The 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas begins this weekend at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). While planning your exhibit stops and making your list of sessions to attend, don’t forget to include the SBE in your plans. Continue reading SBE Activities at 2018 NAB Show
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March 21 Meeting: Verimatrix
Speaker: Petr Peterka, Chief Technology Officer at Verimatrix
Topic: Content distribution flow and federated rights management powered by blockchain.
When: Wednesday, March 21, 12 noon. Program after free lunch.
Where: iHeart Media, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego
Speaker Bio:
Petr has served as CTO of Verimatrix since 2010. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s overall revenue security strategy and anti-piracy efforts as well as its advanced technology research and intellectual property development. He has more than 25 years of experience in the multimedia industry, and has extensive familiarity with content protection techniques for IPTV, DVB and OTT streaming, as well as forensic watermarking technology.
Petr represents Verimatrix at DECE, AAPA, W3C, SCTE and he has actively participated in other standards organizations including ATSC, DVB, SMPTE, ATIS, TVA, CEA, DLNA, OMA, and others. Petr served as the vice-chair of ATSC T3-S17 group in the role of a Java system architect defining a TV applications platform before smartphones and smart TVs were even invented. He also regularly speaks at conferences including NAB, Digital Hollywood, Anti-piracy and Content Protection Summit, and Copyright and Technology and has been published in numerous industry publications.”
KFMB-TV Applies for Big Power Increase
Channel 8 applied in late November to increase their power output from 19.8 kW to 87.4 kW ERP. KFMB Stations RF Supervisor Rick Bosscher says they can implement that power level with existing equipment. 
The station still uses an RCA omni-directional transmission antenna built in 1972 that handled 50 kW transmitter power. Their Harris iCD 30 transmitter, capable of 10.5 kW, has been loafing along at 2.4 kW. There’s an older Harris that can also handle the new power level, and that will continue as a backup unit.
VHF TV stations have had a hard time competing with UHF stations since the digital transition in 2009 because home viewers are trying to use indoor antennas with small apertures designed for UHF reception only. Signal penetration through metal-reinforced stucco causes a loss that used to create a poor viewer experience for rabbit ear antenna viewers, but those viewers who put up with static-filled NTSC video found themselves unable to get a usable ATSC picture at all.
The FCC opened a window this fall for all TV stations to upgrade their signals within the existing rules limiting interference. A number of UHF and VHF stations are taking advantage of this opportunity to boost their power.
SBE Adds MemberPlus Benefit
The Board of Directors of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the association for broadcast and multimedia technology professionals, during its National Meeting held in Denver Oct. 25-26, adopted a new member benefit that will be available beginning January 1, 2018, called SBE MemberPlus.
Continue reading SBE Adds MemberPlus Benefit
September 20 Meeting: Ground is a Myth!
Ground is something you stand on, but in an electrical sense, the meaning is much less clear. When it comes to broadcasters and ground, things get really confused. 
We drive rods into the earth, but why? Let’s take a look at whether any of this makes sense, and what theory tells us about “ground”, and if it exists in any sensible way at all. We’ll talk about DC grounds, RF grounds, and even about gravity.
We drive rods into the earth, but why? Let’s take a look at whether any of this makes sense, and what theory tells us about “ground”, and if it exists in any sensible way at all. We’ll talk about DC grounds, RF grounds, and even about gravity.Join us Wednesday, September 20th, 2017 at noon at iHeartMedia, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego. Chapter 36 will provide pizza for this great lunch ‘n’ learn session.
About Our Speaker
Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, has been interested in radio since she was about 5 years old. She started in Amateur Radio in 1979 getting her ticket while at MIT. Kristen has worked in many diverse areas from analog circuit design to image processing to starting and running an ISP. She is currently working at Apple in Core Networking, and spent many years at Sun Microsystems Laboratories where she was researching robustness and emergent properties of large distributed computer systems. She is a long time denizen of Silicon Valley and has worked at or consulted for many of the usual suspects. Kristen is an active ham and loves to chase DX on HF with her Elecraft K2 which she built while visiting her mother in Florida. She is an ARRL Technical Coordinator for the East Bay Section, president of the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association, the Q&A columnist for Nuts and Volts magazine, and is active in many local clubs. Kristen was recently inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.