SBE CHAPTER 40 NEWSLETTER
AUGUST 2003
San Francisco
Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@msn.com
Bill Dempster - Artist
Advertisers for this month's newsletter are:

Projection Systems Inc. - Marci Mearns - (510) 259-2469
Santucci Video Systems - Sandra Santucci - (818) 704-6324
Belden - Steve Lampen - (415) 440-8393
Media Technical Consulting - Paul T. Black - (925) 827-9511
MARCOM - Martin Jackson - (408) 768-8668
William F. Ruck, Jr. Broadcast Engineer - (415) 564-1450
Ross Marketing Associates - Kevin Frost - (408) 988-8111
Kathrein (Scala Division) - Michael Wm. Bach - (541) 779-6500
Hammett & Edison, Inc. - Dane E. Ericksen, P.E. - (707) 996-5200
Howell Communications - Mike Howell - (559) 674-8989
Econco - George Badger - 650-327-7599
Improbable Missions Fource - Mike Schweizer - (888) 4-ISDN4U
Digi-Gear / Cancomm - Eric Lane - (818) 980-9188
West Penn Wire/CDT - Michael J. La Porte - (650) 652-9080
Microwave Radio Communications - Clark Rhoads - (909) 246-1602

Babes/SBE Luncheon on Wednesday Aug 27th

Chips Davis will be our speaker this month and his topic will be Operational Acoustical Setup and Digital Equalization which includes:

Chips Davis Designs provides acoustical analysis and design of critical listening and broadcast spaces. This is based on more than 30 years of direct practical experience in the entertainment, recording, television and radio industries, including mixing for records, live concerts and shows. Most acoustical consultants give little consideration to critical audio monitoring/mixing and the ergonomic acoustical working environment that must be implemented in today's digital world.

Chips was the 1987 recipient of Mix Magazine's international TEC award for "Technical Excellence and Creativity in Acoustics and Studio Design". Mr. Davis' work in the audio industry is documented in the Handbook for Sound Engineers--The New Audio Cyclopedia, Sound System Engineering and The Master Handbook of Acoustics.

Recently his work has been featured in several magazines including the cover story of the May 1998 issue of MIX Magazine. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society and a member of the SC-3 Standards Subcommittee and he has served as session chairman on "Recording Technology" at two Audio Engineering Society conventions.

Chips has done some really big jobs in Vegas. He was given a special incentive on one job. He was told he would be swimming with the fishies, or words to that effect, if he didn't deafen the customers in the showroom and simultaneously retain the calm and repose at the craps table. And Chips did it. - Roy As usual, our luncheon will be at Sinbad's just south of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero near the foot of Mission St. We meet at 11:30 and are seated at 12:30. To make reservations call Paul Black at 925-827-9511 and leave a message on his machine.

SMPTE Meeting Aug 28th

Usually the SMPTE meeting is prior to the SBE meeting but this month it is after. The meeting will be at KCSM and the topic is Digital Multicasting. The speaker will be Mark S. Brown of SignaSys and his special guest will be Joel Wilhite of Harmonic Inc..

The PBS stations have been taking the lead in gearing up for multiple broadcasts. The commercial stations seem oblivious to the benefits of multicasting and are doing a bad game of catch up. As broadcasters struggle to make ends meet and find new sources of revenue, some see local, multi-channel broadcasts as a viable business solution.

Networks, stations, and producers are ramping up to support the production and broadcast of high-definition (HDTV) content, as well as additional streams of standard-definition. Cable carriers are starting to open up their digital tiers to multi-service content distribution. In addition, localized and repurposed content services hold the potential to aid broadcasters in meeting their top-line requirements with minimal capital and operational investments.

The ATSC North American digital-broadcast standard -- especially dynamic, multi-channel ATSC -- uses a lot of new terminology that sounds to some like yet more jargon.

Mark Brown will cut through this fog to illustrate how the various pieces fit together into a complete and dynamic DTV system. Mark will compare baseline, single-channel ASTC operations with multi-channel environments. As broadcasters require a coherent, streamlined architecture to manage multiple services, they're going to have to use their bandwidth more efficiently via automated, dynamic-service allocation. Their systems must be flexible enough to handle last-minute topological changes, while integrating their monitoring and control environments. These multi-channel models are not just a distant reality; they're in use today. Mark will talk about some stations and networks that are already deploying similar multi-channel models, including our host, KCSM-TV. After the meeting, we're welcome to tour KCSM's Technical Operations Center, which includes their new multi-channel installation.

For a map and other details goto:

http://members.aol.com/smptesf

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The electronic copy version of this newsletter is now availible via a mailling list. You can subscribe by going to http://www.lns.com/mailman/listinfo/sbe-announce and filling out the form there.

Web Page

Webmeister Tim Pozar has the current newsletter plus newsletters all the way back to 1996 at: http://www.lns.com/sbe

Roy also posts the current newsletter at home.earthlink.net/~rhtrumbull but the posting is without links.