Just when you thought your H.264 codecs were about as efficient as possible for transmitting your media files, along comes H.265. This new HEVC is likely to change everything. But how much more efficient is it? What exactly is different about it? How are vendors gearing up for the new codec? When will it be ready for prime time?

Chapter 36 is fortunate enough to bring highly regarded speaker Joel Wilhite from Harmonic to our March meeting.

Be sure to mark your calendar for 6:30 PM, March 28th at the KGTV studios, 4600 Air Way, near where the I-805 and CA-94 freeways meet. Note this special evening time and day. Harmonic will provide dinner at 6:30, followed by a brief business meeting and the presentation.

Joel Wilhite has been a Broadcast Solutions Manager for Harmonic for 18 years, designing media compression and storage systems for news and programming originators. He’s frequently called on to update groups like SBE with technology presentations.

See you in February!

Thanks to all of you who took time out from your day to join us at this year’s SBE banquet at Cozymel’s in UTC. 

Veteran Belden spokesman Steve Lampen took a few minutes to speak to us about the up-and-coming Ethernet Audio Video Bridging protocol and was very informative.

None of the 20 attendees walked away without a gift from our generous vendors. Many thanks to:

• Doug Tharp of SCMS, giving an AKG professional microphone
• Mike Uhl of RF Specialties
• Mike LaPorte of Security Network Representatives
• Glen Thompson of Piper Digital
• Ken Tondreau of Grass Valley
• Barbara Lange of AV Supply

Doug Alman mentioned our new lineup of officers, mentioned elsewhere in this blog.

Attendees report a successful meeting November 14 at Clear Channel studios in San Diego, with both radio and TV engineers there to learn about SNMP. Many thanks to Tony Peterle of WorldCast Systems for the presentation, to he and Steve Moreen of distributor RF Specialties for lunch. John Rigg of Clear Channel did a great job of set-up.

Discussion during the meeting included the upcoming December luncheon and new officers.

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) has been a part of computer and networking systems for many years. Now, this standardized control language is migrating into more and more broadcast-oriented equipment and systems, and new facility control software is being developed to enable the use of this powerful tool to monitor and manage equipment as part of an overall broadcast facility control plan. Tony’s presentation introduced us to SNMP, explaining the best practices and describing some common mistakes and challenges. He used real-world examples to demonstrate how using this protocol can allow engineers to monitor and control more different types of equipment in more locations with less time and effort.

About the Presenter

Tony Peterle grew up in Central Ohio and began taking things apart at an early age to find out how they worked. Fortunately for his parents’ sanity, he quickly learned how to put things back together, and graduated from the College of Wooster in 1981. He has been involved in radio broadcasting continuously since high school, working in Ohio, Kansas, Hawaii and Washington State, both on air and engineering. Tony has held Chief Engineer positions in Honolulu, Kansas City, and Wichita. After attaining his commercial pilot’s license, Tony spent several years as a traffic reporter in Kansas City, Honolulu and Seattle before receiving CSRE certification from the SBE in 2005. Shortly thereafter, he came to work for Worldcast Systems where he now manages sales and support for all of the Americas, and enjoys helping customers solve problems, traveling, contributing to the design of new products, and seeing familiar faces at NAB and SBE events.