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IEEE

From the President

Dear BTS Members:

As another newyear arrives, it’s agood time to reflecton the activities ofour Society during2005 and to lookforward to an excit-

ing year ahead. Perhaps most notice-able to you, our Newsletter readers, inthe past year were the addition of“aviation-orange” color and more arti-cles to our quarterly issues – we hopeyou’ve found them interesting andinformative. You also may havenoticed the new color on the thickerbindings of the Transactions, whichwill be even thicker in the coming

year, with more pages in each issue.But beyond skin deep, the content ofour Transactions was ranked in theTop 20 in citations among Telecom-munications journals.

Our 2005 conferences were also wellreceived – the technology tutorials atNAB and IBC, and our annual Broad-cast Symposium in the Fall, with its spe-cial session on Mobile & MultimediaBroadcasting. In 2006, we’ll be expand-ing on this topic with a new Sympo-sium on Broadband Multimedia Systemsand Broadcasting, being launched at theCTIA show in April. We hope this willprovide additional value to our currentmembers and enlarge our potentialmembership base in the growing multi-media technology segment.

As you read fromthe President’smessage, we hadan active and suc-cessful year forthe IEEE Broad-cast TechnologySociety. We expectthat 2006 will be

an even better year for the BTS. AsEditor of the BTS Newsletter, my goalis to bring you interesting news anduseful technical articles. You will bekept informed of IEEE developmentsand worldwide activities. In particular,

we will give you articles reporting onBTS events and activities planned andaccomplished.

This is your BTS Newsletter. AllBTS members are always welcome tosubmit articles to the Newsletter.Typical articles can provide informa-tion about members’ activities andmeeting events. We are especiallyinterested in receiving technical howto or hands on articles related tobroadcast operations or equipmentwhich could be useful to other BTSmembers working in industry. In

The technologies to deliver information and entertainment over the air, cable, satellite and Internet to audiences worldwide, at home and on the go.

From the Editor

continued on page 2

ISSN 1067-490X

Volume 13, Number 4, Winter 2005

The focus groups we conducted at NABand IBC have given us insight into theneeds of multimedia professionals and

continued on page 2

InsideIEEE Members Select Leah H. Jamieson 2006 IEEE President-Elect 3

ATSC Published Four New Candidate Statements . . . . . . . . . .4

2005 Broadcast Symposium is aSuccess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Symposium Keynote Speaker Marsha MacBride Rallies IEEE Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Crown Castle Previews New MobileTV Service at IEEE Broadcast Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

2005 Scott Helt and Matti M. SiukolaAwards Presented . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Special Issue on Global Digital Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Chapter Activity Reports:

Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10New York City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10St. Petersburg, Russia . . . . . . . . . .11Taipei Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12UKRI Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Digital Television Developmentsin East Tennessee – An Update . .14

BTS Members Included in Classof 2006 Fellow Grade . . . . . . . . . .14

Congrats to New Senior Members 15Brain Teaser – Reward Offered . . .15IBC 2005 Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Obituary – David Sillman . . . . . . . .17BTS Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

btsNL_winter05.qxd 1/30/06 1:54 PM Page 1

addition we welcome articles fromacademic researchers reporting onnew developments in broadcast engi-neering automation, control, and newtechnologies. Both the commercialapplications and applied research arti-cles are welcome. I believe such arti-cles help new engineers and ITprofessionals to become aware of joband personal professional develop-ment opportunities in the dynamicstate-of-the-art broadcast engineeringapplications of computer software,automation and new hardware in highpower wide band RF technologies.These technologies enable broadcastsystems and signal distribution opera-tions to become more efficient andcost effective. I am also working withBTS colleagues in industry to obtainbroadcast engineering training materi-als which can be published as a seriesof articles in future BTS Newsletters.

In 2006 this Newsletter will reporton a series of BTS events whichinclude a new BTS Symposium onBroadband Multimedia Systems andBroadcasting being co-located withthe Cellular Telephony and Internet

Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006 andthe IEEE Communications SocietyWireless Communications and Net-working Conference (WCNC) 2006 tobe held on 6-7 April in Las Vegas. OurBTS Technical Program Committeeand Steering Committee are preparinga broad technical program to providethe latest information to industryattendees and research attendees. Irecommend that you visit the IEEEBTS web site often to view the latestprogram information about this event.

In addition, your BTS Newsletterwill include articles about BTS 2006participation at the NAB Conventionin Las Vegas, the Broadcast Asia Con-ference and Exhibition in Singapore,the International Broadcast Conven-tion in Amsterdam, and the premierBTS event which is the IEEE BroadcastTechnology Symposium on 27-29 Sep-tember 2006 at the Hotel Washington,Washington, DC. Our Newsletter andweb site will keep you informedabout these events.

If you happen to see an article in atrade journal or other technical publi-cation that you think would be of

IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter 2 Winter 2005

Newsletter Deadlines

The BTS Newsletter welcomes con-tributions from every member.Please forward materials you wouldlike included to the editor [email protected]. Here areour deadlines for upcoming issues:

Issue Due Date

Spring, 2006 January 20, 2006Summer, 2006 April 20, 2006Fall, 2006 July 20, 2006Winter, 2006 October 20, 2006

IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter (ISSN 1067-490X) is published quar-terly by the Broadcast Technology Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electron-ics Engineers, Inc. Headquarters address: 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY10017-2394. Sent at a cost of $1.00 per year to each member of the Broadcast Tech-nology Society. Printed in USA. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and atadditional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: IEEE BroadcastTechnology Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855.

© 2005 IEEE. Information contained in this newsletter may be copied without per-mission provided that copies are not made or distributed for direct commercialadvantage, and the title of the publication and its date appear.

potential opportunities for IEEE andBTS to serve them better. We look for-ward to continuing this market researchin the coming year, and to developingnew products and services through ourMobile & Multimedia Broadcasting Ini-tiative. I’m pleased to report that a num-ber of you have already stepped up tohelp us with this Initiative and with ournew Symposium, based on the articlesin the Fall Newsletter – but more volun-teers are always welcome!

Thanks to the efforts of our Strate-gic Planning team, with the profession-al guidance of long-time IEEEvolunteer and BTS member Irv Engel-son, we completed a SWOT (Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)Analysis of our Society. An action planis being developed, and you’ll start tosee the fruits of this effort in the com-ing months as we adapt BTS to ourevolving “broadcast” industry – themultimedia initiatives are just thebeginning.

After a decade of steady decline,total membership in BTS began tolevel off in 2005. We hope thispresages an upturn in 2006. But, whileour higher-grade and affiliate member-ships grew, the number of studentmembers declined. This is one of theissues to be addressed by our Educa-tion Initiative in the coming year.

BTS continues to be in excellentfinancial condition, thanks to ourpartnership in the IBC, which contin-ues to grow each year. It provides asolid foundation that allows us todevelop new products and services,

From the Editor continued

and to keep the costs of our publica-tions and conferences affordable forour members.

One perk that we are pleased tooffer in early 2006 – with a value thatmore than offsets the cost of BTSmembership – is a complimentarycopy of the IEEE Proceedings SpecialIssue on Global Digital Television, towhich several of our members con-tributed. You'll find it bundled with

the March issue of the Transactions onBroadcasting, in appreciation for yourmembership in BTS. So, tell your non-member colleagues to join now.

My best wishes to each of you for ahappy and prosperous 2006!

Tom GurleyPresidentIEEE Broadcast Technology [email protected]

From the President continued


Winter 2005 3 IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter

Leah H. Jamieson, Ransburg Professorof Electrical and Computer Engineer-ing, and associate dean of Engineeringfor Undergraduate Education at Pur-due University in West Lafayette, Ind.,has been selected as 2006 IEEE presi-dent-elect. Pending acceptance of theTeller's Committee report by the IEEEBoard of Directors, Jamieson willbegin serving as IEEE president on 1Jan. 2007. She will succeed 2006 IEEEPresident Michael R. Lightner, Profes-sor of Electrical and Computer Engi-neering at the College of Engineeringand Applied Science at the Universityof Colorado at Boulder.

Jamieson, an IEEE Fellow, is onlythe second woman in the history ofthe IEEE to be chosen for the presi-dent-elect position. An IEEE memberfor 30 years, she presently serves onthe IEEE Board of Directors and Exec-utive Committee. She is a member ofthe Strategic Planning Committee,chairs the New Technologies Direc-tions Committee and holds the posi-tion of vice president of thePublication Services and ProductsBoard. Among her many other leader-ship roles, she has served as vicepresident of the Technical ActivitiesBoard and as president of the IEEESignal Processing Society.

In addition to her current positionsas professor and associate dean atPurdue, Jamieson is co-founder anddirector of the Engineering Projects inCommunity Service (EPICS) under-graduate engineering design program,which was initiated at Purdue and hasbeen adopted by 17 universities. Forher work with EPICS, she was co-recipient of the U.S. National Acade-my of Engineering’s Gordon Prize forInnovation in Engineering and Tech-nology Education. She has served onadvisory committees of the NationalScience Foundation and on the Boardof Directors of the ComputingResearch Association. She is a memberof the U.S. National Academy of Engi-neering.

Edward Della Torre was selected asdivision delegate-elect/director-electfor 2006 for IEEE Division IV-Electro-magnetics and Radiation. He will alsotake office as division delegate/direc-tor on 1 January 2007.

Division IV consists of the follow-ing societies: Antennas and Propaga-tion, Broadcast Technology, ConsumerElectronics, Electromagnetic Compati-bility, Magnetics, Microwave Theoryand Techniques, Nuclear and PlasmaSciences plus the SuperconductivityCouncil.

Edward Della Torre, Professor atGeorge Washington University, Wash-ington, DC, received the B.E.E. fromBrooklyn Polytechnic Institute, theM.Sc. in electrical engineering fromPrinceton University, the M.Sc. inphysics from Rutgers University, andthe D.E.Sc. degree from ColumbiaUniversity. He has been a professor atGeorge Washington University since1982. He also taught at Rutgers,McMaster, and Wayne State Universi-ties, and served as Chairman of theElectrical and Computer EngineeringDepartments at the latter two universi-ties. He performed research at the BellLaboratories, the University of Toron-to, and the National Institute of Stan-dards and Technology duringsabbatical years.

Edward Della Torre is a Life Fel-low of the IEEE and a Fellow of theAmerican Institute for Physics. He isthe author or coauthor of over 250technical papers in refereed publica-tions and three books. He has madeover 200 conference presentations,holds 18 patents, and is a regularreviewer for many technical jour-nals. He has chaired several IEEEConferences.

Copyright © 2005, IEEE MediaRelations. Reprinted with permission.

IEEE MEMBERS SELECT LEAH H. JAMIESON 2006 IEEE PRESIDENT-ELECTFrom the IEEE Newsroom

interest to readers of this Newsletter,please send me an email with thename of the article and publication. Ifthe article you recommend is consid-ered to be of interest to the Newsletterreaders, I will make arrangements tocontact the publisher and request per-mission to reprint the article in theBTS Newsletter. Another area of theNewsletter which has been a tradition-

al item is the Brain Teaser articleswhich BTS member Lanny Nass hasbeen providing during the past years.Lanny is always on the lookout fornew brain teasers related to broadcast-ing. If you see any brain teasers orchallenging puzzles that would be ofinterest to our readers, please sendthem directly to Lanny Nass [email protected].

I wish all our readers a successfuland prosperous New Year. Please con-tact me with your ideas, commentsand suggestions.

With best regards,

Bill MeintelEditorIEEE BTS [email protected]

From the Editor continued



ATSC Published Four New Candidate StandardsBy Jerry Whitaker, VP of Standards Development,Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) haspublished four Candidate Standard documents relating tocoding and transport stream management for the optionalenhanced-VSB (E-VSB) transmission mode. E-VSB, alsoknown as the Robust Mode, is specified in ATSC documentA/53D (Annex D). E-VSB allows broadcasters to trade-offdata rate for a lower carrier-to-noise threshold for certainservices. Examples of potential applications for E-VSBinclude delivery of “fall back” audio, programming servicestargeted at small DTV receivers with indoor antennas, non-real time transmissions of file-based information to hand-held and pedestrian receivers, and robust data broadcastingto devices such as desktop and laptop computers.

Elevation of a specification to Candidate Standard statusis an explicit call to those outside of the related specialistgroup for implementation and technical feedback. This isthe phase at which the specialist group is responsible forformally acquiring field experience or at least defining theexpectations of implementation. Candidate Standards maybe revised during the posting period if issues are identifiedby implementers.

The new Candidate Standards, available on the ATSCWeb site, are:• CS/TSG-658, “Amendment to ATSC Digital Televi-

sion Standard, Doc. A/53D, to define Video SystemCharacteristics of VC-1 as new Annex F”

• CS/TSG-659, “Amendment to ATSC Digital Televi-sion Standard, Doc. A/53D, to define Video SystemCharacteristics of AVC as new Annex F”

• CS/TSG-660, “Amendment to ATSC A/53D toDefine Transport of AVC Codec in Annex C”

• CS/TSG-661, “Amendment to ATSC A/53D toDefine E-VSB Transport in Annex C”

About the New CS DocumentsThe ATSC Technology and Standards Group (TSG) is con-sidering the possibility of specifying one or two advancedvideo codecs for the E-VSB mode. CS/TSG-658 and CS/TSG-659, developed by the Specialist Group on Video and Audio

Coding (TSG/S6), define the video system characteristics forVC-1 and AVC, respectively. They also document how CEA-708-B closed captions are to be carried with either codec.

In the event that one or more new video codecs, in addi-tion to MPEG-2, were to be approved for use in the E-VSBmode, transport aspects would be documented as anamendment to Annex C of A/53. CS/TSG-660, developed bythe Specialist Group on Service Multiplex and TransportSystems Characteristics (TSG/S8), is the Candidate StandardAmendment to Annex C to define transport of the AVCcodec for use in E-VSB transmission mode.

In the event that no new video codec is approved foruse in the E-VSB transmission mode, MPEG-2 video may betransmitted in the Robust Stream. CS/TSG-661, an alternateamendment to Annex C developed by TSG/S8, defines therelated transport aspects.

Both CS/TSG-660 and CS/TSG-661 also document trans-port of Enhanced AC-3 in the Robust Mode. E-AC-3 offersnew coding tools that fundamentally improve performance,and new features that allow operation over a wider rangeof bit-rates and numbers of channels. It is important to notethat E-AC-3 can be converted into AC-3 for playback com-patibility on consumer’s existing A/V decoders.

All of the CS documents have been under developmentfor some time within TSG/S6 and TSG/S8. Feedback isappreciated—and essential—as the work moves forward.

The CS period for CS/TSG-661 expires on December 15.The CS period for the other three documents expires onMay 10, 2005. On or prior to the expiration date, the parentTechnology Group (TSG) has the option of extending theCS period, advancing the document to the next level ofapproval (Proposed Standard), or returning the documentto the specialist group for additional work.

Further InformationAll four Candidate Standards, as with all other ATSC stan-dards, recommended practices, and informational docu-ments, are available for download at no charge from theATSC Web site http://www.atsc.org.

2005 Broadcast Symposium is a SuccessIt was another successful year for the IEEE Broadcast Sym-posium. The 55th Annual event was held in the familiarHotel Washington, in Washington, DC USA. This yearbrought a new Symposium Chair, Guy Bouchard, whoorganized and coordinated this event attended by about 130of the top broadcast engineers worldwide. In addition to anew Chair, we also held the technical sessions in a newroom in the Hotel Washington. With more space and more

privacy, this location seemed to be popular with attendees. In addition to the presentation of 33 outstanding and

very well received technical papers, 2005 featured memo-rable highlights: An onsite, live demo of the Crown CastleMobile TV Service (see article in this newsletter); A rallyingspeech by Marsha MacBride, executive vice president oflegal and regulatory affairs for the National Association ofBroadcasters (see article in this newsletter); Finally a mov-



ing panel on Broadcasters’ EmergencyPreparedness Related to HurricaneKatrina and Other Events (Participants:Andy Bater, Raymond Carnovale,Steve Smith, Charles Cooper, JerryKalke).

Those fortunate enough to attendthe panel session on Broadcasters’Emergency Preparedness could nothelp but walk away impressed by theimportant and indispensable publicservice that broadcasters provide

when areas are struck by disaster.Additionally, through first hand expe-rience shared during the panel; atten-dees learned some of the lessons thathave been learned by their colleaguesin different emergency situations.

We gratefully extend our thanks tothe Symposium corporate supporters;Axcera, Dielectric, ERI ElectronicsResearch Inc., Jampro, Richland Tow-ers and TV Technology. Without theirsupport, we would be forced to raise

registration rates for our attendeesdramatically.

Finally, thank you to the authorsand session chairs who shared theirtime and expertise to make the IEEEAnnual Broadcast Symposium the pre-mier event for technical informationon broadcasting.

We’ll see you next year, September27 – 29, 2006 at the Hotel Washington,in Washington DC USA for the 56thAnnual IEEE Broadcast Symposium!

Panel: Broadcasters’ Emergency Preparedness Related toHurricane Katrina and Other Events

Marsha MacBride accepts certificate of appreciation fromSymposium Chair Guy Bouchard & Society President, Tom Gurley

AdCom members at the BTS Awards Banquet: From Left toright: Tom Silliman, Lanny Nass, Sid Shumate, Tom Gurley,

Yiyan Wu, William Meintel, and Guy Bouchard.

Socializing at the Thursday evening reception

Sid Shumate presents the Matti Siukola Memorial Award.Awarded to Gary Sgrinoli, accepting for Gary is Dennis

Wallace.

Sid Shumate presents the Scott Helt Award to Yiyan Wu andXiaobin Wang



Broadcast spectrum is under assault,Marsha MacBride told a roomful ofengineers at the 55th Annual IEEEBroadcast Symposium, urging them toget off their duffs and lobby lawmakers.

"The demand for 'beachfront'broadcast spectrum is huge," saidMacBride, executive vice president oflegal and regulatory affairs for theNational Association of Broadcasters,and former chief of staff for ex-FCCChairman Michael Powell. "Broadbandis in; broadcast is out."

She noted the Bush Administrationcall for universal broadband in thenation by 2007, up from a mere 38million "connections" today. She saidcompanies going after the spectrumwere "players with a lot of swat inWashington," and that the effort towrench spectrum away from televisionbegan years ago. Then, in 2002 theFCC Spectrum Policy Task Force"determined there was plenty of spec-trum, it was just inefficiently used,"and the current airwave-grab ensued.

MacBride cited three major forcesthreatening the broadcast space--unli-censed devices, broadband-over-pow-erline (BPL) and ultrawideband(UWB). With the current obsession for

unlicensed devices, the risk of broad-cast interference is a low priority inthe regulatory arena, she said. Interfer-ence tests assume a 30-foot separa-tion--more than one can find in a lotof New York City apartments--betweenan unlicensed device and a TV receiv-er. She also said that while the FCCrecognized that BPL would causeinterference, it only approved protec-tion for spectrum used by the federalgovernment.

She very briefly mentioned thedrive to free up spectrum for firstresponders, an effort for which Sen.John McCain (R-Ariz.) is bearing thecolors. McCain's efforts last year toestablish an analog sunset date weredismantled in the final hours of theCongressional session--his last as chair-man of the Commerce Committee. Thecurrent chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is busy crafting DTV legislationof his own, but not fast enough to sat-isfy the chagrined McCain, who isscheduled to appear at a D.C. thinktank gathering Oct. 18 to once againblame broadcasters for the dismal stateof emergency communications.

That event, sponsored by the NewAmerica Foundation, will also feature

speakers from Cisco Systems, the 9/11Commission and municipal safetyorganizations, but not broadcasters.According to the NAF invite, the pan-elists will "describe the benefits ofmobile, high-speed public safety datanetworks that will require access tothe sort of high-penetration airwavesthat currently lie fallow as unassignedTV channels and 'guard bands' inevery community nationwide." It saidsenators are considering whetherChannels 2 through 51 ought to beopened for unlicensed devices,although even the FCC hasn't writtenoff on that yet.

MacBride told those gathered at theIEEE Symposium in Washington that"the role of the engineer is critical" inDTV deadline discussions. "Much ofthis falls in your lap," she said, urgingthe group to communicate with law-makers. "Engineering is being debatedtoday at the FCC like policy."

Copyright © 2005 IMAS PublishingGroup. Reprinted with permission.This article originally posted on 2005-10-14 in TV Technology NewsBytesweekly digest.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/dai-lynews/one.php?id=3328

Symposium Keynote Speaker Marsha MacBrideRallies IEEE Membersby Deborah McAdams of TV Technology

Crown Castle Previews New Mobile TV Service atIEEE Broadcast Symposiumby James O’Neal of TV Technology

The 55th annual IEEE Broadcast Sym-posium in Washington, D.C. offered itsattendees a look at “the next screen”and redefined the “PID” acronym.

The opening proceedings could bebest summed up in the title of the firstpaper, “The Emergence of DigitalVideo Broadcast TV in Mobile Termi-nals,” presented by Don Shaver ofTexas Instruments.

Television broadcasting continuesto morph and one of the latest imple-

mentations is subscription video deliv-ered through “PIDS.” Put aside thefamiliar “Packet ID” acronym for thetime being; the new “PID” stands forPortable Information Device--rightnow that would translate as a video-enabled cell phone. PIDs, however,are likely come into their own as sub-stantially more than just a cell phonewith pictures.

Michael Schueppert of Crown Cas-tle Mobile Media described his compa-

ny's ongoing field trials of this tech-nology in the Pittsburgh area. This isthe first deployment of DVB-H (hand-held) network technology in the U.S.Additional trials are being conductedin Germany, Finland, the UK, Australiaand France. The U.S. trial is a cooper-ative effort featuring equipment andservices provided Axcera, Thales,Kathrein, Nokia and SES Americom.

One of the unique features of thePittsburgh trial is the use of L-band



spectrum. No broadcast TV channelshad to go dark. The system operateswithin a 5 MHz channel in the 1.670GHz region. This was formerly a spec-trum slot set aside for weather balloontelemetry, but has gone largely unusedsince weather satellites began toreplace the balloons. It has now beencleared nation-wide for this use. Thefield trial uses a 200 W transmitter, andwith antenna gain produces a 2 kWEIRP. It is estimated that the videoservice could potentially reach 750,000people in the Pittsburgh area.

Nokia provided their model 7710handset units or “PIDs” with a DVB-Htuner built in for evaluation of the trialservice.

Another feature of the Crown Cas-tle field test is the use of satellite link-age for delivery of content to the “cell”transmitter, instead of leased terrestrialconnectivity. Satellite delivery isexpected to be very cost effectivewhen compared to the amount beingspent now by cell providers for T-1connectivity to their cell sites.

Satellite delivery made the system

easy to demonstrate to the Symposiumaudience. A Ku-band antenna was tem-porarily installed on the roof of thehotel hosting the event and delivereddigitally encrypted signals to a demod-ulator and low powered L-band trans-mitter located in the conference area.The same audio and video signals seenin Pittsburgh were available for viewingby the audience on the Nokia devices.

Another implementation of thistechnology was described by CapitolBroadcasting's Sam Matheny.

WRAL Television in Raleigh, N.C.has partnered with Sprint and Verizonto provide a local news service to cellphone subscribers in the Raleigh-Durham area. Matheny described theservice, introducing the term “the thirdscreen.” This is the cell phone’s dis-play. The other, older screens arethose in television sets and computers.

“We are at the front end of witness-ing a fundamental change in howpeople get their news,” Matheny said,citing the demise of afternoon news-papers and the phenomenal growth ofthe cell phone industry. He said that

there are an estimated 196 million cellphones subscribers, with 16 millionnew subscriptions added so far thisyear and predicted that with the uni-versality of the cell phone, it willbecome the favored mode for newsdissemination.

We’re moving news to the thirdscreen,” he said.

WRAL is packaging news, weather,stock and highway information for theRaleigh-Durham area. The service isavailable by subscription for $3.99 permonth. He said a survey showed thatpeople would be willing to pay evenmore. A popular feature of the service isaccess to area highway traffic cameras.

Qualcomm’s MediaFLO deliverytechnology was described at the ses-sions, as was the ISDB-T technologybeing tested in Japan.

Copyright © 2005 IMAS PublishingGroup. Reprinted with permission.This article originally posted 2005-10-14 in TV Technology NewsBytes weeklydigest.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/dai-lynews/one.php?id=3344

2005 Scott Helt and Matti M. Siukola AwardsPresentedby Sid Shumate, BTS AdCom Awards and Nominations Chair

The Scott Helt Award for the bestpaper published during the past yearin the IEEE-BTS Transactions, and theMatti M. Siukola Award for the bestpaper presentation at the 2004 Broad-cast Symposium, were presented atthe BTS Awards Luncheon, held dur-ing the the 55th Annual IEEE Broad-cast Symposium on Oct. 14, 2005.

Matti S. Siukola MemorialAward The 2005 Matti S. Siukola MemorialAward was awarded to Gary Sgrignolifor his paper on “Interference Analysisof Co-Sited DTV and NTSC Transla-tors” presented at the 54th AnnualBroadcast Symposium.

This is Mr. Sgrignoli’s secondinvolvement in a Siukola award; he

was the co-author of a paper present-ed by Carl G. Eilers that was the recip-ient of the 2002 Siukola award, and hewas the recipient of the 2004 ScottHelt Award.

Gary Sgrignoli received his Bach-elor and Master of Science degrees inElectrical Engineering from the Uni-versity of Illinois, Champaign-Urbanain 1975 and 1977, respectively. Hejoined Zenith Electronics Corporationin January 1977, where he worked asan engineer in the Research andDevelopment department for 27 years.Currently, Gary is a DTV transmissionconsultant and a partner in the con-sulting engineering firm of Meintel,Sgrignoli and Wallace.

He has worked in the R&D designarea on television “ghost” canceling,

cable TV scrambling, and cable TVtwo-way data systems before turning todigital television transmission systems.Since 1991, Gary has been extensivelyinvolved in the VSB transmission sys-tem design, its prototype implementa-tion, the ATTC lab tests in Alexandria,VA, and both ACATS field tests in Char-lotte, NC. He holds 35 U.S. patents.

Gary was involved with the DTVStation Project in Washington DC,helping to develop DTV RF test plans.He has also been involved withnumerous television broadcast stationsaround the country, training them forDTV field testing and data analysis,and participated in numerous DTVover-the-air demonstrations with theGrand Alliance and the ATSC, both inthe U.S. and abroad.



In addition to publishing technicalpapers and giving presentations atvarious conferences, he has heldnumerous digital VSB transmissionsystem seminars around the country.

The Matti S. Siukola MemorialAward was established in 1982 “toencourage presentation at the AnnualFall Broadcasting Symposium of tech-nical papers of excellence by authorsengaged in the field of broadcast engi-neering.” The recipient is presentedwith a plaque at the following year’sAnnual Symposium Awards Luncheon.To determine the winner, ballots aredistributed at each Technical Sessionduring the Symposium. Prior to theaward, Sidney Shumate, the BTSAwards Chairman, recounted MattiSiukola’s last paper presentationbefore the Symposium. This event,which occurred 25 years ago in thesame room where the Awards Lun-cheon was held this year, led to theestablishment, in 1982, of the Matti S.Siukola Memorial Award.

Scott Helt Memorial Award The 2005 Scott Helt Memorial Awardplaque, and individual certificates, wereawarded to Xianbin Wang, Yiyan Wuand Bernard Caron for their paper“Transmitter Identification Using Embed-ded Pseudo Random Sequences”, pub-lished in the September, 2004 IEEETransactions on Broadcasting.

Xianbin Wang is a research scien-tist with the Communications ResearchCentre, in Ottawa, Canada. Hereceived his Ph.D. degree in 2000,from the Dept. of Electrical and Com-puter Engineering at the National Uni-versity of Singapore. Prior to joiningthe CRC in 2002, he was with STMi-

croelectronics Inc. (Ottawa DesignCentre) as a system designer, withprincipal involvement in the researchand development for Gigabit Ethernetand Digital Subscriber Loop chipsets.His areas of research interest include:Channel estimation/equalization, Mod-ulation techniques, Synchronizationtechniques, Orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) sys-tems, Multiple input multiple output(MIMO) systems, and Ultra wide-band/impulse radio.

Dr. Yiyan Wu is a PrincipalResearch Scientist with the Communi-cations Research Centre in Ottawa,Canada. Dr. Wu's research interestsinclude digital television and multi-media signal processing, and broad-band wireless communications. He isan IEEE Fellow, an adjunct professorof Carleton University in Ottawa,Canada, a member of the IEEEBroadcast Technology Society Admin-istrative Committee, and a member ofthe ATSC Board of Directors, repre-senting IEEE.

Mr. Bernard Caron has been Act-ing Vice-President of the CRC's Broad-cast Technology Branch since January2, 2004, in addition to his current roleas Research Manager of the TelevisionSystems and Transmission researchgroup, which is focusing on the intro-duction of terrestrial digital televisionand multimedia broadcasting in Cana-da. Mr. Caron joined the CRC in 1979and assumed his current role in 1992.

During these years, he contributedto many technological advancements,including the development of video-text and teletext systems, the precur-sors of the Internet, and the creationof CRC's Advanced Television Evalua-

tion Laboratory (ATEL). This laborato-ry was used to subjectively evaluatefive proposed systems, out of whichemerged today's North American stan-dard for High Definition Television.

Mr. Caron was involved in the jointCanada-USA-Brazil OFDM-6 project,which aimed to adapt and evaluatethe Digital Television transmissiontechnology proposed by Europe forthe Americas. He has also negotiatedand managed many projects undercontract for private enterprises fromthe United States, China, Korea andCanada to evaluate the performanceof various Digital Television transmis-sion systems and technologies.

Mr. Caron received a B. Sc. in Elec-trical Engineering from UniversitéLaval, Québec City, in 1978 and a M.Sc. from the University of Ottawa in1984. He is a member of the Profes-sional Engineers of Ontario. He hasactively participated on severalemployee-centric committees includingthe Industry Canada Survey AdvisoryCommittee and the CRC EmployeeAdvisory Committee, of which he wasa founding member. He has publishedmore than 70 papers and reports.

The Scott Helt Memorial Awardwas established in 1957 by the IREProfessional Group on BroadcastTransmission Systems, the precursorof the Broadcast Technology Society.The purpose of the IEEE Scott HeltMemorial Award is to recognizeexceptional publications in the field,and to stimulate interest in, andencourage contributions to, the fieldsof interest of the Society. Papers arenominated by reviewers and votedupon by the entire BTS PublicationsCommittee.

Special Issue on Global Digital Television:Proceedings of the IEEE, January 2006From the Guest Editors of this Special DTV Issue

Digital Television (DTV) and HighDefinition Television (HDTV) servicesvia satellite, cable and terrestrialbroadcasting have been with us for

some time. There have been few, ifany, tutorials that comprehensivelycover all the worldwide DTV systems.This Proceedings of the IEEE special

issue on DTV is produced by a teamof experts in digital television fromaround the world who, for the firsttime, have jointly developed a com-



plete and systematic tutorial series ofpapers. The main focus is on the ter-restrial DTV systems, but satellite andcable DTV are also covered, as wellas emerging services such as InternetProtocol TV (IPTV), Interactive servic-es, and multimedia service to hand-held devices. This special issueconsists of two invited papers andthree special paper sections describ-ing DTV systems and related stan-dards developed in North America,Europe and Japan.

The first paper entitled “Overviewof Digital Television DevelopmentWorldwide” is an introductory andoverview paper by guest editors. Abrief history of television develop-ment, from black and white TV tocolor TV, and then to more advancedenhanced TV and HDTV systems arereviewed. It also puts the current dig-ital television systems into perspec-tive and describes the historicalbackground and different evolutionpaths that each system took. Thefuture development and researchdirections of digital broadcasting andmultimedia systems are also dis-cussed. The second invited paper“Digital Television Station and Net-work Implementation” covers practi-cal issues faced by broadcasterstations and networks around theworld as they have transitioned fromanalog to digital technologies – bothfor transmission and for program pro-duction. It also compares broadcastservice models used in various partsof the world. The intention is to sharethe experiences learned by NorthAmerican, European and Japanesebroadcasters with their colleagues inother parts of the world, hopefully, tomake their DTV transition and imple-mentation easier.

The rest of the special issue con-sists of three special sections of invit-ed papers from digital televisionstandard groups based in NorthAmerica, Europe and Japan. All of theauthors are leading experts or techni-cal authorities in the respected fields.

The first special section is fromNorth America and has eight invited

papers. The first paper is an intro-duction to the ATSC terrestrial DTVstandards. The second paperdescribes the ATSC modulation andchannel coding systems, DTV cover-age and channel assignment criteri-on, as well as distr ibutedtransmission concept and transmis-sion identification system. The thirdpaper discusses video and audio cod-ing in digital television systems. Thenext paper introduces packetizedtransport and multiplex, includingProgram and System Information Pro-tocol (PSIP). Followed by a paperdescribes ATSC standards/protocolsfor data broadcasting and interactiveservices software environment. Thesixth paper focused on receiverdesign and implementation. The sev-enth paper presents carriage of digi-tal video and other emerging servicesby cable in North America. The lastpaper describes digital satell i teDirect-To-Home (DTH) service inNorth America.

The second special section is fromthe DVB Project – the Europeanbased DTV standard body. It consistsof six invited papers, which are main-ly focused on new and emergingtechnologies. The first paperdescribes the DVB family of standardsand recent developments in newtechnologies and emerging services.The next two papers discuss DVB ter-restrial DTV standards DVB-T andDVB-H for stationary, portable andmobile services, as well as DTV andmultimedia service to handhelddevices. The fourth paper introducesDVB-S2 – the second-generationsatellite transmission standard forsatellite broadband services. The fifthpaper presents the technologies forDVB services over the Internet andIPTV. The last paper is on the DVBMultimedia Home Platform (MHP) –the open middleware system forinteractive services.

The last special section is fromJapan on ISDB DTV standards. It cov-ers eight topics with 14 invitedpapers. The first paper outlines theISDB systems. The next six papers

describes the terrestrial DTV and digi-tal sound broadcasting systems, i.e.,ISDB-T and ISDB-TSB, MPEG-2 appli-cations and broadcast-wave relaytechnology in terrestrial DTV broad-casting, as well as HDTV mobilereception and personal mobile DTVterminal for receiving digital terrestri-al broadcasting with Internet services.The following two papers introducesatellite DTV transmission system,ISDB-S, and its uplink facilities. Thetenth paper introduces cable televi-sion transmission system, ISDB-C, inJapan. The eleventh paper describesJapanese datacasting coding scheme,Broadcast Mark-up Language (BML)for interactive services. Followed by apaper discusses digital broadcastingconditional access system in Japan.The thirteenth paper presents ISDBdigital television receiver design andimplementation. The last paperfocused on broadcast satellite multi-media services for mobile reception.

It should be pointed out thattoday’s DTV systems not only delivercrystal-clear pictures and CD-qualitysound, but also provide various inno-vative new services and programs,such as electronic program guide(EPG), personalized advertisements,parental control, conditional access,emergency alerts, software download,IP encapsulation, data broadcasting,and various multimedia interactiveservices. DTV also provides a seam-less interface with other communica-tion systems, computer networks anddigital media, and can even be usedto deliver content to handhelddevices at home or on the go. Theintroduction of digital television willincreasingly impact broadcasters, con-sumers and many related industries.It is a key element of the on-goingdigital revolution leading towards theinformation society.

As Guest Editors, we would like tothank the authors and the reviewerswho contributed their valuable timeand advice. We would also like toacknowledge the Editor-in-Chief, theEditorial Board members and staff ofthe Proceedings of the IEEE for their



support of this special issue. We hopethe readers will find this special issueinformative and useful.

Yiyan Wu, Guest EditorCommunications research

Centre CanadaOttawa Ontario Canada

Shuji Hirakawa, Guest EditorToshiba Corp.Tokyo, Japan

Hisakazu Katoh, Guest EditorNHK (Japan Broadcasting

Corporation)Tokyo, Japan

Ulrich Reimers, Guest EditorChairman, DVB Technical Module

Professor, Braunschweig Technical University, Germany

Jerry Whitaker, Guest EditorATSC Vice President Standards

DevelopmentWashington DC U.S.A.

Activity Report: IEEE BTS Argentina Chapter by Valentin Trainotti

On 12 November 2005, the IEEE BTSArgentina Chapter met and received apresentation of a paper by graduatestudent Luis Dorado. The presentationwas based on a paper titled “CrossField Antenna (CFA) Performance”which was co-authored by Prof.Valentin Trainotti of the University ofBuenos Aires, Argentina and LuisDorado who is working toward a PhDdegree at the Science Faculty of theBuenos Aires University, Argentina.The presentation described the CFAanalysis from input impedance andradiation properties using Maxwell’sequations, through Transmission Line

and Moment Method approaches.This subject was also presented byProf. Trainotti at the 2005 55th AnnualBroadcast Symposium in WashingtonDC. The presentations at both eventswere well received by the attendees.If you are interested in receiving acopy of the CFA Performance paper,please contact Dr. Trainotti via emailat [email protected].

The IEEE BTS Argentina Chapterhad an active year in 2005. In additionto bi-monthly planning meetings bythe Chapter Officers, the following for-mal technical presentations were con-ducted for BTS Chapter members and

guests:10 March - Digital Radio Experiences(IBOC) by Pedro Macarone8 June - Radio Station Digitalizationby Fabian Balliro and Moises Martini6 July - TV Station Digitalization byFabian Balliro and Moises Martini7 Sep. - Digital TV Update by JuanCarlos Guidobono10 Nov. - Crossed Field Antenna Per-formance by Luis Dorado

The Argentina Chapter is planningits next technical session to be a pres-entation by Prof. Trainotti on Non Ion-ized Radiation and FM Transmittingantennas.

Activity Report: IEEE BTS New York Chapterby Warner Johnston

A meeting of the IEEE BTS New YorkChapter was held on 6 December2005 at ABC Facilities, 47 West 66thStreet, New York, NY. This was a jointmeeting with the IEEE Women inEngineering (WIE) New York SectionAffinity Group. The speaker for thismeeting was Eileen Pedersen of ABCBroadcasting.

Her topic was “Evolution of Televi-sion and the Convergence of Technol-ogy.” She discussed how technologyadvances in electronics, cameras,audio devices, processing equipment,computers, software, recording media,test equipment, distribution, etc. areconstantly converging and beingapplied by broadcast engineers to

improve the technical performance oftelevision studios, technical facilities,and distribution systems.

Ms. Pedersen also highlighted thetechnical opportunities for womenengineers in the field of broadcastengineering. This field can be veryrewarding professionally since itrequires engineers to constantly learnthe latest advances in electronics andother technologies with potentialapplications to broadcast systems andfacility operations. A unique profes-sional benefit provided to televisionbroadcast engineers requires them tomeet crit ical technical deadlineswhile working in a dynamic, timesensitive, multi-discipline team envi-

ronment with managers, programdirectors, producers, technical staffand talent.

Eileen joined ABC in the early 80’swhere she went on to become thefirst Chief Engineer of 1125 Produc-tions -- one of the first High-Defini-tion facilities. Later on Ms. Pedersenbecame the Director of Engineeringand Maintenance for USA and Sci-FiNetworks. At USA, she was part of ateam that built one of the first Stateof the Art Digital Facilities. She wenton to work as a consultant on anumber of High Definition buildsincluding CNN and ESPN and cur-rently works as a System DesignEngineer for ABC.


For information about IEEEWomen in Engineering (WIE) contactDarlene E. Rivera, WIE Chair at <[email protected]>.

Future meetings of the IEEE BTSNew York Chapter are scheduled for10 January, 14 March, and 9 May2006. For more information about the

IEEE BTS New York Chapter, contactWarner Johnston, New York BTSChapter Chair at <[email protected]>.


Activity Report: IEEE BTS St. Petersburg Chapter(Russia)by Dmitry Tkachenko

On October 18, 2005, a technicalmeeting of the St.PetersburgBT/CE/COM Chapter was held at theMART Company in St.Petersburg.Technical meetings of the Chapter aretraditionally conducted at this compa-ny facility due to the efforts of Dr.Alexander Artamonov, Deputy Direc-tor of MART Company. The MARTCompany is one of the pioneers indevelopment of digital TV and radiotechnologies in Russia. Technicalmeetings of the IEEE Chapter helpinitiate new activities and projectsrelating to the introduction of digitalTV and radio in Russia. Several yearsago MART developed the first RussianDVB-T transmitter and since that timethe company has initiated severalnew projects in this field.

Alexander Artamonov opened themeeting and welcomed the partici-pants. He announced the agenda ofthe meeting that included reports ofChapter members regarding recentinternational conferences and exhibi-tions and a technical discussion con-cerning possible introduction of DTVsingle frequency networks (SFN) inRussia.

Then Professor Konstantin Glas-man delivered a report concerninghis visit to IBC2005 conference andexhibition in Amsterdam. Prof. Glas-man mentioned three main areas thatwere of special interest to him at IBC.They are (1) Introduction of severalMobile TV standards, (2) Introductionof HDTV in Europe and (3) Increasedavailability of IPTV papers and prod-ucts. He also discussed standardiza-tion activities in the field of digitalcinema. Prof. Glasman reminded themeeting participants that the TenthIEEE International Symposium on

Consumer Electronics would be heldin St.Petersburg on June 29 – July 1,2006.

Alexander Nepomnyashchiy,Deputy Executive Director of the Koz-itsky Plant (one of the major TV setmanufacturers in Russia with thebrand name “Raduga”) told the partici-pants about his visit to the ConsumerElectronics Exhibition IFA2005 thatwas held in Berlin in September.Unfortunately Russian manufacturersare still not prominently representedat international exhibitions. In order toincrease their representation, theyshould first try to gain a greater shareof the Russian market. For example,the estimated number of TV sets soldin Russia in 2004 is about 7 millionunits with about 4.8 million of themmanufactured in Russia. About 55 % ofthe latter number are foreign brandsTV sets assembled in Russia, whereasless than half of this number consistsof TV sets developed in Russia. Transi-tion to digital television in Russia pro-vides an opportunity for Russianmanufacturers to start manufacturinghybrid TV sets that provide receptionof both analog and digital TV pro-grams during the transition period.

The second part of the meetingwas devoted to a discussion of thepossible introduction of single fre-quency DTV networks in Russia. Amajor problem is that the vast territo-ry of Russia covers 10 time zones(i.e. the difference in time betweenthe East and West parts of Russia is10 hours) in which some territoriesdo not have terrestrial TV at all dueto very low density of population.Nevertheless, SFN networks may bereasonable for deployment in dense-ly populated areas. According to

draft estimates, several thousand SFNTV transmitters are necessary tocover main regions of the country.Dr. Artamonov proposed setting up apilot zone for a SFN TV broadcastingnetwork that could be located, forexample, in the St. Petersburg area.In order to establish the pilot zone itis necessary to solve problems relat-ed to SFN DVB-T modulators devel-opment, synchronization oftransmitters and delivery of DTVstreams to the transmitter sites. Meet-ing participants expressed their opin-ions on this proposal.

Sergey Travkin from the RussianResearch Institute of Radio Navigationand Time reported that they havedeveloped synchronization/position-ing units that may work with bothGPS and GLONASS positioning sys-tems. GLONASS is the Russian satellitesystem based on 12 satellites that pro-vides the same functionality like GPSsystem. These units are commerciallyavailable and ready for integrationinto DTV transmitters.

Dr. Vyacheslav Lukinov from“Supertel DALS” company reportedthat his company developed a widerange of products for the multiplexingand distribution of MPEG-2 DTVstreams including communicationssystems supporting any standard bitrates, modulators and set-top-boxesfor cable TV networks, multi-protocolencapsulators for MPEG-2 transportstreams, etc. He stated that there areno technical problems for delivery ofDTV programs to the transmitters inthe regional SFN network.

Dr. Alexander Brunchenko fromthe MART Company said that MARTmight develop a SFN DTV modulatorin a few months so that the prototype

continued on page 13



model may be available by the end ofthe year 2005.

Participants of the meeting agreedthat introduction of SFN DTV pilotarea may be a good example for fur-ther development of SFN DTV net-works in Russia that may require

corresponding investments. The meeting was followed by a

Chapter sponsored dinner. During thedinner, the Chapter Chair DmitryTkachenko briefly described the techni-cal program and topics presented at therecent 55th Annual IEEE Broadcast Sym-

posium held in Washington D.C. Healso reminded the Chapter membersabout the 2006 IEEE MembershipRenewal Campaign. During the dinner afriendly exchange took place among theattendees who shared opinions on vari-ous technical and professional topics.

Activity Report: IEEE Broadcast Technology Society,Taipeiby Ying Li

A distinctive seminar on the past andfuture of broadcast technology was heldon October 28, 2005 at Yuan Ze Univer-sity (YZU), Chungli, Taoyuan, Taiwan.This seminar had over 120 attendantsand was jointly hosted by the IEEE BTSociety Taipei Chapter, Yuan Ze Univer-sity’s Communications EngineeringDepartment, and the China Radio Asso-ciation. The two speakers included Mr.Chi-Tai Chang and Professor C. C. JayKuo. Mr. Chang was formerly the ChiefEngineer of Central Radio Broadcast Sta-tion, the founding chairman of IEEE BTTaipei Chapter, and the Chairman ofChina Radio Association (http://www.cra.org.tw/BV50CRA/En/En-Main.aspx) with 2,300 members cele-brating its 50th anniversary this year.Professor Kuo is an IEEE Fellow and aProfessor in the EE and Math depart-

ments of the University of Southern Cal-ifornia (http://viola.usc.edu/).

Mr. Chang’s talk, titled “TechnicalEvolution and History of RadioBroadcasting in Taiwan,” describedhow a radio station was establishedduring the early days of radio. Fromstudio design (involving buildingacoustics) to microwave link trans-ceiver installations (the engineersused a mirror at one site and binocu-lars at the other site to determine the‘l ine of sight’); from impedancematching (weak signals and a burnedout transmitter will result from incor-rect impedance matching) to antennagrounding, Mr. Chang’s informativetalk captivated the audience. Thiswas a rare opportunity to learn froma real hands-on engineer whosedesign experiences spanned such a

wide spectrum from acoustic tomicrowave frequencies. Mr. Changkindly gave two sets of his popularbooks “FM Broadcast Transmissionand Receiving” and “Microwave Com-munications System Design” as giftsto YZU.

Professor C. C. Jay Kuo’s talk, titled“Introduction to Digital Media Broad-casting (DMB) Technologies and Sys-tems,” gave an overview of moderndigital audio/video/media broadcastingtechnologies, systems and standards.Compared to AM and FM broadcastingwhich has been in place for more thana half century, digital broadcastingenjoys improved signal quality, band-width and power efficiency, thanks toOFDM signaling, error control codingand data compression techniques. TheDigital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) sys-tem has been standardized and servic-es are taking place in several countries.Digital TV has been deployed intoday’s satellite (DVB-S) and cable(DVB-C) broadcasting systems. It willbe used for terrestrial broadcasting(DVB-T or ATSC) in quite a few coun-tries in 2007. As compared with analogTV (NTSC or PAL), digital TV offers amore flexible platform DVB-MHP togenerate new diversified applicationssuch as games, information retrieval,interactive services and advertisement.Furthermore, the convergence of digitalTV and mobile IP-based communica-tion facilitated by the new standardDVB-H allows digital TV contents to bedelivered to mobile phones. This newdigital TV delivery platform opens upAttendees of the Seminar on the Past and Future of Broadcast Technology,

2005/10/28.



During 2005 the IEEE United KingdomRepublic of Ireland (UKRI) Sectionproposed to its Consumer ElectronicsChapter that it also incorporate theUKRI Broadcast Technology membersin its organization. The ConsumerElectronics Chapter Committee agreedto do this and changed its name to theIEEE UKRI Consumer Electronics andBroadcast (CE/BT) Joint Chapter.

The CE/BT Joint Chapter is gov-erned by a five member Committeechaired by Eur Ing Dr. Simon Sherratt,Senior Lecturer in Consumer Electron-ics, School of Systems Engineering,University of Reading. Mike Bennett, amember of the BTS AdCom whoresides in the UK, met with Dr. Sher-ratt on behalf of the IEEE BroadcastTechnology Society. As a BTS repre-

sentative, Mike Bennett will assist theJoint Chapter with its activities. Healso offered to give presentations onbroadcast technology developments atfuture Joint Chapter events.

During 2005, as a newly expand-ed organization, the UKRI CE/BTJoint Chapter conducted its first twoevents at the University of Reading.The first event was on 16 November2005. Dr. Vassilios Chouliaras of theUniversity of Loughbough spoke onParallelism and Software-HardwareInterface in Consumer-ApplicationEmbedded Systems. He discussed anautomatic means to extract threadlevel parallel software for embeddedsystems and how traditional rigidhardware-software interfaces can beoptimized to match temporal and

spacial behaviors of embeddedworkloads.

The second Joint Chapter eventwas held on 7 December 2005. Dr.Sandra Woodley of the University ofBirmingham gave a presentation onWearable Computing. Her talk includ-ed a review of wearable/ubiquitouscomputing research directions, chal-lenges and applications, and a lookahead at new potentials in personalmedical devices.

The IEEE Broadcast TechnologySociety extends its heartiest welcomeand congratulations to the new UKRICE/BT Joint Chapter. We wish the JointChapter success in all its activities as itbrings together members from boththe Consumer Electronics and Broad-cast Technology Societies.

BTS Activity Report: UKRI Consumer Electronics andBroadcast Technology Joint Chapter

numerous new business opportunitiesfor the IT-enabled service industry. Inaddition to the overview, ProfessorKuo also presented an intuitive intro-

duction to Orthogonal Frequency Divi-sion Multiplexing (OFDM) signals dis-playing numerous diagrams and figureswithout referring to equations. Addi-

tional information about ProfessorKuo’s talk can be found at:http://www.comm.yzu.edu.tw/board/941027.htm

Speakers: Mr. C. T. Chang (left) and Professor C. C. Jay Kuo(right).

IEEE BT members and YZU students. Top row from left: C. C.Lee, Y. Li, Y. M. Chen, C. T. Chang (speaker), C. C. Jay Kuo

(speaker), J. R. Yang, C. C. Hwang, J. K. Hwang, threestudents, S. J. Chang. Front row and second row: YZU

students in graduate schools of Electrical Engineering andCommunications Engineering.



The IEEE East Tennessee Section host-ed a meeting on November 22 titled“Digital television Developments inEast Tennessee--An Update,” with sup-port from the IEEE Broadcast Technol-ogy Society (BTS) and IEEE USA. Theprogram was given by Bob Williams,Chief Engineer of WATE-TV, Knoxville,Tennessee. Bob's presentation startedwith an overview of early televisiontechnology and its impact on history.As part of this overview, he showedthe attendees some early televisioncamera pickup tubes; including animage orthicon and iconoscope.

Bob told the audience that the FCCdoes not mention high definition (HD)in the rules and regulations, nor doesit set any standard for digital televisionexcept for the transmission bandwidthof 19.4 megabits. He covered themany different scan and compressionschemes that are now in existence. Asa result, the various television receivermanufacturers have to design andconstruct TV sets to decode any num-ber of scan line and compressionschemes. Further, Bob said: “The lasttime I counted, which was a few years

ago, there were a total of 39.” And onthe other side of the equation, manu-facturers of television production anddistribution equipment also face somedifficult challenges regarding the dif-ferent scan line and compressionschemes that need to be supported(i.e. cameras, switchers, etc.).

Bob Williams covered some of theissues regarding antennas for HD

reception over the air and, as herelates, “We really don't yet have agood pulse on digital reception in thearea” (i.e. East Tennessee).

The talk continued with what ishappening regarding digital televisionin East Tennessee. Bob covered the720P and 1080i formats chosen by themajor networks and showed a graphicof what the various local stations areplanning regarding the transition fromanalog to digital.

Another technical aspect discussedby Bob concerned the Program andSystem Information Protocol (PSIP)data stream distributed with the videoand audio, which among other things,provides a method for DTV receiversto identify a particular digital televisionstation and receive the informationproperly. In addition, PSIP identifiesthe specific digital television channeland the associated analog channel.

The IEEE East Tennessee Sectionappreciates the support of Tom Gur-ley, IEEE BTS President, and ScottGrayson, IEEE USA; for supplyinghandouts and other materials for themeeting.

Digital Television Developments in East Tennessee---An Updateby David Bower, IEEE Region 3 Public Information Officerand IEEE East Tennessee Section PACE Chair

Bob Williams, Chief Engineer of WATE-TV, speaks to the IEEE East Tennessee

Section

BTS Members Included in Class of 2006 Fellow Grade

The IEEE Grade of Fellow is con-ferred by the Board of Directorsupon a person with an extraordinaryrecord of accomplishments in any ofthe IEEE fields of interest. A briefcitation is issued to new Fellows

describing their accomplishmentsand the total number selected in anyone year does not exceed one-tenthpercent of the total voting Institutemembership.

The Fellow Committee has named

271 IEEE Senior Members to FellowGrade effective 1 January 2006. Thenew Fellows, who are members ofthe IEEE Broadcast Technology Soci-ety in addition to other Societies, arelisted below.

Dr. Steven Best Air Force Research LaboratoryTownsend, MA 01469 USAFor contributions to the theory, design, and understandingof electrically small antennas.

Prof. John Sahalos Aristotle University of ThessalonikiThessaloniki, 54124 GreeceFor contributions to antenna analysis and design.


Prof. Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom Mahanakorn University of TechnologyBangkok, 10530 ThailandFor contributions to circuits and systems and engineeringeducation.

Prof. Ulrich Reimers Braunschweig Technical UniversityBraunschweig, D-38106 GermanyFor contributions to the development of Digital VideoBroadcasting (DVB)

Prof. Luc Vandendorpe Université Catholique de LouvainLouvain la Neuve, B-1348 BelgiumFor contributions to digital communications.

Prof. Masao Nakagawa Keio University

Yokohama, Kanagawa 223-8522 JapanFor contributions to the advancement of code division mul-tiple access (CDMA) and mobile communications.

Prof. Johannes HuberUniversity Erlangen-NurembergErlangen, Bavaria D-91058 GermanyFor contributions to coded modulation and digital sub-scriber line design.

Dr. Frederick Raab Green Mountain Radio Research Co.Colchester, VT 5446 USAFor contributions to modeling and design of high-efficiencypower amplifiers and radio transmitters.

The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society extends itsheartiest congratulations to the Fellows of the Class of 2006


Congratulations to Three BTS Members RecentlyElevated to Senior Member Level!

The new BTS Senior Members are:

Larry HullIEEE Western North Carolina Section

I. RabowskyIEEE Buenaventura Section

Marc WalkerIEEE Utah Section

IEEE Senior Members are honoredmembers of the IEEE organization. We

hope you’ll consider joining the ranksof Senior Members. IEEE Bylaw I-105.3 sets forth the criteria for eleva-tion to Senior Member Grade, asfollows:

“… a candidate shall be an engi-neer, scientist, educator, technicalexecutive or originator in IEEE-desig-nated fields. The candidate shall havebeen in professional practice for atleast ten years and shall have shownsignificant performance over a periodof at least five of those years.”

When you become a Senior Mem-ber, you will receive a bronze andwood plaque, a letter to your employ-er (upon request), $25 towards a newSociety Membership, the recognitionof your peers, and the opportunity tobecome an executive IEEE volunteer.Visit http://www.ieee.org/seniormem-ber for more information. If youwould like to become a Senior Mem-ber and need some help, pleasecontact your Sect ion Chair, [email protected]

BRAIN TEASER - REWARD OFFERED“A reward of 500 microfarads is offered for informationleading to the arrest of the desperate criminal Hop-A-LongCapacity.

This unrectified criminal escaped from a primary cell wherehe had been clamped in ions, awaiting the gauss chamber.

He is charged with the induction of an 18 turn coilnamed Millihenry, who was found choked and robbed ofvaluable joules. He is armed with a carbon rod and is apotential killer. Capacity is also charged with driving a dcmotor over a Wheatstone bridge and refusing to let the bandpass. If encountered, he may offer resistance. The electro-motive force spent the night searching for him in a magneticfield, where he went to ground. They had no success and

believe he returned ohm via a short circuit.He was last seen riding a megacycle with his friend Eddy

Current, who was playing a harmonic.In your search for the criminal, please use caution and

don’t get Hertz. The emitter will gladly pay the collector anappropriate base amount of the reward.”

The above play on words was provided by Tom Wiener,President of the IEEE Sensors Council and Chair of the Soci-ety Review Committee. The last sentence was added byLanny Nass of the BTS.

We welcome you inputs for the brain teaser or otherinteresting items for the the BTS Newsletter. Please emailyour input to Lanny E. Nass at [email protected].




IBC 2005 took place September 9 –14, 2005 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.It was a year marked by continuedgrowth, with visitor numbers increas-ing by 5% to about 43,000. It is alsoreported that conference registrationsrose significantly this year.

The IEEE Broadcast TechnologySociety presented a joint tutorial withSMPTE entitled “A Review of theTechnologies and Standards of High

Definition Television - Both Currentand Future” and featuring presenta-tions by: Ken McCann, Zetacast;Matthew Goldman, Tandberg; RayBaldock, GVG; Glenn Reitmeier, NBC;and Masayuki Sugawara from NHK.

This successful tutorial took placethanks to the efforts of BTS volunteersWilliam Hayes, Yiyan Wu and SMPTErepresentative Peter Symes. This tutori-al was not only well received; the staff

of the BTS membership boothreceived comments such that this wasthe best tutorial ever, and that it wasnot only a great tutorial with importantinformation, that it avoided repetitionand was well presented throughout.

We hope you’ll join us next year inAmsterdam. Visit the IBC website at:www.ibc.org IBC 2006 dates: Con-ference: September 7 – 11, 2006 Exhi-bition: September 8 – 12, 2006


IBC 2005 Report

BTS Tutorial at IBC2005Tom Gurley at IBC2005 BTS

Membership booth Demin Wang & Yiyan Wu at the IBC2005

BTS membership Booth

Obituary – David SillmanMr. David Sillman died December 4,2005 in Washington, DC. He was 83years old.

Mr. Sillman, a native of New YorkCity, received a Bachelors degree inElectrical Engineering from the Schoolof Technology of the City College ofNew York in 1944.

Upon graduation he joined theHazeltine Corporation in Little Neck,NY where he was engaged in researchand development of IFF aparati forthe U.S. Navy. Following World War IIhe did research and development inthe fields of frequency modulationand television home entertainmentreceivers. He was a participant in theefforts of the National Television Sys-tem Committee which resulted in thepresent color television system andstandards.

In 1953, Mr. Sillman, joined theTelevision-Radio Division of Westing-house Electric Corporation inMetuchen, NJ as Section Manager of

Television Engineering and wherefrom 1964 to 1968 he was DivisionEngineering Manager.

In 1968, Mr. Sillman returned toHazeltine Research, Inc. (a subsidiaryof Hazeltine Corporation) in Chicago,IL as Vice President and Director of

Research, a position he held until1976. Among other projects devel-oped at Hazeltine in this period was asystem for Closed Captioning of televi-sion programs.

continued on page 20





IEEE Broadcast Technology Society OrganizationIEEE Broadcast Technology Society Administrative Committee

Society Officers Administrative Committee Members-at-Large (elected by membership for 3 year term)

President: Thomas M. Gurley

Vice-President: Charles W. Einolf Jr.

Treasurer: E. Lanny Nass

Secretary: Thomas Silliman

Senior Past President: E. Bruce Hunter

Junior Past President: Garrison C. Cavell

2003-2005

Walter Ciciora

Stephen Dukes

Sid Shumate

Thomas Silliman

Valentin Trainotti

2004-2006

Robert Baker

Greg Best

Guy Bouchard

William T. Hayes

Eric Wandel

2005-2007

Dave Bancroft

Richard Friedel

Seung Won Kim

William Meintel

Dmitry A. Tkachenko

Standing Committees and Representatives

Advanced Television Systems

Committee (ATSC)

Yiyan Wu

Awards, Nomination and Publicity

Sid Shumate

Broadcast Symposium Chair

Guy Bouchard

BroadcastAsia Representative

Yiyan Wu

Committee on Man and Radiation

(COMAR)

Jules Cohen

Committee on Communications and

Information Policy (CCIP)

Richard Biby

Historian

E. Noel Luddy

IBC Representative

Michael Bennett

PACE

Theodore J. Kuligowski

Newsletter Editor

William Meintel

Publications Chair

Dr. Charles W. Einolf Jr.

Society on Social Implications of

Technology (SSIT)

Richard Biby

Strategic Planning

Eric R. Wandel P.E.

Technical Activities

Edmund A. Williams

United States Telecommunications

Training Institute (USTTI)

Gerald Berman

IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting

Editor-in-Chief

Yiyan Wu

Yearbook Editor

Kerry Cozad

Baker, Robert

13 Dillon Rd

Harrison, ME USA 04040

tel: 207 583 2657

[email protected]

Bancroft, David

Old Boundary House

The Warren

Caversham, UK

Reading, RG4 7th

[email protected]

Berman, Gerald A.

11430 Strand Dr.

Apt. #4

North Bethesda, MD 20852

tel: 301 881 3224

[email protected]

Best, Greg

Greg Best Consulting, Inc.

9223 N. Manning Ave.

Kansas City, MO 64157

tel: 816 792 2913

[email protected]

Bennett, Michael

[email protected]

Biby, Richard, P.E.

Richard P. Biby, P.E.

PO Box 364

Waterford, VA 20197

Tel: 540 882 4290

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Bouchard, Guy

CBC Radio

1400 Boul. Rene-Levesque E.

Montreal, Canada H2L 2M2

tel: 514 597 3863

fax: 514 597 [email protected]

Cavell, Garrison

Cavell,Mertz & Davis

7839 Ashton Ave.

Manassas, VA 20109

tel: 703 392 9090

[email protected]

Ciciora, Walter S.

45 Hulls Farm Rd.

Southport, CT 06490

tel: 203 259 5183

[email protected]

Cohen, Jules

Consulting Engineer

2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 600

Arlington, VA 22201

tel: 703 351 5033

[email protected]

Cozad, Kerry

P.O. Box 949

22 Tower Rd.

Raymond, ME 04071

tel: 207 655 8133

[email protected]

Dukes, Stephen D.

Imaginary Universes, LLC

206 Amanda Lane

Camano Island, WA 98282

tel: 360 387 8667

[email protected]

Einolf, Charles

3007 Argentina Place

Mitchellville, MD 20716

[email protected]

Friedel, Richard

FOX Broadcasting

10201 W. Pico Blvd

Bldg. 101

Los Angeles, CA 90064

tel: 310 369 6655

[email protected]

Gurley, Thomas M.

229 Old Colony Way

Rocky Mount, NC 27804

[email protected]

Hunter, E. Bruce

255 Rose Avenue

Mill Valley, CA 94941

tel:415)384-0401

[email protected]

Kim, Seung Won

Kook Wha Dong Sung Apt

105-202

Seo-Gu Sam Cheon Dong

Taejon, Korea 302-782

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Kuligowski, Theodore J.

[email protected]

Luddy, E. Noel

11121 Hurdle Hill Dr.

Potamic, MD 20854

tel: 301 299 2270

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Meintel, William

TechWare, Inc.

Suite 206

14101 Parke Long Ct.

Chantilly, VA 20151

tel: 703 222 5842

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Nass, E. Lanny

Viacom Inc.

Suite 725, 2000 K Street, NW

Washington, DC 20006

tel: 202-457-4602

[email protected]

Shumate, Sidney

BIA Financial Network

15120 Enterprise Ct.

Ste 100

Chantilly, VA 20151

tel: (703) 802 2964

Silliman, Thomas

Electronics Research, Inc.

7777 Gardner Rd.

Chandler, IN 47610

tel: 812 925 6000

[email protected]

Tkachenko, Dmitry

St.Petersburg State Polytechnic

Polytechnicheskaya 29

St.Petersburg, Russia 195251

tel: +7 812 554 2982

[email protected]

Trainotti, Valentin

Bernardo de Irigoyen 650 2° 10

1072 Buenos Aires, Argentina

tel & fax (5411) 4334 3529

[email protected]

Wandel, Eric R., P.E.

Research Associates of

Syracuse

7444 Timber View Drive

Newburgh, IN 47630

Tel: 812 490-7947

[email protected]

Williams, Edmund A.

[email protected]

Wu, Yiyan

Communications Research Ctr.

3701 Carling Ave.,

P.O. Box 11490

Station H, Ottawa, Ontario

Canada K2H 8S2

tel: 613 998 2870

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IEEE


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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.445 Hoes LaneP.O. Box 1331Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331

In 1977, Mr. Sillman joined PublicBroadcasting Service as Manager ofEngineering Planning with primeresponsibility for the development ofthe Closed Captioning System. Forthis work, PBS was awarded with twoemmys (see photo) and the technolo-gy is incorporated in virtually everytelevision sold in the United States.Commenting on the benefits of closedcaptioning for television, David wrote“Let us hope that this will signal theend of exclusion of the hearingimpaired from this significant part ofour social and cultural life”.

Mr. Sillman was also the key engi-neer on the team responsible fordesigning, acquiring and installing thePBS Satellite Replacement Project in1988. He retired from PBS in 1992.

Mr. Sillman was a past member ofthe Television Allocations Study Orga-nization, and past chairman of theReceiver Panel of the Cable TelevisionAdvisory Committee, Broadcast andTelevision Receivers Group of theInstitute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers, and Field Test Task Force(EIA Sub-Committee on Teletext Stan-dards). Mr. Sillman was a Registered

Professional Engineer in the State ofIllinois and a Senior Member of theInstitute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers and member of the Societyof Motion Picture and TelevisionEngineers.

Mr. Sillman was preceeded indeath by his parents, his sister DorisBushwick and his first wife, MildredMorris Sillman. He is survived by hiswife of 32 years, Gladys Levitan Sill-man, his two children, Deborah Sill-man and Sanford Sillman, and twograndchildren, Marian and JosephHamilton.

Obituary continued

Mark Your Calendarfor the BTS Tutorial at NAB2006

“IEEE BTS Delivering Television to Handheld Devices: A Technology Tutorial”April 24, 2006 • 1:00PM - 5:00PM

Program information at: http://www.nabshow.com/conferences/bec.asp
