Comcast Corp. has added 36 new networks to its channels in the Carmel area, including nine high-definition channels, the company announced. The new HD channels, which are accessible to digital cable customers with an HD set-top box, include Starz, TNT, MOJO, A&E, Food, National Geographic, HGTV, ESPN2 and MHD. The new offerings also include five international networks and 13 Spanish-speaking networks, which are available for an extra fee. Comcast, which provides cable, entertainment and communications products and services nationwide, has 24.1 million cable customers, 12.4 million high-speed Internet customers and 3.5 million voice customers, the company said.

Video surveillance technology developed at IBM Research labs here in Westchester County is being deployed in the city of Chicago. The Armonk-based computer giant said that Chicago’s Operation Virtual Shield is now using IBM’s artificial intelligence technology for analyzing video to further improve what Big Blue is calling “the most advanced and sophisticated digital video surveillance system ever deployed in a U.S. city.�

IBM’s Smart Surveillance Solution will help Chicago city officials detect suspicious activity and public safety concerns. Sam Docknevich, who leads IBM’s digital video surveillance practice, said Chicago is way ahead of other U.S. cities when it comes to using their camera network in a way to actually makes citizens safer by analyzing the video in real time. For example, if a car is involved in a criminal incident, IBM’s technology can help identify where the car was in the hour before the event by searching the video database for its license plate.

IBM and its business partners have been working with engineers from Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications for several years to design and deploy the infrastructure to capture, monitor, record and analyse video from thousands of cameras.

The Common Council in Peekskill this week approved Verizon Communication Inc.’s bid to provide its fiber-optic cable televison service. The company still needs the approval of the state Public Service Commission. Verizon offers cable, Internet and phone service over its FiOS network.

J.D. Power and Associates has ranked Verizon Wireless highest in the Northeast based on having fewer reported problems with initial connections, echoes and voice distortion. Verizon Wireless has regional headquarters in Orangeburg. The results were from the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study — Volume 2 released last week. The study, in its fifth year, found that call-quality problems have continued to decline nationwide.

IBM Corp. and Belk Inc. the nation’s largest privately held department store, have signed a seven-year, $98 million deal, renewing an existing outsourcing contract that dates back some 60 years, the companies said today.

The contract calls for Armonk-based Big Blue to continue implementing systems to provide data-center services, storage management, back up and recovery, and system software support, among other things.

Belk, based in Charlotte, N.C., operates more than 300 stores in 16 Southern states.

Separately, IBM said it has installed self-checkout systems in five Key Food stores in New York City.

The technology allows Man-Dell Food Stores, an independent Queens-based grocer, to better compete in the low-margin grocery business, IBM said.

Mary Ann Liebert Inc., a publisher of biotechnology journals, said today it has started a biotech video channel hosted on its Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News Web site (www.genengnews.com) .

“We have launched the video component to complement our print and online editions,” said John Sterling, the publication’s editor-in-chief.

The first video to run on GEN’s biotech video channel is a corporate-overview video about GE Healthcare Life Sciences.

The Piscataway, N.J.,-based unit of General Electric Co. was chosen because its business is similar in breadth to GEN’s coverage and is relevant to the Web site’s audience, the New Rochelle-based company said.

New Rochelle has become the latest city to allow Verizon to offer its FiOS fiber-optic television service to residents. The City Council voted Thursday night to approve a franchise agreement, which now must be reviewed by the state Public Service Commission.

“It provides competition, which the city administration and officials have supported and it provides for much needed public educational and government access support,� Assistant to the City Manager Omar Small said yesterday.

The service will compete with Cablevision, which already offers service in the city of 76,000.

Verizon spokeswoman Heather Wilner said the company and the city are still putting finishing touches on the agreement before sending it to the PSC.

Cablevision spokesman Patrick MacElroy, in a statement, said Cablevision “has been successful in a market that is already highly competitive because consumers know that our picture quality, programming choices and advanced services like high-definition television and video on demand provide a home entertainment experience that cannot be matched, in addition to the fastest Internet and best voice service in the market.�

— Ken Valenti