Digital Journal: Bill Hayes

Bill Hayes is director of engineering and technology for Iowa Public Television. You can contact him via TV Technology.

Upgrading with No Margin for Error

by Bill Hayes, 11.12.2003

Television tower upgrades require scrupulous planning more

RF Monitoring: A Work in Progress

by Bill Hayes, 10.10.2003

Digital television brings new definitions to measurement more

Before the Parade Passes By -- in HD

by Bill Hayes, 9.03.2003

Iowa public broadcasters continue tradition of HD coverage of state fair more

Tower Lessons Learned

by Bill Hayes, 8.06.2003

An antenna sat unused as unexpected questions arose in Iowa more

Interconnecting IPTV

by Bill Hayes, 7.09.2003

It takes planning to encode, brand, multiplex and transmit at multiple sites more

Getting a Grip on Facility Design

by Bill Hayes, 6.09.2003

Well, the good news is in for Iowa Public TV. The state legislature has appropriated $10 million for our DTV conversion for the next fiscal year. Although this is not enough money to complete the conversion, it does provide us with enough to make significant progress on our remaining transmitter sites as well as start work at our studio facilities. more

Automation Then and Tomorrow

by Bill Hayes, 4.23.2003

Regardless of the type of service or services we are providing, we are still going to want to schedule, regulate and monitor those services to ensure that the content that was supposed to be transmitted was sent at the right time. more

Iowa Public TV Looks at NAB

by Bill Hayes, 3.05.2003

The gear is appealing, but public budgets are uncertain. more

A Return to Proactive Communication

by Bill Hayes, 2.05.2003

The importance of maintaining open dialogue between manufacturers and broadcasters more

What Kind of Question Is That?

by Bill Hayes, 1.22.2003

The antenna engineer then told Paul that he felt he could get the VSWR down to about 1:15.1. He then asked: What would we be satisfied with? What kind of question is this to ask a customer? more

Sizing Up the Transition

by Bill Hayes, 12.11.2002

Iowa DTV Symposium looks to the positive more

Taking It to the Iowa State Fair

by Bill Hayes, 11.13.2002

Over the last few months, Iowa Public Television has had opportunities to promote our DTV conversion in a number of venues to different audiences. Along the way we have had some successes and some less-than-successful outings. Through it all I have had a song stuck in my head. Because I went to High School and college in the '70s and have worked in broadcasting since high school, music has been one of the ways I mark milestones in my career. The last few months I have been dwelling on the old Doobie Brothers classic "Taking It to the Streets." more

Surrounding With Sounds

by Bill Hayes, 9.18.2002

Dolby E meets the audio demands of a new generation more

Tales of Crimping and Cabling

by Bill Hayes, 8.21.2002

Careful connections keep signals moving more

DTV Antenna Dilemmas

by Bill Hayes, 7.24.2002

A significant part of planning any project is to look for methods to maximize the purchasing power of the capital investment. When reviewing our transmission facilities at Iowa Public TV, we saw that there would be considerable benefit in purchasing DTV transmitters from the same manufacturer. more

DTV Testing and Building Blues

by Bill Hayes, 5.01.2002

This month I would like to start with the initial power on tests of IPTV's first solid-state DTV transmitter for facility KRIN in the Cedar Rapids/Waterloo, Iowa, market. more

The Rocky Road to DTV Build-out

Making Do With Less in a Tough Economy

by Bill Hayes, 3.06.2002

By now, most television stations have discovered that the road to DTV is not anywhere near as smooth as we'd like it to be and is definitely taking longer than desired. more

DTV: It Is Better To Receive

Consumer-Grade DTV Receivers Lack Consistency

by Bill Hayes, 2.06.2002

In this month's Journal I wanted to share some observations I have made over the last few years regarding DTV receivers. more