Not only will there be more coverage when this summer's Beijing Olympics is held in August, there'll be lots and lots of video data and it seems Seagate's got it well in hand.

The storage vendor will provide nearly half a million gigs of storage for NBC, which is televising the event.

NBC has pulled in the vendor's Barracuda ES for storing data off NBC's Omneon MediaDeck media series and MediaGrid actie storage systems.

The server and storage system will support 3,600 hours of coverage -- three times as much footage taken during the Athen games in 2004.

A press release offered up a unique look into what the system can do:

• A gymnast leaps onto the balance beam. By the time she dismounts, NBC's broadcast footage is stored on the Barracuda drive in the active storage system, traveled 6,350 miles to the New York MediaGrid active storage system, processed, and transmitted as compelling coverage on television and http://www.nbcolympics.com.*

Phew. I don't think I'll ever watch competitive gymnastics in the same light again.

According to Seagate, NBC is using 20 MediaDeck servers, powered by the Barracuda drives, to digitize and ingest HD feeds.

The files are actively transferred, while being recorded, to the MediaGrid system.

Then, using Omneon's ProCast CDN content distribution system, the proxies are transferred thousands of miles from the MediaGrid active storage system in Beijing to a second MediaGrid storage system in New York, again powered by Seagate Barracuda drives, where producers can browse, view, and edit the files.

Storage titan EMC has done a really wild random act of kindness.

Ok maybe not wildly random, but it is pretty cool.

The vendor has donated $70,000 to help the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) digitize 150 years worth of historic astronomical information ---- about 100 terabytes.

PARI is an EMC customer. The organization helps organizations "collect humanity’s information heritage," according to a press release, and make information accessible online for research and education purposes.

Part of that "information heritage" work involves star research.

The donation was made through EMC's Information Heritage Initiative, and included an EMC CLARiiON networked storage system and EMC Navisphere software. T

The information infrastructure will support the Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration program, which enables PARI and volunteers from the general public to classify astronomical research data.

PARI was founded in 1998 in North Carolina to further science technology, engineering and math education and research for students, astronomers and the general public.

Nice gesture EMC.

What a little stock dip can do, huh!

News reports this morning claim SK Telecom has publicly said it's not panting after Sprint after all.

The reason? The minute the news hit SK's stock dropped and its investors expressed some angst.

Not horrible news in my opinion as I'm looking forward to seeing Sprint evolve over the next few months and rumours of acquisition and buy in can be sooooo distracting.

I mean what do you think the productivity level drop at Yahoo has been this past month? People can't work well in environments of so much uncertainty and confusion.

Sprint's got enough challenges ahead and focus is key to keep moving ahead.

According to published reports Sprint is being wooed by SK Telecom -- a Korean company who previously courted the third-place carrier with a $5B buy-in offer last November and was politely turned down.

The current courting could be a full acquisition or just a technology buy-in proposition depending on what paper you read today.

For its part Sprint said today it "doesn't comment on rumors or speculation."

No one does if they've got any kind of business background.

After all Sun gave a similar response yesterday about rumors it was being sold and or possibly spinning off a storage business and potentially tanking a Sun-built technology.

The thing is, Sprint's stock took a healthy jump initially late yesterday at the rumor. Today it's actually down a teensy bit.

I'm not going to begin pontificating on stock movements but I think such a swift reply by the market could be an indicator Sprint is getting much more attention these days given its new leadership, new marketing and recent news about customer service improvements.

It's a company taking action and making change.

CEO Dan Hesse, who took the helm in January, is known for turning companies around. He did it for an AT&T business, another company called Embarq and another company called Terabeam.

In several published interviews since taking the helm all Hesse has talked about is improving customer service as Sprint's churn rate reported in first quarter results was a bit chilling: total wireless subscribers declined by 1.09 million and revenues were down 8 percent over year to year.

Yes, one of the first things Hesse did was to reduce labor -- 4,000 jobs.

But he's also undertaken "a complete review of all of our operations and strategic planning" in an effort to streamline and get faster, quicker and better. He's also made customer service the top item on every meeting agenda as well as implemented some big changes in customer retention including:

• • reaching out to new customers during the 2nd, 5th and 12th months as a "check in" to ensure the customer is satisfied and has no unresolved issues
• • monitoring new customers’ wireless usage in first six months of service and letting customers know right away about significant excess voice, text or data overage charges so they can either change plans or cellular behavior
• • implementing an automatic alert that sends customers a confirmation email or text when there has been a price plan, a bill cycle change or an adjustment

And then of course the new Simply Everything plan -- a compelling package of data and voice at a pretty compelling price.

Not for nothing, but that's just a few things that have come into play in a short six months.

So maybe it isn't surprising SK Telecom has come back around looking at Sprint.

I think the smartest thing they could do though is wait another six months given the possibilities Hesse brings to the table.

Yes a better company draws a higher price, but a better company has a better chance to thrive and survive in what has to be one of the most cut-throat industries the US has seen in awhile.

Everyone hears rumors.

Heck the blogsphere not only reports rumors, it creates them and fuels them to the point where sometimes you can't even believe what you're reading.

But when you hear three different rumors about the same company, in the timeframe of 18 hours, it can make your head snap up just a little bit.

The company here is Sun.

The rumors are the following:

Sun is for sale - the whole enchilada...

Sun is spinning off and selling off StorageTek -- yea, this has been mulled and whispered about but given that there seems to be little force pushing StorageTek to where it should be by now you gotta wonder...

Sun is tanking its Honeycomb technology -- this was the project announced in 2005 that resulted in a fixed content system, the Sun StorageTek 5800, in 2007

So like an enterprising, and responsible, journalist I put a call into Sun to see what's up.

I'll be back later today to update you if I hear any response. If you know anything, let me know.

Sun got back to me, and after inquiring about the sources, provided this statement:

Sun is committed to its growth strategy, its leadership team, and building value for its shareholders. Storage is an important part of that strategy as evidenced by our Open Storage initiative, our leadership in flash, and our announcement of the world's first 1 TB tape drive. Statements to the contrary are pure rumor mongering and FUD.

Hmmm. I kind of wish they had just said "no, no and no."

The decision to vault onto the smartphone bandwagon can be intimidating for small and mid-size businesses.

It requires investment in capital, investment in employee training time and a commitment to making sure the device fosters productivity instead of hindering it.

Essentially it can be a lot of work for small shops with little or no IT support.

That's why I was intrigued to read about a "Smartphone Challenge" underway in San Antonio, Texas.

A local phone dealer, The Phone Store, has initiated a special 'try it, you'll like it' marketing program where small companies can test drive five smartphones -- including the BlackBerry -- in a free 10-day trial program.

Hosted provider Rackspace handles the email and messaging integration work, and Sprint provides free voice and data services.

The challenge kicked off about a month ago, and so far just under 20 SMBs have participated and gone on to become official (and paying) BlackBerry business environments.

Kevin, VP at the Phone Store, explained the goal is to target companies that are typically ignored by wireless carriers' marketing programs.

"The carriers are usually going after the Fords and Budweisers. We're going after our market which is the smaller company," Kevin said.

So far every participating company has gone the BlackBerry route, though any smartphone offered by Sprint is available in the challenge.

After a company signs up, Rackspace comes in to allocate and provision email and messaging systems for the devices.

A "launch" party, which kicks off the trial period, is then held on a Friday afternoon complete with balloons, cake, champagne and a few hours of training to get the five chosen users (and not just company leaders mind you) up and running.

A huge treasure chest filled with Bluetooth and wireless add ons and peripherals is brought in so users can choose accessories.

"It's a big to-do," said Kevin, admitting there are no pony rides or clowns part of the festivities, at least as yet.

The smartphone users spend the weekend getting familiar with their new workplace device and start using it the next Monday.

All the sponsors offer 24 hour support for any issues, concerns and hand holding.

The Phone Store is in daily contact with the participating company to provide help when needed.

Participating companies have run the gamut from construction firms to law offices to real estate agencies.

When the trial period ends a company can either just hand back all the devices and goodies with Rackspace undoing the integration hookup, or it can then choose from several different smartphone plans.

"We've had 100 percent success, no one has handed all the stuff back," said Kevin.

Not a surprising result given the challenge eliminates the hurdles thwarting SMB smartphone adoption these days.

Pretty savvy marketing I think.