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Saul Taylor Shapiro is the New York City franchisee of Fibrenew doing business as Fibrenew Manhattan Central. [1]
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Saul Taylor Shapiro is the New York City franchisee of Fibrenew doing business as Fibrenew Manhattan Central. [1]
Shapiro was born to Florence and Seymour Shapiro in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.[ citation needed ]
A materials science engineering graduate of Brown University, Shapiro has also received an SM in engineering from MIT and an SM in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management as a Leaders for Manufacturing Fellow (now Leaders for Global Operations program). [2] Both of these degrees from MIT were earned in 1991. [3] [4]
He studied furniture design under Tage Frid and Hank Gilpin at the Rhode Island School of Design for two semesters and attended Harvard University's Graduate School of Design for the first year of a three year Master's program. In 2009 he self-published "Two Chairs," a brief memoir of his woodworking journey. [5]
From 2008 to 2012, Shapiro served as President of the Metropolitan Television Alliance, LLC (MTVA). [6] [7] The MTVA was formed by the New York area television broadcast stations shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Those attacks completely destroyed New York’s analog and digital over-the-air television broadcast infrastructure.
The MTVA’s mission was to coordinate the recovery and the initial rebuilding of that infrastructure at the Empire State Building, and to locate and develop permanent facilities to replace those lost in 2001. This effort included the relocation of stations to temporary facilities in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the design and construction of analog and digital facilities at the Empire State Building to meet ongoing broadcast needs, and investigation of the design and construction of the possibility of facilities on top of One World Trade Center (the Freedom Tower). In addition, the MTVA investigated methods to further enhance over-the-air digital signals originating from the Empire State Building facility. This work was funded by a grant [8] administered by the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications (OTIA) [9] within the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration (NTIA), [10] an office of the Department of Commerce.
Previously Shapiro served four years as Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, [11] covering the Media and Telecommunications sectors. He was responsible for attracting investment and expansion of domestic and international companies to NYC, and to serve as an advocate for companies and industries in their dealings with city government.
Shapiro joined the EDC with experience stretching across both electronic media and telecommunications services and technology, including Sony, the FCC, ABC Television Network and the Internet.
At Sony Corporation of America he served as Vice President of Broadband Services, responsible for new business opportunities based on emerging technologies and standards, with particular focus on the strategic integration of Sony’s US e-business initiatives.
Shapiro was COO at Gist Communications, [12] then the leading independent online provider of TV listings and editorial, from 1999 to 2001. He helped redirect the company’s efforts to developing on-screen interactive applications for a variety of set-top platforms. [13] Shapiro joined Gist from ABC Television where, as Vice President, Broadcast Technology, he was responsible for developing strategic technical initiatives [14] and the network’s transition to digital television broadcast technology. [15] [16]
Shapiro came to ABC after serving as Assistant Bureau Chief for Technology Policy in the Mass Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. [17] While at the FCC, Mr. Shapiro led a team of engineers, economists and lawyers in drafting Rulemakings and Orders for the introduction of digital television to the US broadcast market. [18] He also acted as policy advisor to the Chairman on technological developments and trends in digital media, as well as topics related to the convergence of communications technologies. [19]
Prior to joining the FCC, Shapiro was Director of New Business Development with Sony Corporation of America responsible for identifying new opportunities for Sony’s Television Business Group in the then emerging digital era.
Prior to entering the broadcast television business, he was a microelectronics process development engineer for a variety of firms in the Boston area.
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses a widescreen aspect ratio in contrast to the narrower format of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in the same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction over the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security.
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934, and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, 47 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. The act replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It also transferred regulation of interstate telephone services from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the FCC.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the President's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' economic and technological advancement and to regulation of the telecommunications industry.
Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an antenna. The term terrestrial is more common in Europe and Latin America, while in Canada and the United States it is called over-the-air or simply broadcast. This type of TV broadcast is distinguished from newer technologies, such as satellite television, in which the signal is transmitted to the receiver from an overhead satellite; cable television, in which the signal is carried to the receiver through a cable; and Internet Protocol television, in which the signal is received over an Internet stream or on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol. Terrestrial television stations broadcast on television channels with frequencies between about 52 and 600 MHz in the VHF and UHF bands. Since radio waves in these bands travel by line of sight, reception is generally limited by the visual horizon to distances of 64–97 kilometres (40–60 mi), although under better conditions and with tropospheric ducting, signals can sometimes be received hundreds of kilometers distant.
The telecommunications policy of the United States is a framework of law directed by government and the regulatory commissions, most notably the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Two landmark acts prevail today, the Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The latter was intended to revise the first act and specifically to foster competition in the telecommunications industry.
Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was created in the United States between 1969 and 1971 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under Chairman Dean Burch, based on pioneering work and advocacy of George Stoney, Red Burns, and Sidney Dean.
A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary from band to band.
Spectrum management is the process of regulating the use of radio frequencies to promote efficient use and gain a net social benefit. The term radio spectrum typically refers to the full frequency range from 1 Hz to 3000 GHz that may be used for wireless communication. Increasing demand for services such as mobile telephones and many others has required changes in the philosophy of spectrum management. Demand for wireless broadband has soared due to technological innovation, such as 3G and 4G mobile services, and the rapid expansion of wireless internet services.
Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. Most cable viewers in the U.S. reside in the suburbs and tend to be middle class; cable television is less common in low income, urban, and rural areas.
A coupon-eligible converter box (CECB) was a digital television adapter that met eligibility specifications for subsidy "coupons" from the United States government. The subsidy program was enacted to provide terrestrial television viewers with an affordable way to continue receiving free digital terrestrial television services after the nation's television service transitioned to digital transmission and analog transmissions ceased. The specification was developed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), with input from the broadcast and consumer electronics industries as well as public interest groups.
The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband is a subcommittee within the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. It was renamed from the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet at the start of the 117th Congress. Prior to the 111th Congress, it was known as the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Innovation.
The digital transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of terrestrial television programming. According to David Rehr, then president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, this transition represented "the most significant advancement of television technology since color TV was introduced." For full-power TV stations, the transition went into effect on June 12, 2009, with stations ending regular programming on their analog signals no later than 11:59 p.m. local time that day.
In North American digital terrestrial television broadcasting, a distributed transmission system is a form of single-frequency network in which a single broadcast signal is fed via microwave, landline, or communications satellite to multiple synchronised terrestrial radio transmitter sites. The signal is then simultaneously broadcast on the same frequency in different overlapping portions of the same coverage area, effectively combining many small transmitters to generate a broadcast area rivalling that of one large transmitter or to fill gaps in coverage due to terrain or localised obstacles.
The Metropolitan Television Alliance, LLC (MTVA) is a group organized in the wake of the loss of the transmission facilities atop the World Trade Center in 2001. Its mission is to identify, design and build a facility suitable for the long-term requirements of its member stations to meet their over-the-air digital broadcast requirements. This could include designing facilities for the Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan, assessing alternative sites and technologies and dealing with local, state and federal authorities on relevant issues.
Media cross-ownership is the common ownership of multiple media sources by a single person or corporate entity. Media sources include radio, broadcast television, specialty and pay television, cable, satellite, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), newspapers, magazines and periodicals, music, film, book publishing, video games, search engines, social media, internet service providers, and wired and wireless telecommunications.
Clarence "Larry" Irving Jr. is the former Vice President of Global Government Affairs for Hewlett-Packard Company. He joined the company on September 9, 2009 and left in 2011.
Minority ownership of media outlets in the United States is the concept of having ownership of media outlets to reflect the demographic population of the area which the media serves. This is to help ensure that media addresses issues that are of concern to the needs and interests of the local population.
Edward Grebow was the President and CEO of Amalgamated Bank from 2011–2013. He is currently the Managing Director of Lakewood Advisors, which specializes in advising financial firms, media technology companies and nonprofit organizations.