Each year on July 4^th, Americans all over the country gather with family, friends and fellow patriots to celebrate the birthday of our great nation. A long-standing tradition is America’s favorite Independence Day music and fireworks celebration that takes place at the National Mall in Washington, DC. Wisycom products were deployed by JetWave Wireless to provide interference-free coverage throughout the event, presented by Capital Concerts. The celebration, which brought hundreds of thousands to the nation’s capital, was also watched by millions on PBS.

In the third successive year, Lawo once again in 2017 provided IP-networked audio consoles for the 14^th July celebrations in Paris. More than 500,000 spectators celebrated at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris “Bastille Day”, the National Holiday in France, marking the beginning of the modern French nation. The “Concert de Paris” is one of the largest classical music events in the world, followed by the traditional fireworks. The music featuring the National Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of Radio France with internationally renowned soloists was relayed to TV viewers and radio listeners in France and beyond.

Chinese TV broadcasting company, the Xiamen Media Group, will implement EVS technology to deliver coverage of BRICS China 2017 - the eighth annual meeting between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This important event in the region’s political schedules will be captured live in HD by XMG’s Xiamen TV. The programming will be broadcast on its news channel XMTV-1 and on CCTV-1 as well as CCTV-4, CCTV-13 and China Radio International. To accompany these broadcasts, Xiamen TV will also produce programming in UHD-4K – a feed which will be recorded for future use as well as for online broadcast.

In September 2017, the National Assembly of Zambia put its new Parliament Television into operation. STRYME, long-term supplier of the Austrian Broadcast Corporation (ORF) and internationally renowned broadcast solutions expert, and sonoVTS, a leader in the broadcast industry from Germany, devised a user-friendly state-of-the-art solution to enable live broadcasts of parliamentary debates. To implement the project, the Zambian government, having embarked on a path of transparency and good governance, received financial support from the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW). MCI’s Studio Berlin provided consultative advice.

Have you noticed that most of the calls you get on your smartphone are from solicitors?

Other than that, … not so much!

Voice has been flat for years.

The mobile everything is so embedded in our lives that this holiday season nearly 40 percent of the online purchase were made using smartphones.

Throughout the rest of the year apps, games have been good traffic builders; but the real goldmine is video.

In the US, just four companies – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google – will harvest up to two-thirds of all new TV and video revenue in 2018. Their gains will be due partly to the saturation of traditional TV in the country, but also to their growing domination of the OTT video market. Amazon and Netflix will take 69 per cent of OTT subscription revenue, while Google and Facebook will corner 45 per cent of OTT in-stream video advertising (also known as advertising-funded video on demand) spend, claims Ovum.

UK competition watchdog the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) has published the provisional findings from its in-depth examination of the proposed acquisition of Sky Plc by 21st Century Fox, advising that Fox taking full control of Sky is not in the public interest because of media plurality concerns, but not because of a lack of a genuine commitment to meeting broadcasting standards in the UK.

AVIWEST, a global provider of video contribution systems, today announced that TV2 Denmark, the Danish public broadcaster, extended its fleet of AVIWEST bonded cellular uplink systems by deploying several PRO180-RA remote transmitter units, MOJOPRO mobile applications, and StreamHub transceivers. Using an expanded range of AVIWEST digital mobile newsgathering equipment, TV2 Denmark vastly improved live coverage of the recent regional election. The AVIWEST system allowed TV2 to successfully broadcast live HD video of the event over 3G/4G cellular wireless networks with minimal delay.

International broadcasters invested a record £1.02 billion (€1.15bn) in the UK in 2017, an increase of more than 50 per cent on the comparable figure (£679m) in 2011, according to independent research commissioned by UK trade body the Commercial Broadcasters Association, who warns that this investment is at risk unless the Government secures access to EU markets once the UK leaves the EU.

Ronen Najar is a lighting designer used to working under some pressure, and for the 2018 Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut) Opening Ceremony on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, he needed those steely nerves as part of the creative team helping to commemorate a historically significant moment in Israel’s history, … the 70^th anniversary of the 1948 Declaration of Independence.

IBC2018, the world’s most influential media, entertainment and technology show, today announces the Convention Keynote session for IBC2018. This Keynote completes the extensive line-up of industry talent and global media companies already confirmed to deliver compelling talks at IBC2018.

The current German Bundestag is the largest in its history. It is not easy for members to keep track of who is speaking in plenary sessions. The NEXUS audio network from Stage Tec, the Berlin-based manufacturer of pro audio equipment, and the Siemens S7 controller help to determine from where in the plenary chamber the request to speak is coming from.

ARD and BR reported on October 14 from the Bavarian state parliament in Munich from the state election in 2018. During the broadcast from the election studio on site, there were also several wireless camera transmissions from the state parliament. The company HDwireless supported the “Bayerischer Rundfunk” in this extensive transmission as a service provider for wireless cameras and supplier of video and data transmission technology. HDwireless ensured stable radio coverage

Sony is planning to merge its European business into its Dutch arm to soften the impact of a no-deal Brexit, according to Financieele Dagblad.

The unit will be responsible for the company’s electronics business in Europe, including TV sets, but not the movie and TV channel businesses, and the deal will be completed on March 29 2019.

A spokesman for Sony Benelux confirmed to the Dutch paper that the Sony office in Hoofdorp, Netherlands will become the Japanese company’s headquarters in Europe.

Robe moving lights were unmistakably present during the recent Israeli general elections and specifically during broadcasts from the country’s main news station, Channel 12, which built a special pop-up studio in front of Israel’s famous Parliament building, the Knesset, which was live for a week. Lighting designer Ofer Jacobi was asked by Channel 12 to design a lighting scheme for the studio and Danor Theatre & Studio Systems was appointed as the rental supplier. Ofer’s first choice of moving light was Robe for several different reasons!