The Society of Broadcast Engineers announces the recipients of the 2017 SBE National Awards. The awards recognize excellence and achievement by individual members, SBE chapters and Sustaining Member companies. The two highest individual awards are the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year and the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year.
Presented to a member who has excelled in his or her career while furthering the mission of the SBE, the 2017 Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year is awarded to Steve Brown of Robbinsdale, MN. Brown is a former SBE Chapter 17 chairman and a former member of the SBE National Board of Directors.
The recipient of the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year award is recognized for outstanding service and excellence in sharing knowledge through teaching other broadcast engineers. The winner of the 2017 award is Tony Peterle, CPBE, of Chapter 53 in Miami. Peterle is the technical support manager at WorldCast Systems has been instrumental in teaching engineers across the country about SNMP through SBE University, Ennes workshops and SBE Webinars.
Steve Brown has been in the broadcast engineering industry for more than 40 years. Steve recently “hung up his test leads” and has retired for good. Steve’s career began in 1977 as an engineer at WWTC in the Twin Cities, he continued to work as an engineer in Minneapolis until he first retired in 2004 at which time he became a contract engineer. Steve was one of the first engineers to utilize a helicopter to make relative field measurements of pattern of a FM radio station. As a contract engineer, Steve was involved in building more than 20 HD Radio stations. He commented that this was the most fun he has as a broadcast engineer.
2017 marks the fifth year that the Chapter Engineer of the Year Award has highlighted the achievements of members within their chapters. This year, nine chapters selected their own award recipients. Each winner will be presented with a special certificate and will be recognized nationally on the SBE website and in a future issue of The Signal. The nine chapter winners also were automatically nominated for the national Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year Award.
Tony Peterle began in radio in 1975, he melded his love of flying with his radio career by reporting traffic in Honolulu and Seattle, migrating to the broadcast engineering side of media when he was in Wichita and Kansas City. Now working at WorldCast Systems, Tony has put together many Ennes Workshop tutorials that are given around the country. For the broadcast industry, he has almost single-handedly trained broadcast engineers on the basics and nuances of implementing and managing SNMP.
IMT Vislink, and John Payne specifically, has been awarded the 2017 SBE Technology Award for spearheading the launch of Newsnet – a next-generation wireless ecosystem that establishes a bi-directional IP network for ENG use. Newsnet transforms traditional methods of content news gathering workflows by establishing a high-speed and reliable bi-directional IP network utilizing the exclusive and highly coveted 2GHz BAS licensed spectrum, thereby increasing the number of live ENG transmissions and workflows that can now be performed from the field.
The Best Technical Article, Book or Program by an SBE Member is awarded to James Dalke, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, CBNT, for his presentation titled “Using Satellite VSATs for Broadcast STL” at the 2017 NAB BEITC.
Chapter Awards
Best Regional Convention or Conference
The 2016 Ohio Broadcast Engineering Conference has won for Best Chapter Regional Educational Event.
Several SBE National Awards recognize chapters for growth in membership, percentage of certified members and highest average attendance at chapter meetings. These awards are based on statistics kept at the national office, as submitted by chapters. Two awards for each category are presented, based on chapter enrollment. Class A represents chapters whose membership is less than the national median. Class B includes chapters with a membership greater than the national median.
Greatest Growth in New Members
A. Chapter 111, Huntsville, AL; Chapter Chairman Kevin Kidd, CSRE, AMD
B. Chapter 68, Birmingham, AL; Chapter Chairman Tim Costley
Most Certified Chapter
A. Chapter 72, New Orleans, LA; Chapter Chairman Ernest Kain; Certification Chairman Ernie Harvey, CPBE, 8-VSB, CBNT
B. Chapter 118, Montgomery, AL; Chapter Chairman Wiely Boswell, CBRE, CBNE; Certification Chairman Charlie Grider, CBRE, CBNT
Highest Average Member Attendance
A. Chapter 112, Western, WI; Chapter Chairman Todd Zschernitz, CBTE
B. Chapter 79, Austin, TX; Chapter Chairman Ed Rupp, CBTE, CBNT
Nominations for the 2018 awards will open in February.
All the awards will be presented during the SBE National Awards Dinner on Oct. 26, at the SBE National Meeting in Denver. The National Meeting is being held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Audio/Video Expo (AVX).
