Jazz News

BCS Bowl in 3D!

Source: Michael Ricci
January 8, 2009

How much more thrilling will it be to watch Tim Tebow throw for 400 yards and rescue a puppy from a burning building when the action is 50-feet high?

Sure, it'll never replicate the testosterone or tailgating of a live game, but you can make tonight's BCS National Championship Game a larger-than-life experience at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which will air the game in 3D on the big screen.

Watch the shootout between Heisman-winning quarterbacks as Sam Bradford and the Oklahoma ...

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Coming Soon to Cellphones: Free over-the-Air TV

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Millions of consumers by year's end should be able to watch free, over-the-air television on cellphones, PDAs and other portable digital devices.

The result of initiatives that will be unveiled today by some of the nation's largest TV station owners and electronics manufacturers. The changes promoting on-the-go viewing are “quite significant," says John Eck, president of the NBC TV Network and Media Works. “If we play it right, it can be a compelling service," for example, by offering local news, ...

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Hollywood's New Vocabulary

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Tech terms reflect a changing biz Hollywood is adding to its marketing vocabulary at a rapid clip. Here are some of the terms describing new concepts and technologies now used in the promotion of movies and TV shows.

ARG (alternate reality game): Players access them via multiple methods -- including cell phones, email and websites -- to interact with a storyline that's influenced by their choices. Studios and TV networks have created them for movies and TV shows ...

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Midem Rolls out Jazz and Classical

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Despite waning sales, confab stays highbrow

The economic downturn has meant serious reprioritizing for all sorts of companies, but for classical and jazz labels, belt-tightening has long been the norm. According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, classical's U.S. market share dropped to 1.9% from 3.2% between 2001 and 2006, while jazz plunged to 2% from 3.9% during the same period.

And yet, paradoxically, the two forms play a major role at Midem, the annual music confab in Cannes ...

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Garage Invention Turns Restaurants into Power Plants

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Would you like power with those fries?

A new garage-engineered generator burns the waste oil from restaurants' deep fryers to generate electricity and hot water. Put 80 gallons of grease into the Vegawatt each week, and its creators promise it will generate about 5 kilowatts of power. That's about 10 percent of the total energy needs of Finz, a seafood restaurant in Dedham, Massachusetts, where the first Vegawatt is being tested. At New England electricity rates, the system offsets about ...

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UK Interest Rates Cut to Lowest Since 1694

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Bank of England cuts interest rates to lowest level in bank's 315-year history

The Bank of England on Thursday cut interest rates to the lowest level in its 315-year history, taking it into uncharted territory as it attempts to ward off a prolonged recession. The half point cut in interest rates -- to 1.5 percent -- sees the central bank nearing the limits of conventional monetary policy after trims totaling 3.5 percentage points since the beginning of October and as ...

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Obama Asks Congress to Delay Digital TV Switch

Source: Michael Ricci
January 8, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama today asked Congress to delay next months planned switch to all-digital broadcast television, warning that the TVs of millions of Americans could lose their pictures because of major problems in the government's preparations.

In a letter to Congressional leaders (PDF), John Podesta, co-chairman of Obamas presidential transition team, urged that the Feb. 17 conversion date be extended. A major reason was the announcement this week by the Commerce Department that it had run out of money for ...

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Obama Fighting for His Right to Blackberry

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Security aides, still debating Blackberry For President-elect Barack Obama, parting with his Blackberry is such sweet sorrow.

In fact, it isn't yet certain that he'll give up his hand-held device once he takes office. Obama acknowledged in a nationally broadcast interview Thursday that the Blackberry is a concern, “not just to the Secret Service, but also to lawyers." Asked in an interview broadcast on NBC's “Today" show whether the issue had been resolved, Obama replied, “I'm still in ...

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