Picture Perfect

 While Obama might have flubbed up his oath today everything else was picture perfect, this includes HBO’s  “We Are One” inaugural celebration which aired live on Sunday.  When I saw the list of performers for this special I was thinking to myself that there was no way the show would end on time, but it did!

Everything was perfectly timed and orchestrated. The clock work procession of the entire event amazed me as did the audio and video production. The sound quality for an event of this magnitude was second to none, and the amazing high definition visuals of the crowd and performers were some of the best HD content I have seen this year.

HBO is going to win some awards with that production.  Plus I loved the fact that HBO let cable and satellite companies unscramble its signal for this special event so that the world could tune on to the amazing event which took place in Washington DC.

BTW I should note that after the special HBO ran an excellent documentary on long time presidential reported Helen Thomas. What an amazing woman with some amazing stories.  I would love to sit down with her for a day and listen to her stories about things that have happened in the White House over the years. 

VOOM Is Dead

VOOM in the United States is now official dead.  At the stroke of 1:30am this morning all the VOOM channels on Cablevision systems in NY, CT and NJ were replaced by blue screens informing viewers that “This channel has ceased operations and will no longer be  available.”

The VOOM website was updated as well and now proclaims that VOOM is “Now broadcasting globally in 35 countries.”   It should read that it’s broadcasting globally except for in the United States.

While VOOM is gone I am still hoping that in the future some channels from VOOM will be made available to satellite and cable companies ala carte.  I would love to see Monsters HD and RAVE HD rise from the ashes once again.  With the 15 channel service there were many repeats however I feel that a number of channels could survive on their own and should be given a chance.

I hope Rainbow just doesn’t sit on the great library they have.  With a little love and TLC to what they have they can make some true powerhouse HD channels.

It appears that Cablevision will be replacing those HD channels starting tomorrow by replacing the VOOM spectrum with premium HD content.  The new HD rollout is expected to take 3 days throughout the areas Cablevision serves.