cable shield - Pin 1 connection includes EMI suppression bead to block high frequencies. Rugged zinc die cast shell, long lasting and durable. TecNec has the inline protection you need, available now.

Kodak CCD Sensors Blast Off.

CCD image sensors from Kodak's Image Sensor Solutions group will be launching with the shuttle Discovery this weekend. Part of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) camera, the KAI-2093 sensor scans the spacecraft for damaged heat tiles on critical external surfaces before re-entry. The OBSS camera, designed by advanced camera systems producer Adimec, uses the 1,920 by 1,080 interline transfer CCD imager to provide up to 30 images per second for high-definition image capture. In addition to resolution, an important feature of the sensor is its electronic shuttering capability, a feature Kodak said is critical to the robustness of a camera design by eliminating the need for a mechanical shutter. Kodak's CCD image sensors are also used in the handheld digital cameras used by astronauts to capture images from space, as well as the recently launched Earth Viewing Camera on the International Space Station. According to the company, these space-based products use the same image sensors that are available from Kodak for consumer use. Michael DeLuca, marketing manager for Image Sensor Solutions at Eastman Kodak Co. said "The sensors coming off our production line are the same quality that allowed them to be used in these space applications." Discovery is scheduled to launch May 31.

Free Wi-Fi for the People.

According to the FCC, Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing to auction an unused piece of 25-MHz wireless spectrum, with the condition the winning bidder offer free Wi-Fi access while filtering out obscene content on part of those airwaves. Additionally, the winning bidder also would have to build out the system to serve 50 percent of the U.S. population within four years and 95 percent within 10 years. The winner would be allowed to use the rest of the airwaves for commercial services. Unlike the 700 MHz spectrum auctioned by the FCC earlier this year, the 25 MHz spectrum is not viewed as highly attractive to wireless carriers, and has seen little interest from the carriers. Further details of Martin's plan have yet to be announced, but the new plan is expected to come up at the FCC's next meeting on June 12.

Glass Speaker Shatters Convention.

Sony Corp. has announced that it is set to launch the world's first speaker system that uses a glass tube rather than paper and magnesium for the diaphragm. At just over six feet tall, the new speaker system, Sountina, produces sound from a glass tube that covers 360 degrees without the use of multiple speakers. In addition to the organic glass tweeter, the speaker features a 13-cm subwoofer and 7-cm mid. Specs include a 50-20,000Hz response, as well as inputs for analog RCA and digital coax and optical TOS supporting up to 24bit/96kHz linear PCM (stereo). According to Sony, Sountina will shed its prototype status and become a production item late next month with a price tag of approximately $10,000.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

San Francisco Opera
Kings Mountain Road LLC
Mindsmack TV
Chopperkings
Royce Multimedia Inc.
Mountain Jam
Crimepoint
The Heritage Foundation
Real Films Inc
CNN Newsource
International Paper
ASC-TV
NBC Olympics.com  
Atlantic Aero
Nasher Museum / Duke Univ.
 

John McCain - Presidential Campaign Trail Heats Up with Markertek !

Arlington, VA - Markertek is the media technology mega source that provides all facets of Government and Municipal agencies with production and field essentials. We were recently contacted by John McCain’s campaign staff for media support products at his headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. John McCain is currently on the campaign trail as the Republican candidate for the 2008 Presidential election. Markertek stands neutral as we service all areas of the US government regardless of party affiliation, and is honored to serve campaign media with the supplies and technology products required to serve our country and its hopeful leadership.

New from MOTU - V4HD Hi-Def FireWire Video Capture Device.

Following their award-winning V3HD, MOTU, Inc. has unveiled the V4HD FireWire video I/O and converter for Mac and Windows. The V4HD provides all the same features as the V3HD along with additional new features, including support for full-raster ProRes workflow with Final Cut Pro. Final Cut users can ingest an uncompressed SDI or component HD source and then capture and edit in ProRes while monitoring their ProRes timeline in HD and SD simultaneously via the V4HD's hardware-accelerated up- and down-conversion. "Full-raster ProRes support was the number one requested feature from Final Cut users," said Jim Cooper, Director of Marketing for MOTU. "So we now offer this with the V4HD. When you add ProRes to the already impressive feature list and connectivity of its predecessor, the V4HD is the ideal all-in-one video capture solution for any Apple ProRes workflow." The V4HD replaces the V3HD at the same price, and as a real bonus, for a limited time, MOTU is also offering a V3HD to V4HD upgrade program. If you own a registered V3HD, you may exchange your V3HD for a V4HD directly with MOTU at no charge. The V4HD will begin shipping at the end of July. Preorder yours today!

Time Warner to Sell Cable Division.

Warner Bros. parent Time Warner has announced plans to sell its stake in the company's cable division. The company, which currently owns 84 percent of Time Warner Cable's stock, said negotiations with TWC have been finalized. "We've decided that a complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders," Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement. TWC reported a net income of $242 million for first quarter 2008, with a reported revenue of $4.2 billion. The cable company is the country's second largest provider with 14.7 million subscribers for its video, high-speed data and voice services. Under the deal, Warner Bros. parent Time Warner will receive a $9.25 billion cash payment from TWC. “In a single transaction, we increase our strategic and financial flexibility, simplify our capital structure, enhance the public float and liquidity of our stock and return substantial capital to our stockholders,” said Time Warner Cable president and CEO Glenn Britt.

Ultra-Definition from Samsung.

This week at the 2008 SID Symposium in Los Angeles, Korean electronics giant Samsung introduced its new 2160p "ultra-definition" LCD TV. With a resolution of 3840x2160, or twice the resolution of current HD televisions, the set measures 82 inches diagonally and sports a 120Hz refresh rate. According to the company, it also utilizes a unique LED backlight that raises color saturation to 150 percent while saving energy. “This 82-inch LCD is large enough to cover all viewing angles with ultra-definition resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate that will allow viewers to watch motion pictures as if they are really in them,” said Sang Soo Kim, executive vice president of the LCD Technology Center at Samsung Electronics. “It is the optimal display for future TVs.”

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

LA Digital Post
John Vanderslice
Pueblo Community College
Federal Reserve Board
Woods Hole Media Archives
Lighting Systems Design
The Edison Group
Wackenhut Corp.
New York City Mayor’s Office
Easter Seals WRC
WTXL-TV
Digital Domain Properties
Wilcoworld.net
Bethel Woods Center For The Arts
Hollywood Reporting Agency

NETFLIX Inc. - DVD Rental Leader Upconverts with Markertek !

Los Gatos, CA - Markertek is the technology solution source for all areas of the film distribution industry. We recently supplied NETFLIX with video conversion equipment at its main headquarters in Los Gatos, California. For over ten years, Netflix has been the benchmark for revolutionizing the DVD rental business by giving the public a convenient choice away from conventional 'walk-in' video stores via rentals on the internet with mail order distribution. While controversial in some circles due it's challenge of retail outlets, it has allowed DVD consumers flexible options with a liberal user return policy and high title availability. In 2008, Netflix has recently offered 'on-demand' video for streaming on the internet and download sales for portable media devices. According to Compete.com, the Netflix Website attracts at least 194 million unique visitors annually. Markertek is always intrigued at this kind of innovation and continues to serve a core industry that brings a wide choice of entertainment to a huge consumer audience.

IBM Magnifies the Power of Solar Energy.

Researchers at IBM have announced a new system that uses magnifying lenses to greatly concentrate the amount of solar energy absorbed by a solar panel cell. According to IBM, the lenses, which magnify the sunlight to the equivalent power of 2000 suns, increase the output to around five times' the output of a conventional solar cell ( 230 watts of energy / 70 watts usable power ). This magnification of sunlight however, in turn leads to surface temperatures of up to 1,600 degrees Celsius - hot enough to melt stainless steel. To combat this problem, a liquid metal of gallium and indium compound is used to dissipate the heat. Using this technique, the company is able to reduce temperatures to a far more manageable 85 degrees Celsius. IBM said the advancement could reduce the price of high-capacity photovoltaic cells significantly. "We believe we can drive big change for an entire industry, and advance the basic science of solar cells," says Dr Supratik Guha, lead scientist for photovoltaics at IBM.

CBS to Buy CNET Web Properties.

CBS Corporation has agreed to purchase technology Website CNET, and it's properties for $1.8 billion. According to the network, the deal, which includes CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, UrbanBaby and CNET news.com will provide more circulation for CBS content. "CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience," said CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves in a statement. According to a note to investor from Merrill Lynch, “As of April, CNET had more than 32 million unique monthly users in the United States, generating 437 million page views. Prior to the transaction, ComScore reported CBS as having 25 million monthly unique visitors generating 711 million page views." The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 57 million unique users per month, and about 200 million users worldwide, the companies said.

High-Speed, Low-Cost LCD Panel from Samsung.

Samsung Electronics has announced the development of a new style of high-speed LCD panel. According to the company, the new panel, called 'Blue Phase' can be driven at a speed higher than 240Hz (current LCD panels are driven at 120Hz) and can be manufactured at a lower cost. The production savings is attributed to the fact that the Blue Phase mode LCD panel requires no liquid crystal alignment layers, unlike twisted nematic (TN), vertical alignment (VA) and in-plane switching (IPS) modes, which are presently pervasive in LCD manufacturing. All of these existing modes require a mechanical alignment process called 'rubbing,' which is composed of a number of steps which increase production cost. With the new panels, alignment layers are automatically formed without a mechanical process, resulting in less damage in the interface between liquid crystals and more uniform luminance on the panel surface. Samsung is planning to unveil a 15-inch Blue Phase LCD panel at the Society for Information Display (SID) show 2008, which runs from May 18 to 23, 2008, in Los Angeles. The company expects to begin mass producing the new panels as early as in 2011, targeting display markets that require high-speed video reproduction.

Circuit City Challenges FCC.

Big box electronics retailer, Circuit City, has filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission claiming the agency is working outside its jurisdiction over retail labeling. As part of the upcoming DTV transition next February, the FCC last May, adopted a rule requiring retailers to label TVs with only analog (NTSC) tuners as incompatible with digital television (DTV) broadcasts. Last month the FCC issued nearly $4 billion dollars in fines to various retailers across the US for failing apply the labels to their products. According to the retailer, Circuit City's share of the fines, which amount to $712,000 should be dismissed because the FCC doesn't have any jurisdiction to enforce the rule. According to the filing, "Circuit City made extensive and good faith efforts to comply with this unprecedented regulation despite lack of notice or baseline for compliance." The company claims that errors were made by regulators in assessing the fines. Circuit City also alleges the agency acted improperly by not asking for public comment prior to setting the policy, an area of law typically associated with the Federal Trade Commission. If the claims are rejected by FCC officials, the company could file a lawsuit to have the rule invalidated in federal court.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Results Radio LLC
EMI Music North America
Patriot Metals Inc
Mote Marine Laboratory
CAE USA Inc
PSAV.com
Indy Racing League
Midwest Uplink
Turner Motorsport
Clarice Smith PAC
National Sports Center
NHK Enterprises America Inc
WKYC-TV Cleveland
Lone Star Sports Network
Withers Broadcasting Co.

Dirty Sexy Money - Hit ABC Show Gets Quiet on the Set with Markertek !

Burbank, CA - Markertek is the leader in making instant solution technology available to all areas of Burbank and Hollywood. We recently supplied the hit ABC television show Dirty Sexy Money with sound treatment material for its set in Burbank, California. The show stars Peter Krause (Six Feet Under) in a role as a philanthropist lawyer who does good with bad money. This unique story line and an intriguing plot sequence quickly captured a loyal adult viewing audience for ABC who has recently renewed the show for the 2008-2009 television season. Markertek is honored to serve the entire television and media industry with all the production essentials needed to make a show a hitience.

DirecTV Joins MoCA.

Satellite television service provider, DirecTV, is the latest to join The Multimedia over Coax Alliance. According to the organization, MoCA is an open, industry driven initiative promoting distribution of digital video and entertainment through existing coaxial cable in the home. Joining such names as Arris, Broadlight, Intel, ST, Time Warner Cable and Texas Instruments, DirecTV enters the alliance at a contributor level, which enables the satellite company to become even more involved in the formation of the organization including development of the next generation specification. "DIRECTV's membership is continued proof of our evolution as a truly global standard with appeal to all major broadband industry segments," said MoCA president, Charles Cerino. "They are a welcome addition to our organization and we look forward to their vital input in shaping the alliance."

One Giant Leap...

Taking a giant leap into High-Definition, the Discovery Channel and Dangerous Films have cracked into NASA's film vault to restore 500 hours of space exploration history. When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, is multi-part mini-series that is being called a cross between The Right Stuff and Planet Earth. The footage, transferred to HD for the first time, details NASA's first 50 years of space exploration. "No gimmicks, no photoshopping, no CGI," said John Ford, president and general manager of Discovery Channel, in a preview webcast from the newly opened Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville, Alabama. The documentary, being produced in part to celebrate NASA's 50th anniversary year, will debut in June. The series will also be available in DVD and Blu-ray disc sets. See the trailer for the upcoming series here.

Wilmington to Pull Analog Plug Early.

According to an industry source, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will announce today that he has selected a TV market to conduct a test of the digital switch. Wilmington, N.C., mayor William Saffo, said he had been contacted by the local ABC affiliate and that the network affiliates in his market are planning to pull the plug on analog TV on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008, five months before the Feb. 17, 2009, transition date. The Wilmington market, served by affiliates of all the major networks, is the 135th largest measured by Nielsen Media Research, which says 179,760 of the 182,500 homes in the area have televisions. Launching a DTV test market has been encouraged by Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps, who suggested it would be beneficial to test switch early to get an advance read on what will happen Feb. 17, 2009, when the plug is pulled on full-power analog. "This is very good news for the DTV transition," said Copps. "Real-world experience is an extremely important step—although only one of many—that will help minimize consumer disruption next February. Broadway shows open on the road to work out the kinks before opening night. The DTV transition deserves no less."

JVC Announces Super Hi-Vision Device.

Victor Company of Japan Ltd. (JVC) has developed a 1.75-inch micro display the company calls the "1.75-inch 8K4K D-ILA Device," with a display resolution of 8192 x 4320 (about 35 million) pixels. Used in a projector, the D-ILA can display images at a resolution of 7680 x 4320, which is defined by the ITU-R BT.1769 and SMPTE 2036 standards as "Super Hi-Vision". According to the company, the resolution, 16 times greater than the 1920 x 1080 resolution of Full HD (1080p), the new device can be used for a wide range of leading-edge ultra-high-definition imaging applications. JVC embarked on the development of ultra-high-definition image systems in 1996, and has been contributing to research and development of ultra-high-definition image systems domestically and internationally through cooperation with the standardization of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) 4K2K specifications and by providing projectors for the Super Hi-Vision 8K4K system being developed by NHK. Commercial release of the new device is expected to be sometime in January 2009.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Handmade Digital
The Jammy Awards
Seth Gilbert
Chumash Casino Resort
Road Dog Touring - Nashville
Jersey Boys – Las Vegas
Brooks Institute
Educational Media Foundation
WUFT-FM
Carolina Aircraft
Yale University Art Dept.
USS John C Stennis
Air South Radio
KFBB-TV
Clear Channel Ohio
 

Hyde Street Studios - Legendary Bay Area Recorders Get Connected with Markertek !

San Francisco, CA - Markertek is first on the industry source list for supplying world class recording studios with all the technology essentials. We recently supplied audio connectivity products to Hyde Street Studios at their headquarters in San Francisco, California. Hyde Street was one of the first recording studios to emerge in the late 60's at the tail of the Bay Area psychedelic era and quickly became 'the' place to record. Many gold and platinum albums have come from Hyde Street by: CSNY, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead as well as newer artists, Spearhead, Chris Issak, Green Day and dozens more. Hyde Street has become legendary with almost 40 years of experience within traditional analog and digital domains. Markertek is proud to serve recording studios both large and small to provide technology solutions to the houses that make the hits.

Zero Energy Media Wall from GreenPix.

Brooklyn-based architect Simone Giostra, has created the world's largest color LED display. The groundbreaking project, named 'GreenPix', applies sustainable and digital media technology to the curtain wall of Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. According to the company, the wall features the largest color LED display worldwide and the first photovoltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall in China. The building performs as a self-sufficient organic system, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle. The building is scheduled to have its grand opening this month. To kick things off, an opening video program consisting of 6 videos (5 min circa each) will be screened in loop from 7pm to 9pm every day for six weeks. If you can't make it to China for the opening, check out the GreenPix videos here.

DTV-Transition Awareness Contest.

In an effort to get over-the-air analog viewers thinking about the upcoming digital transition, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association have launched a new contest. The Rabbit Ears Pioneers contest invites you to nominate your favorite "Rabbit Ears Pioneers" with a picture and anecdote about a viewer who uses an analog set and antenna. One grand-prize winner will receive a home entertainment center, while others will get digital-to-analog converter boxes and digital antennas so that they can keep on using those older analog sets. Brady Bunch mom, Florence Henderson, announced the competition this week while on a promotional tour for the DTV switch, according to the NAB. The digital transition is scheduled for February 2009.

Intelligent Memory from HP.

Based on a theory that is nearly 40 years old, researchers at Hewlett-Packard have developed a memory circuit that may eventually replace RAM. The technology, called Memristor, is the fourth fundamental circuit element after resistor, capacitor and inductor. Implementing memristors could allow computers to make decisions based on understanding patterns of past data collected. This approach is similar to human brains collecting and understanding a series of events. With lower voltage requirements and a faster start time then DRAM and flash memory, memristors use less power while storing more data. According to Stanley Williams, senior fellow at HP, "What we have done is confirmed a concept for a new electronic device that was originally proposed nearly 40 years ago." Williams said that HP is now trying to build a simple computing device that uses memristors to operate on a different principal than today's computers. The prototype will first be introduced to academia to show circuit designers what memristors are capable of. Commercial availability of the technology could be possible in five years, Williams said.

Warner Bros. Resurrects The WB.

Warner Bros. Television Group has announced it will resurrect its former broadcast network, The WB, as a new ad-supported Web video-based interactive site. Featuring some of the studio’s most popular shows from its library, TheWB.com is targeted at the 16 to 34-year-old demographic. Warner Bros. will also launch KidsWB.com, a site aimed at ages 6-11, featuring the studio’s collection of animated favorites, including classics as well as new material. In an effort to incorporate a social network element, Warner had teamed up with Facebook.com to allow users to view content through an application on the popular social networking site. WB.com users will also be able to check their Facebook accounts without leaving the WB site. The WB ended its run as a broadcast network when it merged with UPN to create The CW in 2006. KidsWB.com launches this week with a rollout of programming. TheWB.com is currently in beta, and will launch publicly by the end of August.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

CS Networks Inc.
Waterman Broadcasting
Delta Airlines
IBC Worldwide
City Of Macon
Eastern Kentucky University
KPTM Fox 42
Proctors Theatre
Bobsyouruncle.com
Tennis Canada
WECN-TV Puerto Rico
Miracle TV Corp.
Latinworks
FBI - Media Div. Quantico
SC Johnson Family Co.

Skulltronix.com - Animatronics Innovator Bones Up with Markertek !

Rancho Cordova, CA - Markertek continues to be the industry super source in making solution technology available to the motion graphics industry. We recently supplied media support products to Skulltronix at its headquarters in Rancho Cordova, California. Skulltronix manufactures and produces professional horror animatronics for private display, theme parks and the media industry. The Skulltronix flagship models are lifelike skulls that are fully operational with movement and speech, accented with lighting and special effects. The models have custom controllers and software that enables routine and movement while personifying the experience with sound files and voice manipulation. What was once only possible within the secret confines of Hollywood, is now available to anyone in the media industry. Markertek once again salutes innovators that bring special effects media to fuel excitement for vast media audiences.

New 'Green' LCD from Philips.

Philips Electronics has introduced a new HD LCD television it claims will reduce your current electricity bill, regardless of how much TV you watch. The 42" Eco FlatTV is part of the company's new collection of green flagship products. Designed with several power saving features, the set uses a proprietary dimming technology designed to lower the LCD panel backlight to reduce power consumption without compromising the picture quality, as well as consuming less than 0.15W of electricity while in standby mode. According to Philips, the 1080p TV also uses lead-free components and flame-retardant materials which are reportedly more friendly on the environment. In addition, the television's box, packaging and manuals are all made of recycled materials. "The Eco TV sets the standard in design and efficiency, giving consumers unmatched picture quality without the hefty power bills." said Paul Zeven, CEO, Philips Electronics, North America. According to the company the Eco TV will be available in June and will carry a suggested retail price of $1399.

The Best Cables Money Can Buy.

Cable and connector supplier, TecNec has announced the arrival of its latest series of broadcast quality, professional audio / video cables. HDAV series cables offer (5) RG59 coaxial channels made from 99.9999 pure silver plated copper conductors to provide the highest level of signal integrity. This new, electrically superior cable design is terminated with high quality gold plated Neutrik RCA connectors. Specially designed for applications requiring component video with audio hook up, these cables will take the HD experience to the next level. Andrew Barth TecNec VP said "The HDAV series cables are a no nonsense, tell it like it is product, the best signal transmission that money can buy." Check out The HDAV series cables, and get the best cables money can buy at a low introductory price, for a limited time only!

LairdShareHD Wins Vidy Award.

Videography magazine, published by NewBay Media, has announced its Best of Show awards for the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Convention. Among the short list of winners is Laird Telemedia's LairdShareHD. This universal and collaborative workgroup media server and storage solution easily streams eight unique instances of professional HD (DVCPRO100) or 24 streams of DV25 over a gigabit ethernet network. "Our teams searched the NAB show floor for products that were truly deserving of recognition," says NewBay Media Broadcast & Video Group Vice President of Sales Eric Trabb. "Recognition with an award at NAB from the Broadcast & Video Group is a strong vote of confidence and admiration from these leading publications." Markertek would like to congratulate Laird Telemedia on receiving the Vidy Award for this truly unique, powerful and affordable workgroup solution.

The 'Skinny' on New OLEDs from Sony.

Building on the experience of producing the world's first mass-produced OLED (organic light emitting diode) television, Sony has unveiled its newest, thinner displays. Shown recently at the Display 2008 show in Japan, the latest generation measure just 2mm thick. According to the company, a new TFT substrate and less glass allows the same resolution of 960 x 540 pixels despite the reduction in dimensions. Sony also showed a new version of its 11-inch XEL-1 where the display panel (not the final TV product) measures just 0.3mm thick, an improvement over the current model's 1.4mm thickness. The company also exhibited a 3.5-inch prototype display that measures just 0.2mm and features a 320x220 pixel resolution. Sony says the display will most likely be used in media devices or mobile phones. No details on pricing or availability is yet available.

Legend Films Inc - Film Industry Digitizer Restores with Markertek !

San Diego, CA  - Markertek stands as the industry leader in making solution technology available to the film and home entertainment industry. We just provided media support products to Legend Films Inc. at their digital studio lab in San Diego, California. Legend Films is a bright technology innovator that has taken movie and film restoration technology and implemented a new cutting edge digital method. More recently, Legend Films has pioneered and patented the first all digital colorization technology and recently reinvented the process by patenting a system that largely automates the process. Legend is fast becoming the main source for this revolutionary process and has colorized films for 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Paramount Home Entertainment. In less than three years, Legend Films has restored and colorized over 100 feature films in high definition or film resolution. Markertek revels in this forward motion technology and admires pioneers that bring media both past and present even further into the future.

MOTU Wins Black Diamond Award.

MOTU has announced that their popular V3HD FireWire video interface has just been awarded the 2008 Black Diamond Award by the editorial staff of DV Magazine. Named for the "five-diamond" rating system used in DV magazine product reviews, the Black Diamond Awards are presented to outstanding developers and manufacturers who have helped advance the technological art of production and post. The Black Diamond Awards are nominated by an impartial jury of industry professionals. To be selected as a Black Diamond winner, the merits of each product or technology are measured on how it serves DV magazine readers. Final selections are made by the editors of the Video Division of NewBay Media. Markertek would like to congratulate MOTU on their recent success and award.

SCREAM High Definition with Laird!

Las Vegas, NV - Today at NAB Show 2008, Laird Telemedia (booth # 1410) introduced the fastest plug & play server on the planet. The LairdShareHD easily streams eight unique instances of professional HD (DVCPRO100) or 24 streams of DV25 over a gigabit ethernet network. The 12TB / RAID 6 media server can be instantly scaled up to 40TB and rack mounts in a standard 2RU space. Perfect for work groups working with Avid, Final Cut or Pro-Tools HD, it can handle the toughest tasks. Whether it's uncompressed SD & HD SDI, near-line digital content, video color correction or even video & audio streaming the LairdShareHD sets up in minutes and requires no additional management software. Stop by booth SL1410 and watch this new server scream!

Markertek Unveils New Mobile Production Vehicle at NAB.

Las Vegas, NV - Building on the fantastically popular VPTR-1 mobile production trailer, Markertek has unveiled its newest trailer at NAB Show 2008. Parked right at the Markertek booth (SL1410) in the front of the Lower South Hall, the VPTR-24 is an off-the-shelf, rack ready, 24 foot x 8.5 foot deluxe professional video and audio production trailer. With an interior ceiling height of 6'6", this heated and air conditioned unit is complete with carpeting, interior and exterior lighting, work consoles and heavy duty AC wiring. The VPTR-24 features six 19” Racks (37RU Per Rack) in the main control room, and two 19” Racks (8RU Per Rack) in the rear suite. Both compartments are accessible from their own locking 36" passenger door. Other features include 3 cable feed-thru hatch doors plus a full audio, video, CAT5 and telco I/O panel outside hatch door featuring Canare and Neutrik connectors for quick and efficient interfacing. With a professional all white exterior, the VPTR-24 looks great parked inside or out at any and all events. At under $30k - it's a great deal. If you’re at the show, be sure to stop by and check out the VPTR-24 at Markertek booth SL1410.

Negative Improvement for Li-ion Batteries.

Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. says it has developed a new negative electrode that helps boost the performance of lithium-ion batteries. According to the company, the Silicon-based negative electrode, named SILX, will allow the capacity density of the electrode to be increased by approximately 100% of today’s Carbon-based negative electrodes, and the energy density of battery will be 30 to 50% higher than current products as well. This makes it possible to store more energy (higher capacity) and generate more power (higher output) from the same size battery. Mitsui is currently working on partnerships with battery manufacturers and OEMs, including computer, mobile phone and hybrid auto makers. Commercial availability is expected by early 2010.

Tim Robbins to Kick Off NAB 2008.

Academy Award-winning actor and critically acclaimed screenwriter, director and producer Tim Robbins will deliver the opening keynote speech on Monday, April 14 at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. During his keynote, Robbins will look at the changing face of entertainment and how new distribution and content creation opportunities will impact Hollywood and other industries. In addition to discussing his personal and professional experiences as it relates to content, Robbins will also participate in a moderated Q&A. Robbins' keynote will follow NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr's third annual State of the Industry Address. Other keynote presenters at this year's NAB Show include Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roger Enrico of DreamWorks with Todd Bradley of HP; Hulu CEO Jason Kilar; Lost Executive Producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof; Jumper Director and Producer Doug Liman; CSI Creator and Executive Producer Anthony E. Zuiker; Pushing Daisies Director and Executive Producer Barry Sonnenfeld; Six Flags President and CEO Mark Shapiro; and best-selling author Alvin Toffler. The NAB Show will take place April 11 - 17, 2008 in Las Vegas (exhibits open April 14).

Breakthrough Makes LEDs 'Seem' Brighter.

Ehime University of Japan, has announced the development of a pulse drive control method that makes LEDs look twice as bright. The research group found that when a short-cycle pulse voltage with a frequency of approximately 60Hz is applied to an LED at a duty ratio of about 5%, the LED looks about twice as bright to human eyes than that driven by a direct voltage. Based on an evaluation test using subjects, the group reported that a blue LED looks 1.5-1.9 times brighter while green and red LEDs look 2.0-2.2 and 1.0-1.3 times brighter, respectively. The results were achieved by exploiting two principles, the Broca-Sulzer effect and the Talbot-Plateau effect, both of which are involved in how human eyes perceive brightness. The former refers to a phenomenon in which light looks several times brighter to the eye than it actually is when exposed to a spark of light, such as a camera flash, the latter effect is a principle where human eyes repeatedly see flashes and sense the average brightness of the repeated lights. "With this method, the brightness of LEDs with a luminance efficiency of 100lm/W can be simulated by using a 50lm/W LED," said Masafumi Jinno, associate professor of the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the university.

Yahoo! - Internet Giant Gets Big Hits with Markertek!

Silicon Valley, CA - Markertek is the industry leader in supplying all areas of IT technology and development. We just provided Yahoo! with a large laundry list of media support products at its main location in Silicon Valley. Starting in 1994, Yahoo! was one of the first global Internet service companies to provide a range of products and services including a Web portal, a search engine, the Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, news, and postings. Yahoo has been one of the most visited sites on the Internet, with more than 130 million unique users per month. The global network of Yahoo! websites receive 3.4 billion page views per day on average, making it one of the most visited U.S. websites. Markertek is certainly honored to serve one of the seminal Internet pioneers that has become such an integral part of everyday life online.

Online Vs. TV Advertising.

According to a new study commissioned by Google, ads embedded in YouTube videos perform just as well as ads on television. The Harris Interactive study measured the effectiveness of 30-second ads on YouTube, on TV and embedded into content online. Google said the 30-second commercials generated the same level of intent to purchase, engagement and interest in the brand shown. "The takeaway is that nothing is lost and much can be gained. There is no downside in terms of bringing a brand-building message," said Marianne Foley, senior vice president-strategic initiatives at Harris Interactive referring to the impact of running TV commercials online. Foley said Google also plans to test the impact of video ads on other "screen" platforms, including mobile and hand held devices, in the near future.

World's Smallest HD Camcorder.

Sony has announced what it calls the smallest high-definition camcorder in the world. At just 10.6 ounces, the HDR-TG1 is 1.3 inch thick by 4.7 inches high by 2.5 inches wide. The tall and thin unit achieves its slim profile by recording directly to a Memory Stick Pro Duo or Pro-HG Duo memory card. The camera records at 1920 by 1080 in AVCHD, a high-def format developed by Sony and Panasonic that's designed to provide some compatibility between camcorders and living room disc players and other entertainment hardware. In the highest quality "FH" mode, which is full HD resolution at 16M bps, the supplied 4G-byte card will be able to store 25 minutes of footage. In HQ mode, recording time lengthens to 55 minutes at 1440 by 1080 / 9M bps. In addition to taking 4-mexpixel stills, other features include an optical 10X zoom, 2.7-inch widescreen touch panel LCD monitor and HDMI connector. The new camcorder is scheduled to hit the streets in Japan later this month and then the U.S. in May with a price tag of about $900.00

DIY Plasma Arc Loudspeaker.

Here's an interesting video demonstrating the performance of a home-built plasma speaker. An evolution of William Duddell's "singing arc" of 1900, the speaker creates sound by varying air pressure through a corona discharge or electric arc. Known for a sound that is sharp and clear, the speakers are limited to reproducing only very high frequencies, and therefore are most often used as tweeters. Since the 1950s many variations of the plasma speaker have been built, but have failed to reach mass popularity. This is due in part to the speaker's high cost, limited range, and frequent maintenance requirements. They also require a continuous supply of ionized gas and produce a by-product of ozone which can reach hazardous levels in closed rooms. Well, they might not be practical, but we've got to admit you can't beat them for cool factor.

New Digs for Markertek at NAB 2008.

Las Vegas, NV - This year for NAB 2008 (April 14-17), Markertek is moving to a new 1,000 square foot booth in the front of the Lower South Hall. Formally the floor space for AVID Technology, the new booth is located directly next to AJA, in what has been called the "Times Square" of NAB. Markertek’s new space will showcase all of the latest unique & hard to find gear, and will be anchored by our exclusive VPTR-24 Mobile Production Studio. Click here for a free VIP show pass, and be sure to check out Markertek at booth SL1410, in the front of the hottest hall of the hottest show...NAB 2008!

TheStreet.com - Wall Street Cornerstone Stocks up with Markertek !

New York, NY - Markertek has always been the key link in the media supply chain for the global financial market and investment reporters. We just supplied TheStreet.com with media support products at its headquarters on Wall Street in New York City.  The Street is an extremely popular financial advisor website that was started in 1996 by investment guru, Jim Cramer. Loaded with video, forums, blogs and real time charts, The Street is an exciting place that anyone from a hedge fund manager to consumers with trades in mind can go for up to the minute news, opinions and market guidance. Markertek is proud to serve these real time innovators where media can reach out to a market that has a profound effect on the world’s finances.    

World’s Oldest Sound Recording - Played for the First Time !

First Sounds, the informal collaborative of audio historians, recording engineers, sound archivists and scientists has succeeded in playing the oldest known audio recording of a human voice. The recording, made in 1860 by Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on his “phonautograph” pre-dates Thomas Edison's phonograph by 17 years. Just 10 seconds in length, the recording is of a person singing a snippet from a French folk song. Scott had never intended the playing back the recording as the phonautograph scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp to visually represent sound. However, First Sounds converted the scan into sound using non-contact digital imaging technology developed to preserve and create access to a wide variety of early recordings. An mp3 file of the recording is available here.

Free Web Based Editing from Adobe.

Adobe Systems has announced the launch of its online photo editing tool, Photoshop Express. Borrowing from Adobe's already well-respected and widely used professional-grade photo editing solutions, Photoshop Express allows users to upload, edit, store (up to 2GB) and share their images for free. The browser-based application works with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari and requires the latest version of Flash Player 9. Currently in beta form, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe, Doug Mack said the purpose of Express is to provide "a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you're at home, school or on the road." Adobe currently plans to keep Photoshop Express free with the possibility of additional features eventually available on a subscription basis.

DOJ Approves XM / Sirius Merger.

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division has announced that after "thorough and careful review" it has determined that allowing the two satellite radio companies to merge "is not likely to harm consumers." According to the DOJ, although the firms in the past competed to attract new subscribers, there has never been significant competition between them for customers who have already subscribed to one or the other service and purchased the requisite equipment. The Department also stated the merger could actually benefit consumers, who might see lower prices as the result of more efficient operations, broader programming options, and faster rollouts of new technology. While approval is still needed from the FCC, most analysts feel the Commission will follow the Justice Department's lead and approve the merger as well.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Crosscreek Entertainment
Serene Center
Colorado State University
Bibles For The World
WETM-TV
New England Theatre Service
Washington National Opera
Zoo Atlanta
Louis Williams Basketball Camp
Navic Networks
Comcast Spotlight
VVT Amplifiers Inc.
Worldwide Medical Inc.
Red Line Films
American Cassette Ministries

Red Bull - Energy Beverage Leader Mics it Up with Markertek !

Santa Monica, CA - Markertek is the leader in supplying all levels of the corporate media industry with broadcast support necessities. We just supplied Red Bull USA with Audio Technica products at its headquarters in Santa Monica, CA. Originating in Thailand, Red Bull has instituted an aggressive marketing effort across the globe over the past 20 years. Being hugely popular with a predominately younger audience, the Bull now lays claim to a significant portion of the energy drink consumption in the United States. Markertek is proud to serve the corporate food and beverage industry with the media equipment that keeps brand support targeted to the global public audience.

New Blu-ray Laser Diodes from Sharp.

In its latest technological briefing, Sharp Electronics revealed new plans relating to Blu-ray laser diodes. The company, a pioneer in the field after mass-producing the industry's first infrared laser diode for use in CD players in 1982, showcased its latest High-Power Blue-Violet Laser Diode for Blu-ray recorders that could achieve 6X writing speed. The 250 mW laser will start production next month in two flavors, one compact version for notebooks and another larger version for desktops and stand-alone units. The company also announced it is developing a 300mW laser diode that will be capable of recording Blu-ray discs at 8X speed. According to Sharp, this will likely reach mass-production in 2009. Another future planned diode for multi-layer 8x-12x recording with a power output of 400mW was announced for possible mass production in 2010.

12,000 Lense Digital Camera.

Scientists at Stanford University are developing a "multi-aperture image sensor" that not only captures an ordinary 2D image, but also creates a "depth map" of every object in the frame. The prototype digital camera has tens of thousands of individual lenses, each mounted on an array of 256 pixels. The pixels, at just 0.7 microns each, allow every item captured in a photo at least four of the chip's micro lenses, producing overlapping views from slightly different perspectives - similar to the way human eyes work. "It's like having a lot of cameras on a single chip," claims Keith Fife, a graduate student working on the project. "In fact, if the prototype 3-megapixel chip had all its micro lenses in place, they would add up to 12,616 'cameras'." According to the researchers, the technology could potentially be used for facial recognition, architecture or biological imaging as well as giving robots better spatial vision. Fife added, "People are coming up with many things they might do with this."

How Not to Roll a Cable Reel.

Here's a quick video that shows the pitfalls of moving a cable reel without the proper equipment. We're not sure of the authenticity of this clip, but either way, that is one runaway reel. Don't forget, Markertek has all the equipment you need to keep your cables reels safe and ready for work.

MOTU Now Shipping Windows Support for the V3HD FireWire Video Interface.

CAMBRIDGE, MA - MOTU, Inc. is now shipping Windows support for the V3HD FireWire video interface and converter. Users can download the new PC drivers and software at v3hd.com, giving them immediate and complete compatibility with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 (Version 3.1 or higher) running on Windows XP or Vista (32). "The V3HD is a one-of-kind I/O device for Premiere Pro CS3 Windows users," said Jim Cooper, Director of Marketing for MOTU. "With plug-and-play FireWire connectivity, hardware-accelerated P2 capture and comprehensive I/O, the V3HD sets a new standard for video capture and monitoring for Premiere users."

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Target Corporation
Georgia Technical Institute
USC School Of Theatre
Karuk Tribe Of California
Dark Sky  - Culver City Studios
DCAT
SRI International
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Tweeter OPOC LLC
Ikegami Electronics
Jokeland Inc. / Jackie Martling
Big Yellow Duck / NYC
PSYOP Inc.
Museum Of Modern Art
Temple University Opera

R.E.M - Legendary Rockers Kick Off SXSW with Markertek!

Austin, TX - Markertek is always at the ready to supply multi-platinum touring acts with any last minute necessities needed to get the show on the road. We just hot rushed R.E.M. some special cabling for their stage teleprompter systems. R.E.M. was in Austin, Texas performing at networking music industry event, SXSW ( South by Southwest ). In addition, the band is leaving for Europe this weekend to promote their new album "Accelerate" which gets released nationally on April 1st. For over 25 years, R.E.M. remains a very popular recording act that has charted many top 10 global hits and was one of the first seminal acts to break out on MTV. Markertek fondly remembers working with them in the early 90's when they recorded at Bearsville Studios in our hometown of Woodstock, NY. We wish R.E.M. continued success and look forward to supplying all levels of the music industry with the largest and best selection of products and service.

Comcast Sues FCC Over Cap.

Comcast, the largest cable provider in the US, has issued a lawsuit to the FCC over a pending decision, which would institute a 30-percent cap for cable's share of multichannel-video providers. The company which is currently at 27-percent, considers the move a show of favor to telco companies, citing the AT&T and Bell mergers that have happened in the past three years. According to Broadcasting and Cable, David Cohen, executive vice president for Comcast, said "In an era of increased and intensifying competition among telephone, satellite and cable companies, the case for a 30% cap is even weaker than when the courts rejected it six years ago." The FCC has justified the court directed cap saying that the 30% limit was "designed to ensure that no single cable operator or group of operators, because of its size, can unfairly impede the flow of programming to consumers."

Launch Failure for DISH Satellite.

International Launch Services of Virginia has announced an anomaly during last weeks Proton mission with DISH Network's AMC-14 satellite. According to ILS, preliminary flight information indicates that the anomaly occurred during the second burn of the Proton Breeze M upper stage. As a result, the Lockheed Martin built satellite failed to reach orbit. The rocket, which was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, has been used in more than 320 launches and has a reliability record of 96 percent. According to DISH Network the purpose of the new satellite was to provide the company with "the bandwidth resources needed to increase the number of high-definition and other services offered by EchoStar nationwide." A Russian State Commission has begun the process of determining the reasons for the anomaly.

Draggin' for News in Texas.

Check out this video of a couple of news vans tearing it up. According to KRIV Houston, the two trucks from KDBC and KVIA El Paso were reporting from a legal drag racing strip when the drivers were goaded to give it a go. According to KRIV's Website, KVIA photographer Richie Zamora and part-time anchor Rick Cabrera dragged on behalf of KVIA, and are facing disciplinary action, though not termination. "They had the crowd gathered, giggling," GM Kevin Lovell told the Fox O&O. "It was a stupid thing to do. They weren't thinking."

YouTube Coming to TiVo.

Popular DVR maker, TiVo Inc. has announced an agreement with YouTube that will offer access to YouTube videos directly from the TV via a TiVo DVR. The service will be available to broadband-connected TiVo subscribers with Series3 DVRs, including the new TiVo HD. According to the company, viewers will have the benefit of having the YouTube experience combined with the convenience and familiarity of TiVo's intuitive user interface. Additionally, users will be able to log into their YouTube accounts directly from their TiVo boxes and access their favorite YouTube channels and playlists. Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services at TiVo Inc. said "We're delighted to be working with the world's leading online video community so that TiVo subscribers can access YouTube's popular content on the TV via the TiVo DVR." The new service is scheduled to be available later this year.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Azusa Pacific University
KPRI Radio
Earth & Space Sciences
Office of Radio & TV
SAE Miami
Genesis Microchip
Broadcast Technology Group
Live Nation
Retirement Living Network
Bass Pro Shops
Trump Taj Mahal
Cosmic Screen LLC
RTL Dutch Television
WLJT-TV
Bainbridge Island Television  

Rachael Ray - Food Show Personality Cooks it Up with Markertek!

New York, NY - Markertek is the leading industry supply source for many popular television shows. We recently supplied Rachael Ray with Gefen products for her production set in New York City. The two-time Emmy-nominated television personality and author hosts the syndicated popular talk/lifestyle program Rachael Ray and two Food Network series, 30 Minute Meals and Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels. Food and cooking personalities make for very high ratings in daytime television and also enjoys a large internet audience. Once again, niche media is in forward motion and Markertek is there to support and supply all of the industry's needs.

Pioneer to End PDP Production.

In an effort to improve the company's profitability, Pioneer Corp. has announced plans to discontinue in-house production of plasma displays. The company began PDP production in April 1997, and had been increasing its presence by developing models with a higher contrast ratio, a smaller pixel pitch and a slimmer body while continually increasing output. Competition in the plasma display market became increasingly fierce around 2004 and extreme drops in price began to pressure the company's profits. That same year, the company logged a net loss for the first time in nine years. While it has been reported the company will procure panels from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, Pioneer said, "We are currently in discussions on the feasibility of procuring panel modules that may incorporate our proprietary technologies." The company's three PDP plants in Japan will be converted to TV assembly plants, Pioneer said.

Take Time for DST.

Just a quick reminder that this weekend, Sunday March 9, (2:00am) Daylight Saving Time begins. Be certain that any equipment with time capabilities is up to date with the latest firmware and software versions or patches. Older equipment may need to be updated manually. Take a few minutes this weekend to check your gear, and avoid troubles on Monday morning.

New 'Energy' Focus for Toshiba.

In the wake HD DVD's recent loss of the 'format wars', Toshiba has announced that the company will now place it's focus in new directions. According to president Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba plans to concentrate on standard DVD operations. Toshiba's standard DVD players have "very high quality because they include an upconverting feature. And we're going to improve this even more, so that consumers won't be able to tell the difference" from next-generation players. "What people don't realize is that Hollywood studios are going to release new titles not just for Blu-ray but for standard DVDs as well, and there are a far greater number of current-generation DVD players out there," he pointed out. Toshiba has also announced it has established a subsidiary in the U.S. to promote its nuclear power plant business. Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corp. will share plant operation and maintenance as well as construction management with plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co., now a Toshiba group company. The new company will also handle licensing for the 4S, a new type of super safe, small and simple system for nuclear power generation, Toshiba said.

Inkjet Printed Solar Cells.

A Massachusetts company has announced that it has successfully conducted the first-ever demonstration of manufacturing solar cells by inkjet printing. The company, Konarka Technologies Inc., called the demonstration a "milestone" and an "essential breakthrough in the field of printed solar cells." Inkjet printing is a commonly used technique primarily used to make flexible electronic circuits. According to Konarka officials, by using the process in the development of solar cells, the need for "clean rooms" and costly silicon is eliminated, and manufacturers can work with a number of different substrates, including plastics, and assorted colors. "Demonstrating the use of inkjet printing technology as a fabrication tool for highly efficient solar cells and sensors with small area requirements is a major milestone," commented Rick Hess, president and CEO at Konarka.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

San Diego Theatres
Macguffin Films
Ricardo Salinas Industrial Design
Omneon Inc.
Polycom
Orion Multimedia
Martha's Vineyard Regional HS
Drake Telemedia Center
Flying Monk Films
WUVP-TV – Univision
Lifechurch.tv
US Pro Tennis Assoc.
Spacequest Ltd.
Total Sports Entertainment
Cinemadetour.com
 

Pyrotecnico - Event Pyrotechnics Leader Explodes with Markertek!

New Castle, PA - Markertek supplies all lines of interconnect technology solutions to event industry media.  We recently supplied Pyrotecnico with Neutrik products for their main testing lab in New Castle, PA. Since the early 90’s, Pyrotecnico has gained a global presence performing more than 2,000 shows each year, providing displays to the entertainment and media display industry. Stage and sky pyrotechnics add incredible visual effects and sonic excitement to public sporting events, concerts and corporate functions. Pyrotecnico also supports their craft with free national pyrotechnic certification for those interested in pursuing it. Markertek is always honored to support and supply an industry that brings impact visual media to a new level for the viewing audience.

Online Ads - Now in HD.

Using the latest Flash technology from Adobe, digital advertising and services provider, DoubleClick has announced High Definition online ad campaigns. According to the company, its new Rich Media HD Video feature with support for Flash Player 9 makes it possible to launch full screen video in HD quality from within a banner ad without degradation of quality or excessive download times. "We’re extremely excited to work with DoubleClick to push the limits on rich media advertising technology. The Flash player’s support for H.264 video will change the way consumers think of online video” said Jim Guerard, Vice President of the Dynamic Media Organization at Adobe. Epson is the first company to implement DoubleClick Rich Media with HD Video as part of its "Epsonality" ad campaign. See the Epson ad in HD here.

New E-Waste Recycling from Panasonic.

Japanese electronics maker, Panasonic has announced the development a new recycling technology. Using the catalytic properties of titanium oxide (TiO2), the approach enables the recovery of metals from plastic-coated wires and plastics used in electric and electronic equipment without causing hazardous side-effects. Panasonic is successfully using the new technology at the Matsushita Eco Technology Center (METEC) to recover copper from degaussing coils covered with vinyl chloride tape found in CRT displays. In addition, mixed plastic waste destined for incineration or landfill is treated and changed into non-toxic gases at METEC. According to the company, Panasonic aims to completely eliminate mixed plastic waste and spread the use of this environment-friendly technology to recycling-related facilities and further to production facilities in and out of the Panasonic group.

TecNec Cable Prices Hold Steady.

Cable and connector supplier, TecNec has announced that despite rising copper costs, prices of its TecNec brand cables shall remain unchanged at this time. Regardless of continued growth in world production of refined copper, production has been insufficient to meet global demand. Andrew Barth, VP of TecNec said "We are dedicated to supporting our customers and will ride this fluctuating copper market by maintaining our already low prices on our proprietary cable assemblies." Markertek is proud to be the number one supplier of TecNec brand cables and connectors for a wide variety of media professionals.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Intel Corporation
New York State Lottery
Southern Sky Satellite
Ripe Digital Entertainment
CSDTV
Cal State UC Davis
XMI Corporation
PGA Tour Productions
Racing Radios
Indianapolis Museum Of Art
Hallmark Cards Inc.
NY1 News
The Salvation Army
Ohio Public Broadcasting
Ideastream

Midway Games - Arcade Pioneer Gets High-Score with Markertek!

Chicago, IL  - Markertek stands as the leader in supplying technology solutions to niche media development companies.  We recently configured and supplied Midway Games with custom rack panels and accessories for the main headquarters in Chicago, IL. Midway is a key publisher in the highly competitive gaming world. Starting out in the 1950’s with mechanical arcade games and developing the first mass consumed video games in the late 70s. Many of Midway’s games have become legendary, PacMan, Space Invaders, Mortal Kombat and dozens more. Midway continues to be a dynamic force with gaming technology advancing daily for development and mass marketing. Markertek is always honored to supply an industry that is in constant motion for the advancement and manufacturing of entertainment systems.

Warner Bros. to Open Consumer
Research Facility.

In an effort to better understand how consumers respond to all the latest hi-tech entertainment choices, Warner Bros. has created a consumer research facility to find out for themselves. The new media center includes game consoles, portable media players, computers of different types, and even DirecTV. Warner plans to bring in consumers and give them access to content in various forms to see how they react to it. Viewers will be left alone to view Video On Demand, web content, and portable media while cameras monitor their activities. "We're not operating in a vacuum anymore because of this center," said Bruce K. Rosenblum, the executive vice president in charge of the operation. "We want to get smarter and understand these technologies a bit better. Warner Bros can't just assume about the deals we do. I think it's important that Warner knows the experience."

HD Fuels LCD Panel Sales.

According to a new study from the NPD Group, growing popularity of high-definition programming has helped fuel sales of liquid crystal display televisions. For the first time in their history, LCD displays overtook worldwide sales of traditional cathode ray tube displays. About 95% of LCD panels shipped to the U.S. are for high-definition TVs, according to Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV research at DisplaySearch. Consumers purchased 20.5 million LCD sets last year, up 85% from 2006. “Big screens were the big draw for consumers” during the holidays, with sales of TVs with screens exceeding 40 inches more than doubling, said Gagnon. With about a fifth of the market each, Sony’s and Samsung’s share of fourth-quarter LCD shipments were nearly identical, with Samsung’s shipments jumping 67% in the past year, DisplaySearch said. Philips and Sharp each had about 10% of the market.

Samsung's Set-Top Search Engine.

Electronics giant, Samsung has developed a new search engine for television. Named See'n'Search, the unit uses closed captioning and program listings to automatically search the Internet to give viewers more information on the shows they’re watching. Unlike traditional approaches to interactive TV, See'n'Search does not have to be pre-programmed, it automatically correlates to data on the Internet. Viewers can then find more information through a variety of search results across Google, Wikipedia or even video. Watch the demo video for See'n'Search here.

HD DVD Officially Dead.

Toshiba has officially pulled the plug on the HD DVD format, ending the format war with Blu-ray. “This was a very difficult decision to make…but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence,” Toshiba Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida told a news conference. Toshiba, which began sales of HD DVD players in March 2006, has sold 1 million players and recorders. The company said it aims to end its HD DVD business by the end of next month, but that it would continue to service existing HD DVD products. CEO Nishida said Toshiba has "absolutely no plans" to make or sell Blu-ray players.

Dolby Labs - Audio Engineering Innovation Connects with Markertek!

San Francisco, CA - Markertek is always proud of our industry affiliation with technology experts and innovators. We recently supplied a large load of audio connectivity products to Dolby Labs at its main headquarters in San Francisco, CA. Dolby has been specializing in audio noise reduction, encoding and compression since 1965. Starting as a technology company, Dolby gauged it's products to industry professionals and then ultimately, to the high volume end user market. From their original noise reduction solutions in analog machine formats to today's encoding/compression in the newest digital domains, Dolby is a household name associated with all facets of audio, video and IT solution products. Markertek salutes the technology which is bounding it's way forward to bring us the finest signal quality from our favorite media formats.

Toshiba Considers HD DVD Pullout.

Japanese electronics maker, Toshiba Corp. is considering ending its High-Definition DVD operations amid a string of setbacks in its fight to dominate the next-generation optical disc market. Following an earlier report by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, a unidentified source at the company said "We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business." The format has been facing stiff competition from rival Blu-ray Disc, another optical disc format backed by Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. The turning point in the so-called format war, was this past January when Warner Bros. Studios announced it would only release high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format. Since then, four out of the six major Hollywood studios have expressed their exclusive support for Blu-ray. In addition, retail giant Wal-Mart has announced its support for Blu-ray only as well as Circuit City and Netflix among others. According to the source, a pullout would cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Toshiba shares jumped 6.3% as analysts praised its move to cut its losses, while Sony, whose technology is set to become the industry standard, rose 2.1%

Panasonic to Build $2.8 Billion LCD Plant.

Panasonic has announced that it is planning to invest $2.8 billion in a new LCD manufacturing plant in western Japan. The new plant, which will be built in Himeji, is what the company calls a 'eighth generation production line'. This means it can process sheets of mother glass, the large glass panels on which several LCD screens are made, of 2.2 meters by 2.4 meters. These sheets are best suited to production of 40-inch panels because eight screens can be made with minimal waste. The new plant was announced simultaneously with a deal that will see Panasonic acquire almost all the shares of IPS Alpha Technology, an LCD panel manufacturing joint venture between Panasonic, Hitachi and Toshiba. The company is also currently putting the finishing touches on a $2.5 billion state-of-the-art PDP production line in Amagasaki, in western Japan, that is due to start production this year.

Power Generating Threads at Georgia Tech.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a fabric material that generates electricity. The unique fabric takes advantage of the semiconductive properties of zinc oxide nanowires, tiny wires 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, embedded into the fabric. The wires are formed into pairs of microscopic brush-like structures, while one of the fibres in each pair is coated with gold and serves as an electrode. As the bristles brush together through a person's body movement, the wires convert the mechanical motion into electricity. If made into a shirt, the fabric could harness enough (80 milliwatts per square meter) power from its wearer to recharge a cell phone or ensure that a MP3 player never runs out of juice. Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who led the study, said the material could be used by hikers and soldiers in the field and also to power tiny sensors used in biomedicine or environmental monitoring.

CNN Launches Citizen News Site.

Multi-channel news provider, CNN, has launched a new site dedicated entirely to user-produced news. The site, iReport.com, allows users to upload audio, video and photo file news. Visitors can then search for a particular story or view by category, such as sports, politics and weather. According to CNN, other than objectionable content, submissions are open and will not be checked for credibility or accuracy. "The community will decide what the news is," said Susan Grant, executive vp CNN News Services. "We are not going to discourage or encourage anything. . . . iReport will be completely unvetted."

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

COX Communications
Idyllwild Arts Academy
Tanana Valley Television Co
J&M Special Effects
CNBC Washington
Los Angeles Police Department
Disneyland Resorts
Postworks NY
Heartland Broadcasting Corp
International Campaign for Tibet
Hawaii Event Management
Ithaca College
Mobile Digital Recording
New Century Television
Mira Mobile Media 

Bill O'Reilly - Popular Media Journalist Gets ID’d with Markertek!

New York, NY - Markertek is proud to work with all walks of broadcasters, journalists, political bloggers and media professionals. We recently supplied some media identification products for Bill O’Reilly at his production studio in New York City. A controversial television personality, Bill is an author, political/social commentator, and the host of the Fox cable news program, The O'Reilly Factor. Agree or disagree with his views or opinions, The O'Reilly Factor remains a popular politically charged forum that has redefined the talk television genre. Markertek remains unbiased and is ready to serve all facets of broadcast journalism as well as the media industry as a whole.

Three More Years - for Cox Analog Signals.

Cable provider, Cox Communications has announced it will continue to broadcast analog signals for three full years after the upcoming switch over to digital broadcasts on February 17, 2009. Cox, the third largest provider in the US, states on its Website that it "recognizes that some customers will still have analog-only TVs [after the transition date]," thus it will continue offering "analog broadcast signals for at least three years after the deadline for those customers that have not upgraded all TVs to Cox Digital Cable." However, this move by Cox will only be helpful for customers who receive programming via cable and not OTA (over-the-air) programming. Viewers who do not subscribe to Cox cable service (after Feb. 17, 2009) will need a TV that has a digital tuner, or a digital set-top converter box to receive programming. Vouchers from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for $40 off the purchase of a set-top box are available here.

F-35 Fighter Takes Off with IEEE 1394.

The 1394 Trade Association has announced the successful implementation of the 1394 standard in the U.S. military’s latest F-35 fighter jets. According to the association, after a trade study of other networking options, including USB, Fibre Channel, and military standard 1553, Lockheed Martin Corp. and its partner contractors selected the 1394b network standard. More than seventy 1394 devices are delivering information about mission details, communication systems, weapon systems, engine controls, and flight controls. The F-35 design team reportedly maximized the distances served by the 1394b specification with physical enhancements, such as the active transformers, quad cabling, connectors, and termination method. These enhancements also serve to ensure optimal operation in the harsh temperature and vibration environment experienced on-board the craft. James Snider, executive director of the 1394 Trade Association said “The success of 1394b in this mission-critical program reflects the bandwidth, distance and quality-of service features enabled by the standard.”

New Holographic Display from the University of Arizona.

Scientists at the University of Arizona have developed what they claim could usher in the next generation of 3D applications. The new display, a photo refractive polymer film, requires no special eyewear by the viewer and is capable of having images written to it in minutes. Due to its ability to be constantly written on and wiped clean using lasers, the image displayed can be constantly refreshed. Similar, current technologies are restricted to displaying static images which cannot be modified. As a result, the new technology is geared for many high-tech applications. According to Nasser Peyghambarian, one of the scientists at the University of Arizona who developed the new technology, "The applications are in many areas, for example in the areas of medical and surgery," says Peyghambarian. "The surgeon could have a 3D image of the area they want to do the surgery on." Military and consumer applications would also be possible. Click here to watch video about the display.

Adobe to End Stock Image Service.

Creative software maker, Adobe Systems, has announced plans to discontinue its Stock Photos service. The service, introduced in 2005 as part of Creative Suite 2, enables users to purchase and download royalty-free images for use in their work. According to Adobe, the service will continue to be fully operational through March 31, 2008. After which, users will be directed to the providers who have supplied content to Adobe Stock Photos in the past. A statement on the company's Website said "Adobe has decided to concentrate its efforts in other areas." Details and instructions for current users and an uninstall for the service is available here.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Stanford Law School
Luciano
KAOS Entertainment
Decisionquest
Forest Home Ministries
Clemson University
Ethos Design
UCD College of Media Arts
KBDI
Federal Trade Commission
Rockwell Collins
Chedd Angier Lewis
PanAmerican Science
Dallas Mavericks
Net Insight

Bette Midler / Divine Tours - Bette Midler's Hot New Show Goes on with Markertek!

Las Vegas, NV - Markertek is at the top of the industry supply chain providing laundry list essentials to the hottest Vegas shows and attractions on the strip. We recently completed a large order of rack assemblies for Bette Midler's Divine Tour currently setting up residency at Caesar's Palace. Bette's show "The Showgirl Must Go On" was created exclusively for The Coliseum at Caesars Palace and will make its highly anticipated debut on February 20, 2008. Bette will perform approximately 100 shows there a year with a unique storyline and stunning stage production. As always, Markertek is proud to supply the world's greatest entertainers in the epicenter of the attraction capital of the world.

High Temp Pb-Free Solder from Hitachi.

A new, lead-free, high temperature solder has been developed by Hitachi Ltd of Japan. Traditional lead-free solder cannot stand up to extreme temperatures for long periods of time before cracking or breaking down. As a result, high-temperature solders with a high lead content, such as Sn-95Pb, have been used when a high heat resistance is required. Hitachi's new Sn-Cu (tin-copper) based solder meets RoHS directive guidelines while also creating a bond that is as strong and resilient as lead solder. According to company tests, no degradation was observed in the solder for more than 1,000 hours even when the temperature around the soldered part rose to 200°C. Hitachi plans to commercialize the new solder sometime around 2010.

Strike Sends Viewers to the Internet.

According to a new study by research media company, Mindshare, the Writers Guild of America strike is taking a toll on television viewing behavior. Nearly half of the viewers surveyed admitted to spending more time online since the strike, while 28% said they may not return to television when the strike is over. Going online topped the list of alternative activities to watching their favorite TV shows, with reading and watching DVDs tied as the second-most-cited alternative to watching strike-affected programming. The current strike, now in it's 12th week, started in November 2007. The last such strike was in 1988 and lasted 21 weeks, 6 days. It was the longest writer's strike in history, surpassing the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike by one week.

Showtime's Green Emmy Campaign.

In co-operation with Internet TV company Brightcove, entertainment network, Showtime, has taken a 'greener' approach to Emmy Award campaigning this year. Rather than sending out hundreds of DVDs of it's productions to Academy voters, the episodes will be streamed online. Beginning February 15, voters will receive access codes to view full episodes of the shows online. “This was convenient, it was green, it was economical,” executive vice president of corporate communications Rich Licata said. “This makes it very easy to put nothing in landfills.” According to Showtime, in addition to being environmentally friendly, the move will also save the network "tens of thousands of dollars."

Stepping Up DTV Transition Spots.

With the DTV transition deadline just a little more than a year away, the Federal Communications Commission and Congress may soon approve a plan requiring local TV stations to run at least four 30-second spots a day informing consumers of the upcoming switch to digital TV. Under the new plan, the spots would increase to as many as 12 per day as the deadline draws closer. Based on a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Commission is concerned that broadcasters are not airing enough of the PSAs during peak viewing hours. However, public awareness of the move is growing, a new survey by the National Association of Broadcasters finds that almost 80% of households with a TV have at least some knowledge of the digital transition, up from 38% a year ago. February 17, 2009 is the official transition date.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Royal British Columbia Museum
Bounty Hunter Rare Wine
Stanford University
Ingersoll Rand
RGB Networks
Pepsi Center – Denver
Georgetown Post
Miami Latin TV
KWCH
Washington Nationals
Saratoga Gaming & Raceway
On Track Controls
Dealer.com Marketing
Energy Northwest
5th Ave Theatre - Seattle

Touring Dance Challenge Competition Racks Up with Markertek!

West Bloomfield, MI - Markertek is the media central supply link for all sports and related competition productions on the touring circuit today. Hall Of Fame Dance Challenge recently called us to configure some rack accessories for its 2008 on the road production. HOFDC is a very popular touring dance company that encompasses regional and national matches with heavy online interaction and focus. Touring throughout the United States, the Challenge has taken on momentum and new direction in answering to the prime time television popularity and format. Once again, niche media is in forward motion and Markertek is there to support and supply all of the industry sector's needs.

Eco-Friendly StudioFoam from Auralex.

Acoustical treatment company, Auralex Acoustics, has introduced the first 'green' acoustical foam product on the market. The popular StudioFoam is now manufactured without CFCs while using soy components that reduce petroleum-based chemical usage by 60%. The new StudioFoam features improved performance (acoustical and fire) and durability over conventional petroleum-based foams, and is available in the same colors and cuts as the original. “Green initiatives are no longer reserved for environmentalists. Consumers as a whole are moving toward ecologically-friendly lifestyles and products,” says Dave Paxton, director of operations at Auralex Acoustics. “Auralex will continue to create products that are beneficial to the audio industry as well as those that are conducive to our environment.”

Sony Shrinks Blu-ray Laser.

The Sony Corporation has announced it has developed the world's smallest Blu-ray reader/writer module. The new laser unit, developed jointly with Nichia of Japan, is just 3mm thick and costs less to manufacture than its predecessor. The unit will allow companies to incorporate smaller Blu-ray drives into their products, while also driving cost down. Sony believes the new, smaller laser will find its way into 9.5mm laptop drives sometime this year. No other details of when or where we can expect to see the new unit in action are currently available.

Last.FM Launches Free Music Service.

Online radio site, Last.FM has launched what it calls the "world's biggest free music service". The site has made available the catalogs of Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, as well as more than 150,000 independent artists and labels. The free service is funded by banner advertising and allows visitors to listen to full tracks without registering or logging-in. The catch? Visitors can only listen to any one track up to three times. After that, the listener will be pointed towards iTunes, Amazon and 7 Digital to purchase the song. The service is currently available in the US, UK and Germany, with additional markets to follow later this year.

FCC to Resume OTA Internet Testing.

According to the Associated Press, the Federal Communications Commission will again test prototype devices intended to send high-speed Internet signals over unused television airwaves (white space). Last July, equipment from Microsoft and Phillips was tested and failed to meet FCC standards of operation. According to the FCC, the devices must not only be able to use the available spectrum for transmission, but also must be able to detect and not interfere with television or wireless mic signals. The FCC said that testing should be complete in three months, and will issue a report six weeks after that. If testing is successful, and the devices are approved, the new equipment could be available for commercial sale after the digital television transition is complete in February 2009.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Premier Petroleum
Hall Of Fame Dance Challenge
KUTV
National Semiconductor
ESPN Media Operations
Kansas State University
BAE Systems
NC University School Of The Arts
Moog Inc.
News 10 Now
AMA Pro Racing
Mohegan Sun /Pocono Downs
WETA-TV
Tri-Digital

GoCastLive - IPTV Boxing Cleans the Ring with Markertek!

Waterford, VA - Markertek amazes at the innovation and development of IPTV integration to the global media audience. We supply all necessities for the genesis of internet television companies whose content is fast becoming a mainstay in niche media markets. GoCastLive TV shot us a quick express web order for equipment maintenance supplies for its production crew at Star Boxing. GoCastLive is an IPTV sports/boxing website that features matches, archives, stats and a registered user interface to allow access to content and all featured media. IPTV technology has now advanced in the broadband culture to present targeted content and a digestible format to the general public. As the media universe is now infinite, IPTV opens many doors to content that would not be normally available in standard programming. Markertek once again revels in our customer's needs including the implementation and momentum of IPTV media development.

1.3-Inch Hard Disk from LaCie.

External storage maker, LaCie, has announced implementation of a new 1.3-inch hard drive for use in their line of micro-storage devices. The drive, manufactured by South Korean electronics giant, Samsung, was designed to offer the most efficient use of capacity per volume, while its size is equal to that of Compact Flash II cards. This development allows LaCie to overcome current size limitations and to achieve design with massive storage capacities for pocket-sized devices. According to LaCie, the drives will be used in products featuring USB 2.0 connectivity, will be available in 30GB and 40GB versions, and are preformatted FAT32 for Windows / Mac cross platform versatility. No details of product availability or price have been announced.

World's Longest Lasting Battery.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd has announced the development of a new battery the company claims is the longest lasting AA battery in the world. Based on the company's existing alkaline batteries, the Panasonic Evolta has a discharge performance almost 1.3-2 times higher than that of the existing battery cell, while the recommended use period has been extended from 5 years to 10. The new, higher performance was achieved by making improvements to the internal materials, increasing the overall amount of material, as well as improved manufacturing methods. The battery will be available in D, C, AA and AAA sizes and is expected to hit the streets by late April. No price details have been released.

OMVC Announces New Mobile Video Technologies.

In an effort to accelerate the development of mobile digital video in the United States, the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) has recently demonstrated two new technologies. The first, Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld (MPH) technology, allows broadcasters to transmit programs which can be received by cell phones, laptops, GPS units and other mobile devices. Trials of the MPH standard have already been conducted with FOX, PBS and Tribune. The second platform, A-VSB, was developed as an open standard that builds on the current ATSC transmission standard to enable mobile TV reception while preserving backward compatibility with current TV services and receivers. A-VSB technology also facilitates the synchronization of broadcast signal timing of a ring of towers in a single-frequency network (SFN). The OMVC is composed of 20 members that own and operate over 450 commercial television stations, as well as the Association of Public Television Stations, which represents an additional 360 public television stations.

FCC OKs Trans-Pacific Express.

Communications giant, Verizon Business, has obtained final approval from the Federal Communications Commission to activate and operate a new submarine cable system in the United States. The 10,500-mile Trans-Pacific Express cable is the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the U.S. and mainland China. According to the company, the cable will use the latest optical technology to provide greater capacity and higher transfer speeds to meet the dramatic increase in demand for IP, data and voice communications traffic between the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region. With construction under way, cable has already been placed off the coasts of Oregon and South Korea. The TPE system is scheduled to be completed and in service by August, in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Markertek Welcomes to the Family this Week:

Helinet Aviation
Verizon Business
East Bay TV News
California Rally Series
Blue Chip Films
White House Communications
National Geographic Magazine
Freedom Forum
Midway Games
Johnson Controls
Floyd Satellite
Atlantic Television Networks
Traffic.com
Coastal Carolina University
E Motion Films

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