ESPN introduced several new video technologies to enhance its coverage of the 101st Indianapolis 500, broadcast yesterday. ESPN deployed more than 80 cameras to televise the race–in what is now referred to as the “IZOD IndyCar Series”–including four onboard HD cameras per car, in at least nine of the 33 cars competing in the race.

ESPN also used dual-path technology for the first time, permitting views from two onboard cameras on the same car at the same time. ESPN deployed 11 Robovision systems for its coverage at the 100th running of the Indy 500. Robovision’s remote pan-bar system allows a camera operator to remotely control the wall-mounted robotic camera via a traditional pan-bar system.

Rich Feinberg, ESPN vice president, motorsports production said that ESPN will use its “Batcam,” a camera that runs on a cable over pit road and the frontstretch and can move at more than 80 mph. “We can use it for beauty shots, crowd shots… we can also use it for coverage as the cars are coming down the frontstretch headed towards turn one,” Feinberg said. “It’s an exciting shot, unique to that racetrack, and offers some glorious views of the pageantry of the Indianapolis 500.”

Views and replays were enhanced by the first Indianapolis 500 use of NAC Hi-Motion II ultra-slo-mo cameras that shoot at a frame rate of 1000 fps, and located in the short chutes at each end of the 2.5 mile track as well as at the fourth turn and exit.

In another Indy 500 first, viewers of the ABC telecast will be able to choose live streaming video from the onboard cameras on ESPN3, ESPN’s multiscreen live sports network. ESPN3 will carry the feeds exclusively through WatchESPN, Indycar.com to fans who receive their Internet or video subscription from an affiliated provider. Viewers will be able to choose which driver’s onboard cameras they want to watch. ESPN3 will also have replays of the ABC telecast following the event, and on You Tube.

Dario Franchitti won his third Indianapolis 500 race yesterday. The Nielsen TV ratings have been down recently for the Indianapolis 500 and the interactive components are hoped to increase viewership. The final broadcast ratings may be delayed until Wednesday.

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The street light of the future would provide Wi-Fi, Cell Coverage and more, says Time.

According to the National Post, Vancouver BC’s downtown is filled with more than 100 cellphone towers from five competing carriers.

The V-Pole stands for “Vancouver pole,” as it’s currently being considered by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.

The core of the V-Pole is Alcatel-Lucent lightRadio, which compresses all the wires and circuit boards of a cellphone tower into a single Rubik’s cube-sized block. “You can stack them inside a pole like Lego,” said novelist Douglas Coupland, the technology’s creator.

As wireless traffic climbs — and infrastructure expands in response — Mr. Coupland predicts that poorly-managed cities could become “as cluttered as a kitchen junk drawer.” “I like to get rid of as much crap as possible from the visual environment,” he said.

The V-Pole project is entirely open source, says the National Post, which means Mr. Coupland receives no royalties or consulting fees for the design. V-Poles, still in the conceptual stage, are all-white save for a band of multicoloured rings clustered near the top.

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The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has announced a new Recommendation on the technical details for Ultra High Definition Television, with both 3840×2160 (4K) and future 7680 x4320 (8K) displays, getting the name UHDTV.

HDTV pictures today have the equivalent of between 1-2 megapixels. The 4K standard (3840×2160) results in a resolution of eight megapixels while the 8K version (7680 x4320) is 32 megapixels.

Christoph Dosch, Chairman of ITU’s R Study Group 6 said in a statement that “This is clearly a major achievement for ITU-R Study Group 6 of which we can be proud. The Recommendation means that organizations around the world can safely begin work to make UHDTV a reality.”

Squeezing a UHDTV broadcast into one 6 MHz, 19 Mbps terrestrial channel might be a challenge since UHDTV may require around 24 Mbps.

The timeframe for UHDTV to be available in domestic homes is estimated between 2015 to 2020 but Japan and China may get it in the 2013-2014 time frame. The BBC will trial UHDTV during the 2012 Summer Olympics, erecting 15 m display screens at three locations. The Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 was the first to use HDTV cameras.

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Telecommunications in India is in an upheaval after it was determined that 2008 cellular licenses were corrupted with special favors. The Supreme Court ordered to country to revoke 122 zonal licenses after the scandal-tainted grant process in 2008.

Now India’s Telecom Commission will ask regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the equivalent to the US FCC, to analyse the potential impact of a proposed higher base price for 2G spectrum that has drawn protests from carriers.

The Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in India, feels there is need of a detailed analysis of the impact of the proposed auction price before a decision is taken.

Regulator TRAI said last month the (re)auction price would be nearly 10 times that paid by carriers in a 2008.

The industry criticized the high base price and limited number of slots for spectrum. They say the regulatory changes will cost them billions of dollars and force them to increase tariffs for customers.

The Commission said it wants a higher number of slots to be auctioned and lower prices than what was suggested by regulator TRAI.

Mobile network operators of India have more subscribers than the United States, but the average revenue is less. India’s mobile operators include:

• Airtel: 181.3 million subs (March 2012)
• Reliance Communications: 148.11 million subs (October 2011)
• Vodafone India 147.74 million subs (December 2011)
• Idea: 106.38 million subs (December 2011)
• BSNL: 92.56 (December 2011)

The auction is the last chance for carriers including Norway’s Telenor and Russia’s Sistema to win back their licenses that are set to be revoked after the court order. Telenor and Sistema have threatened to pull out of India if the government goes ahead with the proposed rules. A panel of ministers has the final say on the auction rules including pricing.

Older carriers such as Bharti and Vodafone are also fighting another regulatory proposal to switch their superior-quality airwaves in the 900 MHz band with relatively-inferior 1800 MHz at the time of renewal of their permits starting in 2014.

The carriers have the option to buy back in a separate auction the superior quality 900 MHz airwaves, although the proposed starting price for it is twice that of the lower-quality band. If they switch to the 1800 MHz band, network costs will increase significantly.

The Telecom Commission had agreed with the sector regulator’s proposals to conduct an auction of the airwaves in the 900 MHz band by June 2013, although will decide the price and other details later.

In other news, Bharti Airtel has extended its 4G reach in India with a US$165 million investment in Qualcomm’s TD-LTE operation. In 2010, Qualcomm paid $888 million USD to win spectrum in four key “circles” (service areas); Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. But Qualcomm never intended to be a service provider. Now Bharti has bought a 49 percent stake in Qualcomm’s BWA operation in India, says Light Reading.

Related Dailywireless articles include; China Mobile + Apple: Getting Closer?, Intel Joins with Huawei on TD-LTE, USA: 332 Million Mobiles, India’s Broadband Auction: It’s Done, Qualcomm Gets Indian Partners, Vendors Scramble for Indian Backhaul, TD-LTE: It’s Alive!,

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Facebook plans to release its own smartphone by next year, says the NY Times.

The company has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, according to at least one source.

Facebook may be well positioned in certain ways to enter the smartphone market. It already has an entire operating system complete with messaging, calendar, contacts and video, and an immense app store is on its way with thousands of highly popular apps. There’s also that billion-dollar camera app, in the form of Instagram.

If Facebook fails with its own team of engineers, it could buy a smartphone maker. The company took in $16 billion from its bumpy I.P.O. It could easily scoop up an infirm company like Research in Motion, which is valued at less than $6 billion, and drop a beautifully designed Facebook operating system on top of RIM’s phones. HTC, which is upset with Google for buying Motorola, is worth about $11.8 billion and becoming cheaper by the day.

Facebook would not necessarily challenge Apple if it entered the smartphone marketplace. Instead, it could be Facebook vs. Google, which makes the Android operating system, with both companies going after a huge number of buyers of lower-priced smartphones.

“When you offer an advertising-based phone, you’re targeting all the users on prepay that are budget-conscious of their communications costs,” said Carolina Milanesi, a vice president and analyst for the Gartner Group.

In another rumor, the social networking giant is eyeing a purchase of face recognition technology company Face.com. Newsgeek reports that the deal size could be between $80 million and $100 million. Founded in 2007, Face.com offers accurate facial recognition software that could help Facebook users identify people in photos faster, both on desktop and mobile.

Meanwhile, Amazon will sell prepaid wireless service in Japan, reports The Verge. Amazon will enter the Japanese MVNO market, selling prepaid 500MB SIM cards for a flat rate about $25; about one third the rate of other cellular operators, reports Nikkei. The cards will be usable on NTT Docomo’s LTE network — the nation’s largest with over 60 million subscribers.

NTT uses separate frequencies for both downlink and uplink transmissions in the 2 GHz band. By March 2013, DOCOMO plans to have some 15,000 base stations serving 40 percent of the population. It is expected that a quarter of the company’s subscribers, or 15 million people, will have migrated to LTE by March 2015.

DoCoMo currently dominates LTE service, while the country’s two other major carriers are KDDI and Softbank.

KDDI expects to launch LTE services by the end of 2012. KDDI made a big committment to WiMax though their UQ WiMax network. The UQ WiMAX network now covers over 100 million with two million subscribers.

Softbank uses a “pseudo-TD-LTE” system on its 2.5-GHz spectrum. It lauched in major cities this February, and is aiming for 99 percent coverage by the end of this year. Their Advanced eXtended Global Platform (AXGP) has its roots in Willcom’s PHS micro-cell network, and is cross-compatible with the TD-LTE system that’s planned for China, India and Clearwire.

A smaller provider, eMobile, rolled out its own service last month. According to eMobile, by end-June 2012 its LTE service area will cover 99 percent of the population in Japan’s major cities, including Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, but only 40 percent of the nation’s overall POPs.

Unlike DoCoMo, both KDDI and Softbank currently offer Apple’s iPhone, which many expect will be equipped to work on LTE networks in future versions.

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Dailywireless was off-line yesterday due to a host issue. Posting today and tomorrow may also be light since we’re temporarily away. Sorry for the inconvenience.

- Sam Churchill, Editor, Dailywireless

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