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Univision going HD in time for the 2010 World Cup
Just when we were wondering about Univision's plans for HD, comes word that it is rolling out high definition throughout the 2009-10 broadcast season, ready in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. also to be in HD? Video on-demand packages, as well as broadcasts on the Telefutura group, but if soccer / football isn't your thing, don't worry, there should be plenty of telenovelas and other entertainment specials in the coming year as well.[Via Multichannel News]
South Africans to see 2010 World Cup in HD after all?
We were completely and utterly dismayed after hearing that South Africa -- the host nation of the 2010 World Cup -- would not be able to catch the action in high-def in its own backyard. Thankfully, it seems that someone with some clout was able to change all that, or at least that's what we've gleaned from a recent writeup praising the country's sole HD channel (DSTv). Put simply, the writer states that "all [2010] World Cup games will be televised in high-definition," and he also states that locals can catch said HD action "on big screens at one of the many fan parks that will be dotted about the country." We're sincerely hoping these fan parks come to fruition -- can you imagine the excitement of a people experiencing HD for the first time as they watch the beautiful game?
Sony shows off curved multi-panel HDTV display at FIFA event
There's not really a practical in-home use for the display array you see pictured on the right, but it sure demands attention at trade shows and special events. Demonstrated at the FIFA Confederations Cup Final Draw at the Sandton Convention Centre in South Africa, the highly unique display consists of nine individual HDTVs mounted on a curve aluminum structure. The whole lot was coordinated to form a single image via Sony's Ziris Canvas HD technology with split visual HDTV renders running on a "proprietary PlayStation 3 hardware solution." According to the report, this is just the fourth time ever that this tech has been used, and it's the first time in South Africa. Man, would 3D material be trippy on this or what?
South Africa to host 2010 FIFA World Cup, not see it in HD
What, is this some sort of sick joke or something? The host nation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa, will be unable to watch the action happening in its own backyard in high-definition. According to a recent report from Johannesburg, the SABC "has no plans to broadcast the 2010 FIFA World Cup in high-definition for South Africans." Instead, Switzerland-based Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) will film the games in HD for other countries. The trouble is that an overwhelming amount of South African citizens would need to procure a digital set-top-box in order to view the content in high-def, and considering that HD adoption in the nation is already low, it's simply not a high enough priority to bother with. Of course, political pressures could lead to change in all of this, and for the sake of the locals yearning for more high-def (and technological progress in general), we certainly hope so.
FIFA to trial chipped soccer ball in Japan
The referees at the upcoming Club World Cup in Japan will likely be taking a little less flack from the fans if a ball manages to come dangerously close to slipping into the net, as FIFA is deploying a type of "goal-line" technology that more precisely indicates whether debatable shots really crossed the line. At the heart of the system are four sensors that are placed around the goal and a single microchip within the so-called smart-ball; if the ball does indeed cross over the goal line, an encrypted message is instantly beamed out to a referee's watch, leaving no doubt as to whether or not a point should be awarded. Apparently, the system will be widely used at the 2010 World Cup if testing proves successful, but unfortunately, this same technology can't be used to embarrass the multitude of players who will inevitably take a dive in order to draw a card.[Via AFP / Yahoo, image courtesy of FIFA]
Live Earth delivers 24 hours of HD concerts July 7th
Satellite heavyweight Intelsat is shaking up the summer programming schedule from its usual list of reruns and walking dead cancelled TV shows by sponsoring Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis. The 24 hour concert scheduled for July 7th, will be its largest HDTV undertaking ever, eclipsing even the World Cup, with uplinks from 8 stages around the world sending high definition feeds of artists including Snoop Dogg, Madonna, The Police and others to an estimated 2 billion viewers. The only channel with the full event in high def will be Universal HD starting at 4 a.m. on the 7th. We can't decide which is the better cause, environmental awareness, or something in HD to watch this summer, but with this we don't have to choose.[Via Multichannel News]
Wii goes online with Mario Strikers Charged
Move over, Pokemon. Another Wii game is receiving the Wi-Fi Connection treatment: Mario Strikers Charged. The world's favorite sport can now be played virtually by players all over the globe. A Mario-themed World Cup now seems inevitable.According to the UK official site, "Players can also utilise Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to take on players from across the globe! Multiplayer modes include Ranked mode where players can compete to climb up leaderboards and Unranked mode where they can quickly select and play friends."Charged hits UK Wii systems on May 25th. Unfortunately, a US release hasn't been announced yet.
SABC unveils HD broadcast unit for 2010 World Cup
While the World Cup in Germany led to skyrocketing HDTV sales, additions of channels, and worldwide recognition (South America notwithstanding), things have remained up in the air regarding the HD status of the next go 'round. While we've found that HD would be coming to South Africa at least partly in response to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we still weren't exactly sure if everything would pan out so smoothly. While Sony's hoping to get into the football madness itself, SABC -- the host broadcaster for the matches -- has officially (and finally) acquired its first "outside HD broadcast unit" featuring "the latest in high definition technology." Moreover, the nearly $15 million unit is said to be "the first of its kind" on the entire continent, and will hopefully deliver the crystal clear picture and sound we HD sports lovers crave. If you're troubled that such a luxurious unit must wait three agonizing years to be put to good use, take heart, as SABC is already broadcasting "international cricket matches" with its newfangled toy.
360 sells out ... in Japan?
See that red sticker? Know what it says? Yeah, neither do we, but according to Kotaku the gist of it is this: "SOLD OUT." That's right, a single, solitary Japanese store, known as Bic Camera, has managed to sell all of its Xbox 360 stock (except for the special World Cup ones, anyway). The fanboy in us hopes beyond hope that this marks the beginning of Japan's acceptance of the 360, thus sparking a flood of wacky Japanese games that just never saw the light of day on the original Xbox. The realist in us, however, knows better. As our tipster points out, this is more likely a sign of the impending Robot Apocalypse®. "A Japanese store is sold out of Xbox 360s! Run for your lives!!!!"[Thanks, Lorul2]
Robo-One Robot Battle Ball -- heck yes
Sure, that crazy idea of soccer bots besting the human World Cup champs by 2050 will be plenty fun 44 years from now, but how about a bit of entertainment in the here and now? Robo-One has just the thing with their new Robot Battle Ball competition, which mixes the tried and true dynamics of soccer, but throws out all the lame rules like "no hands" and "no head-butting." The result is a rather entertaining game, and though the contestants are currently remote-controlled, we're sure these little bots will figure out the necessary maliciousness on their own before long. So peep the read link, watch the related video of Robot Battle Ball action and get ready for the next big thing in sports. At least until NFL starts back up again. Oh wait, nevermind.
LCD price drops could be ending soon
The good 'ol days could be coming to an end soon. Analysts are indicating that the predictable nature of LCD TVs could stop soon and it's kind of our fault. You see, around here, we report all these cool, new products that are coming out soon and in turn, you don't buy the current model. Plus, there was that whole World Cup fiasco where the manufactures hiked up the production lines but people didn't buy nearly enough of 'em. Because of both of these things, primarily the second one, there is an over-supply of these panels and the predictable price dropping nature of flat-panels maybe coming to an end soon. This isn't to say that they won't drop in price overtime, just not to the extreme they have been over the last few years.
FIFA World Cup faceplate for cheap
Good news for soccer fans and people who buy Christmas decorations on December 26: Play-Asia has the formerly $25 "official" FIFA World Cup 2006 faceplate for post-Cup price of $6.90 (plus $4 S&H).[Thanks TaQeight]
Global plasma shipments only rose 3% in the second quarter
This last quarter was suppose to be another 'golden quarter' for display makers thanks to the most watched event in television history. These manufacturers were expecting the World Cup to help flat-panel shipments score. (sorry, had to) While shipments did raise 3%, it wasn't the goal (sorry again) that they were expecting. Plasma makers were expecting somewhere near 8% instead of the 3% they ended up with. The World Cup just didn't garner the amount of demand that was expected.
More on HD in Africa for the World Cup
Following up on a story we reported last week about preparing Africa for the World Cup in HDTV, Sony released some news about the 4k (or 4,000-plus-pixel capable) projectors they demoed at this year's World Cup broadcasts in South Africa. Using a projector that is capable of 4k resolution (four times the normal 1080 lines of high-definition resolution), Sony claims their Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD) projector helped with the first live HD transmission on the continent.The projector can drive either four different 1920x1080-pixel screens, or be combined into one 4096x2160-pixel monster display. At up to 18,000 lumens, it's also obviously designed for outdoor venues and movie theaters, but it's great to see yet another area getting exposure to the superb detail and color of high definition. We thought HD was all over the place for the 2006 games, but it's clear we can expect even greater display and broadcast technologies when the 2010 games roll around.Do you think we'lll have to wait for the World Cup games in 2010 to get the ultimate in HD display and transmission technologies like these, or will all this be old news by then?
MLS pushing "The Beautiful Game" on HDNet
In case you didn't have your fill of high definition round-ball football action during the World Cup on ABC & ESPN, Major League Soccer wants you to remember we play some soccer in HD over here too. They've scheduled 10 of the remaining 15 HDNet broadcast games, 7 of which will be exclusive to the network. All are broadcast in 1080i and 5.1 surround, the list of games scheduled so far follows.
World's largest Philips Ambilight screen installed for the World Cup
The Dolphins Stadium might have some competition for "World's Largest HDTV screen." Philips installed 34 very large high-def screens all across Germany for sports fans to enjoy the world cup. They were 77m2, but by our math, that doesn't top the Dolphins Stadium massive 114m2 screen. Sorry Philips, unless our math is off, your screens are big, they really are, but not the largest. What's cool about these screens though is that Philips installed an Ambilight system behind of them that would make the screens appear bigger then they really are. Tricky Philips, tricky.Did anyone have the opportunity to see one of these screens in action? What did you think?
South Africa prepping high-def for the 2010 World Cup
HDTV is coming to South Africa just in time for the 2010 World Cup. A broadband company, Sentech, is set to roll out Digital Terrestrial Televsion, or DTT, just in time to met the governements requirment. This system is set to cost them one billon Rand, 140 million US, to roll out and will take up to five years for a complete installation. The 2010 World Cup is going to be hosted by South Africa and FIFA demands that the country has the ability to broadcast high-def. We wish them all the luck and speed they are going to need in order to upgrade an analog system to high-def in four years.
30% failure rate for BSkyB set-top HDTV boxes?
We've got some experience with glitchy HDTV/DVR set top boxes, but it looks like things are even worse over on the other side of the pond. With almost all their HD customers only recently buying sets for the world cup, many are using the digital connections and experiencing a lot of problems like picture and sound dropouts. Specifically cited is the implementation of HDCP, as many have been able to get around the problems by switching to analog connectors.Of course this doesn't do much for customers expecting a sharper picture out of their digital hookup or maybe have spent a lot of money on a digital cable they can't use, but SkyHD and even some TV manufacturers may have to update their software for this to be fixed.Glitch ridden high-def rollouts are becoming all too common, particularly for the "lucky" few who were able to get their service installed prior to the World Cup, but this may explain why some service providers are so unwilling to even enable the HDMI or DVI outputs on their boxes. If it doesn't work, there is a resulting shifting of blame between the provider and TV manufacturer while the customer's problem continues. Same problem with rolling out CableCard, neither side wants to take responsibility for making it work if there's a problem.
Robots on guard duty at World Cup
It seems that not all of our robot friends are lucky enough to be able to kick back and play a bit of soccer of their own in Germany this month. No, some are stuck with the lowly task of protecting us humans, with eleven Linux-based robots from Robowatch Technologies providing both indoor and outdoor surveillance at Berlin's Olympic Stadium every night until the final World Cup game on July 9th. The outdoor robots, known as ORFO, use GPS to patrol an area up to two kilometers away from the control center and pack thermal cameras able to detect intruders by their body heat. Alas, it appears they are unarmed -- which is probably for the best, you know, in the grand scheme of things. The indoor robots, dubbed MORSO, are deployed throughout the stadium, equipped with video cameras, radar sensors, temperature gauges, and infrared scanners able to detect movement or any changes to the stadium. The robots also use 3G technology to communicate with the control center and, presumably, to watch some TV on their breaks.
Breakfast Topic: Football and WoW
For me, venturing into Azeroth is a form of escapism. The real life intersects with WoW in many ways, from various in-game pop culture references to events like Noblegarden and Winter Veil. However, sometimes there are parts of the real life you don't want to see in your virtual world of choice.With the recent World Cup fever, England has gone football (or soccer, to some) crazy. I'm not a fan of the game; let's skip the anti-football rant for now. I foolishly thought WoW might remain a football-free zone, but logging on to the European servers these days gets a fair few /yells, spam in General ("Come on ENGLAAAAAAAAAAAAAND") and even talk in various other chat channels. It's impossible to ignore everyone talking about the game, and yet I wish I could. Not only does it break the immersion, it's tiresome.Are the American servers succumbing to World Cup fever? Or are they truly football-free? If the latter, I may have to dust off an alt or two. Or should I suffer the spam in order to conduct an extensive investigation into the declining number of PuGs when a match is on?
