[SBE] In Need of Mentoring

[Larry Will]

Russ,


I have been reading your posts with great interest.

I have been in broadcasting since I graduated from High School in 1959.

I am sending this email to you outside of the list and please keep it that way.

You have asked a real bunch of great questions but I want to talk to 
you ONE ON ONE about this industry and metorring and I want to be 
outside of the list.

If that is Ok with you, please respond without a reply all.

Larry H. Will, P.E.
Retired Director of Engineering, NJ Public Broadcasting, State of  NJ.

At 07:46 PM 10/12/2009, you wrote:

>Howdy,

>

>So it sounds like to me to make it in the modern broadcast 

>engineering, you have to have

>quite a depth of knowledge, IT, compression schemes, Digital 

>principles, modulations

>methods, and a slew of other information. Yet, it seems like the 

>broadcast engineer is being

>phased out due to automation...much of these functions are handled 

>by boards which can

>easily be replaced by someone with very little training (and hence 

>paid very little money).

>Then of course (although I have no practical experience with this), 

>you have general

>managers who are trying to squeeze every penny out of their station 

>that they can, and the

>engineering department is the group that gets hit hard due to this 

>automation. Who knows,

>with the advent of modern 3D graphic technics, they will even be 

>able to replace the on-air

>personallities with computer generated animations which look real 

>enough that nobody will

>care (and they never get sick, want more money, or try to negotiate 

>a new contract).

>

>Personally (and I don't know if this is accurate or not), it doesn't 

>seem to me like a television

>or radio station has a very high profit margin and have to cut as 

>much as they can and

>squeeze as much out of their technical personel as possible.

>

>any thoughts on this?

>

>Thanks,

>

>Russ

>

>

>On 12 Oct 2009 at 15:16, Stu Casteel wrote:

>

> > I'll add my two cents here, although I've not been involved in the day to

> > day operation of a broadcast facility for some time and other than some

> > post flood repair a few years ago haven't been in a radio facility in a

> > few decades I still consider myself a broadcast engineer (one of my labs

> > is in a Tx manufacturing facility and I still drive a 4wd with a winch -

> > chainsaw, boots and gloves in the back)

> >

> > but stop to consider the current state of the world, besides call letter

> > stations with a stick in the backyard or on the hill, there is

> > "broadcasting" via satellite, there is content distribution through cable

> > and IPTV systems and of course YouTube - Hulu and now cell phones

> >

> > with rare exception these days component level repair is a thing of the

> > past (except for those working at PBS stations ;->) although you would be

> > surprised at the number of automated functions in state of the art MPEG

> > systems that depend on GPI/O and diode 'OR' circuits for interface

> >

> > to survive as something useful engineering wise these days consider the

> > depth and breadth of what we deal with

> >

> > Frequency range from DC to beyond daylight

> > power levels from Pico to Mega Watts

> > general purpose computers forced in to broadcast usage to purpose built

> > number crunchers, operating systems that span the history of 'puters that

> > range from 'user indifferent' to 'user hostile'

> > modulation schemes from simple AM and FM to 8VSB, COFDM. QPSK/8PSK, QAM

> > (32 to 256) DVB-S2 to name a few

> >

> > Baseband Audio and Video in all their nuanced glory - despite what some

> > folks tell you the real world and our basic interface to sights and sounds

> > is ANALOG - then, when you really mess it up there is Digital - oh, once

> > its 'bits' TCP/IP is the easiest way to move it about - except when it

> > comes to audio and video in realtime - something the bit packers &

> > shippers of the world have been learning - Oh, and once its bits they take

> > up way too much 'space' so, here comes compression in an ever growing

> > number of methods and standards along with multiplexing and all the other

> > bits (SI/PSI/PSIP) that allow you to find the audio and video bits (deep

> > breath) and that doesn't touch on interfacing to automation, traffic and

> > billing

> >

> > and all I've noted above just reflects my path through the years

> >

> > "Broadcast engineering" is a very broad brush

> >

> > Stu

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > _______________________________________________

> > The SBE Roundtable, SBE at sbe.org

> > To unsubscribe, go to http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/options/sbe

> >

> > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/sbe

>

>

>my webpage

>http://russvanderhorst.info

>_______________________________________________

>The SBE Roundtable, SBE at sbe.org

>To unsubscribe, go to http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/options/sbe

>

>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/sbe

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/sbe/attachments/20091012/1b12f711/attachment.htm>