Candidates announced for Ultimate Sports City 2008
A shortlist of 25 cities has been announced unveiling the contenders for the Ultimate Sports City 2008, to be published by SportBusiness early next year. The report was last published in 2006 when Melbourne was declared the winner, followed by Paris and Sydney, tied jointly in second place. Berlin, came fourth and London, fifth. All the top five cities have made the cut again based on major sports events hosted or awarded between 2004-12. Cities were also selected from each region of the globe. “The list is extremely interesting this time,” says Ultimate Sports City author Rachael Church-Sanders, editor of Sport and Technology, “with some nations such as Australia, Canada, China, India and Spain having more than one representative within their regions, thus highlighting competition within countries for hosting major sporting events.” Now the shortlist has been determined, each city will be analysed and graded according to a number of criteria in addition to numbers and importance of sports events including facilities, transport, accommodation, government support, marketing, weather, legacy, public sports interest, cost of living and quality of life. The 25 cities vying for the title of Ultimate Sports City 2008 are as follows (in alphabetical order): Athens (new candidate) Beijing (ranked 8th in 2006) Berlin (ranked 4th in 2006) Bridgetown (new candidate) Budapest (new candidate) Cape Town (ranked 10th in 2006) Doha (new candidate) Hong Kong (new candidate) Istanbul (ranked 12th in 2006) Kuala Lumpur (ranked 18th in 2006) London (ranked 5th in 2006) Los Angeles (new candidate) Madrid (ranked 6th in 2006) Melbourne (ranked 1st in 2006) Montreal (new candidate) Moscow (ranked 19th in 2006) Mumbai (new candidate) New Delhi (new candidate) Paris (ranked 2nd in 2006) Sao Paulo (new candidate) Shanghai (new candidate) Sydney (ranked 2nd in 2006) Tokyo (ranked 9th in 2006) Valencia (new candidate) Vancouver (ranked 11th in 2006) Readers or City representatives wishing to comment on the shortlist or contribute to the report can contact the author at rchurch@arksports.com
“Yes Geevs” for PTV
When S&T sponsor Premium TV won the contract to provide in match 'near live' and delayed highlights of the English Premier League soccer for the next three seasons for use by over 50 global internet and mobile licensees, the company chose a new tapeless production system based on Geevs Servers and Lightworks Softworks editors to provide the fast efficient workflow needed. The 'near live' fast turnaround required meant that quick editing of material in place on the central storage while recording was an essential part of the solution. From live match feeds, Premium TV needs to be able to quickly create a number of differently encoded clips of the same event for broadcasting to a range of devices/applications. Associated metadata needs to accompany the material. The process is based upon producing a high resolution master clip, associated metadata and then triggering the transmission/encoding process as fast as possible. A scalable solution was designed using Geevs Servers for multi-channel ingest, a central Edit Share store for the material and attached to this Logging stations and Lightworks Softworks editors.
Busy times for WCSN.com
Recently, athletics fans were able to watch Jamaican Commonwealth champion Asafa Powell break his 100-metre world record on the World Championship Sports Network (WCSN.com) at the Rieti IAAF Grand Prix. At the event, Powell set a new record of 9.74 seconds. WCSN also provided same-day delayed coverage of the 2007 FILA World Wrestling Championship from Baku, Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, WCSN has announced an agreement with the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) for the 2009-12 Olympic cycle to provide exclusive coverage of the Gymnastics World Championships and World Cups via WCSN's broadband and television outlets.
Channel crossing for Alpha
Alpha Micro, an international distributor of electronic components, has provided the latest technology for the world's first crossing of the English Channel using GPS satellite tracking. So far, the swim has helped to raise over £6,000 for the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust in the UK. Six Microsoft employees attempted the 21 mile, 14 hour swim. Their progress was tracked using a global positioning device and software developed by Alpha Micro Systems. The swimmers from Reading trained for months in preparation for the gruelling challenge. Those interested in the challenge had the unique opportunity to watch the swimmers' progress live on the internet using Virtual Earth, Microsoft's mapping program. Alpha Micro's AMC2300, a GPS/GPRS tracking device was installed on the boat, to transmit GPS positional data over the mobile phone networks to show the swimmers' location to an accuracy of within three metres. Other members of the team were able to provide a running live commentary utilising the web portal developed by Alpha Micro. The participants swam in rotation for an hour each until they arrived in France following the same strict rules as for solo crossings. They were not allowed to wear wet suits or make contact with the guide boat.
Notre Dame goes mobile
MobiTV has agreed to air all of Notre Dame's regularly scheduled home games in the US through a partnership with NBC Universal Digital Distribution. 'Fighting Irish' fans are now able to watch live full-length simulcasts of Notre Dame college football on any of the 200 plus MobiTV compatible devices, on carrier networks throughout the US and on the NBC Sports Mobile channel.
Latin spirit for 888
888, the online gaming entertainment company has signed a white label agreement with Tower Torneos, one of Latin America's leading poker brands. Under the terms of the agreement, Tower Torneos' poker offering will use the 888 poker platform and will be supported by 888's operational capabilities. In addition, Tower Torneos customers will have full access to 888's Casino, Bingo and BackGammon offerings. 888 and Tower Torneos will work together to develop a series of bespoke online games relevant to the Latin American market with the partnership expected to deliver a significant amount of new players going forward to strengthen 888's poker liquidity.
BT sails into new sponsorship
A new three-year sailing partnership has been announced - BT Team Ellen - bringing together world-class sailors Ellen MacArthur (GB), Sébastien Josse (FRA) and Nick Moloney (AUS) alongside other sailing talent dedicated to success on the water across a number of disciplines, including the IMOCA Ocean Racing World Championships and the Extreme 40 catamaran series.
Sports radio takes to the air
SIRIUS Satellite Radio has unveiled a new all-sports channel, SIRIUS Sports Central channel 123, which features a new and improved line-up showcasing several new exclusive talk programmes, Sporting News Radio programming and live game broadcasts throughout the US.
It’s a Bodog’s life
Gaming brand Bodog has launched its new website at Bodoglife.com. Bodog temporarily used Newbodog.com after its root domain (Bodog.com) was involved in a patent dispute. In addition to debuting the new domain, the company has launched a Football Fantasy site, announced the winner of its Bodog Battle of the Bands contest on Fuse TV, launched multilingual customer service, had a Bodog qualifier at the final table of the World Series of Poker Europe and put a new season of Bodog Fight into post-production.
At home with the Panasonics
TV manufacturer Panasonic has announced the first four US-based families to join its ‘Living in High Definition’ programme, a multi-faceted, experiential programme, in association with researchers from the Centre for Urban Research and Policy at Columbia University, that will explore how the latest High Definition television and video technologies can potentially enrich the American lifestyle. Between August 2007 and March 2008, Panasonic's Living in HD Programme aims to identify 30 families to live with a complete suite of High Definition technology products and related services worth an estimated $20,000, including a large screen 1080p Plasma television, HD camcorder, digital cameras, Blu-Ray DVD player, laptop and photo printer, home theatre system and gaming system. The Benders from Rutherford, NJ, the Harris family from Denver, CO, the Rockford family from Granada Hills, CA and the Miller-Williams-Rawlins-Magill family from San Diego, CA have so far been selected by Panasonic for the study because of their unique stories and needs.
Page from ArkSports' Sport and Technology (www.sportandtechnology.com) on 2008-11-21 : News - September 2007 : http://www.sportandtechnology.com/page/0530.html
A shortlist of 25 cities has been announced unveiling the contenders for the Ultimate Sports City 2008, to be published by SportBusiness early next year. The report was last published in 2006 when Melbourne was declared the winner, followed by Paris and Sydney, tied jointly in second place. Berlin, came fourth and London, fifth. All the top five cities have made the cut again based on major sports events hosted or awarded between 2004-12. Cities were also selected from each region of the globe. “The list is extremely interesting this time,” says Ultimate Sports City author Rachael Church-Sanders, editor of Sport and Technology, “with some nations such as Australia, Canada, China, India and Spain having more than one representative within their regions, thus highlighting competition within countries for hosting major sporting events.” Now the shortlist has been determined, each city will be analysed and graded according to a number of criteria in addition to numbers and importance of sports events including facilities, transport, accommodation, government support, marketing, weather, legacy, public sports interest, cost of living and quality of life. The 25 cities vying for the title of Ultimate Sports City 2008 are as follows (in alphabetical order):
MobiTV has agreed to air all of Notre Dame's regularly scheduled home games in the US through a partnership with NBC Universal Digital Distribution. 
TV manufacturer Panasonic has announced the first four US-based families to join its ‘Living in High Definition’ programme, a multi-faceted, experiential programme, in association with researchers from the Centre for Urban Research and Policy at Columbia University, that will explore how the latest High Definition television and video technologies can potentially enrich the American lifestyle. Between August 2007 and March 2008, Panasonic's Living in HD Programme aims to identify 30 families to live with a complete suite of High Definition technology products and related services worth an estimated $20,000, including a large screen 1080p Plasma television, HD camcorder, digital cameras, Blu-Ray DVD player, laptop and photo printer, home theatre system and gaming system. The Benders from Rutherford, NJ, the Harris family from Denver, CO, the Rockford family from Granada Hills, CA and the Miller-Williams-Rawlins-Magill family from San Diego, CA have so far been selected by Panasonic for the study because of their unique stories and needs.
