SBE Announces Winners of 2016 National Awards

The Society of Broadcast Engineers announces the recipients of the 2016 SBE National Awards. The awards recognize excellence and achievement by individual members, SBE chapters and Sustaining Member companies. The two highest individual awards are the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year and the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year.

Presented to a member who has excelled in his or her career while furthering the mission of the SBE, the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year is awarded to Michael Hendrickson, CPBE, CBNT, of Lakeville, MN. Hendrickson is a former SBE Chapter 17 chair, and currently a member of the SBE National Board of Directors.

The recipient of the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year award is recognized for outstanding service and excellence in sharing knowledge through teaching other broadcast engineers. The winner of the award is Cheryl Lustenberger, CBNT, CTO, of Chapter 11 in Boston. Lustenberger is the assistant manager at the Tufte Television Facilities at Emerson College and has been instrumental in creating a fun and educational environment to students interested in broadcast engineering.

Mike Hendrickson has been in the broadcast engineering industry for more than 35 years. Recently retired, Mike was elected to the national SBE Board of Directors in 2015. Prior to retirement, Mike was chief engineer for American Public Media and was responsible for the upgrade of Minnesota Public Radio stations in Minnesota and several stations in Florida. In addition to being a former chapter chairman of Chapter 17, Mike has held several offices. Mike wrote an early version of a database that contained entries of most of the 950MHz aural studio/transmitter link assignments in the area. He is remembered by some SBE members for the demonstration of this database at an SBE meeting in the early 1980s, when a static discharge from bad carpet to the computer ended the database demo!

2016 marks the fourth year that the Chapter Engineer of the Year Award has highlighted the achievements of members within their chapters. This year, seven chapters selected their own award recipients. Each winner will be presented with a special certificate and will be recognized nationally on the SBE website and in a future issue of The Signal. The nine chapter winners also were automatically nominated for the national Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year Award.

Cheryl Lustenberger has spent the last nine years educating future broadcast engineers at Tufte Television Studios at Emerson College. Having previously worked at several network affiliates in Massachusetts before coming back to her alma mater as staff, she was always happy to help students learn about the technology behind the productions they were developing and carrying out. In addition to formal workshops on safety, rigging and technology, Cheryl makes herself available to students via personal workshops on most any subject. One Emerson College student commented, “Her devotion to lifelong learning and teaching sets an example for students who will have to keep up with a rapidly changing industry.”

Blackmagic Design is awarded the 2016 SBE Technology Award for its URSA Studio Viewfinder, which turns the URSA mini, a compact lightweight Super 35 digital film camera, into a true professional studio camera.

Norman Portillo, CBT, CTO, has won the newly added Freedom Award. Portillo previously won the Educator of the Year award in 2014 and has continued that education and training throughout the military community with his move from the Defense Information School in Maryland to Fort Bragg, NC. Norman recently established an SBE Chapter at Fort Bragg, Chapter 147. He currently serves as the chairman of that chapter. His supervisor, Jeremiah Green commented, “I have seen him personally reach out to the military community about the SBE’s programs and benefits. The command has also recognized his success and relies on him to connect the bridge between civilian and military training. Where the most Army military broadcast engineers are stationed, they now have a home where they can have training and certification opportunities.”

Chapter Awards
Best Chapter Communication
Chapter 24 of Madison, WI

Best Regional Convention or Conference
SBE Chapters of Wisconsin, and the 2015 Broadcasters Clinic

Several SBE National Awards recognize chapters for growth in membership, percentage of certified members and highest average attendance at chapter meetings. These awards are based on statistics kept at the national office, as submitted by chapters. Two awards for each category are presented, based on chapter enrollment. Class A represents chapters whose membership is less than the national median. Class B includes chapters with a membership greater than the national median.

Greatest Growth in New Members
A: Chapter 96, Rockford, IL, Chapter Chairman Ben Pflederer
B: Chapter 7, Jacksonville, FL, Chapter Chairman Craig Butler, CSRTE

Most Certified Chapter
A: Chapter 118, Montgomery, AL, Chapter Chairman Wiely Boswell, CBRE, CBNE; Certification Chairman, Charlie Grider, CBRE, CBNT
B: Chapter 131, Inland Empire, CA, Chapter Chairman, Wayne Murphy, CPBE, CBNE; Certification Chairman, Paul Claxton, CPBE, CBNE

Highest Average Member Attendance
A: Chapter 145, Magic Valley, ID, Chapter Chairman Thomas Lowther, CSRTE, CBNT
B: Chapter 34, Albuquerque, NM, Chapter Chairman William Harris, CPBE, AMD, CBNT

Nominations for the 2017 awards will open in February.

All the awards will be presented during the SBE National Awards Dinner on October 27, at the SBE National Meeting in Columbus, OH. The National Meeting is being held in conjunction with the Ohio Broadcast Engineering Conference, which is presented by the Ohio Association of Broadcasters, the Ohio chapters of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, and the Ohio section of SMPTE.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers is the professional organization of television and radio engineers and those in related fields. The SBE has more than 5,100 members in 115 chapters across the United States and in Hong Kong. There are also members in more than 30 other countries. Most chapters meet monthly and offer educational programs and an opportunity to network with other engineers. The SBE offers the largest and most recognized certification program for broadcast engineers, operators and technicians, with more than 4,500 certifications currently active.

Be Prepared for the 2016 National EAS Test

With the pending national EAS test, and the FCC’s unveiling of the EAS Test Reporting System, the SBE has prepared this summary of dates and actions of which all stations should be aware.

Aug. 26, 2016
Stations must complete Form One in the ETRS

Sep 28, 2016, 2:20 p.m. ET
EAS test
If circumstances prevent a test on Sep 28, the secondary test date is Oct 5, 2016.

Sep 28, 2016
By 11:59 p.m. ET, stations must complete the day-of-test report on Form Two in the ETRS

Nov 14, 2016
Deadline to submit post-test data on Form Three in the ETRS

SBE Reports First Compensation Survey Results

From April 1 to May 13, 2016, the Society of Broadcast Engineers conducted a survey to determine salary levels and benefits among broadcast and media technology engineers. This first survey provides a wealth of useful information, and it also establishes a baseline for subsequent surveys to establish compensation trends.

The complete results of the survey are available at no charge to SBE members as a benefit of membership. A link to the survey is posted on the SBE website. SBE members will login to view the report.

The survey included 23 questions that gathered information about job titles, broadcast market size and compensation in dollars and offered benefits. SBE membership was not required to take the survey.

About the survey, SBE President Jerry Massey, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNT, said, “The SBE is pleased with the overall participation in the survey, and we look forward to greater participation in subsequent years. While other surveys have been conducted in the past, the SBE Compensation Survey broadly encompasses radio, TV and other media rather than focusing on only one segment.”

While all responses remained anonymous, demographic data collected included market size, job category/title, age, years working in broadcasting, salary, benefits received, and any certification held. The data is split into radio or TV results, with greater detail on job category and market size. Presiden Massey added, “The survey shows that individuals who hold SBE Certification on average earn a higher salary than those who do not hold SBE Certification. This is a trend we have seen in other surveys, and continues to show true.”

SBE members can access the survey at this link. SBE login is required.

FCC Adds Three EAS Event Weather Codes

The FCC has released a report and order to add three new weather event codes for the Emergency Alert System. The codes are Extreme Wind Warning (EWW), Storm Surge Watch (SSA) and Storm Surge Warning (SSW).

Read the complete report and order at the FCC website.

From the R&O, the FCC will “require EAS equipment manufacturers to integrate these codes into equipment yet to be manufactured or sold, and make necessary software upgrades available to EAS participants no later than six months from the effective date of the rule amendments adopted in this order.”

While the new codes will not need to be added to EAS devices until 2017, the SBE has gathered information on adding the codes.

Gorman-Redlich Users
Gorman-Redlich will deliver new units with the codes as per the deadline. For existing units, contact the compoany. A new EPROM is likely required.

Monroe Electronics/Digital Alert System Users
DASDEC and R189 One-Net software version 3.0 already support these three event codes. If you have v3.0, no further action is needed, aside from selecting the codes from the drop-down menu if you want to use them.

Sage Alerting System Users
Sage plans to include the codes in the upcoming 89.30 release. To add the events now, use the “New Events” tab in the ENDECSetD settings program to define the new event code, then include the codes a filter as needed.

Trilithic Users
EASyCap B4020 software will be updated for the event codes. Users subscribed to the Trilithic Newsgroup will be notified when the update is ready. Starting Jan. 1, 2017, a radio-specific EAS product will be available. There are no plans to update the EASyCast platform. That product platform has reached the end of its service, so unless a large number of users request an update, one will not be released.