TECH TALK

Hearst-Argyle Television has bought 17 high-definition Ikegami cameras for studio and point-of-view applications around the country. WCVB Boston installed five HDK-75EX cameras, which are compact portable HD systems that can be converted for studio use with either five- or nine-inch viewfinders, as well as two HDL-40 units, and a compact one-piece POV box-type HD camera. KCRA Sacramento, Calif., received four HDK-75EX cameras and two HDL-40 systems.

Hearst-Argyle, a longtime Ikegami customer, also purchased two HDK-75EX units and two HDL-40 cameras for its new full-service studio in the Hearst Tower in New York.

Gemstar-TV Guide International signed a patent license agreement with another News Corp.-controlled entity, UK-based satellite operator British Sky Broadcasting Limited (Sky). The agreement with Sky, the UK's largest pay-TV provider, is the first for Gemstar, which produces electronic programming guides (EPGs), with a cable or satellite operator outside the U.S.

The multiyear agreement, specific terms of which were not disclosed, allows Sky to use Gemstar-TV Guide's licensed intellectual property in EPGs deployed on Sky's various platforms in the UK and Ireland.

Sky has been using guide software developed by NDS, a provider of conditional access and interactive TV software that is also controlled by News Corp., and will continue to do so. According to Dov Rubin, VP and general manager of NDS Americas, the agreement is more about Sky licensing relevant patents held by Gemstar for Sky's existing EPGs than modifying its viewers' on-screen interface.

"The Gemstar patents pretty much relate to everything about a program guide," says Rubin. "As long as you're picking things off a grid, it relates to their patent."