The FCC EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) is up and running. The system is for EAS participants to file identifying information, day of test data, and post-test data related to a nationwide test. The ETRS provides several new features that ease the data-entry burden on EAS participants, encourage timely filings, and minimize input errors. The ETRS also offers new data fields that are responsive to stakeholder comments.
Read more about the new system at the SBE website.
SBE Chapter 36 welcomes three new members: Josh Moran and Anthony Carmody, both maintenance engineers at KGTV; and Jesse Aceron, an operations engineer at KFMB. Manny Cervantes, maintenance engineer at XETV, and Nigel Worrall, Application Engineer at RF Specialties, have rejoined the chapter.
KFMB Stations named Gary Stigall to the Director of Engineering position effective April 4th. He most recently served as KGTV’s Assistant Chief Engineer.
Gary returns after 12 years to where he had worked as staff engineer from 1990 till 2004, when he left to become Chief Engineer for XETV’s US operations. He also serves as SBE Chapter 36 Chairman.
(By KNSJ Staff) KNSJ Radio (89.1 FM Descanso) is off the air after the station’s transmitter on Mount Laguna froze and broke during storms the first week of January. The repair estimate is $1,500, said Martin Eder, founder of KNSJ, a public nonprofit radio station that serves East County and San Diego. Continue reading KNSJ Forced Off-air by Ice
Outfitting a TV channel with playout automation can be a real challenge. “Channel-in-a-box” solutions turn out to be more expensive than advertised because you end up buying a dizzying array of modules and licenses to get EAS, graphics layers, dynamic content, satellite network sources, and ASI inputs and outputs. Your vendor can make your product ownership experience frustrating because support is overseas or you have to pay for a big contract.
Local supplier DVEO is gaining traction with some interesting solutions for broadcasters of all kinds, whether a cable station, LPTV station, government channel, or a subchannel at your major affiliate TV station. DVEO will appear this month to show us modern tools for inserting commercials, network and local media, graphics layers, and even EAS into an SDI or ASI stream.
We’ll also get a look at a 4K resolution brand spanking new H.265 HEVC encoder and decoder pair. While you may not think of 4K as a practical format for broadcast yet, you can still use this codec for transmission of conventional HD video at about half the bandwidth of H.264.
Join us Wednesday, January 20 at 12 noon at KFMB, 7677 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. DVEO will buy us lunch.