Proceeding with the 2020 NAB BEITC Proceedings
The 2020 Proceedings of the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology Conference (BEITC) will have a treasure trove of archived technical content from the NAB Show, which is true every year. This one, however, won’t be like any other Proceedings of the past, which will be explained below. But to fully appreciate the new innovative [...]
The Promise of Voice-Assisted TV
At CES 2020, voice-assistant technology continued to proliferate, fueled significantly by the growth of the internet of things (IoT), but with television also being an important part of this expansion. Among the major players, voice technologies from Amazon, Google and Samsung are being integrated into TVs. To date, these systems assist TV remote control, enabling [...]
Can Broadcasting Benefit from Neon’s Artificial Humans?
Neon, an independent startup backed by Samsung, showed humanlike computer agents at CES 2020. These digital avatars follow commands, make facial expressions, and can converse with a real human in different languages. Neon calls them artificial humans or NEONs. These are, however, not humanlike physical robots; they are merely realistic, AI-powered 2D avatars displayed on [...]
Maintain Your Tower Lights
The FCC recently issued a $1.13 million fine to (or, more specifically, entered into a “Consent Decree” with) a broadcast group for not properly monitoring and maintaining the lighting on a number of its towers. This is a reminder of how important stations’ tower lighting is, and how seriously the FCC takes violation of the [...]
UNC TV Exploring the Capabilities of Next Gen TV
Fred Engel is a seasoned technology leader in the Broadcast Industry, and CTO at UNC-TV. He is an expert in system design, project implementation, IT strategies and governance, and operations management for broadcast and professional media systems. UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina continues its work exploring the capabilities of NEXTGEN TV, particularly around [...]
The FCC Technological Advisory Council – Sharp as a TAC
The Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC) might be one of the most interesting groups you’ve never heard of. In fact, it's been around for 21 years as an official advisory committee to the FCC, with a revolving membership of technical experts handpicked by the FCC from a number of technology-focused industries. As far [...]