SBE Ennes Workshop @ The 2025 NAB Show – Presenter Information

Joe Anderson
Chief Operating Officer; Capitol Airspace Group
Joe Anderson has been with Capitol Airspace Group for more than a decade and is currently serving as the chief operating officer. His tenure at the company includes time as an airspace specialist, airspace analyst, and project manager, all of which honed his expertise in navigating complex airspace regulations, airspace design and mitigation, and developing innovative solutions to complex airspace challenges. Chief operating officer, he oversees Capitol Airspace’s operational strategies, ensuring efficiency and innovation across all departments. Joe holds a Master’s Degree in Air Traffic Management from Embry-Riddle University. Joe’s ability to translate complex concepts into actionable insights makes him an invaluable asset, not just to Capitol Airspace Group but to the broader industry.

Shawn Anderson
Product Manager; RTS Intercom Systems
Shawn has more than 30 years as a specialist and product manager at RTS intercoms. His wheelhouse of knowledge for voice-over-network qualifies him as a resident genius in Dante, AES 67 and 70, and ST-2110 open control architecture.

Brian Beckwith
Senior Solutions Engineer; Imagine Communications
Brian joined Imagine in January 2021 with 25+ years of sports production and design engineering background. His entry into sports production came on production trucks covering local, collegiate, and professional sports. Brian also worked for a prominent system integrator, starting in the early 2000s. He specialized in the design and integration of control rooms for collegiate and professional sports venues.

Bob Bertrand
Partner; Inrush Broadcast Services
Major-market media leader with more than 20 years of accomplishment in broad organizational leadership, broadcast and IT operations, digital transformation, talent development, change management, strategy, P&L oversight, construction, capital planning, project management, and disaster recovery/business continuity planning. Nationally recognized for novel advances in technology and meeting unforgiving operational deadlines during regional and national emergencies.

David Bialik, CBT
Moderator
Currently director of engineering at Mediaco NY. David has been chief engineer at a number of radio stations and director of streaming for CBS Radio. Bialik has published a number of papers and articles and belongs to a number of standards-creating organizations. Recipient of a number of awards from the Audio Engineering Society and is co-chair of the Broadcast and Online Delivery Technical Committee. He is a co-chair of the Society of Broadcast Engineers’ Ennes Workshop on Media over IP at the NAB Show.

Nigel Brownett
Founder, President; NFB Consulting/Leeward Software
Nigel founded NFB Consulting in 2012. He is also a founding partner of intoto systems. He is a seasoned technologist with more than 30 years of direct experience in media and IT. Previous to NFB Consulting, he played pivotal roles in engineering and operations at renowned media organizations including the BBC World Service, Village Roadshow, Australian Radio Network, The Radio Network and Satellite Music Australia.

Greg Buchwald
Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff; Motorola Solutions
Greg Buchwald has been involved in radio broadcasting and engineering for nearly 50 years. He began his involvement in radio at the age of 14. He has been intermittently involved in the NRSC over the past nearly four decades. Greg is a 43-year employee of Motorola Solutions where he has worked on multiple diverse communications projects and has also been involved in regulatory and spectrum matters. Greg is an elected Motorola Science Advisory Board Associate (SABA) and a recently elected Motorola Dan Noble Fellow. He was the 2016 recipient of the DJ Atkinson Technical Award for his work on the protection of GPS services by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council. An active SBE member, Greg is involved in both the SBE Education and Mentor Committees.

Tim Carroll
Sr. Director Sound Technology; Dolby Labs
Prior to his stint at Dolby, Tim was CTO of the Telos Alliance, comprising Telos, Omnia, 25-Seven Systems, Axia, Minnetonka Audio, and Linear Acoustic, a company he founded. He has been honored with several Prime Time, Technology and Engineering, and Sports Emmy Awards for his work with Dolby E, television audio processing, and the Beijing, Vancouver, and London Olympic games. He is a member of AES, ASA, IEEE, SBE, and SMPTE, and is an active participant in the work of the ATSC. He holds multiple patents in the field of television audio and data processing.

Cindy Cavell
Director, Spectrum Division; Cavell Mertz/Capitol Airspace Group
Cindy Cavell’s career includes spending 15 years at NBC and ABC News, traveling with Presidential press pools throughout the world, handling three Olympics for ABC television, and managing remotes internationally. She has been a major market TV station chief engineer for Hearst, Gannett and Fox. She has also been general manager of the Fox Sports Net Tech Center in Houston, and was the director of engineering for the nationwide 2GHz Relocation Project at Sprint/Nextel. She has also acted as the engineering project lead for the FCC’s TV band repack fund administrator. She has received the 2019 NAB Television Engineering Achievement Award, (the first woman to receive this honor), three Emmy Awards, the 2015 TV-News-Check Women in Technology Leadership Award, and the 2007 SBE-AWRT Outstanding Female Engineer award.

Gary Cavell
Senior Director, Spectrum Division; Cavell Mertz/Capitol Airspace Group
A 40-plus year broadcast veteran, Gary Cavell is a recipient of the NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Radio, and the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society’s Award for Outstanding Broadcast Engineering. He served as editor-in-chief for the 11th edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook and has published many articles on practical aspects of broadcasting over the years. Gary has been a lecturer and faculty member of the NAB Educational Foundation’s Broadcast Leadership Training program, has been a lecturer for the NAB Broadcast Technology and Engineering Internship Program, the Voice of America’s/IBB US Technical Training Institute, and was a developer and co-presenter of RF Bootcamp sessions during several NAB conventions.

John Davis, CBNT
Broadcast Technology Leader; Wheatstone
John Davis is Wheatstone’s primary systems and field engineer responsible for the company’s studio installations and support for broadcast clients. He has provided technical support for audio console and radio automation products for over 25 years, as well as many years behind the microphone in Phoenix and Houston. He was honored by the SBE in 2011 for Best Technical Article on choosing a network switch for AoIP that appeared in Radio magazine.

Mike Downs, CAE, CMP
Executive Director; Society of Broadcast Engineers
Mike Downs, CAE, CMP, DES, CED, became executive director of the SBE on Jan. 3, 2025. Downs has 27 years of experience in non-profit management at an International level. Since 2012 he was the director of conventions and meetings of Kiwanis International, a global service organization. Previous to that, he worked for 10 years as chief staff executive of Key Club International. During his time with Key Club, the organization posted year-over year-growth in membership. His professional experience includes an extensive background in strategic plan development and deployment. His association experience includes being a past president of the Indiana Society of Association Executives and a past vice-president of the Indiana Chapter of Meetings Professional International.

Robert Ericksen
Vice President Sales – Americas; TAG Video Systems
Robert has been a member of the TAG team since 2023, with more than 25 years of experience in the broadcast and IT markets. Covering systems engineering, IT network design, and RF transmission systems; Robert has recently focused on designing and implementing adaptable software centric workflow tools that can scale from on-premises solutions to worldwide, cloud-based infrastructures – for emerging technologies, live production, and traditional broadcast customers. Robert is an active participant and frequent presenter in many industry associations, including the SBE, SMPTE, and Hollywood Professional Association (HPA).

Alun Fryer
Technical Marketing Lead; Ross Video Systems
Responsible for technical leadership for the hyper-converged media production product family; including roadmaps, customer insights, industry and technology trends. A beacon of guidance to marketing, product and development teams on solution use cases and product requirements. Participation and contribution to broadcast media industry organizations through thought leadership both internally and externally. Alun is technical marketing lead for Ross Video where he bridges technical, marketing and product management teams to deliver practical technology with a superior customer experience to real-world market problems. Alun has held R&D, product management and marketing roles for more than 25 years in the broadcast industry.

Jeff Geerling
Engineer; Geerling Engineering
Jeff Geerling is an author and software developer from St. Louis, MO. Father, author, developer, maker. Sometimes called “an inflammatory enigma.” Publish and maintain best-selling books. Produce educational content for the ‘Jeff Geerling’ YouTube channel and online properties. Build and Manage Hosted Apache Solr, a search SaaS product. Build and Manage Server Check.in, a website and server monitoring SaaS product. Photographer for major St. Louis-area events, regional personalities, and products. Contribute to open-source projects like Ansible, Drupal, and Kubernetes.

Joe Geerling, CPBE, CBNT
Engineer; Geerling Engineering
Joe Geerling is a radio engineer with decades of experience who loves soccer, family, and clean audio signals. His expertise in analog and digital electronics and leadership in engineering have led him to his current job as director of engineering at Covenant Network in St. Louis.

Ted Hand, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, ATSC3, DRB
President; Society of Broadcast Engineers
Ted is the president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and the president of Piedmont RF Consultants, LLC in Charlotte, NC. He is an SBE Fellow and Life Member. An SBE member since May 1981 (44 years), he has held the offices of vice president, secretary, treasurer and director. He has been in broadcasting since 1979. His last station was WSOC-TV in Charlotte, NC as the director of engineering and operations. Ted has worked in Raleigh, NC, with WRAL-TV and in the Hampton Roads, VA, area at WTVZ, WAVY, WTKR and WGNT. He was selected as the Cox Television Engineer of the Year in 2015. He has been nominated twice for Emmys in the Mid-Atlantic region. Ted has installed 12 high-power television transmitters on his own while he was with the New York Times Broadcasting and Cox Broadcasting. He is an Amateur Radio Operator – Extra Class, W9SOC.

Kirk Harnack, CBRE, CBNE
Senior Solutions Consultant; Telos Alliance
Kirk Harnack brings 40 years of hands-on experience in broadcast engineering and education to his position as Senior Solutions Consultant at Telos Alliance. His expertise in putting technology to work in broadcast facilities has driven notable expansion in audio over IP, VoIP for broadcast, audio processing, and virtualized technology adoption by content creators. Kirk maintains an active, hands-on role in broadcast engineering through his positions as a partner and VP engineering of Oxford Media Group, South Seas Broadcasting, Delta Radio, and Kaua’i Broadcast Partners. He is program chair of SBE Chapter 103 in Nashville. Kirk founded and hosts the Internet video netcast, “This Week in Radio Tech.”

Christian Holbrook
CEO; WireCAD
Christian Holbrook began his career in electronics at a young age by taking stuff apart and rebuilding it. In his teens he thought he wanted to be a recording engineer, but couldn’t find anyone to hire him, so at 17 he built his first recording studio, including the recording console and several pieces of outboard equipment. Since then, he has worked at the C level in a manufacturing firm, a system integration company, and for a brief period, owned a consumer electronic repair shop. Christian served as director of engineering for the Fox Family channel and moved with the sale of the company to the ABC Family channel. Christian developed WireCAD at his kitchen table, originally to meet his own needs, and eventually he brought it to the public in 2001.

Karl Lahm, PE
Principal; Broadcast Transmission Services
Karl Lahm has a 50+ year career in broadcast engineering, which began as a summertime station technician at WWTV, Cadillac, MI, after completing his senior year of high school. He retired from fulltime work as director, RF systems engineering for TelevisaUnivision’s 40+ TV and 60+ radio stations in 2018. He now supports broadcast RF systems education and antenna/transmitter systems tuning and testing as a consulting engineer. Prior to his 19 years with TelevisaUnivision, Karl specialized in high-power AM and HF antenna and transmitter systems as a senior engineer with the Voice of America during the 1990s. During the 1980s, he was a broadcast regulatory consulting engineer in Washington, DC. In the 1970s, after receiving his electrical engineering degree from Michigan Tech, he was a field service and audio design engineer with Harris, followed by four years of radio station engineering management in the Los Angeles market. Karl is a registered professional engineer, SBE senior member, IEEE life member, and avid Great Lakes cruising sailor.

CJ Leonard
VP Publisher Operations; FanServ
As a streaming media and convergence consultant, she has extensive expertise in digital ad operations, ad tech, content delivery, and end-to-end monetization tactics. She’s worked across the advertising and content supply chain from publishers to advertisers, content delivery systems to all forms of revenue generation platforms while at NBC Universal, CBS Local, Allen Media Group, Magnite (Telaria), IRIS.TV, and beyond. She brings a unique blend of innovation, strategy, and practicality.

Nico Lewis
Senior Sales Manager; RTS Intercom Systems
25 years in the broadcast industry, developing a wide range of business skills and understanding of the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business to business market. An energetic leader with the ability to bring new products to market, open new channels and take an existing business into the next stage of development. Money does not make the business, people do!

Michael Liebman, CEV, CBNT
Principal Engineer; Sirius XM Radio
Before joining SiriusXM, Michael led the day-to-day efforts of Yangaroo’s advertising customer service team. He has also worked for Fox News Channel and the ADC Automation group in Harris’ Broadcast Communications Division. After graduating from Northwestern University’s School of Speech with a BS in Radio/Television/Film, he joined Viacom/MTV Networks Network Operations Center first in Operations and then moving to Engineering. He received an MS with distinction in Management and Systems from New York University after completing his thesis, “An Empirical Investigation into the Adoption of Open Source Software in the Broadcasting Industry.”

Stephen Lockwood, CPBE, AMD, PE
Sr. Engineer and President; Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers
Stephen Lockwood has more than 40 years of experience in broadcasting and telecommunications engineering. He is a Registered Professional Electrical Engineer in Washington, Alaska, and Wyoming. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BS in Engineering Physics from Oklahoma Christian University. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a past Broadcast Technology Society elected AdCom Member, Current board member, and past president of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE) and is a Member of the Project Management Institute, where he is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

John Mailhot
Systems Architect for IP Convergence; Imagine Communications
John Mailhot has worked in the field of digital High-Definition Television systems since 1990, first as technical lead for the Grand Alliance encoder and later as engineering manager and general manager of Lucent Digital Video, Aastra Digital Video, and the compression division of Harris Broadcast. Today, John is CTO and director of Infrastructure Product Architecture at Imagine Communications, focused on transition of core television infrastructure into IP- and software-based technologies. He is also the editor of the SMPTE 2110 standards. He has two degrees from MIT, serves on the boards of AMWA and VSF, and is a SMPTE Fellow.

Ryan Morris
Sytems Engineer; Arista Networks
Ryan Morris is a technical lead for media and entertainment at Arista Networks, focusing on workflows within the M&E sector. With a keen interest in advanced technologies and concepts such as orchestration, multicast protocols, Precision Time Protocol (PTP), and monitoring strategies, Ryan consistently offers valuable design and deployment strategies to clients across the globe. Ryan graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering.

Madeleine Noland
President; ATSC
Madeleine Noland is a 20-year industry who chaired the technology group that oversees the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard before being named ATSC president in 2019. Previously, she chaired various ATSC 3.0-related specialist groups, ad hoc groups and implementation teams since 2012. She began her career in the television industry in 2004 with Backchannelmedia Inc. It was during her work there that she first became involved in ATSC projects. In 2012, she moved on to product and project management roles at Telvue Corp. before joining LG Electronics CTO’s office in 2013. Noland represented LG in a variety of industry organizations for over six years.

Bob Orban
Founder; Orban
Robert Orban received a B.S.E.E. degree from Princeton University in 1967 and an M.S.E.E. degree from Stanford University in 1968. In 1970, he founded Orban Associates, originally as a manufacturer of studio equipment. In 1975, Orban Associates introduced the original Optimod-FM 8000. He continues to work at Orban Associates’ successor company as vice president/chief engineer. His professional audio accolades are numerous, including efforts that led to the NRSC-1 and NRSC-2 standards for AM; published papers and engineering reports in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, SMPTE, and Trans. Society of Automotive Engineers. He has been published extensively trade publications including Radio World, BM/E, Broadcast Engineering, and other trade press publications. He is the author of the chapter on “Transmission Audio Processing” in the NAB Engineering Handbook, 11th edition. He currently holds more than 25 U.S. patents. He is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, shared with Dolby Laboratories a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1993, received the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award in 1995, and received the Radio Magazine “Innovator” award in 2002.

Mike Palmer
AVP Media Management; Sinclair Broadcast
Mike Palmer is AVP of advanced technology/media management for Sinclair Broadcast, where his team’s transformation-enabling media management and media pipeline services span over 200 distribution channels and media properties. Palmer holds a BS in Broadcasting/Journalism from the University of Southern Colorado. Prior to working in the broadcast vendor space, Palmer worked in local station operations and news, as well as pioneering SNG and DBS businesses. Palmer’s work has been recognized with a national Technical Emmy, Broadcast & Cable’s Technology Leadership Award, The Associated Press Oliver Gramling Award, and numerous product awards. He represents Sinclair on the EIDR Board of Directors, and is an active member of SMPTE, The National Press Club, and the NATAS/Emmy Technology Award Committee.

John Passmore
Director of Streaming and On-Demand Media Architecture; New York Public Radio
Mission-driven product leader with over two decades of experience in nonprofit media, museum, education, and cultural heritage institutions. Specialist in guiding cross-functional teams to develop innovative media solutions, including live stream delivery systems, podcast distribution networks, dynamic ad insertion technologies, and high-quality audio and video products for journalism.

Tony Peterle, CPBE
Proprietor; Tony Peterle Technology Services
Tony Peterle has been involved with broadcasting since 1975, both as on-air talent and in engineering positions. Tony has been a chief engineer in Ohio, Kansas City, and Honolulu, and spent many years as a traffic pilot and reporter. Tony joined Worldcast Systems in 2005, rising from customer support to managing the operations in the US, where he became an industry expert in the integration of the SNMP protocol in broadcast monitoring and control systems. He participated in major projects at Sutro Tower, ABC TV, the NBA, and Facebook. After parting with Worldcast in 2024, Tony formed his own consulting engineering company and continues to help broadcasters find innovative and efficient solutions to real-world concerns.

Cassidy Phillips
Director Customer Solutions; swXtch.io
Cassidy is a solutions architect, design engineer, and information communicator with proven diagnosis, solution development, and documentation achievements. Since the ratification of the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, he has specialized in media networking and routing systems leveraging the standard for live events, sports, broadcast media, and distributed campuses. Before moving into system design, Cassidy worked in national and international air-affecting operations roles, for a combined twelve years. Cassidy has been integral in many successful COTS 2110 IP and hybrid IP router and networking projects and is an industry expert in IP and hybrid IP workflows for video.

Felix Poulin
Director – Transition to Media-over-IP & Lab; CBC and AMWA Board of Directors
Felix Poulin is with the national public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada where he leads the Media over IP Architecture Lab. Before that mandate, Felix was lead expert on live IP at the EBU. He completed his diploma in electrical engineering at Montreal’s Polytechnique with his final thesis done at MIT. Felix is an active contributor to the SMPTE, EBU and user-chair of the AMWA NMOS Steering board.

Samuel Recine
Vice-President of Sales, Americas and Asia Pacific; Matrox and AIMS Alliance
Sam has more than 30 years of experience in performance media AV/IT systems and high-impact critical decisions systems. Sam is a current member of AIMS and chair of the Pro AV Working Group helping with education and market adoption of standards and open specifications like IPMX and ST 2110.

Davit Robakidze, CBTE, CTO
CTO; Innovator LLC
Davit Robakidze is a broadcast and multimedia technology expert with 16+ years of experience. Starting as a network engineer, he became a broadcast system integrator and SBE Certified Broadcast Television Engineer. He has led projects across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa, specializing in TV, radio, and EAS systems. As chair of the first SBE Eastern European Chapter, he trains engineers in broadcast and IP technologies. Davit holds certifications from the UK, USA, and Europe and is the CTO of Innovator LLC.

Al Salci
Owner; Sierra Automated Systems
Al Salci is a veteran analog and digital designer, and a software engineer with more than 40 years’ experience in broadcast communications. Originally from Toronto Ontario, Al holds a Bachelor of Science from Mohawk College of Electrical Engineering & Technology. Al was director of engineering for McCurdy Radio Industries where he developed a wide range of products designed for ABC Networks. Al developed a spot trigger system still in use today known as NETCUE control. Later, Al joined RTS systems in Burbank, CA, as co-designer of digital intercom systems. Later he joined with Ed Fritz in Burbank and started Sierra Automated Systems & Eng. Corp. that specializes in high-density distribution, radio intercom systems, and digital audio control console surfaces.

Sridhar Sinnasamy
SVP of Sales (Americas); Amagi
Sridhar has more than 15 years of experience in technology and business development, primarily in mobile, video and embedded systems. At Amagi, he is the sales leader for North America, with the overall responsibility of sales strategy, customer acquisition, client relationships, business expansion and organization development. He has a background in software engineering and has worked at Aricent Communications, Alcatel Lucent, Audio Codes, and Ittiam Systems. He studied BTech in Electronics and Communication from Anna University.

Jim Stenberg
Principal Engineer and Co-owner; Over The Air RF
Broadcast RF engineering, sales and management professional with more than 30 years of experience in antenna, filter, and transmission line research, development, product management, sales and service. Focused on bringing new technology implementations to television and radio stations throughout the US and ensuring the future of over-the-air broadcast.

Kevin Trueblood, CBRE, CBNT
Associate General Manager for Technology & Operations; WGCU Public Media, Florida Gulf Coast University
Kevin Trueblood is a 28-year broadcast veteran who has served in capacities from on-air to programming to engineering and management. In addition to his position with WGCU Public Media, he is also the president of KTrue Media Services, providing broadcast and digital technical consulting. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and currently serves as the vice president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Eddy Vanderkerken
President; Sourcerer
Eddy Vanderkerken has 40 years of experience in the consultative sales of video test and measurement equipment, TV transmitters and RF equipment, next to managing and directing sales teams. He obtained his MSEE degree in electronics from Erasmus University College in Brussels, Belgium, and is fluent in five languages. For 15 years, Eddy was responsible for the sales of Rohde & Schwarz T&M products in Belgium, focusing on video and TV applications. In 2001, he moved to the USA with his family, to help expand the Rohde & Schwarz USA sales organization, and was the director of sales for the broadcast T&M and transmission products for 10 years. He also headed the USA broadcast division of Radio Frequency Systems for two years, actively engaged in the DTV repack. Eddy founded his own business 10 years ago in 2014, Sourcerer, selling test and measurement equipment for the US broadcast market, based out of Dallas.

S. Merill Weiss, CPBE, ATSC3, CBNT
President; MW and Associates
Merrill Weis has spent the last 34 years operating his consultancy focused on electronic media technology and technology management, particularly related to digital and high-definition television. His scope of work ranges from antenna design and FCC applications to project management to technology strategy and product development to serving as an expert witness in commercial and patent litigation.

Jeff Welton, CBRE
Regional Sales Manager, Eastern U.S.; Nautel
Jeff Welton has been with Nautel for more than 34 years, starting as a field service technician and customer service rep, then moving to sales in 2007. He’s written several papers on facility grounding and lightning protection, as well as on-site maintenance and improvement.

Stephen Wilde
President; AAT/Shively
Stephen Wilde has worked as a broadcast engineer with Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and is a top talent when it comes to RF, especially in the VHF band.

Fred Willard, CPBE, 8-VSB, ATSC3, CBNE
Moderator
Fred just crossed 50 years of broadcast experience since first picking up an ENG camera in college. He spent a few years in radio production and engineering, then transitioned to Maryland Public TV (PBS) as an editor, audio specialist, ENG truck operator and trainer, and finally high-power RF specialist as transmission supervisor. He spent a few engaging years installing transmitters and as an integrator all over the world, then turned to fun with NASA as special projects video lead for Goddard Space Flight Center at the dawn of HDTV. Today, he is still heading RF projects and managing technical needs for the DC market as DOT for Televisa/Univision for the past 24 years. Fred has a B.S. in Communications from Towson University. He serves on SBE Board of Directors, is a local SMPTE manager, a member of AES, and on the strategy committee for IEEE-BTS.

Cindy Zuelsdorf
Director, Membership and Marketing; AMWA
Cindy cut her teeth working in broadcast media, selling tech to companies from NBC to NASA. After discovering sales and marketing automation she began using new systems for repeatability and success, starting her agency Kokoro Marketing. Her book 7 Marketing Basics hit #1 in Amazon’s marketing for small business category. Cindy is the director of marketing and membership at AMWA.tv.