IEEE’s booth at the CES 2017

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First Quarter 2017 Broadcast Technology

President’s Message

Greetings BTS members. On January 26th of this year, the IEEE placed a Milestone Plaque at 22 Frith Street, Soho, London. The achievement being recognized was the first public demonstration of television on Janu-ary 26, 1926, by John Logie Baird.

On that day a little over 90 years ago, Baird invited some 40 members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain to his

workshop on Frith Street and showed them a demonstra-tion of the “Televisor,” a mechanical system for capturing and transmitting a video image showing shadow and light and movement. By modern standards, the images and the mecha-nism are crude but there can be no doubt that they sparked the interest of many in the potential for developing this tech-nology that has blossomed into modern television in its many forms and iterations. Television has been one of the most profoundly influencing technologies ever invented.

The following day, the United Kingdom and Ireland Section of the IEEE hosted a program titled “The Evolution of Televi-sion from Baird to the Digital Age,” which was held at the same Royal Institution of Great Britain whose members 90 years earlier had witnessed that demonstration. I had the honor of

being asked to speak at this event, my topic was the impact and future of modern TV related to digital developments.

As President of the BTS, I have been afforded the oppor-tunity to speak at many events around the globe. Although I never take these opportunities lightly, I am also typically not intimidated or shy about addressing an audience. However, this event at this location gave me considerable pause.

Perhaps it was the venue. The facility was constructed in the early 1800s. The program was held in the Lecture The-atre, so I and the other presenters would be standing in the same location where Michael Faraday, John William Strutt (The Lord Rayleigh) and a host of Nobel Prize winning sci-entist had lectured. There is something very humbling about reading a speech when considering the mass of knowledge that had been communicated in that room.

Although my speech was focused on the future, the morn-ing session focused on the past and the achievements of John Logie Baird. Donald McLean gave an in-depth overview of the early concepts of television and the enormous technical contributions that Baird made.

McLean’s presentation was followed by Iain Logie Baird providing an insight to his grandfather, which put a more human face on the inventor. The combination of these two presentations provided a level of insight into the passion, sac-rifice and creativity that Baird put into his invention.

The afternoon session had Cyril Hilsum providing a look at the evolution of liquid crystal TV displays. He was followed by Nick Wells of the BBC’s R&D department discussing broad-cast TV’s move from analog to digital. Chris Johns of Sky TV then gave an overview of what TV will be in the future.

I was fortunate enough to be the final presenter and my speech focused on the technology used to consume televi-sion of the future and the people that use that technology.

One of my attempts to make my presentation memora-ble was to use the IOT acronym as an anchor term through much of television’s history. In the early days of television, we used Image Orthicon Tubes, which I cited as the first itera-tion of IOT in television.

Now it is true that I am taking some creative license with this particular “IOT,” since early television engineers re-ferred to these camera tube as Immy’s. I guess in those days we were more enamored with nicknames then acronyms. In any event, this IOT was the technology that we used to cap-ture content for distribution.

The second iteration of IOT’s is the more familiar Induc-tive Output Tube that is still in service in many high-powered UHF television transmitters. Although losing ground to more modern solid-state devices, the IOT is still a valuable con-tributor and in this iteration, it is used as a method for distri-bution of content.

The final iteration of “IOT” is the new and rapidly expand-ing concept of the Internet of Things.

Bill Hayes, BTS President

continued on page 6

InsidePresident’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Consumer Electronics Dazzle in Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4CES: Big Enough to Contain Cars, Drones, TVs and IEEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5IEEE CES Booth Spotlights Virtual Reality Possibilities . . . . . 7High Dynamic Range Poised to Improve UHD Video Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8ATSC 3 .0 News Briefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10BTS/AFCCE Announce Spring 2017 Scholarships . . . . . . . . 13NAB Labs All-digital AM Test Project—Part II, Co-channel Laboratory Test Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29BTS Members Wang and Zhu Elevated to IEEE Fellow Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Saving Commercial Broadcast Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31RF News and Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34The Downward Path to Broadcast Engineering . . . . . . . . . . 40The Masterpiece Behind the Music in A Clockwork Orange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43ITU Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Groundbreaking Weston Instruments Recognized With an IEEE Milestone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Chapter Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Event Calender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49What’s New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51BTS Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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Broadcast Technology www.ieee.org/bts

From the EditorSome unexpected news and changes for the new year

Since I retired from broadcast engi-neering and put on the editor/writer’s hat nearly 12 years ago, I’ve laid down a lot of words in computers and on paper, and most of this has come easy for me. How-ever, what I’m about to tell you involves probably the most difficult bit of writing I’ve had to do yet.

Maybe you’ve heard the story about the fellow whose wife had been nagging him about fixing the loose board in the last step to the front porch of their house. He figured it only needed a new nail; however, before the job was done he found out that he had to replace all of the steps, the porch, and part of the entryway to the house to make things right.

This is something like my own situation. I recently went to my doctor to see about treatment for what he and I origi-nally thought to be a minor ailment. However, he sent me in for an ultrasound (sonogram) imaging study. This lead to another more rigorous bit of imaging, an NMRI. (Yes, a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging study. I don’t like “nukespeak” and don’t want to discredit Isidor Rabi, who was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance). Anyway, the NMRI revealed that I have a very serious and potentially life-threatening prob-lem that can only be remedied by some very delicate surgery.

As I write this during the first week of January of the New Year, I was supposed to have been in Las Vegas for the BTS

AdCom meeting and to cover the 2017 CES there for this publication. However, I’m grounded by the doctors, not being able to travel until the needed surgery is performed and I’ve undergone a period of recovery.

Right now, I’m working with Jenn Barbato and others to bring an interim editor on board so that we can continue to maintain the quality of publication that you’ve been used to receiving. I’m confident that there will be no impact to Broadcast Technology during my absence.

Also, at the AdCom meeting, three BTS members—Paul Shulins, Rafael Sotelo, and Bob Weller—stepped up to the plate, volunteering to serve as members of an editorial board for this publication. Their efforts will further help to ensure continuity of operations. I’d like to thank those individuals for agreeing to take some of the load in producing Broadcast Technology, both now and in the future.

By the time that you read this, I will have had my surgery and, hopefully, will be well on the road to a full recovery; however, your payers and thoughts are very much appreci-ated during this rather difficult period in my life. I’m looking forward to serving you for many more years and hope that I’ll be able to meet with you at both the April NAB Show and June BMSB.

Again, I thank all of you for your support during my period of personal difficulty.

James O’NealEditor

Broadcast TechnologyBTSeditor@ieee.org

By James E. O’Neal

Long-time IEEE and BTS member Ted Kuligowski was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on Feb. 14, 2017. Kuligowski joined the U.S. Navy in 1954 and rose to the rank of commander. After his military service, he had a long career in the civilian world, including many years at Voice of America and its companion WORLD-NET television operation. He was for some time the editor-in-chief of the BTS Newsletter and IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting.

In MemoriamTed Kuligowski Passes Away