2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium Sessions Announced

Two technical sessions for radio professionals have been announced for the 2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium. The four-day symposium takes place from 13–16 October at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Florida, and will see broadcast engineers from the U.S. and around the world gather for technical sessions, networking and knowledge transfer.

On Wednesday 14 October, Roz Clark, director of technical operations and systems administrator for Cox Media Group, and Milford Smith, vice president of engineering for Greater Media Inc., will both lead technical sessions at the event.

As chair of the session 'Advanced RF Technology for Radio', scheduled for 9:45 a.m. On 14 October, Clark will introduce two industry experts – Philipp Schmid, research engineer at Nautel Broadcast, and John Schadler, vice president of engineering at Dielectric – to present strategies for planning radio frequency (RF) systems that can operate reliably with higher power levels in the long-term and futuristic concepts that can lead to new solutions. The presentations will focus on findings from two papers, 'Interleaving IBOC Signals for a Digital HD Radio in a Single Transmitter' by Schmid and Nautel Broadcast, and '10db IBOC at Combined Transmission Sites' by Schadler.

"This session will describe technologies that are currently underway, as well as some that are yet to be exploited. For instance, Philipp's presentation is an interesting exploration into the potential to run multiple channels of HD carriers in a single transmitter, which could open up interesting future opportunities for broadcasters," Clark said. "On the other hand, John's paper describes how broadcasters can properly design RF transmission and antenna systems to properly handle the relatively recent opportunity and need to elevate HD carriers to as high as –10db."

Also on 14 October, at 3.45pm, Smith will lead the session 'Next-Generation Audio Technology for Radio and Television and Beyond', with presentations by Jeff Riedmiller, senior director for the sound group in the office of the CTO at Dolby Laboratories; Deep Sen, senior director of speech, audio, and acoustics research at Qualcomm; and Fadi Malak, director of corporate strategy and development at DTS.

Covering production, distribution, delivery, and playback, the session will focus on immersive audio beyond the one-dimensional (mono) and two-dimensional (stereo and 5.1) formats with the addition of new elevation information above and below the listener.

"Audio formats such as HD Radio and ATSC 3.0 are rapidly evolving right along with the rest of broadcast technology. They're creating opportunities to leverage our audio product to new levels of realism as we get beyond the two-dimensional model that has defined audio to this point," Smith said. "All three of our presenters are highly recognized and respected worldwide experts in this area, and they'll give their own unique perspectives on this exciting topic."

More information about the 2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium, including online registration, is available at www.bts.ieee.org/broadcastsymposium.

Past attendees are eligible for a $100 discount off the registration fee.

www.bts.ieee.org

Image: Roz Clark, Director of Technical Operations and systems Administrator for Cox Media Group.

(JP)