NAB
Announces 2013 Engineering Achievement Awards
Each year NAB
selects notable members of the broadcast industry’s technical
community for recognition with Engineering Achievement Awards. First
established in 1959, the awards are given to individuals who are
nominated by their peers for significant contributions to advancing
the state of the art in broadcast engineering.
Today NAB announces its Engineering Achievement Award recipients
for 2013.
Engineering Achievement Award
This year's award winner for Television Engineering Achievement
is Jay Adrick.
 Adrick
is currently Vice President, Broadcast Technology in the CTO Group
of Harris Corporation, a position he has held since 2008. He has
been with Harris since 1996, when it acquired Midwest Communications,
where Adrick had worked since 1978. Previously he had been a professor
of Broadcast Communications and Director of Radio and TV at Xavier
University. Earlier he served in the U.S. Navy, and as an engineer
and design consultant at several radio and TV stations in the Akron
and Cincinnati, Ohio markets. Adrick holds a B.S. and a Masters
in Education from Xavier University.
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2013
NAB Technology Innovation Awards |
 NAB
is currently accepting nominations for the 2013 NAB Technology Innovation Awards. First presented
at the 2009 NAB Show, NAB presents the award to organizations
that bring advanced technology exhibits and demonstrations
of significant merit to the NAB Show. The nominated exhibit
should present advanced research and development projects
in communications technologies that have not yet been commercialized.
Candidates
for the Technology Innovation Awards must be organizations
who are currently exhibiting at the NAB Show. The size of
the organization is not a determining factor. Nominated projects
may not be commercial products that have been offered for
sale prior to or at the NAB Show. The merit of the technology
exhibit is the sole factor to be taken into account. The entry
deadline is February 22, 2013. The awards will be presented
at the NAB Technology Luncheon on April 10, 2013 at the NAB
Show in Las Vegas.
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His career has been marked by strong design and project leadership
skills, coupled with strategic vision and formidable educational
abilities. Adrick brought all of these attributes to bear most notably
in his untiring efforts toward the conversion to digital television,
dating back to the early 1990s, and including important contributions
to the Harris/PBS DTV Express mobile demonstration system. He continues
to work on the rollout of ATSC mobile digital television. His unceasing
enthusiasm toward broadcasting is often cited as a unifying force
that has provided significant contribution to many collaborative
industry efforts.
Beyond his many product design and development achievements at Harris,
Adrick has led technical teams on major broadcast system implementations
around the world, and perennially participated in countless SBE,
SMPTE and NAB educational efforts.
Always a passionate and eloquent advocate for the broadcast technology
industry, Adrick has served as Vice-Chair and on the Board of Directors
of ATSC, and chaired the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) Mobile
DTV Forum. Most recently he has led the ATSC's development of a
mobile emergency alerting system (M-EAS) for Mobile DTV.
The 2013 NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award
This year's award winner for Radio Engineering Achievement is Frank
Foti.
A gifted and largely self-taught radio engineer, Foti first made
his mark on the industry as Chief Engineer at a number of legendary
FM stations, starting in the late 1970s at WMMS/WHK, Cleveland,
through KSAN/KNEW, San Francisco, and ultimately to WHTZ ("Z-100"),
New York. By the late 1980s, his audio processing prowess was so
in demand that he shifted from station work to full-time manufacturing,
founding Cutting Edge Technologies. In 1992, he joined forces with
Steve Church's Telos Systems, rebranding his audio processing line
as the Omnia Audio division of Telos. Foti now serves as CEO of
the Telos Alliance.
Through the years, Foti has shown continuous ability to innovate,
developing a long list of advances to the art of broadcast audio
processing. Some of these developments have subsequently been patented
and/or become well established elements within the industry. His
efforts did not stop at product design, but extended to tireless
evangelism toward the general improvement of broadcast audio quality.
Most recently he has pioneered the development of Single Sideband
Suppressed Carrier (SSBSC) modulation for FM stereo subcarriers.
Foti's many colleagues credit him with unselfish assistance to engineers
on the ground at radio stations worldwide. Others cite his balanced
understanding of radio technology and business needs.
His presence is often felt at industry events, both on the exhibit
floor and in conference rooms, where he has presented numerous papers
on the subject of broadcast audio. He also co-authored a chapter
on "Transmission Audio Processing" in the NAB Engineering
Handbook.
The 2013 NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering Award
 This
year, NAB presents a special award that is reserved for certain
individuals who have been identified as providing extraordinary
service to the industry that may not have been broadly heralded
or adequately recognized. An NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering
award is presented to Leonard J. Charles, Director of Engineering,
Midwest, at Morgan Murphy Media.
Charles is credited by his peers for outstanding service to his
company and the broadcast industry, and for furthering the goals
and objectives of the SBE. His efforts and recognitions in SBE are
myriad, including service on its Board and as an Ennes Trustee,
and his naming as a Senior Member, Fellow, and Engineer of the Year
(twice).
He has also served on the FCC National Advisory Committee for EASand
its Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council
(CSRIC), the Wisconsin State Emergency Communications Committee
and its Amber Alert Committee, the Dane County (WI) EAS Committee,
the MSTV Engineering Committee and the NAB TV Technology Committee.
Charles is active in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, as
well, and has chaired its Broadcasters Clinic.
Charles is widely recognized for his work in improving the Emergency
Alert System (EAS), and for educating broadcasters on EAS compliance.
His colleagues also note their appreciation for his ability to present
technical issues in clear and understandable terms to any audience.
All awards will be presented at the NAB Technology Luncheon, to
be held at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 10, 2013.
The next issue of TV TechCheck will be on February 25,
2013.
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