|
|
| |
|
[Wednesday at NAB]
|
| |
|
Ira Flatow Keynotes Technology Luncheon
|
| |
|
by Douglas Bankston,
~ April 16, 2008
|
| |
DV MAGAZINE
This year’s Technology Luncheon offers broadcasters a chance to catch their breath — and eat a bit — while listening to a veteran science journalist offer insight into keeping pace in this new age media.
Ira Flatow, National Public Radio science correspondent and award-winning TV journalist, will deliver the keynote address today, noon–1:45 p.m., while Antoon “Tony” Uyttendaele and Thomas Silliman will be honored with engineering achievement awards.
Flatow will discuss in his keynote, titled “Funny, You Don’t Look Like Your Avatar: New Media Conquers Old Problems,” the trials and tribulations of getting science news on the air and how new media such as podcasts, video on demand (VOD) and even online role-playing games like Second Life are offering unique opportunities to reach new audiences.
SCIENCE TALK
The topic of science rarely leads off the nightly news, but for 35 years Flatow has been championing science on television and radio. He is the host of the radio program “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday,” bringing listeners an informative discussion on science, technology, health, space and the environment.
He hosts the four-part PBS series “Big Ideas,” produced by WNET in New York. And now on the Internet, Flatow has hosted numerous science-related webcasts for Discovery Online and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
His “Science Friday” Kids’ Connection Web pages won the award for one of the top 500 Web sites in the country given out by “Home PC Magazine.” His podcasts are among the most listened to on the Internet, frequently in the top 10 of all downloads on the iTunes Web site. He is also founder and president of TalkingScience, a non-profit company dedicated to creating radio, TV and Internet projects that make science user-friendly.
Antoon “Tony” Uyttendaele, who spent 25 years at ABC and pushed the 720p progressive HDTV format to reality, will receive the Television Engineering Achievement Award during the luncheon.
Uyttendaele officially retired in 2000 as senior advisor, science and technology, but continues to consult for ABC on a part-time basis. He was an early supporter and promoter of progressive-scan formats, leading the way through to final adoption by the ITU (ITU-R BT.1543) and implementation by several major broadcast networks.
In the process, he promoted the format’s benefits to Japanese manufacturers and convinced the Grand Alliance to change from the original 787.5 to 750 lines. At the same time he prepared, with the help of Panasonic and NTV (Japan), a draft SMPTE document for 720p. This formed the basis for what became SMPTE 296M.
For the ABC Television Network, Uyttendaele developed and managed the implementation of the C-Band satellite network distribution system. He designed the uplink facility at ABC’s Broadcast Centers in Manhattan and Hollywood and coordinated interference clearance with all the common carriers that share the same frequency band as a requirement to obtain an FCC license.
FAMILY TIES
The Radio Engineering Achievement Award will be presented to Thomas Silliman, the president of Electronics Research Inc., who designed the patented Rototiller antenna — a circularly polarized FM broadcast antenna — in the 1970s. The Rototiller rapidly became a popular antenna choice for FM stations in the United States.
In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) digital broadcasting technology demanded new antenna innovations for broadcasters, and ERI developed a dual-feed antenna system designed to accommodate stations’ analog and digital transmissions. ERI designed and manufactured numerous notable antenna facilities.
In 2003, Silliman led ERI to acquire Andrew Corp.’s Broadcast Products Business. Today, ERI is one of the top suppliers of radio and television transmission components. Silliman, an expert climber and rigger, is also featured in a variety of ERI advertisements as the guy on a tower hundreds of feet off the ground.
|
|
|
|
