Sprint Corporation

# Sprint Corporation

## Abstract

Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The company also offered wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile and Open Mobile brands and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators.

In July 2013, a majority of the company was purchased by the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Group. Sprint used CDMA, EvDO and 4G LTE networks, and formerly operated iDEN, WiMAX, and 5G NR networks. Sprint was incorporated in Kansas.

Sprint traced its origins to the Brown Telephone Company, which was founded in 1899 to bring telephone service to the rural area around Abilene, Kansas. In 2006, Sprint left the local landline telephone business and spun those assets off into a new company named Embarq, which later became a part of Lumen Technologies under the CenturyLink brand, which remains one of the largest long-distance providers in the United States.

Until 2005, the company was also known as the Sprint Corporation, but took the name Sprint Nextel Corporation when it merged with Nextel Communications and adopted its black and yellow color scheme, along with a new logo. In 2013, following the shutdown of the Nextel network and concurrent with the acquisition by SoftBank, the company resumed using the name Sprint Corporation. In July 2013, as part of the SoftBank transactions, Sprint acquired the remaining shares of the wireless broadband carrier Clearwire Corporation that it did not already own.

In August 2014, CEO Dan Hesse was replaced by Marcelo Claure. In May 2018, Michel Combes replaced Claure, and had been working to get Sprint's acquisition by its rival T-Mobile through regulatory proceedings.

On April 1, 2020, Sprint Corporation completed their acquisition by T-Mobile US, which effectively made Sprint a subsidiary of T-Mobile until the Sprint brand officially discontinued in the beginning of August. Leadership, background, and stock changes happened immediately, with customer-side changes happening over time. The Sprint brand officially discontinued on August 2, 2020. Billing was already showing the T-Mobile brand, and on this date all retail, customer service, and all other company branding switched to the T-Mobile brand. New rate plans were also introduced as well for all new and existing customers from both companies, though all will be grandfathered into their current plan for at least 3 years should they choose not to switch to a new T-Mobile plan. Customers with Sprint accounts were fully migrated to T-Mobile in the summer of 2023 officially discontinuing the Sprint brand.

## History

### Early years

The Sprint Corporation traces its origins to two companies, the Brown Telephone Company and Southern Pacific Railroad.

#### Brown Telephone Company

Brown Telephone Company was founded in 1899 by Cleyson Brown, to deploy the first telephone service to the rural area around Abilene, Kansas. The Browns installed their first long-distance circuit in 1900 and became an alternative to the Bell Telephone Company, the most popular telephone service at the time. In 1911, C. L. Brown consolidated the Brown Telephone Company with three other independents to form the United Telephone Company. C. L. Brown formed United Telephone and Electric (UT&E) in 1925. In 1939, at the end of the Great Depression, UT&E reorganized to form United Utilities.

In 1964, Paul H. Henson became president of United Utilities; two years later, he was named chairman. When Henson began working at the company in 1959, it had 575,000 telephones in 15 states and revenues of $65 million. Henson is credited with creating the first major fiber optic network, having recognized it as a way to handle more calls and provide better quality sound.

In 1972, United Utilities changed its name to United Telecommunications. In 1980, United Telecommunications began working on a 23,000 mile fiber optic network for long-distance calls. In 1989, this long-distance business became profitable for the company for the first time. In 1990, Henson retired from United Telecommunications; by this time the company's revenues had grown to $8 billion.

#### Southern Pacific Communications and introduction of Sprint

Sprint also traces its roots back to the Southern Pacific Railroad (SPR), which was founded in the 1860s as a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Company (SPC). The company operated thousands of miles of track as well as telegraph wire that ran along those tracks. In the early 1970s, the company began looking for ways to use its existing communications lines for long-distance calling. This division of the business was named the Southern Pacific Communications Company. By the mid 1970s, SPC was beginning to take business away from AT&T, which held a monopoly at the time. A number of lawsuits between SPC and AT&T took place throughout the 1970s; the majority were decided in favor of increased competition. Prior attempts at offering long-distance voice services had not been approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), although a fax service (called SpeedFAX) was permitted.

In the mid-1970s, SPC held a contest to select a new name for the company. The winning entry was "SPRINT", an acronym for "Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony".

### Consolidation and renaming to Sprint Corporation

In 1982, it was announced that GTE Corp. had reached an agreement to buy SPC's long-distance telephone operation, including Sprint. The deal was later finalized in 1983.

In 1986, GTE Sprint merged with the United Telecommunications Inc. property, US Telecom. The joint venture was to be co-owned by GTE and United Telecom named US Sprint Communications. The new entity also included communications firm GTE Telenet, and United Telecom Data communications Co., (formerly known as Uninet). In 1988, GTE sold more of Sprint to United Telecom, giving United Telecom operational control of the company. United Telecom announced it would complete its acquisition of US Sprint on April 18, 1990.

United Telecom officially changed its name to Sprint Corporation in 1987 to capitalize on its brand recognition.

### Expansion to Canada

Sprint Corporation entered the Canadian market in the early 1990s as a reseller of bulk long-distance telephone lines that it bought from domestic companies. Under Canadian foreign ownership regulations, Sprint could not open its own network. In 1993, Sprint entered into a strategic alliance with Call-Net Enterprises, a Canadian long-distance service provider, and bought 25 percent of the company. Call-Net's long-distance service was renamed "Sprint Canada" and expanded to include landline and internet services. In 2005, Call-Net and Sprint Canada's 600,000 customers were acquired by Rogers Communications.

### Return to wireless

In March 1993, Sprint merged with Chicago's Centel Corp. Centel remained in the Chicago area and was renamed Sprint Cellular Co. In 1994, Sprint spun off their existing cellular operations as 360° Communications to comply with an FCC regulatory mandate. In 1998, 360 Communications was acquired by Alltel, which was in turn acquired by Verizon in 2009.

In 1994, Sprint announces plans for a powerful new venture with three of the nation's major cable television companies, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast Corp. and Cox Cable. The four companies outline plans to build a nationwide network to provide wireless personal communications service (PCS), and also affirm their support for a single integrated offering of wireless, local telephone and long distance services in a package with cable television service

In 1995, Sprint and its cable television associates entered into a partnership with American Personal Communications (APC) to create a digital wireless network. In November 1995, the company began to offer wireless service under the Sprint Spectrum brand in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. This was the first commercial Personal Communications Service (PCS) network in the United States. Although the Sprint PCS service was CDMA, the original Washington-area network used GSM. Eventually, Sprint launched its new nationwide CDMA network, then in 1999 sold the decommissioned GSM infrastructure to Omnipoint which re-launched in May 2000. Omnipoint was later acquired by VoiceStream Wireless, which like Sprint would eventually be acquired by T-Mobile.

### Partnerships and more consolidation

In September 1996, Sprint announced a deal with RadioShack, and in 1997, Sprint stores opened at RadioShack to offer communications services and products across the United States.

On October 5, 1999, Sprint and MCI WorldCom announced a $129 billion merger agreement between the two companies. The deal would have been the largest corporate merger in history at the time. However, due to pressure from the United States Department of Justice and the European Union on concerns of it creating a monopoly, the deal did not go through.

In 1999, Sprint began recombining its local telecom, long-distance, wireline, and wireless business units into a new company, in an initiative known internally as "One Sprint". In April 2004, the separately traded wireless tracking stock PCS was absorbed into the New York Stock Exchange FON ticker symbol, Sprint's former ticker symbol (FON stood for "Fiber Optic Network", but was also a homophone of the word "phone"). This was challenged in many lawsuits by Sprint PCS shareholders who felt their stock was devalued because it was trading at the ratio of 1 share of PCS stock for 1/2 share of FON stock. The PCS shareholders claimed a loss of 1.3 billion to 3.4 billion dollars.

### Merger of Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications

On December 15, 2004, Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications announced they would merge to form Sprint Nextel Corporation. The merger was transacted as a purchase of Nextel Communications by Sprint Corporation for tax reasons; Sprint purchased 50.1 percent of Nextel. At the time of the merger announcement, Sprint and Nextel were the third and fifth leading providers in the U.S. mobile phone industry, respectively.

Sprint shareholders approved the merger on July 13, 2005. The merger deal was approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and U.S. Department of Justice on August 3, 2005. Sprint Nextel was formed on August 13, 2005, when the deal was completed.

Sprint and Nextel faced opposition to the merger, mostly from regional affiliates that provided wireless services on behalf of the companies. These regional affiliates felt that the new company would hinder competition.

On September 1, 2005, Sprint Nextel combined plan offerings of its Sprint and Nextel brands to bring uniformity across the company's offerings.

Nextel has licensed its identity to NII Holdings, Inc., of which Sprint Nextel owned 18%. NII has used the Nextel brand to set up networks in many Latin American countries. Following Sprint's purchase of Nextel, Nextel sold all of its investment in NII Holdings.

The integration process was difficult due to disparate network technologies. Sprint tried to address this with the advent of PowerSource phones. These phones routed voice call and data services over Sprint's PCS spectrum while maintaining DirectConnect services over 800 MHz spectrum. However, this was not sufficient in coverage, due to the inability to roam on a non-PCS spectrum. Top Nextel Executives began leaving the company immediately after the merger closed. Tim Donahue, the Nextel CEO, stayed on as executive chairman, but ceded decision-making authority to Gary D. Forsee. Tom Kelly, COO of Nextel, took an interim staff position as Chief Strategy Officer. Two years after the merger, only a few key Nextel executives remained, with many former Nextel middle- and upper-level managers having left, citing reasons including the unbridgeable cultural difference between the two companies.

In 2006, Sprint spun off its local telephone operations, including the former United Telephone companies and Centel, as Embarq.

Sprint's acquisition of Nextel was a disaster from a fiscal standpoint in 2008, the company wrote down $29.7 billion of the $36 billion sum it had paid for Nextel in 2005, wiping out 80 percent of the value of Nextel at the time it had been acquired. The write down reflected the depreciation in Nextel's goodwill since the date of acquisition.

#### Affiliate acquisitions and settlements

Prior to their merger, Sprint and Nextel were dependent on a network of affiliated companies. Following the announcement of the merger agreement, some of these affiliates came forward with strong opposition to the Sprint-Nextel merger on the grounds that the merged company might violate existing agreements or significantly undercut earnings to these affiliates. In order for Sprint Nextel to allay some of this opposition, they initiated discussions of either acquiring some of these affiliates or renegotiating existing agreements. In several cases, the newly formed company was forced to acquire affiliated companies in exchange for their dropping their opposition to the merger. Forsee said that the company would likely have to acquire all of its remaining affiliates.

In 2005, Sprint Nextel acquired three of its ten wireless affiliates: US Unwired, acquired in August; Gulf Coast Wireless, acquired in October; and IWO Holdings, acquired in October. Alamosa PCS, which Sprint Nextel acquired on February 2, 2006, was the largest of its affiliate carriers. Other acquired affiliates include Ubiquitel, iPCS, Enterprise, and Northern. In 2021, after merging with Sprint in 2020, T-Mobile acquired the remaining two of Sprint's original ten affiliates, Shentel and Swiftel.

Below are companies which Sprint Corporation has acquired:

- August 13, 2005: Sprint acquires the Sprint PCS affiliate US Unwired for $1.3B, thus adding 500,000 additional direct customers to Sprint Nextel.

- August 30, 2005: Sprint Nextel announces its intention to acquire IWO Holdings, Inc., a mainly New England –based network affiliate for the Sprint PCS business. The acquisition closed on October 20, 2005.

- Sprint Nextel acquires Gulf Coast Wireless, adding 95,000 customers, mainly in Louisiana and Mississippi, to Sprint Nextel's CDMA network. The acquisition closed on October 3, 2005.

- November 21, 2005: Sprint Nextel announces a $4.3-billion acquisition agreement for Texas-based Sprint PCS affiliate Alamosa Holdings, potentially adding 1.48 million customers to Sprint Nextel.

- December 16, 2005: Sprint Nextel announces a $98 million agreement to acquire Enterprise Communications of Columbus, Georgia, thus adding over 52,000 customers to the company's PCS Wireless division.

- December 16, 2005: Sprint Nextel announces acquisition of non-affiliate Velocita Wireless. The transaction enhances the iDEN network's 900 MHz spectrum position. On July 2, 2007, Velocita Wireless, which became an indirect subsidiary of Sprint Nextel, was acquired by United Wireless Holdings, Inc.

- December 21, 2005: Sprint Nextel Corporation and Nextel Partners, Inc. reach an agreement for a $6.5 billion deal whereby the Sprint Nextel Corporation acquires the largest of Nextel's affiliates to end Nextel Partners' opposition to any changes by Sprint in relation to the Sprint-Nextel merger. Once completed, the Nextel Partners deal adds more than 2 million customers directly to the Sprint Nextel company.

- April 20, 2006: Sprint Nextel Corporation and Ubiquitel PCS Corporation reach an agreement whereby the Sprint Nextel Corporation acquires Ubiquitelpcs, an exclusive Sprint PCS provider.

- March 17, 2007: Sprint Nextel Corporation completes integration of Nextel Partners customers into the Sprint Nextel system. Nextel Partners' Las Vegas headquarters shuts down service, and all Nextel Partners customers are now handled through the new "Ensemble" billing system. All Nextel Partners customers are now Sprint Nextel customers and are entitled to the same promotions as all other Sprint Nextel iDEN customers.

- August 2, 2007: Sprint Nextel Corporation completes the acquisition of Northern PCS for $312.5 million including debt.

- July 28, 2009: Sprint Nextel announces a $483 million acquisition agreement for Virgin Mobile USA, adding 5 million pre-paid customers to Sprint Nextel, although these subscribers were counted in Sprint's total subscriber count, as Virgin Mobile USA was an MVNO on Sprint's CDMA network.

- October 19, 2009: Sprint Nextel agrees to acquire iPCS, one of its last remaining affiliates.

### Consolidation to Overland Park

After the Sprint-Nextel merger, the company maintained an executive headquarters in Reston, Virginia and operational headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recognized that having two headquarters was not helping the merger effort, sent the wrong message to employees and contributed to the post-merger cultural clash. To resolve the problem, Hesse decided to consolidate all headquarters operations in the Sprint World Headquarters Campus located in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

### Acquisition by SoftBank Corporation

On October 14, 2012, the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank announced it intended to purchase 70% of Sprint Nextel Corporation for $20.1 billion. SoftBank stated that Sprint will remain a separate entity, and will remain a CDMA carrier until it is an all-LTE carrier. On April 15, 2013, Dish Network announced a higher bid for Sprint Nextel than the offer placed by SoftBank, with a $25.5 billion offer. On June 18, 2013, Dish retracted its bid and decided that it would instead focus on its intent to purchase Clearwire, however on June 26, 2013, Dish also retracted its bid for Clearwire, leaving the road clear for SoftBank to acquire the company. The United States Federal Communications Commission approved SoftBank's acquisition of a stake in Sprint. The FCC's acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and commissioner Ajit Pai both gave statements vociferously supporting the acquisition, saying the deal "serve the public interest". The acquisition was completed on July 10, 2013.

On August 6, 2013, SoftBank purchased approximately 2% more shares of Sprint Corporation, increasing its ownership stake in the company to 80%.

#### Additional acquisitions

On November 7, 2012, Sprint Nextel announced the acquisition of 20 MHz of spectrum and 585,000 customers from U.S. Cellular in Chicago, St. Louis, central Illinois and three other Midwest markets. The deal was expected to close in mid-2013.

Prior to July 9, 2013, Sprint Nextel only owned a 50.8% equity interest in Clearwire Corporation; On December 17, 2012, Sprint Nextel agreed to pay US$2.97 per share, US$2.2 billion in total, to purchase the portion of Clearwire shares that Sprint Nextel did not already own. On June 20, 2013, Sprint Nextel increased its offer to $5 per share, the transaction was approved by regulators on July 5, 2013, and closed on July 9, 2013, and Sprint Nextel became the complete owner of Clearwire and its assets.

On March 31, 2015, the U.S. bankruptcy court approved a $160 million takeover of electronics store chain RadioShack by Standard General. As part of the deal, the company entered into a partnership with Sprint to serve as co-tenants in 1,435 of its locations, beginning on April 10, 2015. Roughly a third of the retail space in each location is dedicated to Sprint products and services, and the stores will ultimately adopt Sprint as their primary brand in place of RadioShack. Sprint stated that this deal would increase the company's retail footprint by more than double.

On January 23, 2017, Sprint announced that they were buying a 33 percent stake in the music streaming service Tidal.

## Wireline operations

Sprint derives revenue as a wireline IP network operator and as a long-distance telephony provider. Sprint is the United States' fourth largest long-distance provider by subscribers.

In 2006, Sprint Nextel exited the local landline telephone business, spinning those assets off into a newly created company named Embarq, which CenturyTel acquired in 2008 to form CenturyLink.

### SprintLink

SprintLink is a global Tier 1 Internet service provider network, operating an 100G Internet backbone. Customers include large multinational corporations, government agencies, retail and restaurant chains, Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs, and medium-to-small businesses. SprintLink has physical presence in 155 countries, including the United States, Western Europe, East Asia, Australia, and India. The network wraps all the way around the world with buried fiber optics in the United States and Europe, and undersea fiber in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. SprintLink is responsible for cable maintenance and administration in the TAT-14 Consortium. In 2008, Sprint was upgrading its SprintLink core to 100 Gbit/s lines to offer increased bandwidth. As of June 2012, Sprint picked Ciena for upgrading its Sprintlink core to 400 Gbit/s speeds.

### Ethernet services

In 2007, Sprint launched Ethernet services over its IP/MPLS network to an initial 40-markets. Sprint later expanded their Ethernet services to 65 markets in September 2011. Sprint then launched Ethernet over copper and Ethernet over DOCSIS in 2016 to complement its Fiber Ethernet offerings.

### Sprint Web Services

Sprint offers its enterprise customers managed web-based services through its Sprint Web Services program. It allows enterprise customers to create managed web-based applications

### IoT & Connected Services

In 2015, Sprint powered the Connected Officer program for the Los Angeles Police Department in partnership with Samsung, VMware, and Prodapt.

### Telecommunications Relay Services

Sprint wireline is also responsible for traditional telecommunications relay service (TRS), speech to speech relay service (STS), and captioned telephone service (CTS). Sprint is in the process of upgrading these services from a TDM network to an IP-based network

## Wireless operations

### Sprint branded services

Sprint Corporation offered postpaid wireless voice and data services primarily under the Sprint brand.

### Sprint Prepaid Group

The Sprint Prepaid Group was a division of the company formed in May 2010 that is responsible for the operations of Sprint's pre-pay subsidiaries. SPG's branded products and services are sold via web and available at retailers nationwide, including Best Buy, Walmart, Target and other independent dealers.

#### Boost Mobile

Boost Worldwide, Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint that provides nationwide, prepaid wireless voice, messaging and broadband data products and services to customers in the contiguous United States under the Boost Mobile brand. The services are provided as an MVNO hosted on the Sprint-owned CDMA, EVDO, WiMAX, LTE, and LTE Advanced networks.

### Sprint Smart Velocity

Sprint Velocity was Sprint Corporation's Connected Vehicle Platform, announced in 2012 in partnership with Chrysler.

## Wireless wholesale operations and affiliates

Sprint Corporation provided services using both its own spectrum and network equipment through affiliate agreements. Smaller affiliated companies operated their own network assets and retail operations but offered services to customers in their geographic region under the Sprint brand.

In the early stages of network build-out, the company relied significantly on network partners known as affiliates to rapidly expand its coverage. These affiliates would lease Sprint's PCS spectrum licenses in a specific geographic area, typically rural areas, and smaller cities, and provide wireless service using the Sprint brand. Sprint provided back-end support such as billing and telephone–based customer service, while the affiliates built and maintained the network, sold equipment to customers, and staffed the retail stores in their specific regions. Its customers could "roam" across Sprint-operated and affiliate-operated portions of the network without being aware of the distinction, and vice versa. Outwardly, efforts were made to make it appear as if the network was operated by a single entity under the Sprint name, though complex revenue-sharing agreements were in place which was very similar in nature to cross-carrier roaming tariffs. In later years, the relationship between Sprint and its affiliates grew contentious, particularly after Sprint's acquisition of Nextel. Various affiliates included Swiftel Communications in Brookings, South Dakota; Shentel in northern Virginia, and parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia.

### Sprint Rural Alliance

Sprint Rural Alliance (SRA) members (aka Sprint Partners) were carriers who used their own equipment and also sold their own service under their own name while using Sprint spectrum. Sprint was given access to the SRA network in return for allowing the use of Sprint spectrum. This allowed Sprint to keep the spectrum license for the geographic area being served by the SRA member. Alaska DigiTel in Alaska was an SRA Member. Former SRA Members included Alltel Wireless in Montana; This portion of the network was obtained by AT&T during the merger of Alltel and Verizon Wireless, Pioneer Cellular in Kansas and Oklahoma; they ended their agreement with Sprint on March 1, 2012, and transitioned to an agreement with Verizon through the LTE in Rural America program, nTelos; operated in West Virginia and was bought out and merged with Shentel which was a Sprint Affiliate.

### Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs)

Sprint Corporation provided capacity on its CDMA2000, EVDO, and LTE wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which allowed other wireless providers to utilize its networks to offer its services. Sprint's prepaid brands operated using Sprint's networks, though they were not MVNOs, but rather wholly owned prepaid subsidiaries of the company.

#### Bring Your Own Sprint Device

Sprint Corporation allowed certain Sprint MVNOs to accept and activate old Sprint-branded phones through its "Bring Your Own Sprint Device" program which was established for Sprint's initiative to further reduce the number of cell phones that were thrown away each year. The program was also beneficial to MVNOs customers who did not want to pay subsidized prices.

#### Custom Branded Device Program

Sprint Corporation offered its MVNOs a program called the "Custom Branded Device Program", which gave MVNOs access to completely unbranded Android smartphones with no references to Sprint that the MVNO could then customize with its own branded apps and services through Sprint's Mobile ID and Mobile Zone products. Though these phones were free of Sprint branding, they were certified to run on Sprint networks.

### Data roaming agreements

On May 9, 2006, Sprint Nextel and Alltel agreed on a new Nationwide Roaming partnership. It was reciprocal, and gave Alltel customers access to the Sprint 1x and EV-DO network and Sprint customers access to Alltel's denser, rural 1x and EV-DO voice and data network. The roaming reciprocity agreement between Alltel and Sprint was set to expire in 2016.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless had a reciprocal data roaming agreement that allowed for the use of Sprint Power Vision content like TV, movie downloads, and stream radio in Verizon 1x and EVDO coverage areas.

Sprint also had a reciprocal 1xRTT, EVDO and LTE data and voice roaming agreement with U.S. Cellular. Sprint had an LTE roaming agreement with AT&T as well, which was typically limited to 3G speeds. Several cases of Sprint phones simultaneously roaming on Verizon's CDMA network for voice and AT&T's LTE network for data were observed in 2017.

In 2018, with the announcement of the Sprint and T-Mobile merger, Sprint gained access to roaming on T-Mobile's LTE network until the Sprint network was discontinued. Roaming on T-Mobile was counted as native data usage and had no speed restrictions.

## Wireless networks

The following is a list of known CDMA, LTE, and NR frequencies which Sprint employed in the United States:

### CDMA

Sprint operated a nationwide CDMA network in the 1.9 GHz PCS band. In 2006, Sprint's EV-DO "Power Vision" network reached more than 190 million people. Sprint then continued to upgrade their 3G EV-DO network until it reached 260 million people in 2007. Sprint eventually covered over 300 million PoPs with EV-DO services. Sprint added eHRPD to its network (EV-DO routed through an LTE core network) in order to facilitate smooth handoffs between LTE and EV-DO.

As a result of the Merger with T-Mobile US, Sprint's CDMA network was completely shut down on May 31, 2022.

### LTE

On July 28, 2011, Sprint announced that it had decided to end its rollout of the 4G network using WiMAX technology, in favor of more internationally accepted LTE technology. Sprint had also announced that it entered into a 15-year agreement that included spectrum hosting, network services, 4G wholesale and 3G roaming, with LightSquared. That deal, however, was later dissolved due to regulatory issues which LightSquared was unable to resolve with the FCC.

Sprint announced initial LTE deployment plans at the Sprint Strategy Update conference on October 7, 2011. Network Vision-partner Samsung began LTE deployments on October 27, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Sprint projected that the LTE network would cover 123 million people in 2012 and over 250 million people by the end of 2013.

On January 5, 2012, Sprint announced via Twitter its first 4G LTE markets, that included Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio; on June 27, 2012, Sprint stated that it would launch its new 4G LTE network in the first five markets the following month and on July 15, 2012, Sprint commenced operating the LTE network. In addition to the five announced markets, it was launched in 10 other markets, with more markets to be covered by the end of the year.

Sprint initially deployed LTE in the 1900 MHz PCS G block, and over time added LTE to its 1900-MHz PCS A-F block spectrum. Sprint also deployed LTE in the 850-MHz E-CLR band and the 2500-MHz BRS/EBS band.

In February 2013, Sprint's Prepaid Group, which operated Virgin Mobile USA and Boost Mobile, began offering products and services using Sprint's LTE network.

On April 15, 2016, it was reported that Sprint covered more than 300 million PoPs with LTE services.

Sprint eventually rolled out VoLTE, although the deployment was initially limited to select markets. iOS devices newer than the iPhone 8, as well as a few select Android flagship devices, supported VoLTE on Sprint. VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling are interoperable, and devices can transfer calls between the two networks. Calls initiated on Wi-Fi by non-VoLTE devices will transfer calls to the LTE network if Wi-Fi coverage becomes too weak to sustain the call, although they are unable to initiate calls on LTE.

As a result of the Merger with T-Mobile US, the Sprint LTE network was shut down on June 30, 2022.

## Wireless products and services

### Mobile devices

Sprint offered a variety of wireless and mobile broadband products from a full range of manufacturers, that were preloaded with mobile operating systems including Google 's Android or Apple 's iOS. Sprint's partner device manufactures included Apple, BlackBerry, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sonim, and ZTE.

### Broadband for the home via Sprint Mobile

In order to offer broadband directly to the home, Sprint launched a co-branded Broadband Wireless Access Point device along with Linksys, a unit of Cisco Systems. This unit allowed Sprint customers to set up a special network in a home or office computer network, connecting multiple computers or laptops wirelessly to Sprint's PowerVision network. This broadband service to the Internet allowed some customers to have broadband without paying for telephone service. The PowerVision router allowed one to bypass the local telephone and cable broadband service providers. Such Broadband offerings to the home or office without cable or DSL meant the router could be used to provide cheaper VoIP services through Sprint's high-speed network.

### Sprint Music Plus

On October 31, 2005, the Sprint Music Store was launched. Initial record-label participation included EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group. On November 1, 2006, after one year of service, the store had sold more than 8 million songs, partly thanks to the five free songs it offered customers at launch. On April 1, 2007, the Sprint Music Store started offering music downloads at the price of 99 cents per track to customers who agreed to subscribe to a Vision pack of $15 or higher.

The service was rebranded as Sprint Music Plus in 2011, managed by RealNetworks. It offered full-track music files from various labels (albums and single tracks), ringback tones, and ringtones. From July 2013, Sprint Music Plus app was managed by OnMobile Global, a company headquartered in Bangalore, India.

### Google Play

On May 16, 2012, Sprint began to allow subscribers to bill application purchases from Google Play to their phone account.

### Sprint Airave and Magic Box

On September 17, 2007, Sprint Nextel launched the Airave, which increased cell reception over an area of 5,000 square feet (460 m) and could handle up to three calls at once by hooking into an existing broadband connection and using VOIP. The Airave helped eliminate poor signal quality inside buildings. Airave was used only for voice calls using a Sprint CDMA phone and was unavailable for Nextel iDEN phones or data cards/USB modems. By default, the Airave unit allowed any Sprint phone to connect through it, but it could be reconfigured to accept only connections from up to 50 authorized numbers in order to eliminate unwanted use. The Airrave used the customers' own bandwidth to connect calls—potentially slowing internet speeds on less ample connections, and causing the customer to essentially subsidize the Sprint network. Sprint was one of the only carriers that had not charged its customers for this type of device if the customer demonstrated that Sprint coverage was inadequate where they lived.

Airave 2.0 was a device that supported up to six devices simultaneously and data usage. The device required a land-based internet service (such as DSL or cable modem) to produce the CDMA signal. The Airave 2.5 improved reliability and had two LAN ports.

Airave 3.0 was a device that broadcast both CDMA and LTE using band 41 that was approved by the FCC in late 2016 and became available in 2017. It required a cable internet connection and included a WAN RJ45 port and two RJ45 Ethernet LAN ports.

The Magic Box created its own Band 41 LTE signal and used Band 41 or Band 25 LTE signals instead of a cable connection for the internet. It was designed to be placed on a window sill and broadcast to the inside of a building plus outside the building for 100 meters or further.

## Defunct brands and networks

### CLEAR

CLEAR was the brand of mobile broadband services offered by Clearwire Corporation, which was acquired by Sprint Nextel in July 2013. The brand provided mobile and fixed wireless broadband communications services to retail and wholesale customers in Belgium, Spain, and the United States. Sprint ended the CLEAR brand in September 2013 shortly after it closed its acquisition of Clearwire, and it no longer offers CLEAR-branded products and services to new customers.

### Common Cents Mobile

Sprint Nextel began offering pre-paid wireless products and services via wholly owned MVNO Common Cents Mobile on May 13, 2010. Sprint Nextel intended these products and services as a lower-cost alternative, charging $.07 per minute for voice calls with round-down timing and $.07 per text message. The products and services were initially available through Walmart stores; Sprint Nextel had planned to expand the distribution of Common Cents Mobile to other outlets, but never did.

On May 18, 2011, Sprint Nextel discontinued operating its Common Cents Mobile pre-paid brand, on the basis, it was a duplicate of the offerings of the Virgin Mobile USA PayLo brand. Common Cents Mobile customers were transitioned to a Virgin Mobile payLo service plan that allowed the former Common Cents Mobile customers to keep their existing $.07 per minute rate.

### Nextel Direct Connect

Sprint Nextel decided to decommission the iDEN (Nextel National) network it had acquired after merging with Nextel Communications in order to repurpose the network for LTE coverage, Sprint stopped offering Nextel Direct Connect walkie-talkie service. Instead, Sprint persuades many of its customers into their replacement service – Sprint Direct Connect which operates on the CDMA network.

### Virgin Mobile and Assurance Wireless

Virgin Mobile USA, L.P. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint Corporation and provided nationwide, prepaid wireless voice, messaging, and broadband data products and services to customers in the contiguous United States under the Virgin Mobile, payLo, and "Assurance Wireless Brought to You by Virgin Mobile" brands. It operated as an MVNO and provided services to its customers via the Sprint-owned CDMA, EVDO, WiMAX, and LTE networks.

Virgin Mobile USA, L.P. also offered lifeline telephone service subsidized by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission 's Universal Service Fund under the "Assurance Wireless Brought to You by Virgin Mobile" brand. The program offers a free wireless phone and 250 free local and domestic long-distance voice minutes per month to eligible low-income customers in 31 states. End users do not receive a bill, nor are they required to sign a contract, and do not pay activation fees, recurring fees, or surcharges.

### Discontinued networks

#### iDEN

Sprint Nextel operated an iDEN nationwide network in the 800 MHz and 900 MHz SMR frequency band. Sprint Corporation acquired the iDEN network as a result of its merger with Nextel Communications in 2005. The iDEN network was originally deployed as a dispatch radio service and is unique in blending the half-duplex push-to-talk one-to-many broadcast capability of a walkie-talkie with the one-to-one private communication of a phone. Sprint later marketed "push-to-talk" services under the Nextel Direct Connect name.

In October 2010, as part of the "Network Vision" plan, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse announced the decommissioning of the iDEN network to reduce costs, improve the coverage and performance of the 3G CDMA network and enable Sprint Nextel to focus on 4G LTE technology. Sprint Nextel announced on May 29, 2012, that it will stop marketing iDEN devices in the third quarter of 2012 and that the iDEN network could be completely decommissioned "as early as June 30, 2013". As of June 5, 2012, Sprint and Boost Mobile ceased offering iDEN devices, removing the devices and their associated service plans from the Sprint and Boost Mobile websites and retail locations. The Nextel national network was shut down on schedule at 12:01 am on June 30, 2013.

#### WiMAX

Sprint Corporation operated a 4G WiMAX network in the 2.5 GHz band, which had been operated by Clearwire Corporation before it was acquired. Sprint also provided its prepay partners Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile access to data services via the WiMAX network; including other Mobile virtual network operators under wholesale agreements.

Sprint Nextel had won rights to radio spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band to provision fourth-generation services and began to build out a WiMAX network, offering services under the Xohm brand. However, on May 7, 2008, Sprint Nextel announced it would merge its WiMAX wireless broadband unit with Clearwire Corporation, receiving equity in Clearwire in return. The two companies completed the transaction on November 28, 2008. Sprint became the owner of Clearwire, after outbidding Dish Network for the company.

On October 8, 2008, Sprint Nextel launched WiMAX in Baltimore and showed off several new laptops that will have embedded WiMAX chips. They announced that Sprint will be offering dual-mode 3G/4G products by the end of the year. Baltimore was the first city to get Xohm, but it was launched soon after in more cities, such as Chicago and Philadelphia.

On April 19, 2011, Sprint Nextel announced it agreed to pay at least $1 billion to Clearwire so it can operate on the 4G WiMAX network through 2012, and a later agreement, announced in December 2011, specified terms allowing Sprint, its subsidiaries, and wholesale customers to continue having access to the Clearwire 4G WiMAX network through 2015. On July 9, 2013, Sprint Nextel acquired the remaining stock shares it did not already own in Clearwire and its assets.

Sprint Corporation is working on migrating WiMAX customers to LTE compatible devices in order to begin transitioning the WiMAX bands to TDD LTE. In July 2013, Sprint announced its first tri-band products capable of accessing TDD-LTE data connections in the 2.5 GHz band still used for WiMAX.

Sprint planned to shut its WiMAX network on November 6, 2015, however, an emergency injunction was granted by a judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court on November 5, 2015, to keep the WiMax network online for another 90 days, due to the ongoing lawsuit from non-profit groups. The groups, Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen, said that the network shutdown violates the contract which requires Sprint to provide high-speed internet services for low-income families and public institutions, as most of the equipment was still not LTE-compatible. Sprint pledged to provide upgrades to the equipment and work out a solution with the groups as soon as possible. Most of the WiMax network not running in the affected areas were shut down. On February 1, 2016, the same court declared that Sprint can proceed with the network shutdown in the remaining 75 cities. Sprint took the network of 16 cities, including New York City, offline on February 2, 2016, and closed 39 more on February 29, 2016. On March 31, 2016, the last 25 cities' networks were shut down.

## Controversies

### Device unlocking

For devices launched after February 15, 2015, Sprint unlocked phones when Lease/Service/Billing Agreements were satisfied and accounts were in good standing.

For devices launched before February 15, 2015, Sprint did not authorize the use of GSM-capable devices, including both phones and tablets it sold, on a United States–based competitor's network, such as T-Mobile or AT&T. Unlike the aforementioned companies, which have comparatively lenient policies about unlocking phones, such as when the device is paid off or the contract is fulfilled, and Verizon, whose GSM-capable devices ship with the GSM portion already unlocked, Sprint only unlocked devices for international use for customers in good standing after contacting customer support.

This limitation meant phones and tablets sold by Sprint that were launched prior to February 15, 2015, only lawfully functioned on the Sprint network, a policy that prevented what may have otherwise been compatibility with another carrier's network. Additionally, iPhones sold by Sprint generally had the lowest resale value of devices sold by the top four carriers in the US. Means to unlock a GSM-capable iPhone existed, such as using a SIM interposer, but the device may not have functioned fully or correctly on the desired network, and unlocking of the device was a violation of the law under the terms of the DMCA up until August 1, 2014, when President Obama signed into law a bill allowing the unlocking of cell phones.

### FCC fine over Do Not Call rule breaches

In May 2014, the company was fined $7.5 million by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for failing to honor consumer requests to opt-out of marketing messages delivered by phone and text messages. Sprint was ordered to implement a comprehensive two-year plan to comply with the commission's rules including training of Sprint employees on how to comply with Do Not Call rules. American consumers have had the option of nominating not to receive telemarketing calls and texts since 2003, by placing their names on the National Do Not Call Registry.

### Law compliance

As required by law in the United States, in response to court orders and warrants, Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its wireless subscribers' GPS locations over 8 million times in one year between September 2008 and October 2009. The disclosures occurred by way of a special, secure portal which Sprint developed specifically for government officials, which enabled users to automatically obtain Sprint customers' GPS locations after the request has been reviewed and activated by Sprint's surveillance department.

## Marketing

### Advertising

In 2016, Sprint began a major television advertising campaign that promoted its reliability as being within 1% of other major providers, such as Verizon. The advertisements featured Paul Marcarelli, an American actor once known for pitching Verizon with the phrase "Can you hear me now?" In the ads, Marcarelli noted that he had switched to Sprint and touted pricing of approximately half that of other providers, commenting "Can you hear that?" The ads featured the slogan "Don't let a 1% difference cost you twice as much."

### Sponsorships

#### Film

Sprint cellphones were product placed in such movies such as Men in Black II (2002), The Departed (2006), Dan in Real Life (2007), Superbad (2007), Wild Hogs (2007), 27 Dresses (2008), Baby Mama (2008), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Sex and the City (film) (2008), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Bride Wars (2009), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), and The Gambler (2014).

#### Music

Sprint was the official wireless sponsor of the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Sprint Power Vision customers were able to watch the VMAs on a live simulcast on their Sprint Power Vision handset free of charge.

#### Sports

In Time Magazine ' s November 13, 2006 issue, Sprint Nextel's NASCAR FanView was named One of Best Inventions of 2006. The NASCAR FanView is a portable PDA that runs on Sprint's data network. The device offers fans access to "Race telecast and up to seven in-car camera channels, direct audio feeds allowing the user to listen to live driver and team conversations, as well as the radio broadcast and an exclusive audio-replay feature."

From 2008 to 2016, Sprint Corporation was the major title sponsor of NASCAR 's top racing series, formerly called the NEXTEL Cup, which became known as the Sprint Cup Series on February 9, 2008. Since then, Sprint signed a contract extension with NASCAR to continue sponsoring the series through the 2016 season. Sprint was replaced by Monster Energy after the 2016 season.

Sprint Corporation held the naming rights to the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri; after the merger in 2020, the arena was renamed the T-Mobile Center (not to be confused with T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas).

Sprint Nextel announced in December 2011 that it reached a multi-year exclusive partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to be the league's official wireless service partner.

Sprint was also a sponsor for the Copa América Centenario in 2016.

#### Television

Sprint was a sponsor of the Fox television series 24 and Fringe.

Sprint was a major sponsor of the NBC television series Heroes and provided exclusive web content to subscribers. Sprint was also the mobile sponsor of NBC's The Voice.

Sprint was a major sponsor of competition reality shows, such as Big Brother and Survivor on CBS, which enabled viewers to vote each week for "Player of the Game".


The Haunting of Molly Hartley

# The Haunting of Molly Hartley

## Abstract

The Haunting of Molly Hartley is a 2008 American supernatural horror film written by John Travis and Rebecca Sonnenshine and directed by Mickey Liddell. The film, starring Haley Bennett, Chace Crawford, AnnaLynne McCord, and Jake Weber, was panned by critics but was a mild commercial success, grossing $15.4 million against a $5 million budget.

## Plot

The film begins with a teenage girl, Laurel Miller, going into the woods to meet her boyfriend Michael. He gives her an early birthday present, but her father shows up and demands she leave with him. As they drive home, Laurel tells him she will be marrying Michael as soon as she turns eighteen. He breaks down and apologizes to her, telling her he can't let her turn 18, then purposely crashes their car. Seeing that she is not dead, he kills her with a broken piece of mirror, saying he couldn't let the darkness take her.

In the present day, 17-year-old Molly Hartley is stabbed in the chest by her deranged mother Jane with a pair of scissors. Although she survives, she is haunted in her dreams by the experience. She lives with her father Robert, and her mother is locked up in a mental ward. Her father enrolls Molly in a new school to help with the trauma and start a new life. However, as her eighteenth birthday approaches, Molly has continuing nightmares of her mother's attack. Joseph Young, one of her classmates, attempts to help her; however, she begins to display symptoms of the same psychosis that took control of her mother's life. Molly attends a party at Joseph's house, where his jealous ex-girlfriend tries to attack her. She breaks the girl's arm and leaves the party. She has another hallucination of her mother attacking her and has a panic attack. The next morning she apologizes to Joseph's ex, who says she knows what Molly is.

At home, Molly is cornered by her mother and discovers that she and others want to kill her in order to save her from a preordained life as a servant to Satan. It is revealed that Molly had died as the result of a miscarriage and her parents made a pact with the Devil to save her life. The terms of the agreement were such that the Hartleys would only have Molly until her eighteenth birthday, then she would belong to the Devil. After Jane is accidentally killed, and upon knocking her father out, Molly runs to seek salvation by accepting a baptism by Alexis, who tries to drown her. Alexis accidentally is knocked on her head, which kills her and Molly turns to Joseph for help, only to discover that he is one of them and has set her up.

Dr. Emerson arrives at Joseph's house and tells Molly she is also to be a servant of the devil. She says Molly can either kill her father to break the pact or submit. She tries to let her father live and avoid her fate by attempting suicide with a kitchen knife. This attempt is in vain because the clock has already struck midnight.

The film switches to a mental institution, where a doctor is talking to a woman dressed in black, later revealed to be a cold-hearted Molly. Molly's father has now been admitted to the institution; Molly smiles and says she will not speak to him, choosing to move on. She becomes valedictorian of her high school and dates Joseph. She is seen leaving her high school graduation with Joseph in a limousine, after being told by Dr. Emerson (disguised as the school guidance counselor) that they'll "see her soon."

## Cast

- Haley Bennett as Molly Hartley

- Jake Weber as Robert Hartley

- Chace Crawford as Joseph Young

- Shannon Woodward as Leah

- Shanna Collins as Alexis White

- AnnaLynne McCord as Suzie Woods

- Marin Hinkle as Jane Hartley

- Nina Siemaszko as Dr. Amelia Emerson

- Josh Stewart as Mr. Draper

- Jessica Lowndes as Laurel Miller

- Randy Wayne as Michael

- Jamie McShane as Mr. Miller

- Ron Canada as Mr. Bennett

- Kevin Cooney as Dr. Donaldson

- Ross Thomas as Jock

- Charles Chun as Doctor

- John Newton as Mr. Young

## Release

### Box office

The Haunting of Molly Hartley opened theatrically on October 31, 2008, in 2,652 venues, earning $5,423,315 in its opening weekend, ranking number five and second among the weekend's new releases. The film ended its run on February 5, 2009, having grossed $13,559,812 in the domestic box office and $1,858,937 overseas for a worldwide total of $15,418,749. Based on an estimated $5 million budget, the film was a minor box office success.

### Critical reception

The film was widely panned and currently holds a 28/100 rating on Metacritic, based on 10 reviews and a 2% "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 41 reviews, with the site's critical consensus being " The Haunting of Molly Hartley is a rather lifeless horror endeavor, with a pedestrian plot and few scares." Its best review came from the Toronto Star which said "If you get past the retro Nancy Drew title, this is a worthwhile effort." The LA Weekly wrote "From Freestyle Releasing, the self-service distributor that brought you D-War and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, comes a movie even worse than those two combined."

Frank Scheck for The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a teen-oriented horror opus that wouldn't pass muster on the CW network." Keith Phipps for The A.V. Club gave the film a D+ and said "It's a horror film better suited for skittish cats than humans."

### Home media

Originally independently released by Freestyle Releasing, all ancillary rights reverted to 20th Century Fox upon its DVD release on February 24, 2009, via Fox's home video division, since Fox holds rights to release Freestyle films on DVD. The film was released in Mexico on June 4, 2010, via Quality Films. The UK DVD was released on June 14, 2010.

## Soundtrack

Although a formal soundtrack was never released, the following songs were used in the film:

- "Preparedness" by The Bird and the Bee

- "I Don't Wanna" by Anna Waronker

- "Rain" by Bishop Allen

- "Post Man" by The Sammies

- "17" by X-Press 2

- "Falling Out" by The Sammies

- "U a Freak (Nasty Girl)" by Chingy

- "Mad Scientist" by Madison

- "Untouched and Intact" by The Honorary Title

- "Overwhelmed" by Keren DeBerg

## Sequel

A sequel, The Exorcism of Molly Hartley, was released direct-to-DVD on October 9, 2015. The film, directed by Steven R. Monroe, stars Sarah Lind as Molly with a supporting cast of Devon Sawa, Gina Holden, and Peter MacNeill.


# List of Houston Texans starting quarterbacks

## Abstract

The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The Texans are members of the South division in the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL). They were founded in 1999 and began play as an expansion team in 2002. The team was owned by Bob McNair until his death in 2018; following McNair's death, the majority ownership of the team went to his wife, Janice. The Texans are the youngest franchise currently competing in the NFL.

In American football, the quarterback is widely regarded as the most important position, responsible for on-field decision-making as well taking the snap on almost all offensive plays. Only one quarterback can start any given game for each team.

These quarterbacks have started at least one game for the Houston Texans of the National Football League. They are listed in order of the date of each player's first start at quarterback for the Texans.

## Regular season

The number of games they started during the season is listed to the right:

## Postseason

Due to injuries to both starting quarterback Matt Schaub and backup quarterback Matt Leinart during the 2011 regular season, T. J. Yates became the starter for the rest of the season as well as the playoffs.

## Most games as starting quarterback

These quarterbacks have the most starts for the Texans in regular season games.


Debbie Bartlett

# Debbie Bartlett

## Abstract

Debbie Bartlett (born Deborah DuBusky in 1951) is an American actress, dancer and choreographer, known for her work in film, television, and stage during the 1970s and 1980 particularly for her role on The Love Boat.,

## Early life and family

Debbie Bartlett was born Deborah Ann DuBusky in 1951, the third of four children of Jerome Joseph “Jerry” DuBusky (1919 to 1984) and Ann Elizabeth Donahue (1927 to 1987). Her father was born in Washington D.C., with Prussian, French, Irish and Portuguese ancestry. Her mother was from Massachusetts with English and Irish ancestry.

Jerry and Ann DuBusky began raising their family in Washington DC before moving to California. The four children were raised in West Covina and attended Edgewood High School, where Debbie was crowned homecoming queen in 1969.

## Career

Debbie DuBusky began her career in 1970 when she joined the cast of Disney on Parade. It was on that tour that she met Bill Bartlett whom she married the next year, taking the name Bartlett as her stage name. The Disney on Parade show and tour took her to Canada, Mexico and around the USA. At the end of the tour she joined the Chandler Conspiracy Night Club Act, a touring show group, where she performed alongside Bill until 1974. Alongside her husband she appeared in an Orange Shasta commercial in 1977 starring Barry Williams and choreographed by Peter Gennaro. She began her film career in 1978 in the comedy Shame, Shame on the Bixby Boys, where she played Suley Blue Bixby, but continued to work on stage. In 1979 she performed alongside Peter Virgo jr and Bruce Tuthill in Bells Are Ringing at The Muny, St Louis playing Michelle.

In 1980, Bartlett was cast in Xanadu as one of the immortal Muses. She was the second muse to emerge from the mural during the "I'm Alive" sequence. However, she had to leave the production before its conclusion and was uncredited. In 1981, she made a guest appearance on the sitcom Three's Company as Marlene in the episode Some of That Jazz. Debbie then became well known as a game show cohost. In 1983 she was featured on Dream House and then filled the cohost role on Every Second Counts in 1984.

Bartlett's most significant television role came in the final season of The Love Boat (1985–1986), where she appeared in 19 episodes as Susie, one of eight dancers known as The Mermaids. Selected through a nationwide audition process from thousands of hopefuls, she was part of a team that included Teri Hatcher, who appeared as Amy in her first role. For this role she had to leave Every Second Counts midway through its run.

From June 1986 to June 1987, Bartlett performed in the touring production of Singin' in the Rain, playing Mary Margaret and participating in the ensemble. She then returned to TV to act as a gameshow cohost with Alan Thicke in Animal Crack-Ups (1987–1990). She also worked as a hostess on the short-lived syndicated series Home Shopping Game in 1987.

In the 1990s, Bartlett worked alongside her husband as a choreographer. In 1995, they choreographed F. Scott Fitzgerald 's Tender is the Night at the Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles In 1998, at The Fountain Theatre once again, they choreographed Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon for which they won the LA Weekly 1998 Production Design of the Year Award for Choreography. Other notable productions at the Fountain Theatre include Dottie! and Ancient History.

Bartlett continued to perform as well as choreograph. Although predominantly in theatre, in 2003 she played a ghost dancer alongside Bill in the Disney film The Haunted Mansion.

## Personal life

Debbie married William "Bill" Bartlett (1940–2020), a dancer and dance teacher, on August 3, 1971. She used her married name throughout her career. Bill had already begun establishing his career as a performer in Portland, Oregon, where he was discovered by Sophie Tucker. He went on to perform with luminaries such as Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. He was most renowned as a teacher, at various schools such as the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studios and the Madilyn Clark Studios. Bill's long teaching career included a notable tenure at Plaza de la Raza starting in 1987 as well as Idyllwild Arts Academy.

Debbie assisted Bill's teaching from around 2007 at Idyllwild and began to take classes of her own. They were also close friends with dancer and choreographer Alex Romero and dancer and author Mark Knowles. They assisted Knowles in creating a lecture on the history of tap dancing, which Knowles later expanded into a book. When Bill Bartlett passed away on August 31, 2020, they had been married for forty-nine years. Latterly, the Bartlett's performed together in Hollywood in show written and directed by Cate Caplin (a former student of Bill's) called The Beat Goes On. Her final performance with Bill was in 2017 at the Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher Celebration of Life at the Forest Lawn Hall of Liberty.

Debbie's niece, Rachel DuBusky, is also a dancer and owner-director of Solid Gold Dance studios. Having spent 29 years at Pam Rossi's Dance Ten studio, in 2021, she took over the studio and renamed it in tribute to Pam Rossi's time as a dancer on the TV show Solid Gold.


Devoured by the Mouth of Hell

# Devoured by the Mouth of Hell

## Abstract

Devoured by the Mouth of Hell is the upcoming debut studio album by British metalcore band Heriot. It will be released on 27 September 2024 through Century Media Records. The album was recorded by Sylosis frontman and former Architects guitarist Josh Middleton and mixed by Will Putney (Fit for an Autopsy, End and Better Lovers).

## Background and recording

In 2022, Heriot released their third extended play, Profound Morality, which gave the band considerable exposure. In February 2023, they released "Demure", which they touted as the start of a "new era" for the band. Heriot began working on Devoured by the Mouth of Hell in March 2023. Compared to Profound Morality, which was written amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Heriot approached the album with their live show in mind. Writing was put on hold as Heriot toured Europe during the summer. In November 2023, the band signed with Century Media Records and returned to writing, which continued until January 2024. Around February/March 2024, the band began recording the album with co-producer Josh Middleton, best known as the frontman of Sylosis and ex-guitarist of Architects. Justin Hill of Sikth engineered the album's drums, and Will Putney of Fit for an Autopsy handled mixing.

## Release and promotion

On 2 May 2024, Heriot released "Siege Lord". On 5 June 2024, the band announced the release of Devoured by the Mouth of Hell and released its second single, "Foul Void". Throughout June 2024, Heriot performed at the Rock im Park and Rock Am Ring, Download, Resurrection, Jera on Air and Hellfest festivals. They also performed at the inaugural Bastard Fest in July. On 14 August 2024, the band released "At the Fortress Gate" as the third single, alongside a music video filmed by Harry Steel during their 2024 festival shows. The album will be released on 27 September 2024. On the day of the album's release, Heriot will perform an "Album Release Show" at The Exchange in Bristol, supported by Cauldron. Between 22 November and 21 December 2024, the band will support Sylosis and Fit for an Autopsy on their co-headlining tour of Europe.

## Track listing

## Personnel

Personnel per Bandcamp.

Heriot

- Erhan Alman – guitars

- Debbie Gough – guitars, vocals

- Jake Packer – bass, vocals

- Julian Gage – drums

Production

- Jake Packer – production

- Josh Middleton – production

- Will Putney – mixing

- Justin Hill – engineering


Jean-Marie Ghuysen

# Jean-Marie Ghuysen

## Abstract

Jean-Marie Ghuysen (1925-2004), was a Belgian academic.

## Biography

Ghuysen was born on 26 January 1925 in Trembleur. His early life in Blégny-Trembleur, near Liège, revolved around his father's pharmacy, providing initial scientific exposure. Despite German occupation during his university years, he clandestinely obtained degrees in pharmacy and chemistry, subsequently gaining a PhD for his research on RNA in 1951.

Ghuysen's career progressed at Labaz Laboratories, where he led research on bacteriolytic enzymes, advancing knowledge of bacterial cell wall structure. This work earned him an Agregation Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1957, the highest academic honor in Belgium.

Returning to the University of Liège, he focused on peptidoglycan research and proposed the term itself in 1966. His subsequent work explored penicillin 's interaction with peptidoglycan biosynthesis, providing insights into bacterial antibiotic resistance.

## Awards and recognition

Ghuysen received multiple awards, including the Prix Joseph Maisin of the National Research Foundation of Belgium (FNRS), the Gairdner Foundation International Award in Medical Science, and the UNESCO Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology.


Multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding

# Multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding

## Abstract

MUSE (Multiple sub-Nyquist Sampling Encoding), commercially known as Hi-Vision (a contraction of HI gh-definition tele VISION) was a Japanese analog high-definition television system, with design efforts going back to 1979.

It used dot-interlacing and digital video compression to deliver 1125 line, 60 field-per-second (1125i60) signals to the home. The system was standardized as ITU -R recommendation BO.786 and specified by SMPTE 260M, using a colorimetry matrix specified by SMPTE 240M. As with other analog systems, not all lines carry visible information. On MUSE there are 1035 active interlaced lines, therefore this system is sometimes also mentioned as 1035i. It employed 2-dimensional filtering, dot-interlacing, motion-vector compensation and line-sequential color encoding with time compression to "fold" an original 20 MHz bandwidth source signal into just 8.1 MHz.

Japan began broadcasting wideband analog HDTV signals in December 1988, initially with an aspect ratio of 2:1. The Sony HDVS high-definition video system was used to create content for the MUSE system, but didn't record MUSE signals. By the time of its commercial launch in 1991, digital HDTV was already under development in the United States. Hi-Vision was mainly broadcast by NHK through their BShi satellite TV channel, although other channels such as WOWOW, TV Asahi, Fuji Television, TBS Television, Nippon Television, and TV Tokyo also broadcast in MUSE.

On May 20, 1994, Panasonic released the first MUSE LaserDisc player. There were also a number of players available from other brands like Pioneer and Sony.

Hi-Vision continued broadcasting in analog until 2007.

## History

MUSE was developed by NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in the 1980s as a compression system for Hi-Vision HDTV signals.

- Japanese broadcast engineers immediately rejected conventional vestigial sideband broadcasting.

- It was decided early on that MUSE would be a satellite broadcast format as Japan economically supports satellite broadcasting. MUSE was transmitted at a frequency of 21 GHz or 12 GHz.

- Japanese broadcast engineers had been studying the various HDTV broadcast types for some time. It was initially thought that SHF, EHF or optic fiber would have to be used to transmit HDTV due to the high bandwidth of the signal, and HLO-PAL would be used for terrestrial broadcast. HLO-PAL is a conventionally constructed composite signal (based on Y {\displaystyle Y} for luminance and C {\displaystyle C} for chroma like NTSC and PAL) and uses a phase alternating by line with half-line offset carrier encoding of the wideband/narrowband chroma components. Only the very lowest part of the wideband chroma component overlapped the high-frequency chroma. The narrowband chroma was completely separated from luminance. PAF, or phase alternating by field (like the first NTSC color system trial) was also experimented with, and it gave much better decoding results, but NHK abandoned all composite encoding systems. Because of the use of satellite transmission, Frequency modulation (FM) should be used with power-limitation problem. FM incurs triangular noise, so if a sub-carrierred composite signal is used with FM, demodulated chroma signal has more noise than luminance. Because of this, they looked at other options, and decided to use Y / C {\displaystyle Y/C} component emission for satellite. At one point, it seemed that FCFE (Frame Conversion Fineness Enhanced), I/P conversion compression system, would be chosen, but MUSE was ultimately picked.

- Separate transmission of Y {\displaystyle Y} and C {\displaystyle C} components was explored. The MUSE format which is transmitted today, uses separated component signalling. The improvement in picture quality was so great, that the original test systems were recalled.

- One more power saving tweak was made: lack of visual response to low frequency noise allows significant reduction in transponder power if the higher video frequencies are emphasised prior to modulation at the transmitter and de-emphasized at the receiver.

## Technical specifications

MUSE's "1125 lines" are an analog measurement, which includes non-video scan lines taking place while a CRT 's electron beam returns to the top of the screen to begin scanning the next field. Only 1035 lines have picture information. Digital signals count only the lines (rows of pixels) that have actual detail, so NTSC's 525 lines become 486i (rounded to 480 to be MPEG compatible), PAL's 625 lines become 576i, and MUSE would be 1035i. To convert the bandwidth of Hi-Vision MUSE into "conventional" lines-of-horizontal resolution (as is used in the NTSC world), multiply 29.9 lines per MHz of bandwidth. (NTSC and PAL/SECAM are 79.9 lines per MHz) - this calculation of 29.9 lines works for all current HD systems including Blu-ray and HD-DVD. So, for MUSE, during a still picture, the lines of resolution would be: 598-lines of luminance resolution per-picture-height. The chroma resolution is: 209-lines. The horizontal luminance measurement approximately matches the vertical resolution of a 1080 interlaced image when the Kell factor and interlace factor are taken into account. 1125 lines was selected as a compromise between the resolution in lines of NTSC and PAL and then doubling this number.

MUSE employs time-compression integration (TCI) which is another term for time-division multiplexing, which is used to carry luminance, chrominance, PCM audio and sync signals on one carrier signal/in one carrier frequency. However, TCI achieves multiplexing by compression of the contents in the time dimension, in other words transmitting frames of video that are divided into regions with chrominance compressed into the left of the frame and luminance compressed into the right of the frame, which must then be expanded and layered to create a visible image. This makes it different from NTSC which carries luminance, audio and chrominance simultaneously in several carrier frequencies. Hi-Vision signals are component video signals with 3 channels: they were RGB initially, and later YP P.

Key features of the MUSE system:

- Scanlines (total/active): 1,125/1,035

- Pixels per line (fully interpolated): 1122 (still image)/748 (moving)

- Reference clock periods: 1920 per active line

- Interlaced ratio: 2:1

- Aspect ratio 16:9

- Refresh rate: 59.94 or 60 frames per second

- Sampling frequency for broadcast: 16.2 MHz

- Vector motion compensation: horizontal ± 16 samples (32.4 MHz clock) / frame, a vertical line ± 3 / Field

- Audio: "DANCE" discrete 2- or 4-channel digital audio system: 48 kHz/16 bit (2 channel stereo: 2 front channels)/32 kHz/12 bit (4 channel surround: 3 front channels + 1 back channel)

- DPCM Audio compression format: DPCM quasi-instantaneous companding

- Required bandwidth: 27 MHz

### Colorimetry

The MUSE luminance signal Y {\displaystyle Y} encodes Y M {\displaystyle YM}, specified as the following mix of the original RGB color channels:

The chrominance C {\displaystyle C} signal encodes B − Y M {\displaystyle B-YM} and R − Y M {\displaystyle R-YM} difference signals. By using these three signals (Y M {\displaystyle YM}, B − Y M {\displaystyle B-YM} and R − Y M {\displaystyle R-YM}), a MUSE receiver can retrieve the original RGB color components using the following matrix:

The system used a colorimetry matrix specified by SMPTE 240M (with coefficients corresponding to the SMPTE RP 145 primaries, also known as SMPTE-C, in use at the time the standard was created). The chromaticity of the primary colors and white point are:

The luma (E Y {\displaystyle EY}) function is specified as:

The blue color difference (E P B {\displaystyle EPB}) is amplitude-scaled (E B − E Y {\displaystyle EB-EY}), according to:

The red color difference (E P R {\displaystyle EPR}) is amplitude-scaled (E R − E Y {\displaystyle ER-EY}), according to:

### Signal and Transmission

MUSE is a 1125 line system (1035 visible), and is not pulse and sync compatible with the digital 1080 line system used by modern HDTV. Originally, it was a 1125 line, interlaced, 60 Hz, system with a 5:3 (1.66:1) aspect ratio and an optimal viewing distance of roughly 3.3H. In 1989 this was changed to a 16:9 aspect ratio.

For terrestrial MUSE transmission a bandwidth limited FM system was devised. A satellite transmission system uses uncompressed FM.

The pre-compression bandwidth for Y {\displaystyle Y} is 20 MHz, and the pre-compression bandwidth for chrominance is a 7.425 MHz carrier.

The Japanese initially explored the idea of frequency modulation of a conventionally constructed composite signal. This would create a signal similar in structure to the Y / C {\displaystyle Y/C} composite video NTSC signal - with the Y {\displaystyle Y} (luminance) at the lower frequencies and the C {\displaystyle C} (chrominance) above. Approximately 3 kW of power would be required, in order to get 40 dB of signal to noise ratio for a composite FM signal in the 22 GHz band. This was incompatible with satellite broadcast techniques and bandwidth.

To overcome this limitation, it was decided to use a separate transmission of Y {\displaystyle Y} and C {\displaystyle C}. This reduces the effective frequency range and lowers the required power. Approximately 570 W (360 for Y {\displaystyle Y} and 210 for C {\displaystyle C}) would be needed in order to get a 40 dB of signal to noise ratio for a separate Y / C {\displaystyle Y/C} FM signal in the 22 GHz satellite band. This was feasible.

There is one more power saving that appears from the character of the human eye. The lack of visual response to low frequency noise allows significant reduction in transponder power if the higher video frequencies are emphasized prior to modulation at the transmitter and then de-emphasized at the receiver. This method was adopted, with crossover frequencies for the emphasis/de-emphasis at 5.2 MHz for Y {\displaystyle Y} and 1.6 MHz for C {\displaystyle C}. With this in place, the power requirements drop to 260 W of power (190 for Y {\displaystyle Y} and 69 for C {\displaystyle C}).

## Sampling systems and ratios

The subsampling in a video system is usually expressed as a three part ratio. The three terms of the ratio are: the number of brightness (luma) Y {\displaystyle Y} samples, followed by the number of samples of the two color (chroma) components C b {\displaystyle Cb} and C r {\displaystyle Cr}, for each complete sample area. Traditionally the value for brightness is always 4, with the rest of the values scaled accordingly.

A sampling of 4:4:4 indicates that all three components are fully sampled. A sampling of 4:2:0, for example, indicated that the two chroma components are sampled at half the horizontal sample rate of luma - the horizontal chroma resolution is halved. This reduces the bandwidth of an uncompressed video signal by one-third.

MUSE implements a similar system as a means of reducing bandwidth, but instead of static sampling, the actual ratio varies according to the amount of motion on the screen. In practice, MUSE sampling will vary from approximately 4:2:1 to 4:0.5:0.25, depending on the amount of movement. Thus the red-green chroma component C r {\displaystyle Cr} has between one-half and one-eighth the sampling resolution of the luma component Y {\displaystyle Y}, and the blue-yellow chroma C b {\displaystyle Cb} has half the resolution of red-green.

## Audio subsystem

MUSE had a discrete 2- or 4-channel digital audio system called " DANCE ", which stood for Digital Audio Near-instantaneous Compression and Expansion.

It used differential audio transmission (differential pulse-code modulation) that was not psychoacoustics-based like MPEG-1 Layer II. It used a fixed transmission rate of 1350 kbp/s. Like the PAL NICAM stereo system, it used near-instantaneous companding (as opposed to Syllabic-companding like the dbx system uses) and non-linear 13-bit digital encoding at a 32 kHz sample rate.

It could also operate in a 48 kHz 16-bit mode. The DANCE system was well documented in numerous NHK technical papers and in a NHK-published book issued in the USA called Hi-Vision Technology.

The DANCE audio codec was superseded by Dolby AC-3 (a.k.a. Dolby Digital), DTS Coherent Acoustics (a.k.a. DTS Zeta 6x20 or ARTEC), MPEG-1 Layer III (a.k.a. MP3), MPEG-2 Layer I, MPEG-4 AAC and many other audio coders. The methods of this codec are described in the IEEE paper:

## Real world performance issues

MUSE had a four-field dot-interlacing cycle, meaning it took four fields to complete a single MUSE frame. Thus, only stationary images were transmitted at full resolution. However, as MUSE lowers the horizontal and vertical resolution of material that varies greatly from frame to frame, moving images were blurred. Because MUSE used motion-compensation, whole camera pans maintained full resolution, but individual moving elements could be reduced to only a quarter of the full frame resolution. Because the mix between motion and non-motion was encoded on a pixel-by-pixel basis, it wasn't as visible as most would think. Later, NHK came up with backwards compatible methods of MUSE encoding/decoding that greatly increased resolution in moving areas of the image as well as increasing the chroma resolution during motion. This so-called MUSE-III system was used for broadcasts starting in 1995 and a very few of the last Hi-Vision MUSE LaserDiscs used it (A River Runs Through It is one Hi-Vision LD that used it). During early demonstrations of the MUSE system, complaints were common about the decoder's large size, which led to the creation of a miniaturized decoder.

Shadows and multipath still plague this analog frequency modulated transmission mode.

Japan has since switched to a digital HDTV system based on ISDB, but the original MUSE-based BS Satellite channel 9 (NHK BS Hi-vision) was broadcast until September 30, 2007.

## Cultural and geopolitical impacts

- (1940s): The NTSC standard (as a 525 line monochrome system) was imposed by the US occupation forces.

- (1950s-1960s): Unlike Canada (that could have switched to PAL), Japan was stuck with the US TV transmission standard regardless of circumstances.

- (1960s-1970s): By the late 1960s many parts of the modern Japanese electronics industry had gotten their start by fixing the transmission and storage problems inherent with NTSC's design.

- (1970s-1980s): By the 1980s there was spare engineering talent available in Japan that could design a better television system.

MUSE, as the US public came to know it, was initially covered in the magazine Popular Science in the mid-1980s. The US television networks did not provide much coverage of MUSE until the late 1980s, as there were few public demonstrations of the system outside Japan.

Because Japan had its own domestic frequency allocation tables (that were more open to the deployment of MUSE) it became possible for this television system to be transmitted by Ku Band satellite technology by the end of the 1980s.

The US FCC in the late 1980s began to issue directives that would allow MUSE to be tested in the US, providing it could be fit into a 6 MHz System-M channel.

The Europeans (in the form of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)) were impressed with MUSE, but could never adopt it because it is a 60 Hz TV system, not a 50 Hz system that is standard in Europe and the rest of the world (outside the Americas and Japan).

The EBU development and deployment of B-MAC, D-MAC and much later on HD-MAC were made possible by Hi-Vision's technical success. In many ways MAC transmission systems are better than MUSE because of the total separation of colour from brightness in the time domain within the MAC signal structure.

Like Hi-Vision, HD-MAC could not be transmitted in 8 MHz channels without substantial modification – and a severe loss of quality and frame rate. A 6 MHz version Hi-Vision was experimented with in the US, but it too had severe quality problems so the FCC never fully sanctioned its use as a domestic terrestrial television transmission standard.

The US ATSC working group that had led to the creation of NTSC in the 1950s was reactivated in the early 1990s because of Hi-Vision's success. Many aspects of the DVB standard are based on work done by the ATSC working group, however most of the impact is in support for 60 Hz (as well as 24 Hz for film transmission) and uniform sampling rates and interoperable screen sizes.

## Device support for Hi-Vision

### Hi-Vision LaserDiscs

On May 20, 1994, Panasonic released the first MUSE LaserDisc player. There were a number of MUSE LaserDisc players available in Japan: Pioneer HLD-XØ, HLD-X9, HLD-1000, HLD-V500, HLD-V700; Sony HIL-1000, HIL-C1 and HIL-C2EX; the last two of which have OEM versions made by Panasonic, LX-HD10 and LX-HD20. Players also supported standard NTSC LaserDiscs. Hi-Vision LaserDiscs are extremely rare and expensive.

The HDL-5800 Video Disc Recorder recorded both high definition still images and continuous video onto an optical disc and was part of the early analog wideband Sony HDVS high-definition video system which supported the MUSE system. Capable of recording HD still images and video onto either the WHD-3AL0 or the WHD-33A0 optical disc; WHD-3Al0 for CLV mode (up to 10 minute video or 18,000 still frames per side); WHD-33A0 for CAV mode (up to 3 minute video or 5400 still frames per side). These video discs were used for short video content such as advertisements and product demonstrations.

The HDL-2000 was a full band high definition video disc player.

### Reel to reel VTRs

For recording Hi-Vision signals, Three reel to reel analog VTRs were released, among them are the Sony HDV-1000, the NEC TT 8-1000 and the Toshiba TVR-1000. These analog VTRs had a head drum angular speed of 3600 RPM and are similar to Type C VTRs. They have a bandwidth of 30 Mhz for luma and 7 Mhz for both chroma channels each, with a signal to noise ratio of 41 dB. They accept luma and chroma signals with bandwidths of up to 30 Mhz for both. Signals are recorded onto the tape using FM modulation. Linear tape speed is 483.1 mm/s and writing speed at the heads is 25.9 m/s. The head drum is 134.5 mm wide and has 4 video record heads, 4 video playback heads and 1 erasing head. It could record for 45 minutes on 10.5 inch reels. The video heads are made of Mn-Zn ferrite material, those used for recording have a gap of 0.7 microns and a width of 80 microns and those for playback have a gap of 0.35 microns and a width of 70 microns. It records audio on 3 linear tracks, and control signals on a linear track. Unlike conventional type C videotape recorders, Vertical Blanking Intervals are not recorded on the tape. Helical tracks have groups of 4 signals length-wise with red chrominance, blue chrominance, and two green chrominance signals with luminance information. Two tracks for green chrominance plus luminance are used to increase the bandwidth of these signals that can be recorded on the tape.

In 1987, technical standards for digital recording of Hi-Vision signals were released by NHK, and Sony and Hitachi developed the HDD-1000 and the HV-1200 digital reel to reel VTRs respectively. Audio is recorded digitally similarly to a DASH (Digital Audio Stationary Head) digital audio recorder, but several changes were made to synchronize the audio to the video. These digital VTRs can record 8 channels of digital audio on linear tracks (horizontally along the entire length of the tape). According to the standards, these VTRs operate with a head drum speed of 7200 RPM, have a bit rate of 148.5 Mb/s per video head, a linear tape speed of 805.2 mm/s and a writing speed at the heads of 51.5 m/s, are similar to Type C VTRs, have a head drum 135mm wide, 8 playback, 8 recording and 2 erase heads, with 37 micron wide helical tracks. Bandwidth is 30 Mhz for luma (Y) and 15 Mhz for chroma (P, P). Audio is recorded with a sampling rate of 48 kHz stored at 16 bits per sample in linear tape tracks, sampling rate for luma is 74.25 Mhz and 37.125 Mhz for chroma stored at 8 bits per sample. Signal to noise ratio is 56 dB for chroma and luma. Video fields are divided into 16 helical tracks on the tape. Total video bandwidth is 1.188 gigabits/s. Cue signals are recorded into 3 linear tape tracks. Video is recorded in groups of 4 tracks length-wise within each helical track, to allow for parallelization: high total data rates with relatively low data rates per head, and reduce the linear tape speed. Digital video signals are recorded line by line (1 row of pixels in every frame of video or 1 line of video at a time) with ECC (Error Correcting Code) at the end of each line and in between a number of vertical lines. Reed-Solomon code is used for ECC and each line also has an ID number for trick play such as slow motion and picture search/shuttle.

### Displays

Hi-Vision and MUSE require a display capable of handling 30 Mhz of video bandwidth simultaneously for each of the component video channels: Y, P and P. It was displayed on direct view color CRTs and CRT projectors, and plasma displays and Talaria projectors were explored to determine their ability to display MUSE and Hi-Vision images.

### Cameras

Cameras based on Saticon tubes, Plumbicon tubes, Harpicon tubes and CCD image sensors were used to capture footage using the Hi-Vision format. A prototype based on Vidicon tubes was also created.

### MUSE decoders

A MUSE decoder is required for receiving MUSE broadcasts from satellites, and for viewing content in the MUSE format. The decoder converts MUSE format signals into component video signals.

### Video cassettes

W-VHS allowed home recording of Hi-Vision programmes.

For recording Hi-Vision video, NHK and 10 Japanese companies ("NEC, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Toshiba, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi, Sanyo Electric, JVC, Mitsubishi Electric, Canon") in 1989 released UniHi, a professional videocassette format. Recorders for the format were manufactured by Panasonic, Sony, NEC, and Toshiba. These machines were less expensive than their Type C counterparts. Both studio and portable versions were made. The head drum spins at 5400 RPM and uses tape that is 12.65 mm wide. It has a luminance (Y) bandwidth of 20 MHz and a chrominance (P, P) bandwidth of 7 MHz. The head drum is 76mm wide. It uses two video heads with azimuth recording and records each frame of video into 12 helical tracks; only 6 tracks are necessary for each video field if recording interlaced video. Audio is recorded digitally as a PCM signal, as a section on the helical tracks. Writing speed at the heads is 21.4 m/s. The tape also has 3 linear tracks, one for audio, control and time code each. Signal to noise ratio for luminance is 41 dB and for chrominance it is 47 dB. The tape is wrapped 180° around the head drum. Development began in 1987. It uses metal particle tape. It could record video for 1 hour (63 minutes). Linear tape speed is 120 mm/s. The cassette measures 205mm (width) x 121mm (depth) x 25mm (height). Signals are recorded using time-compression integration, in groups of two signals length-wise on each helical track. Grouping is used to increase the bandwidth that can be recorded on the tape. The cassette is intented to be air-tight with two flaps in the cassette's opening to protect the tape.

This videocassette format was developed in order to reduce the size of HD recording equipment. The Sony version of the UniHi VTR, the HDV-10, had a price of over 90,000 US dollars.


The Hide

# The Hide

## Abstract

The Hide is a 2008 film, the debut from director Marek Losey, who previously had an award-winning career as a director of advertisements. The film starred Alex Macqueen and Phil Campbell, based on the stage play The Sociable Plover by Tim Whitnall, who also wrote the screenplay. The film had the strapline "No Crime Stays Hidden Forever". Produced by Christopher Granier-Deferre and John Schwab.

## Plot

The film is set in and around a bird-hide on the Suffolk marshes owned by Roy Tunt (Macqueen). Roy is a middle-aged, obsessive bird watcher, who needs just one more sighting (of the sociable plover) to complete the entire British list of birds. He is unexpectedly joined by a dishevelled and tattooed stranger, who introduces himself as Dave John (Campbell). After an awkward start, the pair build up a rapport, share lunch, have a drink and discuss a wide variety of subjects. Roy tells David that he used to work in a poultry factory and that his wife left him for another man.

Roy's walkie-talkie picks up a police message about a local murder by someone fitting David's description. Dave is armed but his gun falls out of his pocket when he falls asleep and Roy takes it. Roy then confesses that he is the man wanted for murder; that the victims were his wife and her partner. He sickens David by describing how he disposed of the bodies in a poultry factory mincer, turning them into a paste which he has fed to David in the sandwiches they had shared earlier. Roy intends to blow up the police helicopter that is looking for him on the marsh. David tries to reason with Roy but the pair end up fighting. In the struggle, David steals his gun back and kills Roy.

## Filming

The film was shot on location at Elmley Marshes on the Isle of Sheppey in November and December 2007.

## Cast

- Alex Macqueen as Roy Tunt

- Phil Campbell as Dave John

Macqueen had previously played the role of Tunt in the stage version.

## Critical evaluation

The film met with a positive critical reaction; The Scotsman ' s Alistair Harkness described it as "an absorbing drama from two characters in a single location that simmers with menace and builds to a satisfyingly macabre conclusion". The Independent ' s Anthony Quinn described it as "a modestly scaled but cleverly written chamber piece", and commented on "the superb underplaying by the two actors, Campbell coiled and terse, Macqueen prissily pedantic and controlling". James Christopher of The Times described the interplay between the two protagonists: "Their arguments have the tension and rhythm of a classic black-box fringe play. It's a crude but enthralling duel with shades of Peter Shaffer 's Sleuth. Shades too of Hitchcock ’s Rope." The Observer ' s film critic Philip French identified influences from both Losey's grandfather and Harold Pinter. Time Out ' s David Jenkins also compared the film to the work of Samuel Beckett. Allan Hunter of the Daily Express also raised Beckett comparisons and called it "moody, minimalist and well-observed".


Fall River F.C. (1932)

# Fall River F.C. (1932)

## Abstract

Fall River Football Club, was the name used by a United States soccer clubs, based in Fall River, Massachusetts. They played in the American Soccer League during the 1931 and 1932 season. The name is often used and is not to be confused with the Fall River F.C. team owned by Sam Mark.

## Fall River F.C. Spring 1931

In 1931, after Mark relocated his team to New York and renamed them the New York Yankees, a group of Fall River businessmen, led by an ex-Marksmen player Harold Brittan, then bought Gold Bugs, moved them into Mark's Stadium, and renamed them Fall River F.C.

The new club played for just one season, Spring 1931, eventually finishing fifth. However, during their short existence they did win two notable prestige friendlies. On February 22, 1931, they beat Vélez Sársfield 5–2. Then on May 31 with a team that included Joe Kennaway, Bill Paterson and Tom Florie they beat Celtic 1–0. Kennaway subsequently signed for Celtic after impressing them with his performance in goal. By early 1931 the Great Depression had severely effected the stability of the ASL and several teams relocated, merged and even disappeared. On April 19, 1931, Fall River absorbed New Bedford Whalers. On May 31, 1931, Fall River defeated Celtic F.C. before a crowd of 7,000 at Mark's Stadium. The club folded after the first half of the season.

## Fall River 1932

This Fall River soccer team played during the Fall 1932 American Soccer League season. This team was put together by manager Tec White. New Bedford Whalers, the successor team of both the earlier Fall River F.C./Providence F.C. and the 'Marksmen', also began the Fall 1932 season but they only survived for six games before folding. The team began the season with the following lineup: goalkeeper John Souza, fullbacks Chick Rebello and Bert Campbell, halfbacks Dinny Doyle, John Dubienny, and John Caldwell, forwards Jim White, Myrtle, Fred Wall, Billy Gonsalves and Joe Czapya with Ralph and Chet Varanese as reserves. Billy Gonsalves with the new Fall River club, scoring 7 goals in 12 games, until he transferred to Stix Baer Fuller.

## Honors

Fall River F.C. II

- American Soccer League Winners Fall 1932: 1

- Winners Fall 1932: 1