OTTAWA
Recession notwithstanding, there are jobs available for skilled TV engineers. The problem is finding people qualified to take these jobs; particularly from the ranks of the young.
"I myself have found it difficult to fill the last two positions I have had open," said Vinny Lopez; chief engineer of WSYT-68 (Fox) and WNYS-43 (MyTV) in Syracuse, N.Y.; and president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. "The pool of qualified candidates in our area is not what it used to be... One issue is the 'graying' of the broadcast engineer. Our profession seems to not have the younger people joining it in the numbers that they had in the past."
NEW BLOOD
Bill Hayes Lopez is not the only person to worry about this trend. The same concern is shared by Bill Hayes, director of engineering for Iowa Public TV, president of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and frequent contributor to TV Technology.
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why broadcast television has ceased to be viewed as a glamorous profession. One central problem is broadcast television's image. Compared to IT, which encompasses wireless telephony, the Web, and computer hardware/software, television seems old-fashioned and bland.
"The IT industries are viewed as cutting-edge by graduating engineers," said Hayes. "In contrast, they see television as a dinosaur on its way out. Part of the problem is their lack of knowledge: Most of these graduates think of television as something that comes from a cable or satellite TV spigot. They have no knowledge of terrestrial broadcasting and all the engineering challenges associated with it. As a result, they don't find it to be exciting."
Lopez agrees that image is a factor in the "move of engineers from broadcast to computer and IT fields." But a lack of perceived challenge and glamour is just part of the problem. The fact is that new engineers believe that they can make a better living working in IT, and have a better home life to boot.
"Many IT jobs are 8-5 positions with better pay scales, no "on call" status, and the possibility of working from home," he said. "Yet another thing that is occurring is consolidation of broadcast operations into centralized facilities, or existing groups purchasing additional properties and eliminating the duplication of effort and positions. This centralization may have indeed driven some good engineers from broadcasting in search of more stability in their careers."
That's not all. "Many of the young engineers who might be persuaded to enter broadcasting don't have the RF skills," said Ralph Hogan, SBE vice president and vice president and associate GM of Phoenix DTV stations MCTV and NPR radio stations Sun Sounds, KBAQ, and KJZZ. "We used to get a lot of people with these skills when they retired from the military, where RF was a priority. But now with the military moving more to an IT emphasis, these veterans are going to IT-related companies."
WHAT CAN BE DONE
Ralph Hogan has come up with a simple, effective way to make his broadcast positions more attractive to young engineers. "We are recruiting the job descriptions to focus more on IT, which is where the industry is going anyway," he said.
A second idea is to jazz up broadcast engineering's image. "We need to communicate that broadcast TV is wireless video and data on a grand scale," said Hayes. "Wireless data can't do what we can do. For instance, there were so many wireless demos occurring in Las Vegas at CES 2010, it caused traffic problems on the local cellular network. That just doesn't happen with broadcast TV: We can handle scalability!"
A third solution is being developed by the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society; namely a new course called "Bridging the Broadcast/IT Gap." Currently under development with support from CNN, ESPN, Fox, NBC and Turner Broadcasting, this course is designed to help broadcast TV engineers become far more comfortable with IT-based technology; notably compression, video and data networks; and seamless file-based editing, storage and play-out. But this same course could be used "to attract IT engineers into broadcasting," said Hogan. "It could help bridge the gap between the two professions."
Finally, it couldn't hurt to boost the pay and improve the hours of broadcast TV engineers. Unfortunately, the current economy makes this unfeasible for most broadcasters. In the interim, there is still room for broadcasters to pitch their industry at IT students currently in college. Another low-cost option would be for the SBE and IEEE to produce a PSA to run on TV stations playing up the glamour and excitement of broadcast engineering.
Whatever the over-the-air broadcasting industry does, it needs to start doing it now. As Lopez has pointed out, the current crop of engineers is getting older. When they retire, someone will have to take their place; ironically at a time when digital technology, centralcasting and HDTV are making broadcast television more cutting-edge than ever before.
