SMPTE ‘Bits By The Bay’ Regional Conference Is ‘Sell-Out’

By
published

CHESAPEAKE BAY, MD.—“Bits By The Bay,” a two-day regional technical conference organized by the Washington, D.C. Section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, once again played to a sell-out audience of 130, with attendees coming from as far away as Connecticut and Georgia. The May 19-20 event featured some 20 presenters, a panel discussion on using today’s technologies to provide news coverage and a special NAB Show debriefing by Mark Schubin, proprietor of the SchubinCafe.com.

Topics ranged from designing and maintaining IP networks, transcoding and newsgathering in the cloud, UHD, network security and real-world experiences in relocation of a major television news bureau. Presenters included Henry Quintana, director of solutions at TVU Networks; Karl Kuhn, senior video systems application engineer at Tektronix; Matthew Goldman, senior vice president of technology at Ericson; Karl Paulsen, Diversified Systems chief technology officer; and Tim Murphy, director of file-based solutions at Evertz Microsystems. “Bits By The Bay” also featured a formal dinner and socializing/networking sessions.

This year’s event marks the fifth “BBTB” gathering, which originated in 2009 as an off-shoot of a series of Washington, D.C. tech conferences originally organized in the 1980s by SMPTE and the Washington Executive Broadcast Engineers group. It’s held in a resort setting on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, 40 miles from the Nation’s Capital, and draws presenters and attendees from major television groups, consulting firms, manufacturing groups, public and private broadcasting and the government and military.

James E. O'Neal
James E. O'Neal

James E. O’Neal has more than 50 years of experience in the broadcast arena, serving for nearly 37 years as a television broadcast engineer and, following his retirement from that field in 2005, moving into journalism as technology editor for TV Technology for almost the next decade. He continues to provide content for this publication, as well as sister publication Radio World, and others.  He authored the chapter on HF shortwave radio for the 11th Edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook, and serves as editor-in-chief of the IEEE’s Broadcast Technology publication, and as associate editor of the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal. He is a SMPTE Life Fellow, and a Life Member of the IEEE and the SBE.