IN BRIEF

Matsushita Electric plans a Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory to serve as a state-of-the-art R&D facility and collaborate with studios on video compression and digital content distribution for new broadband services. This will include applications for mobile communications and digital TV. The new facility, headed by Director Masayuki Kozuka, will also have an internal Digital Image Quality Lab for evaluating high-definition image quality for digital cinema, digital TV and next-generation DVD, as well as highly compressed imaging for next-generation mobile devices.

As part of a major upgrade throughout the past year, The WB affiliate and Tribune Broadcasting station WLVI Boston has installed an AMS Neve BTC analog console within the audio suite of the station. The console is the central mixing board for the station's live daily production schedule, as well as its commercial and public affairs programming. It replaces the studio's 1979 ADM console.

To date, there has been no successful attempt at defining technical standards for handling the various business transactions from original order through changes, make-good notifications, revisions and invoicing. Now a group of companies are involved in developing open and freely available XML-based standards. The companies—Ad2Media, AdConnections, eMadison, InVision Inc., MediaGravity, MediaOcean, MediaPartnerships, Spheric Media, SQAD and VCI Collaborate—initially intend to develop standards that encompass the business transactions that occur over the life cycle of a television advertising order. The first set will be published by June 30.

Warren Allgyer has been named vice president of worldwide sales for broadband-service provider Kassenna Inc., responsible for sales in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Allgyer is the former president and CEO of Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems Co.

Adding to its global sales management team, Kasenna also named Preston Lau director of Asia Pacific Operations.