Edited by: Mark Croom
Electronic Version: Leonard Charles
Electronically Distributed by Chris Cain
Contributors this month:
Paul Stoffel
Tom Smith
Leonard Charles
Articles Welcome!! Send correspondence to:
Chapter 24 Newsletter
34 Rustic Parkway
Madison, WI 53713-4700
or call (608) 271-1025 (home) or (608) 221-1979 (work)
or Email at mcroom@aol.com
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MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Thursday/ January 18, 1996
Dinner: Denny's Restaurant on 433 S. Gammon Road at 5:30pm.
Meeting & Program: WISC-TV Conference Rooms starting at 7:00PM.
Program: HTML editing and Web Page Maintenance
Visitors and Guests are welcome at all SBE meetings.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS
Tentative Program Subjects
Thu, Feb 22, 1996
JVC Digital "S" or Panasonic Digital
Tue, Mar 19, 1996
WP&L Center Tour (or Milwaukee area station tour)
Wed, Apr 24, 1996
Chapter Elections and annual NAB review
Thu, May 23, 1996
TCI Cable TV Technology
Tue, Jun 18, 1996
Related technology; Internet/software support
Sat, Jul 27, 1996
3rd annual Chapter 24 Family Picnic
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MINUTES
Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers met on
Thursday, December 19, 1995, at the Speedway Bar and Restaurant
in Madison. There were 28 persons in attendance, 15 of whom were
certified. The meeting was chaired by Chapter 24 Chairman Paul
Stoffel.
Call to order: 7:00 pm. The minutes of two previous
meetings were approved: the October meeting, as published in the
November Newsletter; and the November meeting, as published in
the December Newsletter.
Treasurer's Report (reported by Stan Scharch, Treasurer):
the chapter balance is in the black.
Newsletter Editor's Report (reported Mark Croom): The
deadline for the January Newsletter is midnight 1/5/96; the
folding party is 5:30 pm 1/9/96 at WKOW-TV.
Membership Report: no report.
Sustaining Membership Report (reported by Paul Stoffel in
Fred Sperry's absence): CCA Electronics, of Fairburn, Georgia,
has joined the chapter as a Sustaining Member. Two renewals have
been received, from WKOW-TV and WISC-TV.
Program Committee (reported by Paul Stoffel in Steve
Zimmerman's absence): The January meeting will be held Thursday,
January 18, 1996. Chris Cain, of WISC-TV, will discuss the
creation of home pages for the World Wide Web.
Special Events: no report
Certification and Education (reported by Jim Hermanson): Two
chapter members sat for certification examinations during
November; thanks to WKOW-TV for the use of their conference room
for these exams. Currently-certified members whose certification
period ends during 1996 are reminded that SBE publishes a
pamphlet which can be used to calculate recertification credits;
for a copy, contact SBE headquarters, or ask Jim for a copy.
Frequency Coordination Report (reported by Tom Smith):
Coordination requests are already coming in for the fall football
season.
National Liaison Report (reported by Leonard Charles):
Several changes have occurred on the EAS front recently, due to
actions by the FCC and FEMA. The Chapter intends to participate
in the local EAS committee; any chapter members interested in
participating in this effort should contact Chuck or Paul.
Chairman's Report (reported by Paul Stoffel): (1) Thanks to
all chapter members who assisted with the national teleconference
in November. (2) Congratulations to Kevin Ruppert, of WISC-TV,
who was recently certified as Senior Broadcast Engineer. (3) The
Chapter 24 BBS will be discontinued on January 2, 1996, to be
replaced by a Chapter 24 WWW page (see New Business, below).
Old business: none.
New business: Chris Cain announced that the Chapter now has
a page on the World Wide Web; it is accessed by linking from the
national SBE Home Page.
Professional Announcements: Kerry Maki, of WMSN, announced
that WMSN had recently sustained damage to its satellite
antennas, apparently the result of vandalism.
The business meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm. The program
featured a tour of the new Madison Community Tower ("candelabra")
facility.
Submitted by Neal McLain, Secretary.
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EAS UPDATE
by Leonard Charles
At the end of November, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) decided to disassemble the Emergency Action
Notification (EAN) network. This closed circuit network provided
the EBS first link connections between the White House and the
wire services, broadcast networks, participating common carriers,
and program suppliers. It would have seen similar duty with the
new EAS. Though no official announcement was forthcoming from
FEMA, it is assumed that the Primary Entry Point (PEP) system of
broadcast station relays has become the new first link. When
FEMA does release information on the changes, undoubtedly there
will need to be changes in the FCC EAS rules to reflect the
action.
Recent federal government shutdowns have slowed the process
of certifying new EAS equipment. It is becoming apparent that
the previous target of February for the first sales of the new
equipment is no longer valid. Exactly when EAS hardware will be
available for sale hinges on the FCC's ability to catch up to
that project following the furloughs.
Though the EAS rules publish the only list of codes allowed
in an EAS digital header, the FCC realizes that there may be a
need for more codes to effectively design a local EAS. As such,
they have decided to create a procedure for adding codes. After
a Local Operational Area committee decides on additional custom
codes, it must submit those codes to the State Emergency
Communications Committee (SECC) for its approval. The custom
codes must then be approved by a consortium of FCC, FEMA, and
National Weather Service representatives. On this approval, the
codes are authorized for use. After an additional list of
approved custom codes is accumulated, the rules will be modified
to include them.
The SBE EAS Primer is now being published. It will offer a
complete understanding of the EAS infrastructure, protocol, and
hardware. There is a section for SECC Chairs, diagrams of EAS
levels of operation, an extensive question and answer section,
electronic sources of EAS rules and EAS-related FCC press
releases. Call the National office at 317-253-1640 to order your
copy.
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DEAL ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILL
By Tom Smith
The House and Senate have reached a compromise on the
telecommunications reform. The proposals in the bill have been
changed to meet the White House concerns about media
concentration and a possible veto from the President.
The bill will allow for the regional Bells to get into long
distance, and cable TV and the long distance carriers into local
phone service and cable. Cable companies would be allowed into
the phone business.
The provisions in the bill that affect broadcasters concern
ownership limits. The bill lifts the 12-station limit on
television station ownership and increases the audience reach
from 25% to 35% of the nation's homes. The FCC would also be
required to reconsider its TV duopoly rules. The TV broadcast
networks would be allowed to create a second broadcast network,
but could not buy an existing network. Network and cable
crossownership would also be allowed with TV station and cable
cross-ownership only regulated by FCC rules.
Radio ownership limits would be lifted on a national basis,
but retained at a local level. In markets with 45 or more
commercial stations, one could own up to 8 stations with no more
then 5 of one service (AM or FM). In markets with 30 to 44, the
limit would be 7 with 4 of a kind. Markets of 15 to 29, the
limit would be 6 with 4 of a kind and in markets of 14 or less
the limit would be 5 with 3 of a kind. No one company could own
more than half the stations in small market.
The bill is still subject to amendment and passage of the
bill is not certain. Senator Bob Dole raised concerns about the
bill including the giveaway of spectrum for ATV. Action on the
bill should occur after congress deals with the budget.
(Compiled from BROADCASTING and CABLE and The NY TIMES.)
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ATV UPDATE
By Tom Smith
The FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service
has recommended to the Commission that the Grand Alliance system
be adopted for digital television transmission. The FCC will
start rulemaking proceedings in the beginning of 1996.
This proceeding will start with many questions being raised
about the transition to ATV. Last November, FCC Chairman Reed
Hundt, in a speech before the International Radio and Television
Society, questioned if the FCC should mandate the transition to
ATV. He noted the increasing share of television programming
distribution going to cable, wireless cable and DBS and
questioned if broadcast TV will be a major supplier of
programming in the future. He also questioned the expense to
both the broadcaster and the consumer in making the transition to
ATV. The Chairman also endorsed Congress conducting a study on
auctioning ATV spectrum. The text of the Chairman's speech is on
the FCC Internet server.
An agreement between Congress and the FCC directs the FCC to
study the auctioning of ATV spectrum to TV broadcasters and
prevents the FCC from making any grants of ATV licenses before
November 1996. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler
wanted to delay the granting of any ATV license to January 1,
1998. The move to study the auctioning of ATV licenses was
started by Pressler and endorsed by Hundt. The White House has
proposed that the transition to digital TV be completed by the
year 2005 with an auction of the spectrum broadcaster's are
currently using occurring in 2002. This would allow for the
government to raise $13 billion dollars for the Treasury.
There is also a move by some in Congress that broadcasters
be given only 2 mhz instead of 6 mhz for digital TV. This would
allow for one NTSC level digital transmission. This change would
require the digital system to be redesigned which would delay the
start of digital transmissions.
On December 12th the FCC held a hearing on ATV with many
different groups speaking. Subjects discussed included auctions,
cable carriage, public interest obligations, transition time,
computer compatibility and spectrum for low power TV.
(Compiled from BROADCASTING and CABLE, NY TIMES, ELECTRONIC
MEDIA, TELEVISION BROADCAST, and FCC GOPHER)
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NATIONAL UPDATE
SBE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE will meet January 13 at the Crockett
Hotel in downtown San Antonio, Texas. The Executive Committee is
charged with providing executive leadership for SBE between the
regular semi-annual full board meetings. The full board of the
SBE will be meeting next in Las Vegas at the NAB convention.
Following that, there will be a special one day strategic
planning meeting in Indianapolis in July. The purpose of the
meeting will be to assess who and what is SBE and contemplate who
and what SBE is to be in the future. To help maximize the
effectiveness of the meeting, the board will utilize the services
of a facilitator trained in assessing options and moving the
group to a decision point.
SBE PROVIDES EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS for Florida Association of
Broadcaster's "Eastern Broadcast Expo," held December 7-10, in
Orlando. At the request of FAB, SBE provided the engineering
sessions for this event. Rick Farquhar arranged an excellent
program that included Marvin Born, Leonard Charles, Chris Imlay,
Fred Schumacher (KMPS Radio in Seattle), Mike Duckworth of Leitch
and Michael Marcus and Robert Greenburg of the FCC.
1996 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE plans are being prepared by Dave Johnson,
SBE Membership Chairman. Dave is planning a couple of twists to
it to increase its effectiveness. Look for details in the
February/March issue of the SBE SIGNAL.
SBE's Internet Homepage has had more than 10,000 visitors since
it began in July of 1995. SBE's homepage includes updated
information about SBE, links to chapters' homepages, links to
other broadcast related websites, lists of SBE Frequency
Coordinators, the SBE Job Line and more. Check it out at
http://www.sbe.org. Most SBE Board members have an internet
address and welcome communication through this method. The SBE
National Office is also on-line. You can reach the staff at these
addresses: John Poray, Executive Director - jporay@sbe.org; Peggy
Hall, Membership Coordinator - phall@sbe.org; Linda Godby,
Certification Coordinator - lgodby@sbe.org. Chapter 24 joins
eleven other SBE chapters with homepages reachable through the
National SBE homepage. Chris Cain is the designer and
coordinator of Chapter 24's homepage which includes upcoming
monthly meeting announcements, lists of officers and committee
representatives, and much more.
SBE CERTIFICATION: Close to 200 SBE Certification exams were
given across the country in early November. If you are
interested in becoming certified, review the following dates in
1996 for the date you can plan to take an exam. The first
opportunity will be April 16, during the 1996 NAB Spring
Convention in Las Vegas. Deadline for applications to take the
exam is March 4. The first exam period in local chapters will be
June 14-24. Application deadline will be April 29. After June,
the next opportunity will be at the SBE Engineering Conference &
World Media Expo in Los Angeles, October 10. Application
Deadline is August 26. The final opportunity of 1996 will be in
local chapters from November 8-18. The deadline for applications
is September 30.
ENNES REGIONAL WORKSHOP FEBRUARY 10 IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
SBE and the Ennes Foundation will present a broadcast engineering
workshop in conjunction with the Alabama Broadcasters Association
Winter Conference, February 10 in Montgomery. There will be
presentations on the following topics: "Internet In
Broadcasting," by Brad Towery, Traveler Information Services of
Huntsville, Alabama; "EBS to EAS," by Leonard Charles, SBE EAS
Chairman, WISC-TV, Madison, Wisconsin; "FCC Rules and New Tower
Regulations," by Robert Greenburg of the FCC and "Compression
Made Easy," by Geoffrey Trotter, SONY Electronics. Cost for SBE
members is just $35. The non-member rate is $50. The Workshop
will be held at the studios of Colonial Broadcasting in
Montgomery from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. To register, call the SBE
National Office at (317) 253-1640. Registration can be paid by
check, VISA or MasterCard.
SBE WELCOMES NEW CHAPTER
SBE welcomes its newest chapter, #127 in Ft. Myers, Florida. The
Chapter Chairman is G. Wayne Phillips. SBE members in Southwest
Florida have been working for some time to organize a chapter and
we congratulate them on its creation.
CHAPTER REGIONALS IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY
Those of you in or near Minnesota or Michigan will want to attend
educational events in those states co-sponsored by the respective
state broadcasters associations and local SBE chapters. January
29-30 is the Minnesota Broadcasters Association/SBE Conference in
Bloomington. Chapter 17 is co-sponsoring the event that includes
sessions on broadcast engineering. To register, call the
Minnesota Broadcasters Association at (612) 926-8123. February 27-
28 are the dates for the Michigan Association of Broadcasters/SBE
Convention in Lansing. Chapter 91 is the co-sponsor there. To
register, call the Michigan Association of Broadcasters at (800)
968-7622.
SBE AND NAB CO-SPONSOR 50th BROADCAST ENGINEERING CONFERENCE
For the second year, SBE will be co-sponsoring with the National
Association of Broadcasters the Broadcast Engineering Conference
(BEC), held as a part of NAB'96 in Las Vegas, April 14-18. This
will be the 50th BEC. Special displays and some nostalgic
glimpses at the early days of broadcasting will mark the
occasion. A joint SBE/NAB committee, chaired by former SBE
national Vice President, Jerry Whitaker, has planned five full
days of broadcast engineering paper presentations, panels and
tutorials. Joining Jerry on the Committee are Bill Beckner,
Marvin Born, Andy Butler, Jerry Butler, Dutch Doelitzsch, Dane
Ericksen, Bill Ruck, Robert Seidel and Milford Smith.
Registration for NAB'96 is made through NAB. SBE members receive
the NAB member conference registration rate, a savings of $300!
For registration information, call (800) 342-2460. You are urged
to make your hotel and travel arrangements early as rooms and
flights tend to fill quickly each year.
CALL FOR PAPERS
SBE announces its Call For Papers for the 1996 SBE Engineering
Conference & World Media Expo, October 9-12 at the Los Angeles
Convention Center. Technical papers dealing with broadcast
engineering and related subjects are solicited. Papers selected
for presentation will be eligible to be printed in the SBE
Conference Proceedings. Individual paper presentations for the
Conference will be 30 minutes in length, with 20 minutes
suggested for the presentation and 10 minutes allowed for
questions. A brief statement of a Paper topic should be
submitted by March 8 to: SBE Engineering Conference, Conference
Committee, c/o Society of Broadcast Engineers, 8445 Keystone
Crossing, Suite 140, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, 46240-2454. For
additional information, call SBE at (317) 253-1640.
A sad note...SBE member, Mike Pingenot of Houston, Texas passed
away December 26 from a brain aneurysm. Mike was a great SBE
supporter and was instrumental in helping SBE develop and
initiate its internet Web Page. He was employed by Electrotex.
There will be more on Mike in the February/March issue of the SBE
SIGNAL. [Editor's note...you can read a memorial for Mike via a
link on the SBE web page.]
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FCC LAUNCHES INQUIRY
The FCC has issued a Notice of Inquiry regarding closed
captioning and video description of television programming. The
Commission seeks comment on the current availability, cost, and
uses of these two services. It also requests the public's views
on the appropriate means of promoting the wider use of closed
captioning and video description in programming delivered by
television broadcasters, cable operators, and other video program
providers. Legislation currently pending in Congress would, for
the first time, generally mandate the closed captioning of
television video programming, and also would require the FCC to
study the uses of video description. The record developed in
this proceeding will enable the Commission to expedite the
implementation of this legislation if enacted into law.
Closed captioning provides important benefits primarily for
individuals with hearing disabilities by displaying the audio
portion of a television signal as printed words on the television
screen. Video description is a more recent innovation that
benefits individuals with vision disabilities. It provides audio
descriptions of a program's key visual elements that are inserted
during the natural pauses in the program's dialogue. There are
presently no Commission rules regarding video description.
For the full, unedited news report, see Mass Media Bureau's
NEWSReport No. MM 95-115 available on the FCC's web homepage. or
contact Kara Palamaras at (202) 418-0500 or Charles W. Logan at
(202) 776-1653. MASS MEDIA ACTION December 4, 1995.
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CHAPTER 24 SUSTAINING MEMBERS:
Please welcome our new sustaining members:
CCA Electronics
Richardson Electronics
Our recent renewals:
WISC-TV 3
WKOW-TV 27
Thanks to all our
Sustaining Members:
BTS
Broadcast Communications
CTI
Clark Wire and Cable
Comark Communications
Electronic Industries
Emmons Associates
Fuji Film I&I
Maney Logic
MRC Telecommunications
Panasonic Broadcast
Roscor Wisconsin
Scharch Electronics
Skyline Communications
Sony Broadcast
Tectan, Inc.
Teleport Minnesota
3M Audio & Video
Video Images
WMSN-TV 47
WMTV-TV 15
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