Occupation | |
---|---|
Names | Broadcast engineer Broadcast design engineer Contents
|
Occupation type | profession |
Description | |
Competencies | Technical knowledge, Management skills, Professionalism |
Education required | see professional requirements |
Fields of employment | Radio, television, military |
Related jobs | Technologist, RF engineer, engineering technician, Technical operator |
Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential parts of broadcast engineering, being their own subsets of electrical engineering.
Broadcast engineering involves both the studio and transmitter aspects (the entire airchain), as well as remote broadcasts. Every station has a broadcast engineer, though one may now serve an entire station group in a city. In small media markets the engineer may work on a contract basis for one or more stations as needed. [1]
Modern duties of a broadcast engineer include maintaining broadcast automation systems for the studio and automatic transmission systems for the transmitter plant. There are also important duties regarding radio towers, which must be maintained with proper lighting and painting. Occasionally a station's engineer must deal with complaints of RF interference, particularly after a station has made changes to its transmission facilities. [2] [3]
Broadcast engineers may have varying titles depending on their level of expertise and field specialty. Some widely used titles include:
Broadcast engineers may need to possess some or all of the following degrees, depending on the broadcast technical environment. If one of the formal qualifications is not present, a related degree or equivalent professional experience is desirable.
Broadcast engineers are generally required to know the following areas, from conventional video broadcast systems to modern Information Technology:
Above mentioned requirements vary from station to station.
The conversion to digital broadcasting means broadcast engineers must now be well-versed in digital television and digital radio, in addition to analogue principles. New equipment from the transmitter to the radio antenna to the receiver may be encountered by engineers new to the field. Furthermore, modern techniques place a greater demand on an engineer's expertise, such as sharing broadcast towers or radio antennas among different stations (diplexing).
Digital audio and digital video have revolutionized broadcast engineering in many respects. [4] Broadcast studios and control rooms are now already digital in large part, using non-linear editing and digital signal processing for what used to take a great deal of time or money, if it was even possible at all. Mixing consoles for both audio and video are continuing to become more digital in the 2000s, as is the computer storage used to keep digital media libraries. Effects processing and TV graphics can now be realized much more easily and professionally as well.
With the broadcast industry's shift to IP-based production and content delivery technology not only the production technology and workflows are changing, but also the requirements for broadcast engineers, which now include IT and IP-networking knowhow. [5]
Other devices used in broadcast engineering are telephone hybrids, broadcast delays, and dead air alarms. See the Glossary of electrical and electronics engineering for further explanations.
In the United States, many broadcast engineers belong to the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE). [19] Some may also belong to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), [20] or to organizations of related fields, such as the Audio Engineering Society or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) [21] - IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS).
For public radio, the Association of Public Radio Engineers was created in late May 2006. [22]
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the latter half of the 19th century after commercialization of the electric telegraph, the telephone, and electrical power generation, distribution, and use.
Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around 20 kHz to around 300 GHz. This is roughly between the upper limit of audio frequencies and the lower limit of infrared frequencies; these are the frequencies at which energy from an oscillating current can radiate off a conductor into space as radio waves. Different sources specify different upper and lower bounds for the frequency range.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronics engineering, electrical engineering, and other related disciplines with its corporate office in New York City and its operations center in Piscataway, New Jersey. The mission of the IEEE is advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The IEEE was formed from the amalgamation of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1963.
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum, in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, most implementations of electronic communication were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. The term broadcasting evolved from its use as the agricultural method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about. It was later adopted for describing the widespread distribution of information by printed materials or by telegraph. Examples applying it to "one-to-many" radio transmissions of an individual station to multiple listeners appeared as early as 1898.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the media and entertainment industry. As an internationally recognized standards organization, SMPTE has published more than 800 technical standards and related documents for broadcast, filmmaking, digital cinema, audio recording, information technology (IT), and medical imaging.
The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) is a professional organization for engineers in broadcast radio and television. The SBE also offers certification in various radio frequency and video and audio technology areas for its members.
Ernst Frederick Werner Alexanderson was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who was a pioneer in radio and television development. He invented the Alexanderson alternator, an early radio transmitter used between 1906 and the 1930s for longwave long distance radio transmission. Alexanderson also created the amplidyne, a direct current amplifier used during the Second World War for controlling anti-aircraft guns.
Kornelis Antonie "Kees" Schouhamer Immink is a Dutch scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, who pioneered and advanced the era of digital audio, video, and data recording, including popular digital media such as compact disc (CD), DVD and Blu-ray disc. He has been a prolific and influential engineer, who holds more than 1100 U.S. and international patents. A large portion of the commonly used audio and video playback and recording devices use technologies based on his work. His contributions to coding systems assisted the digital video and audio revolution, by enabling reliable data storage at information densities previously unattainable.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution. The IET was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), dating back to 1871, and the Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) dating back to 1884. Its worldwide membership is currently in excess of 158,000 in 153 countries. The IET's main offices are in Savoy Place in London, England, and at Michael Faraday House in Stevenage, England.
The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards are presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), while the separate Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards are given by its sister organization the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS).
This is an alphabetical list of articles pertaining specifically to electrical and electronics engineering. For a thematic list, please see List of electrical engineering topics. For a broad overview of engineering, see List of engineering topics. For biographies, see List of engineers.
Gary Joseph Sullivan is an American electrical engineer who led the development of the AVC, HEVC, and VVC video coding standards and created the DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) API/DDI video decoding feature of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Broadcast Television Systems (BTS) was a joint venture between Robert Bosch GmbH's Fernseh Division and Philips Broadcast in Breda, Netherlands, formed in 1986.
The field of electrical and electronics engineering has grown to include many related disciplines and occupations.
This article details the history of electronics engineering. Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (1972) defines electronics as "The science and technology of the conduction of electricity in a vacuum, a gas, or a semiconductor, and devices based thereon".
Hilmer Irvin Swanson was an American radio engineer who developed several leading, patented techniques for broadcast radio Amplitude Modulation (AM) while working for Harris Corporation.
The 60th Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards was held on January 8, 2009 at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. CEO of Verizon Communications, Ivan Seidenberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award
Ulrich Reimers is an electrical engineer and is regarded as a pioneer of digital television. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) elected him for its Hall of Fame of most important personalities.
Fadhel M. Ghannouchi is a Tunisian-Canadian electrical engineer, who conducts research in radio frequency (RF) technology and wireless communications.
Thomson Broadcast is a French electronics manufacturer which designs, produces, deploys and services television and medium-wave radio transmission systems.