SVG Europe’s first major event, the Sport Production Summit held the day before IBC opened, was a huge success as nearly one hundred of the leading industry professionals from the world of sports production from across Europe and beyond debated and discussed the issues affecting the industry writes Andy Stout, Editorial Director SVG Europe.

Yesterday, at Maison des Polytechniciens in Paris, the TV3 3D film “Enxaneta” premiered, presented by the Government Delegate of the Generalitat de Catalunya to France, M. Miquel Vila Regard, and the President of the XXIe Siecle Club.

Viditech, part of The Facility House Broadcast Partners, a supplier of outside broadcast (OB) services in the Netherlands, has become the first customer of the new Grass Valley™ Trinix™ Multiviewer. A Trinix NXT router that includes the multiviewer will be installed in Viditech’s new OBV5 truck, which is due to be operational this month.

TV 2 was one of the first Norwegian television channels to broadcast in HD. Now, using camera solutions from Sony Professional, it is raising the picture quality of its productions even higher, while also aiming to future-proof its studios.

AJA Video Systems announced that two of the new products the company introduced at the recent International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) were recognized with awards. AJA Io XT, a Thunderbolt-enabled I/O device garnered a 2011 STAR Award from TV Technology Europe, and AJA UDC, an Up/Down/Cross Mini-Converter, received a Pick Hit Award from Broadcast Engineering Magazine.

Colt, the information delivery platform for European business, today announced it has reached an agreement with BT Wholesale, the largest wholesale telecoms business in Europe,  to allow customers to access content from Europe’s largest media market exchange at the BT Tower in London. Under the terms of the agreement, Colt customers will benefit from access to a wide range of high quality broadcast content including major sporting events.

NewTek, a worldwide leader in portable live production and 3D animation systems, introduced the TriCaster™ Rev. 3 software update at IBC 2011. The new software provides the ability for HD TriCaster systems to work directly with video and audio from any Apple® AirPlay®-enabled device or application. With instant wireless support for two simultaneous AirPlay sources, devices such as an iPad®, iPod®, iPhone® and Mac® can serve as direct inputs to the TriCaster system in use.

Broadcast Pix™ announced its new Mica™ live video production system was honored with the STAR Award from TV Technology Europe during IBC2011 earlier this month in Amsterdam.

Farnell Newton, trumpeter, educator and a committed user of HARMAN’s AKG microphones, has released his first record, which merges a vast spectrum of genres, including jazz, R&B, Latin, funk and soul.  Relying on the tried and tested reputation of AKG, Newton’s Class Is Now In Session was recorded using AKG’s C 214 microphone.

At NAB earlier this year, Sony introduced the new F65 CineAlta Digital Motion Picture camera, and captured the imagination of the industry with a stunning display of pictures from the camera in a 4K theatre on the booth. Five months on, Sony made the European launch of the camera at IBC, highlighting its open strategy to enable alliance partners to integrate an F65 file-based workflow into their systems, and unveiled new products within its own SRMASTER™ line-up  bringing some exciting new opportunities for production.

Christie® used the occasion of ‘The IBC Big Screen’ theatre screenings at RAI Amsterdam this week to deliver the world’s first mass-audience demonstration of a 3D High Frame Rate (HFR) D-Cinema system using a single projector – the Christie Solaria™ Series CP2230 projector – in combination with other currently-available components.

NewTek, a worldwide leader in portable live production and 3D animation systems, announced the TriCaster™ 450 CS, a hardware control surface for the new TriCaster 450 series of HD portable live production systems. The TriCaster 450 CS provides tactile control of the 14-channel system's functions and effects, allowing operators to make snap decisions with confidence and ease.

Etisalat, with more than 100 million customers one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, has commissioned the broadcasting system integrator Qvest Media with the construction of a multi-format playout center for the production and transmission of nine playout channels. With this move the telecom operator, which owns a cellular network as well as one of the largest Internet and IPTV networks in the whole Middle East region, is pushing ahead with the organic growth of its triple play strategy in the TV sector.

Blackmagic Design today announced a new lower price on 6 of its popular Mini Converters. From today, Mini Converter SDI to HDMI, Mini Converter HDMI to SDI, Mini Converter SDI to Analog and Mini Converter Analog to SDI models will be reduced to US$295. The Heavy Duty models of these 4 Mini Converters, featuring ultra tough machined aluminum design, will be lowered to US$395. These models are all shipping now.

Video Equipment Rentals (VER)—a premiere AV/broadcast equipment rental company based in Glendale, Calif., has added a variety of new high-definition cameras and a new video production switcher from Grass Valley™ to its extensive inventory of HD production equipment.