Engineers, Doing More With Less
by Richard L. Edwards, CPBE
The author is vice president of the Society
of Broadcast Engineers and chairman of the SBE Frequency Coordination
Committee. RW offers this space as a service to the SBE.
Reduced personnel, more work, more responsibility
and fewer resources – sound familiar?
Radio and TV stations all across America are trying
to do more with substantially fewer resources, in both staff and
budget. And, in the short term, this situation is not expected
to improve.
We at the Society of Broadcast Engineers are aware
of this dilemma and, where possible, we want to help. That is
why we are here. We’re not just a membership organization;
we have programs specifically targeted to help you in your career
path and daily work, and these were never more important than
in times like these.
A benchmark
The Certification Program, for example, makes it
easier for engineering management to find the right people. Certification
helps confirm that candidates are qualified in the areas in which
you are seeking help. From radio to television, transmitters to
computers, SBE Certification serves as a benchmark for technical
achievement.
But benchmarking achievement is not the only purpose
of Certification. We also encourage and provide technical education
through conventions and chapter meetings, seminars and tutorials.
We have developed a new level of Certification that specifically
addresses the issues of network technology in broadcasting, an
increasingly critical area.
We are constantly upgrading our sample tests and
real examinations to ensure that we are stressing the latest in
broadcast technology, so you can be certain that your Certification
is achievable and meaningful.
But the work of Certification is only part of what
SBE offers. Also important to you in your day-to-day operations
is the efficient use of the broadcast spectrum.
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have
heard that the FCC has discovered a new method of making money
for the government. This method is called "auctions"!
In today’s environment, if there is not an attached license
or a powerful enough lobby to protect it, spectrum is being sliced
off in large chunks and auctioned to the highest bidder. Broadcasters
have a lot of spectrum, and Congress is eyeballing it with an
eye toward fattening the government treasury.
The losses: TV Channels 60-69 – gone. Channels
52-59 – gone. And watch out! The 2 GHz ENG channels –
gone.
SBE has been attempting to protect those assets
actively wherever possible. Dane Ericksen, CPBE, and his FCC Liaison
Committee have been burning the midnight oil and wearing out a
lot of pencils trying to help you keep spectrum,or at least slow
down the loss of usable channels.
Wireless woes
With the loss of spectrum, we are working with
several groups in an attempt to maintain, or possibly even improve,
the status quo.
The loss of TV Channels 62-69 not only means that
those stations have to be displaced, but where will all those
wireless mics in that spectrum be moved?
SBE member Karl Voss of Phoenix (yeah, the same
guy that somehow waves a magic wand every Super Bowl and makes
a lot of people very happy by finding a way to shoehorn in a few
thousand RF users into a quarter-square-mile football station
– that Karl Voss) came up with a good idea: Let’s put
wireless mics into the proposed guard bands of these new users
of Channels 62-69!
Great idea. Dane Ericksen went to work on this,
and SBE will submit it as a proposed rulemaking for the FCC.
Then we have the loss of Channels 1 and 2 in the
2 GHz ENG spectrum. A few years back, this spectrum was sought
by satellite services – and the FCC determined that it was
in the public interest for broadcasters to give it up.
Who knows? This could have happened after some
politician had a problem with a sound bite one night and decided
to get even. Well, it worked. The FCC felt that we as broadcasters
could implement this by reducing the allowable spectrum by 17
MHz (Phase I) while rechanneling the ENG frequencies to 14.5 MHz
bandwidth – and you still end up with seven channels as always!
Easy enough, thought the FCC. After all, you reduced
your 36 MHz HDTV requirement to 6 MHz, so you should be able to
get ENG down a bit as well. Wrong!
I guess we might need to add the word "live"
to breaking ENG reports, because trying to keep what we have while
reducing the bandwidth is just a bit difficult.
Just when we started working on this, a reduction
of one channel, we learn – hold on – the FCC announces
that broadcasters should also give up Channel 2 a little later
down the road.
What?! We can’t do it with 14.5 MHz, and now
you want it reduced to 12? OK, what next? Sell tourist packages
to the international space station? Why not! Well, let’s
just call this Phase II.
OK, broadcasters, develop a new ENG system with
seven channels, each 14.5 MHz wide, use this for a short time,
and then do it all again and reduce it to 12 MHz.
Any equipment manufacturers want to gear up your
factory to convert analog radios for a short term, and then repeat
the same situation again? And at what cost? Not only in money,
but also in programming disruptions to your 6 o’clock news.
I can’t wait to see the look on the faces of news directors.
You want to do what? When?Yeah, right!
Team effort
SBE is working with the networks and several station
groups, to determine a solution.
Andy Bater of the Tribune Group chairs the ad
hoc 2 GHz ENG Transition Committee and is working on this
with valuable assistance from Craig Strom of WLS(TV) and several
others from ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Belo and Cosmos.
Representing SBE is Dane Ericksen, SBE General
Counsel Chris Imlay, SBE Executive Director John Poray, myself
and, in his first major assignment as SBE’s newest staff
member, SBE Frequency Coordination Director Galen Hassinger, CBT.
As we move forward, we will be advising you of
our progress. Should you wish to be more closely involved, contact
Hassinger at (941) 267-1742 or ghassinger@sbe.org.
He comes to us after a successful history in broadcast
engineering and sales. Most recently, he was director of engineering
for WINK-AM-FM-TV in Fort Myers, Fla. Prior to that, he held engineering
positions in South Carolina, Orlando, Fla. and Nebraska, as well
as having served as a sales representative for Harris Broadcast.
Hassinger hails from the state of Nebraska. With
his expertise, in addition to the efforts of our Frequency Coordination
Committee and the help of all the SBE staff, we are showing how
SBE intends to take a more aggressive posture for our membership
in this important area.
