LATEST ADDITIONS

The Oregon Trail Blazers of the National Basketball League lived up to their name in more ways than one on Friday, March 5, when they teamed up with <A HREF="http://www.unitymotion.com/">Unity Motion</A> and Oregon Public Broadcasting for the West Coast's first-ever professional basketball game in HDTV. Oregon PBS has the only functional HDTV system in the state.

Competition to dominate the market in providing high-speed data connections to the home keeps heating up. In an effort to make cable modems broadly available, the cable industry has recognized the need for the modems to use a common interface. Thus was born the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) process. Just as computer owners today know they can buy a modem that will work on any phone line, cable-industry leaders want their subscribers to be able to buy a "CableLabs Certified" modem at a retail outlet and know it will work with any cable system that uses the DOCSIS platform.

Four major industries banded together last week to focus on the business issues necessary to bring digital TV to the American consumer. More than 300 people attended the fourth DTV Summit, which was sponsored by the <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA) in conjunction with the <A HREF="http://www.mstv.org/">Association for Maximum Service Television</A> (MSTV), the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org">National Association of Broadcasters</A> (NAB), the <A HREF="http://www.ncta.com/">National Cable Television Association</A> (NCTA), and the <A HREF="http://www.sbca.com/">Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association</A> (SBCA). The one-day summit featured leaders from the consumer-electronics, broadcast, cable, satellite, and retail industries discussing their latest plans and strategies for the DTV transition.

When Pioneer commissioned Allen Boothroyd, a British industrial designer best known for his work with Meridian Audio, to come up with a unique appearance for its new surround-sound speaker system, they apparently knew what they <I>didn't</I> want: another boring set of square boxes. Nor did they want a speaker system that would blend into Ethan Allen surroundings.