Like a politician, MobiTV is a master of the art of the possible. In the ATSC mobile TV pavillion at NAB, MobiTV showed its new MixTV, which adds broadcast mobile TV to its unicast subscription mobile TV service — the best of both worlds according to Cedric Fernandes, MobiTV VP, Technology, who talks about it here.

Over at the Shotoku Broadcast Systems booth, company president Naoki Ebimoto showed me their two new robotic control systems — The TR-T and the TR-S.

The TR-T touch control system controls both Shotoky and third-party robotic camera systems. A single operator can control up to 16 cameras. The panel style uses multicolored illuminated keys to communicate system status and control settings, with the same high-precision joystick for smooth on-air control. The system is compatible with all Shotoku heads as well as third-party systems. more

Tuesday morning the phone function on my Treo broke, putting NAB on hold while I, panicked-ly, scurried around gettting a replacement into service. The experience gave me some new insights into modern life.

First, being phone-less is akin to a disabiity; forcing you into, as Blanche DuBois said, “depending on the kindness of strangers.” Second, the Treo remained useful even though I couldn’t make “phone calls:” calendar, contacts, reminders, chat, Internet, mobile TV.

I was able to check in with Teamcast’s session on the company’s new hybrid DVB-T/DVB-SH mobile TV product line, debuted at NAB. The advantage of a hybrid solution, says TeamCast EVP and GM Serge Mal, is that it lets operators offer mobile TV services leveraging the advantages of both satellite and terrestrial transmission systems. more

Comtech EF Data introduced the VersaFEC Forward Error Correction. The unit provides maximum coding gain with the lowest possible latency to support cellular backhaul and other latency-sensitive voice, video and data applications.

It is a system of short-block, low latency Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes designed to support latency-sensitive applications, such as cellular backhaul over satellite. Designed to provide maximum coding gain while minimizing the end-to-end latency, VersaFEC provides an alternative to existing LDP and DVB-S2 codes.

Jampro Antennas introduced the UHF RWED-516-U compact TV mask/filter combiner. It incorporates four-port directional filter/combining that can be used either as a mask filet, or as a constant impedance-combining module for high-power UHF TV broadcasts.

The RWED-516-U has a cross-coupled design that accommodates adjacent channels, meets stringent filtering standards and provides constant impedance performance in adjacent channel applications as well as channel separations greater than 15 channels. more

Next week, the Community Broadcasters Association will meet with eight members of Congress to make the case that Class A and LPTV stations surpass the expectations the government has for broadcasters to promote station ownership by women and minorities.

The association will present a newly released report to members of Congress making the case that Class A and LPTV stations are democratizing the airwaves. Based on the results of a Web-based survey conducted between Nov. 17 and December 16, 2008, the report should open the eyes of lawmakers and regulators, who regularly advocate for new laws and rules to increase ownership of broadcast stations by women and minorities, to a broadcast service that’s often overlooked or minimized. more

Sony have released an HDCAM-SR camcorder, the SRW-9000. This will be a winner for steadicam shots, where the F23/35 have limitations due to their size and weight. This is the first Sony camcorder that permits 10-bit acquisition in HD.

Over at Panasonic, good news for those who find P2 cards too expensive. They have released an economy line, the E-series in 16, 32 and 64GB. The 64GB card will sell for $998.

Harmonic announced that they are integrating Google’s Content ID into the Rhozet Carbon Coder. When content is transcoded to a distribution format the Content ID can be generated on the fly (typically at 10X realtime). The ID is submitted to Google with usage tags. If that content is uploaded to YouTube, when it is processed to the web format, a fingerprint is generated and checked against their database. Unauthorized content is then automatically blocked. This is an easy way to control piracy from YouTube, and can be built right into a post workflow.

As stations add sub-channels after the digital transition, providing EAS to many outputs becomes expensive with discrete channel systems. Many Public stations cover a state, and may want to target one area with an EAS alert. Trilithic released at the show a way to insert EAS into an ASI transport stream. An announcement can be inserted into chosen program streams, with optional graphics insertion for snipes and logs. The system uses RGB Networks BNP for the transport stream processing.

This afternoon, I met with Shawn Maynard, Florical vice president and general manager. Before joining Florical, Maynard was the director of operations for NBC Universal’s Television Stations Division. This experience, according to Maynard, is what makes the company unique. “I run this company from a broadcaster point of view, not a vendor point of view,” he said. “This is how Florical is different from other automation companies.”

This year at the show, Florical has introduced four optional modules for its S.M.A.R.T. Central product, which is a smart client-based gateway into the company’s television broadcast automation system. It is designed to reduce redundant tasks, make systems accessible over a closed network to improve workflow while maintaining a secure system and automatically e-mail critical reports to key personnel to improve communication and response times. more

This afternoon I met with Victor Herring, senior director, Video Solutions Group, Fujitsu Computer Products of America. He showed me the company’s new IP-900, a compact MPEG-4 AVC encoder for real-time IP transmission of HD and SD content for news gathering and remote applications.

The encoder features low power consumption and a compact size. At 1RU and half a rack wide, “you save money and precious rack space,” Herring said.

The IP-900 is designed to be cost efficient for mobile television newsgathering. Its versatility and high-performance capabilities enable broadcasters to deploy the encoder in unfavorable environments to ensure that the entire transmission is intact.

Calrec and 360 Systems

Every vendor at the NAB Show has a niche – a specific customer market it’s aiming for – and yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with two companies that are going for quite different markets.

First I met with Kevin Emmott, marketing manager at Calrec. What they had to offer were some serious, high-end digital audio consoles, most notably the new Apollo console. Despite the shaky economic climate, Emmott had the utmost confidence in Calrec’s client base and equipment. And when asked if the economy had led to any changes as to the company’s presence at the NAB Show he responded casually that if anything their presence had grown – upward, that is, with the addition of a taller, more prominent branded marquis. more