Jon Crick Retires From San Diego TV Engineering

You would have to have been around Jon Crick during the whole of his broadcast engineering career to appreciate the enormous breadth of his talents and experience. He fixed fixed radio and TV transmitters, enormous videotape machine pneumatic systems, digital videotape recorders, big audio mixing consoles, the Sony Library Management System robotics and studio camera robotics. He operated satellite news trucks big and small, wired 100-amp UPS devices, planned multi-camera shoots, and installed production switchers. The documentation was always before he started a project. Then there are the multiple musical instruments Jon can play with complete competency. 

I met Jon Crick when I started at KFMB in 1990 and had the distinct honor of being able to work with him again at XETV from the time he followed my move there in 2005 until I left in 2010. He retired from channel 6 in March this year.  Continue reading Jon Crick Retires From San Diego TV Engineering

SBE at the NAB Show

Every year I look forward to the NAB Show. It’s this great change from the daily grind where I get to see old friends and new technologies, often in the booths at the very back of the exhibit halls. And the parties. Did you see Kool and the Gang at the CNN party a few years ago? Wow.

My first was in 1983, when the big exhibitors were RCA and Ampex, both showing off their amazing new 1″ tape machines, their commercial playing robotics systems, and Plumbicon low definition cameras with $30 – $100K price tags.

This year will be #30, after having missed a couple of years in the middle.

The SBE has some great stuff planned for this year. If you have time for nothing else, please make time for the 50th Anniversary Open House Tuesday. And did I mention certification points for attendance?

2014 Ennes Program at the NAB Show  

The annual Ennes Program opens the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference at 8 am on Saturday, April 5, and runs until 5 pm. The program theme is “Best Engineering Practices,” and includes a diverse list of topics and subject matter experts.

SBE Meetings and Events at the 2014 NAB Show Saturday, April 5
SBE National Frequency Coordination Committee Meeting
3:00pm – 5:00pm, Conference Room 8, Las Vegas Hotel

 

Sunday, April 6
SBE Board of Directors Meeting*
8:30 am-12:00 pm, Conference Rooms 8-9, Las Vegas Hotel 

Tuesday, April 8
SBE Certification Exams
Must be pre-registered
9:00 am-12:00 pm, Conference Rooms 9-10, Las Vegas Hotel

SBE Frequency Coordinators Meeting
8:30-10:30 am, Conference Rooms 13-14, Las Vegas Hotel

SBE Membership Meeting
5:30-6:30 pm, Room S225, LVCC

SBE 50th Anniversary Reception
6:30-8:30 pm, Room S219, LVCC

March 2014 Meeting: Local QVidium

Many thanks to KGTV for hosting the lunch Meeting on Wednesday, March 19, and to Steve Moreen of RF Specialties for picking up the lunch tab.

Our guest presenter, Dr. Ron Fellman, Founder and President of QVidium Technologies based here in San Diego, gave a highly informative lecture well targeted for the broadcast engineering audience.

Ron has had a significant involvement in the research and development of video transport over the Internet as both a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSD and the founder and former President of Path1 Networks.  His presentation provided a historical overview of video over Internet streaming technology as well as the state-of-the-art techniques now used in QVidium and QVAVC™ products to enable the transport of broadcast-quality video, including High Definition (HD) video, over Internet networks with reliability and minimal latency.

California Electronics Closes in El Cajon

Another surplus electronics store has closed its doors in the San Diego area. Long-running California Electronics and Industrial Supply on Johnson Road in El Cajon shutdown in February and will open only for customers who plan to buy large quantities of their existing stock.

In the past few years, retail electronics stores have dropped hobbyist stock or closed altogether as the variety and complexity of manufactured electronics goods available has increased and cost decreased. People seldom assemble or repair electronic hardware from scratch.

California Electronics was at one time a favorite stop for hams and tinkerers looking for cheap but hard-to-find electronics parts.

Society of Broadcast Engineers