During its convention in Las Vegas next month, the NAB will honor veteran engineers Robert P. Eckert (TV) and John W. Reiser (radio) with its Engineering Achievement Awards at the Technology Luncheon, Wednesday, April 9.
The NAB’s Television Engineering Achievement Award is being given to Robert P. Eckert, Branch Chief-Electromagnetic Compatibility Division, Technical Analysis Branch of the Office of Engineering and Technology at the FCC. Eckert began his career with the Commission in 1980, specializing in matters relating to radio propagation prediction, spectrum efficiency, and frequency-assignment algorithms.
For the past 15 years, his work at the FCC has been devoted to spectrum planning for advanced television. He investigated ways to assign digital TV channels within the current TV broadcast bands and constructed computer programs to evaluate the coverage and interference consequences of various digital TV (DTV) channel allotment tables.
Eckert was one of the principal architects of the original DTV channel allotment plan, and developed and implemented the FCC's channel selection algorithms that accommodated all television stations with a DTV channel assignment. His significant technical accomplishments have been instrumental in facilitating the DTV transition for the broadcast television service.
The NAB said its Engineering Achievement Awards, first established in 1959, are given to industry leaders for significant contributions in the advancement of broadcast engineering.
Complete NAB2003 details are available at www.nab.org/conventions/nab2003.
