NAB2008, the last NAB convention to be held before the February 2009 government-mandated transition to digital television, will offer several engineering and management conferences aimed at identifying and addressing potential remaining roadblocks as well as new opportunities presented by the historic shift to digital transmission.
Addressing the regulatory component of the digital transition, the convention will present “The DTV Transition: Turning the Corner” April 15. This session, which will be moderated by NAB VP of the digital television transition, Jonathan Collegio, and NAB executive VP of legal and regulatory affairs, Marsha MacBride, will focus on making the transition as smooth as possible. It will offer insight into DTV-related government regulations and will include audience participation. Panelists will include Robert Rini of Rini Coran and Byran Tarmont, chief of staff to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
As part of the TV Management Conference, the convention will offer “The Buck Stops Here — DTV Transition, Station Best Practices,” a joint NAB-MSTV session April 14. Both groups will assemble a panel of technology-oriented DTV experts and group executives to discuss the final push to complete the DTV transition.
DTV engineering concerns will also be addressed at NAB2008. During the TV Engineering Conference, April 14, the convention will present the “DTV Reception Issues” program. Program sessions will include:
- DTV Reception in an Urban Environment — presented by William Meintel, a partner at Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace;
- New Neighbors: Can Wireless Microphones and Consumer Devices Coexist in the White Spaces? — presented by Christopher Lyons, manager of technical and educational communications for Shure;
- Measurement Results of Consumer Indoor Antennas — presented by Dennis Wallace, managing partner at Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace.
NAB2008 also will offer TV engineers a thorough examination of the opportunities and challenges that are emerging as an ATSC-compatible mobile broadcasting system comes to a head. On April 13, the convention will present the “DTV Broadcasting for Mobile and Handheld” program. Sessions will include:
- A panel discussion including moderator Mark Richer, president of the ATSC; Dave Glenn, Ion Media TV; John Godfrey, Samsung; Wayne Luplow, VP HDTV standards and promotions for Zenith/LG Electronics; David Virag, product management for Thomson Silicon Components;
- Managing the Unmanageable: Transforming Media for Multiplatform Delivery — presented by John Pallet, product manager for Telestream;
- Producing vs. Repurposing for Multiple Platforms — presented by Pete Sockett, chief engineer at WRAL-TV;
- Make Your Mobile TV Network a Reality — presented by Michael Castro, VP of operations for National Geographic Television;
- Local and Ultra Local Content in Broadcast Mobile TV: A Realistic Dream” — presented by Richard Lhermitte, VP of systems and partnerships for Enensys Technologies;
- The Role of File-based Workflows and Metadata in Repurposing Content for the Web and Mobile TV — presented by Mark Bishop, director of engineering of integrated production solutions for Thomson Grass Valley;
- Deploying Advanced Technologies to increase QoS and Reduce Costs in DVB-H — presented by Marshall Porter, director of mobile for Digital Fountain;
- New Techniques for Mobile TV Broadcasting based on ISDB-T — presented by Masahiro Okano of NHK;
- Preserving SFN in a Mobile TV Broadcast DVB-H Network Using IP Distribution — presented by Nicolas Fannechere, VP of marketing for Enensys Technologies;
- Encoding for Mobile TV — Lessons Learned for Successful Deployment — presented by Boris Felts, VP of product marketing for Envivio;
- Backward-Compatible Enhancement of ATSC Terrestrial Television Broadcast Standards for Mobile and Handheld Reception — presented by Wen Gao of Thomson.
For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.
