AValive HQ to be the first U.S. media market to switch to all-digital television broadcasts.

AValive HQ TO Test All-Digital-TV Service
In Small Market Before National Run

For the residents of Wilmington, N.C., the transition to digital television will come much sooner than expected.

The Federal Communications Commission has chosen Wilmington to be the first U.S. media market to switch to all-digital television broadcasts.

It is a last-minute test for the FCC and broadcasters, which are nervous about what will happen on Feb. 17 when most television signals change to digital from analog, potentially knocking out service to millions of Americans.

The FCC is expected to announce details Thursday. Wilmington will switch to digital on Sept. 8. News that Wilmington would be the test market was reported Wednesday morning by trade magazine TelevisionWeek.

"We certainly think the transition is important and we appreciate Wilmington's willingness to do it early," said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in an interview. The FCC contacted seven media markets where broadcasters could potentially switch early, he said, but Wilmington was the only area to volunteer.

Wilmington is the nation's 135th-largest television market, with about 180,000 households, and the smallest in North Carolina, according to Nielsen Media Research. About 93% of the households there subscribe to cable or satellite services, slightly more than the national average.

The FCC has been looking for volunteers in smaller media markets to switch early, but most broadcasters have balked, concerned about losing advertising dollars and upsetting residents who would rather not be used as guinea pigs.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said the test represents "a huge opportunity for the Wilmington TV market to pave the way for the entire country."

The FCC estimates about 15.5 million U.S. households rely on free broadcast television. To reduce grumbling about the switch, the government set up a $40-coupon program to help consumers pay for set-top converter boxes. This week, the government announced that more than a million coupons have been redeemed.

AValive Provides Rental and Support Services to USS North Carolina Comissioning

AValive announced today that they provided rental and staging support services to the USS North Carolina Sub commissioning that took place over the week of May 1-6 2008.

AValive provided IT support to the crew as well as av staging support for the event held Saturday May 3rd on the pier at the Port of Wilmington NC

AValive Provides AV Rental And Support Services for President Clinton in NC .

AValive was chosen to provide AV support services for former President Bill Clinton while touring Eastern NC for his wife Hillary Clinton's campaign for President 2008. AValive was chosen nationally for this honor and provided Wireless Microphones for Audio and custom speakers and mixers as well as AV engineer support services. AValive was chosen for this honor because they have the largest inventory of AV Rentals in the Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach NC area and provide LOCAL AV tech and engineering services.

AValive provides AV Support Services to President Clinton While Touring NC

AValive was chosen to provide AV support services for former President Bill Clinton while touring Eastern NC for his wife Hillary Clinton's campaign for President 2008. AValive was chosen nationally for this honor and provided Wireless Microphones for Audio and custom speakers and mixers as well as AV engineer support services. AValive was chosen for this honor because they have the largest inventory of AV Rentals in the Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach NC area and provide LOCAL AV tech and engineering services.

NewTek Unveils TimeWarp, a High-Performance Replay Controller for TriCaster

NewTek Unveils TimeWarp™, a High-Performance Replay Controller for TriCaster™

Accessory allows the ability to immediately add slow motion and instant replay to live productions

San Antonio, TX -- April 14, 2008 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today introduced TimeWarp™, an optional USB-connected replay controller for its line of TriCaster™ portable live production systems. TimeWarp extends the capabilities of TriCaster by providing producers with a dedicated operator for video playback to perform instant slow motion replay at adjustable speeds on-the-fly during live productions. Together, TriCaster and TimeWarp bring a higher level of sophistication to live sports and fast-paced event coverage.

Producers are used to marking in and out points when editing video, but TimeWarp allows this to be done instantly by a single operator or team during a live production. As an event is recorded or streamed with TriCaster, a segment of video can be bracketed and sent to an internal VCR to be played back in slow motion.

“TimeWarp greatly adds to the immediacy and flexibility of TriCaster-powered productions. Producers are now able to create professional presentations that surpass client and audience expectations with instant replay and slow motion from any venue,” said Andrew Cross, NewTek’s Executive VP, Software Engineering. “The clips are captured and played back quickly and easily without interrupting the technical director.”

TriCaster™ enables sports organizations, corporate communications departments, broadcasters, schools and others to provide a whole new level of extended programming and content to their fans, partners and other audiences. Now, a single operator can produce a live show switching between as many as six cameras with two VCR’s, multi-channel effects, and NewTek’s proprietary virtual sets and keying technology using TriCaster™. With it, virtually anyone can produce network quality live video, which can be distributed simultaneously via video, web stream and projector.

Pricing and Availability
NewTek TimeWarp will be available d for $995US and is also available internationally.

About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is an Emmy® Award-winning and leading provider of full-featured video editing, live production, presentation, animation and special effects tools including TriCaster™, TriCaster Pro™, TriCaster STUDIO™, TriCaster BROADCAST™, VT[5]™, SpeedEDIT™, 3D Arsenal™, LightWave 3D® and LightWave Rendition™ for Adobe® Photoshop®.

Buy NewTek TimeWarp™ at AValive.com when it becomes available.

Adobe Drives the Creation, Delivery, and Playback of Dynamic Content

Adobe Drives the Creation, Delivery, and Playback of Dynamic Content

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LAS VEGAS NV — April 14 , 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) is showcasing new technologies and initiatives that are helping to drive innovation across dynamic media content creation, delivery, and playback at the 2008 NAB Show, beginning today. Adobe is spearheading an effort to begin defining an industry wide open file format for digital cinema files, which is planned to be called CinemaDNG (see separate press release), and delivering native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS3 software. For capturing live audio and video to stream in real-time to Adobe Flash® Media Server or the Flash Video Streaming Service, Adobe is offering Adobe Flash Media Encoder 2.5 software as a free download. Adobe also is helping to bring intelligence to dynamic media by allowing the incorporation of metadata into its professional video product line. A highlight of the show is the recently announced Adobe Media Player, which is already featuring content from leading television broadcasters and content publishers, including CBS, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, and CondéNet. All of these breakthroughs are being shown at the 2008 NAB Show, April 14 - 17 (Booth SL 3220).

“Adobe is committed to driving innovation across dynamic media content, delivery, and playback,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of Dynamic Media at Adobe. “Our customers are building businesses in a rapidly changing media and advertising landscape. Thanks to our partner ecosystem—from CDNs to plug-in vendors—Adobe technologies provide a virtually complete and integrated solution that allows our customers to create content once, then seamlessly distribute and monetize that content across the widest possible array of playback environments.”

At NAB, Adobe is previewing technology plans that help bring intelligence to dynamic media through metadata in future versions of its professional video software. By automating the creation and flow of information assets, post-production tasks can be simplified and accelerated, enabling audiences to search content rapidly and easily. During distribution and playback, content owners and advertisers can take advantage of new monetization opportunities to target ads more precisely. Also at the show, Adobe announced it is leading an effort to begin defining an industry wide open file format for digital cinema files, which is planned to be called CinemaDNG. CinemaDNG is an industry-wide initiative to define an open file format for digital cinema files to ensure accurate archiving, simplify workflows, and provide richer editing possibilities. In addition, Adobe is extending its commitment to tapeless workflows by announcing native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, augmenting its previously announced support of the Panasonic P2 format.

Adobe continues to expand its industry footprint for dynamic media playback. For broadcasting live events such as concerts, webcasts, or sporting events, Adobe Flash Media Encoder 2.5 software now allows users to capture and stream live content in H.264 with Adobe Flash Media Server and Adobe Flash Player. As the world’s most pervasive playback software, Adobe Flash Player is installed on 98 percent of Internet-connected PCs and more than 500 million mobile devices and handsets worldwide ship with Adobe Flash® Lite™ software. Adoption of the latest update to Adobe Flash Player 9, which supports H.264-enabled HD content, has set all-time records by achieving 62 percent market penetration since its release in December 2007.

“Adobe's innovations are reshaping the digital video industry and helping us reach our audiences and monetize our content in new and exciting ways,” said Greg Clayman, executive vice president, digital distribution and business development for MTV Networks. "Adobe Creative Suite® 3 Master Collection software and Adobe Flash are fantastic tools that help us create and distribute content for audiences worldwide.”

Buy Adobe products at AValive.com.

Blackmagic Design Announces New DeckLink HD Extreme with 3 Gb/s SDI

Blackmagic Design Announces New DeckLink HD Extreme with 3 Gb/s SDI

NAB 2008, Las Vegas, NV, USA - April 14, 2008 - Blackmagic Design Inc. today announced the new DeckLink HD Extreme, a more powerful version of the original award winning DeckLink HD Extreme card. The new DeckLink HD Extreme has all the features of the original model, which it replaces, plus now adds HDMI capture and playback, innovative 3 Gb/s SDI technology, and 3D lookup tables.

DeckLink HD Extreme is on display at NAB 2008 at the Blackmagic Design booth SL10920.
DeckLink HD Extreme is the world’s first capture card to feature SDI, HDMI and analog component, NTSC, PAL and S-Video capture and playback, combined with 3 Gb/s SDI technology, and 3D lookup tables for only US$995.

With SDI, HDMI and analog video capture and playback, combined with both balanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio, DeckLink HD Extreme lets customers connect to all decks, cameras and monitors. DeckLink HD Extreme instantly switches between SD and HD video, so is the ideal solution for all post production and broadcast users when working on design, editing, paint and effects tasks.

Now with the new 3 Gb/s SDI, DeckLink HD Extreme can also instantly switch to full resolution 2K feature film editing. DeckLink HD Extreme also includes built in 3D lookup tables that allow customers to simulate feature film stocks.

Last year at NAB 2007, Blackmagic Design pioneered 2K workflows via SDI using 3 Gb/s on its new Multibridge Eclipse editing solution and HDLink Pro monitoring solution. Now for the first time, this same 2K feature film workflow is available on a capture card that costs less than $1000.

DeckLink HD Extreme Key Features:

• 3 Gb/s SDI capture and playback with compatibility with existing HD-SDI and SD SDI equipment.
• HDMI capture and playback.
• Analog component, NTSC, PAL and S-Video capture and playback.
• SDI, HDMI and Analog component switches between SD and HD. SDI also switches to 2K film.
• 16 channels of SDI audio capture and playback in HD and 2K. 8 channels in SD.
• 2 channels of AES/EBU audio capture and playback with sample rate converter on input.
• 2 channels of XLR professional analog audio capture and playback
• Full resolution 2K capture and playback at 2048 x 1556 at 24 and 23.98 fps.
• Genlock/Tri-Sync reference input for locking card to large systems.
• RS-422 remote control for broadcast decks.
• PCI Express plug in card at 10 Gb/s speeds for maximum real time effects.
• Real time effects in Apple Final Cut Pro™ and Adobe Premiere™ Pro.

Availability and Price

DeckLink HD Extreme is available now and in stock for only US$995 or €675 from all Blackmagic Design authorized resellers worldwide.

When it becomes available buy the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme with 3 Gb/s SDI here at AValive.com for the best price on the internet.