ESPN360.com announced today that it will collaborate with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) for its technology infrastructure and operations support when the network’s name changes on April 4th.

As part of the deal, the network will use Adobe’s Flash Media Server (FMS) as its core technology. New features and enhancements include customizable widgets with scores, chats, schedules and more. ESPN3.com will also offer more HiDef streaming of live events and additional viewing options via picture-in-picture and split screens.

“ESPN360.com carries a wide variety of more than 3,500 live sporting events online, and continually improving that experience is our top priority,” said John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager, ESPN Digital Media. “This new agreement with MLBAM, which deepens our seven-year relationship, brings two leaders in sports video streaming together on the same platform.”

“Our long-term collaboration with ESPN has been defined by a common thread to serve fans first and supporting the new ESPN3.com with our live streaming technology underscores our continued commitment to this goal,” said Bob Bowman, president and chief executive officer, MLBAM.

Programming on ESPN3.com will remain the same, with access to replay, HiDef-quality streaming and milestone markers for select events, geo-targeted ads and more. The network is available at no cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated service provider. It is currently in 50 million households — a majority of U.S. broadband homes — and accessible via dozens of Internet Service Providers nationwide, including AT&T, Verizon, Cox Communications, Comcast, RCN, Insight, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and more.

In addition to being available on computers and hand-held devices, “Safety Geeks” is also 3DTV-ready as soon as those displays begin hitting the market this spring.

Season 2 of Web comedy series "Safety Geeks" is 3D-ready. Screening of 2D version at Cinespace Friday.

Safety Geeks, from co-writers-producers Tom Konkle and David Beeler and their L.A.-based Pith-e Productions, is a saucy, VFX-fueled tale of a group of semi-elite safety professionals, Safety Geeks SVI.
“The modular nature of our show allows the original eleven web series episodes to play well for platforms like mobile and web video while the one hour “movie version” lends itself to big screen home entertainment systems,” Konkle says.

A special free public screening of the first season of “Safety Geeks: SVI” in its original 2D format has been set for 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Friday (Feb. 19) at Cinespace Hollywood. (Free reservations here.) The series is one of five webisodics being screened Friday for voting members of the International Academy of Web TV (IAWTV) who are in the process of selecting nominees for the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards in Los Angeles on April 11. The program will feature three episodes each of the five web series, beginning with Frank Krueger’s exploration of a dangerous, underground world in “Redemption: The Darkness Descending.”

David Nett will present his high-stakes comedy series, “Gold,” about professional fantasy role-playing gamers prepping for the big championship, followed by Sandra Payne’s comedy “Life with Kat & McKay,” about the ups and downs of a mama’s boy and a rich daddy’s girl as they make their way to the altar. The final series being screened is billed as a retro-futuristic comedy called “Space Hospital,” which chronicles the adventures of the robots, doctors and nurses stuck aboard a mobile hospital in deep space.

Check out “The Fast and Famous” video homage to the cult favorite 8 1/2-min. “Rendevous” short made by Claude Lelouche in 1976 featuring a supposedly single take of a high-speed dash through the streets of Paris at dawn from the view of a single camera mounted on the front of the car, a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9.

Leno also did his 13-mile drive in a single take just past dawn on a Sunday morning, but he also provided running commentary and did two other drives on two other mornings, with Hart mounting three cameras on the car for cutaways (two HiDef Iconix mini cameras used in studio 3D movies and for other special effects, and one HiDef Sony camera). The set-up can be seen in the 5 1/2-minute making-of video beneath the primary video below.

– By Scott Hettrick