About the Contributors

Mark Bell has been a part of emerging technologies in television for more 20 years. From Emerson College's transfer to color television in the 1970s to participation in Avid's Camcutter development focus group, he has acquired a diverse grasp of the industry's operational and technological developments. Mr. Bell has top-market expertise in studio, master control, and tape room operations, news/production/documentary photography and sound work, ENG, SNG and event transmission, and a great record on equipment maintenance. He started contributing to Television Broadcast magazine in 1994 and was named a faculty member of the well-regarded National Press Photographers Association News Video Workshop in 1995. He also wrote "Look Up and Live," an ENG safety article distributed to more than 12,000 readers by the NPPA. In addition, Mr. Bell maintains "Repair!" a specialty equipment repair shop, and operates "Technically Write!" a technical writing firm, from which he publishes the ENG Safety Newsletter.

Craig Birkmaier is a technologist with more than 30 years of experience in the video industry. His company, PCUBE Labs (www.pcube.com)-based in Gainesville, FL-is a technology consultancy focused on the convergence of the three most powerful technologies of the 20th century: video, computing, and telecommunications. PCUBE Labs works in cooperation with Two Head Film and Video (www.two-head.com) to test, develop, and review new products. PCUBE Labs specializes in the observation, improvement, and-if necessary-invention of human interface technologies linking content producers and their tools. He is also a contributing editor to Television Broadcast and Videography magazines.

Lou CasaBianca serves as Chairman/CEO of the i5Group, which supports broadcast and cable network, diversified content publishers, music and motion picture studios Mr. CasaBianca has created magazines and written books on new media and directed film, video, and interactive programs for broadcast, corporate, and entertainment applications. He produced and/or executive produced Island Records recording and world tour projects featuring Al DiMeola, Klaus Schulze, Michael Shrieve, Steve Winwood, and Stomu Yamashta. He has produced/directed more than 100 broadcast and multimedia projects for Fortune 1000 companies. His current business focus centers on serving as Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-Chief of ContentWorld Ventures, Inc. (CWV) and Content Magazine, a joint venture with Syllabus Press, Inc. He founded and serves as chairman of the Media Asset Management Association (MAMA), a non-profit educational organization with a mandate to support the development of open standards to enable MAM WWW and broadcast applications.

Matt Charles has worked in professional audio magazine publishing for the last 10 years and has been producing, recording and performing music for the last 14 years.

Colette Connor is Editor of Videography magazine. She regularly contributes feature articles on shooting made-for-TV documentaries and video productions, as well as writing news and other features profiling equipment manufacturers and post production facilities. Previously, Ms. Connor was Associate Producer on network reality-based specials for Paul Klein's PKO Television Ltd. Prior to that, she was a marketing and public relations executive for satellite and cable communications, and, earlier, feature films. Her editorial background includes writing and editing monthly newsstand publications, and business and political reporting for community newspapers.

Randall Paris Dark is Founder, President and CEO of HD VISION, Inc. He has more than 150 HD productions to his credit, in a career which began more than ten years ago with Chasing Rainbows, the world's first mini-series imaged in high definition. Before founding HD VISION, he spent three years as Vice President and Producer for Captain New York, where he was responsible for the production of a number of HD projects that were nominated for awards. More recently, Randall has produced and directed several productions for HD VISION that have garnished nominations at the International Electronic Cinema Festival and also produced and directed a production which earned HD VISION two Telly Awards. Over the past four years Mr. Dark and HD VISION. have been involved in numerous high-profile productions such as: Woodstock II, Super Bowl XXX, Victor, Victoria! on Broadway, the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, and Christmas at the White House.

Gary Eskow is producer of more than 200 commercial sound tracks and a winner of multiple industry awards.

Robert R. Gerhart has been working in the video production field for more than 10 years, having started out as the owner of a small commercial/industrial production facility in southern New Jersey. Now the President of Visual Alchemy, Inc. (www.visual-alchemy.com) located in Sarasota, FL, Mr. Gerhart has turned his focus to post production, editing, 3D animation and special effects. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Video Production from Summit University of Louisiana. His strong technical and artistic background has also earned him a position as a contributing editor for Television Broadcast magazine, writing the monthly feature "Hands-On Post." Utilizing his studio facility for testing, he reviews desktop-platform editing, compositing and animation packages.

Robert M. Goodman is an Emmy-nominated director and award-winning writer with over 18 years of experience in film and video production. He specializes in writing and directing documentaries, results-oriented marketing programs and infomercials that sell. Mr. Goodman is currently completing a nonfiction feature called Gifts in the Mail that celebrates the 100-year history of American picture postcards. He's a contributing editor for Videography magazine, a contributing writer for the Independent Film & Video Monthly, and one of the authors of the American Society of Cinematographer's Guide to Digital Video.

Michael Grotticelli is Editor of Television Broadcast magazine. Prior to that, he was News Editor of TV Technology magazine from 1996-98. He has covered the video production industry for more than ten years, both as a publicist, reporter and Managing Editor of Videography magazine.

Ross Kauffman is the DTV Group Consultant for Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.

Terence Keegan is news editor for Medialine, a trade magazine for the recorded media industry.

Mike Keller serves as Director of Engineering at WCVB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Boston.

Ken Kerschbaumer is Associate Editor at Broadcasting and Cable magazine. Prior to joining Broadcasting and Cable he was editor of Digital Television magazine, and also has worked for Television Broadcast, Government Video and TVBEurope while working for Miller Freeman PSN.

Steve "Woody" La Cerra is Senior Editor of EQ magazine. He is also the Chief Tech at End Result Recording in New York and a freelance audio engineer/producer. He has worked with Blue Oyster Cult, Twisted Sister, Dagger and Reason, and his debut solo CD is available on North America Music. Check out his Web site at www.highstrungpro.com/lacerra.

Steve Lampen is Technology Specialist for Belden Electronics Division in San Francisco. Steve holds a FCC Lifetime General License and is an SBE Certified Radio Broadcast Engineer. On the data side he is a BICSI Registered Communication Distribution Designer. He has worked extensively in the sound, recording, film , and broadcast communities. His book, Wire, Cable, and Fiber Optics for Video and Audio Engineers, is published by McGraw-Hill, and his "Wired for Sound" column appears monthly in Radio World magazine.

Jon Leland is an award-winning video producer, Web site designer, consultant and keynote speaker. He was the founding director of creative services at USA Network and is currently the president and creative director of the San Rafael, CA electronic media design company, Communication Bridges www.combridges.com. Mr. Leland is also the publisher and editorial director of the Media Mall Web site www.mediamall.com.

Sheldon Liebman has been involved in computer graphics and video since receiving his MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) in 1981. Mr. Liebman began work as a graphics programmer and quickly shifted into the areas of sales and marketing, where he is still active. During his career, he has been part of a number of pioneering companies. As Vice President of Marketing for Lyon Lamb Video Animation Systems, he developed the specification for the company's second-generation frame-by-frame VTR controller, the MiniVAS. He was also one of the founders of Digital Arts, an early pioneer in PC-based 3D animation. In 1991, Mr. Liebman formed L&S Marketing, Inc. to provide marketing, public relations and writing services to the computer and video industries. Through this company, He has become a regular contributor to Videography and Government Video magazines, as well as a consultant to a number of small manufacturers. He currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife and two sons.

George Maier has spent more than thirty years involved in transmission system technology. He majored in EE studies at Northeastern University, and has worked for a number of well known transmission equipment companies, including Western Electric (now Lucent Technologoes), M/A-COM's Communications Equipment Group (now Advanced Broadband), Harris Corporation Broadcast Division, Northern Telecom, Telco Systems, ADC Telecommunication and Artel Video Systems. In November 1997, Mr. Maier started Orion Broadcast Solutions as a consulting firm, specializing in technical assistance and market development in the video transmission area. He is a regular contributor to Television Broadcast magazine and may be reached at gmaier@ultranet.com.

Renville H. McMann, Jr. began his career serving on FM broadcasting pioneer Edwin H. Armstrong's staff during the 1930s. He later joined the NBC Research Laboratory, where he served as liaison engineer with RCA Laboratories on the first successful color VTR. He joined CBS Laboratories in 1955, where he co-invented the first home videocassette system with Dr. Peter Goldmark, who he succeeded as President of CBS Laboratories in 1971. While at CBS, Mr. McMann also served as the principal inventor and major participant in the development of the Starlight TV camera for transmitting color pictures from inside the human body, an encoded signal color-correction device, the digital noise reducer, and the CBS Minicam Mark VI, the first handheld color TV camera system. The holder of 36 patents, Mr. McMann served as President of Thomson-CSF Laboratories from 1975 until his appointment in 1982 as VP of Advanced Television, CBS Technology Center. He has chaired the HDTV committee of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, and has been involved in other ATV organizations.

Brian McKernan is the Editorial Director of Miller Freeman PSN's Video Division, which includes Videography, Television Broadcast, Government Video, and videography.com. He is also the U.S. Editorial Director of Television Broadcast Europe and the Executive Editor (U.S.) for Content Creation Europe. Mr. McKernan was the Editor-in-Chief of Videography for 11 years, prior to which he served as Television Editor at Broadcast Management/Engineering and Assistant Editor at Omni magazine. Mr. McKernan's other publishing credits include: editing and packaging the book The Age of Videography: Twenty Years That Changed the Way We See Ourselves (Miller Freeman PSN, 1996); contributing a chapter to HDTV: The Policies, Politics, and Economics of Tomorrow's Television (Union Square Press, 1990); and editing Producer to Producer: Insider Tips for Success in Media (Michael Wiese Productions, 1997).

Ron Merrell is Executive Editor of Television Broadcast, where he specializes in RF issues, and the Executive Editor of Government Video. He spent four years in the Air Force as a communications and electronics troubleshooter. Later he worked at McDonnell Aircraft as an electronics/communications inspector on the Voodoo line. He was granted a Wall Street Scholarship to attend the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he earned his master's degree. Mr. Merrell was a professor of journalism and communications at Wisconsin State University and lectured at several midwest universities. He also worked for Intertec Publishing as their first Editorial Director, where he edited an wrote for Broadcast Engineering for 12 years, and where he started Video Systems magazine.

William C. Miller is Manager of Production Technology in ABC-TV's Broadcast Operations and Engineering division. He earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1973. He has been active in standards work for many years, both with ATSC and SMPTE. Mr. Miller is a Fellow of SMPTE, and for the last four years has been the Society's Engineering Vice President. He is a member of NATAS, and was awarded an Emmy by them for his contributions to ABC's coverage of the 1988 Winter Olympics. He has written a number of papers and articles about broadcast technology, and is an occasional contributor to Television Broadcast.

Christine M. Okon is an expert in emerging digital content trends and applications as well as digital media and Internet development and production. She is currently the Director of Business Development for Arriba Soft Corporation and has published articles on digital media content creation, development and management in Advanced Imaging, MacUser, InfoWorld, Electronic Publishing and other trade journals. Ms. Okon holds a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature and a Bachelor of Arts in English and German, both from Northern Illinois University.

Bobby Owsinski is a 20-year veteran of the music business. He has worked in many creative facets of the music business including producer, guitar and keyboard player, recording engineer, songwriter, and arranger. He has hundreds of records and live events to his credit with artists such as ex-Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, Bobby Caldwell, Lou Rawls, Chick Corea, The Byrds, and Blues legends Willie Dixon, Joe Houston and Gerry Groom. He has produced acts for Polygram, Mercury, Warner Bros., RCA, Chrysalis, and Manhattan/EMI. He has also produced, engineered, and performed the music for several movies, including Lovesick, The Hunger, and Mortal Kombat II, and television shows, including Into The Night With Rick Dees, Roller Games, and Baywatch Nights. He has also been active as an educator, serving as a professor at Berklee College of Music, Trebas Recording Institute, and most recently, Nova Institute where he created their highly successful Multimedia Production course.

Glen Pensinger has been active as an operating and maintenance engineer in commercial and educational television for more than 35 years, including positions with KTVU Oakland, KGO-TV San Francisco, and the ABC Television Network. Mr. Pensinger is currently a Television Engineer for San Jose State University in California with responsibility for the design, installation, and maintenance of their television facilities which include distance learning systems, wideband video and data distribution, studio, field and post production systems. He is a Fellow of SMPTE and has served the Society as Western Regional Governor, San Francisco Section Chair, and General Arrangements Chair for the 17th, 19th and 29th Television and Advanced Imaging Conferences. He is also a Society of Broadcast Engineers Certified Senior Broadcast Engineer as well as a member of AES and IEEE.

Mark J. Pescatore has been part of the Television Broadcast magazine team since 1994, and is currently a contributing editor. He also serves as Educational Television Field Editor for Government Video magazine. He has been a television station program manager and has taught college courses in mass communication and television production. Mr. Pescatore has a Master of Arts in Telecommunication and Film from The University of Alabama, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Florida Atlantic University, and an Associate of Arts in Mass Communication from Broward Community College. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the co-editor of the second edition of The Guide To Digital Television published by Miller Freeman PSN in 1999.

Mark Schubin Engineer, writer, historian, teacher, forensic analyst, consultant, expert witness, researcher, and judge. Mr. Schubin is a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, a multiple Emmy award winner, and a recipient of many other honors. His clients range >from Children's Television Workshop to IBM to the Metropolitan Opera to Hong Kong's STAR-TV. He also serves as Technical Editor for Videography magazine and a contributor to Television Broadcast magazine.

Michael Silbergleid is president of The SilverKnight Group, a consulting, marketing and public relations firm specializing in high technology. Silbergleid was most recently Editor-In-Chief of Television Broadcast magazine from March 1998 until June 1999 and had been the editor September 1994. Prior to joining the magazine, he was Manager of Educational Television and Telecommunication Engineering for the Huntsville City School System in Alabama and has been a producer, director, video editor, chief engineer and facilities designer. Mr. Silbergleid has a Master of Arts degree in Telecommunication and Film Management from The University of Alabama and two Bachelor of Arts degrees, in Dramatic Arts And Dance and Speech Communications, both from the State University of New York at Geneseo. He is the editor of the first edition and co-editor of the second edition of The Guide To Digital Television published by Miller Freeman PSN in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

David Sparano received a Bachelor of Science degree from Siena College and a Master of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechinc Institute. He is currently a senior applications engineer with Harris Corporation Broadcast Division in Quincy, Illinois. Mr. Sparano is fluent in four languages and has presented seminars on DTV throughout North and South America.

Nigel Spratling has worked in the television industry for more than 20 years, during which time he held senior positions with Philips Electronics in Europe and AVS Broadcast in the UK and the US. He joined NVision after resigning as vice president of post production with Snell & Wilcox. He was a co-founder of Vatek, the designers of the AVS Integra digital video switcher and effects system. Mr. Spratling is currently the vice president of marketing for ADC/NVision.

Jonathan H. Stott studied Engineering and Electrical Sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge University, graduating with Distinction in 1972. He then joined the BBC Research Department (now BBC R&D), where he is a Project Manager in Spectrum Planning Group. Most of his career has been taken up with applying digital techniques to broadcasting. Recently, he was deeply involved with the development and introduction of digital terrestrial television, starting with participation in the European RACE dTTb project. This led to his becoming a member of the Task Force on System Comparison, which, under the leadership of Lis Grete M¯ller from Denmark, drew up the DVB-T specification for modulation and coding of digital terrestrial television. He led the theoretical and simulation work within the BBC R&D team that is at the forefront of digital television developments in Europe. He now leads a BBC R&D team looking at the application of digital techniques to sound broadcasting at frequencies below 30 MHz in collaboration with the DRM consortium.

Mark A. Thalhimer directs the Future of News project for the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation in Washington, D.C., with support from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.

Craig Todd currently holds the title of Senior Member of the Technical Staff, and has been with Dolby Laboratories for 20 years. Mr. Todd has been developing multichannel sound for more than 15 years, beginning with his work on the Dolby Surround Sound matrix system. More recently he has worked on the development of technology for digital audio coding and broadcasting. For the last several years, Mr. Todd has concentrated on multichannel digital audio for television. The result of his efforts is the Dolby Digital (AC-3) coding technology, and its acceptance, by the U.S. "Grand Alliance" and the FCC Advisory Committee, for incorporation into the U.S. ATSC broadcast standard. Mr. Todd holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from the California Institute of Technology.

Bob Turner has been a videotape editor since 1976, and is one of the leading independent authorities on digitized video nonlinear editing systems. He considers himself a freelance video editor first and foremost, although lately he's best known for his "Hands-On Reviews" of new communications technologies and nonlinear post production systems in Videography magazine. His article "1,001 Questions To Ask Before Purchasing a Nonlinear Edit System" has been published twice by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and has also been translated in 12 languages. He now consults with NLE manufacturers and potential purchasers. His book on nonlinear editing tools should be released within the coming year.

John Watkinson holds an honors degree in Electronic Engineering and a master's degree in Sound and Vibration. He is an independent consultant in digital audio, video and data technology and is the author of 17 books, including The Art of Digital Audio and The Art of Digital Video, acclaimed as the definitive works on the subject. He is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society and is listed in Who's Who in the World, in Contemporary Authors and by the American Biographical Institute. He regularly presents papers at conventions of learned societies and has presented training courses on a range of technological subjects for studios, broadcasters and facilities around the world. He has worked for the Digital Equipment Corporation, Ampex Corporation and Sony prior to forming his own consultancy in 1989. He writes regularly in TV Technology (Video Watch), Studio Sound (Dr. John) and Systems Contractor News. He lives in the countryside southwest of London, England.

Tim Wetmore is Editorial Director of the audio division at Miller Freeman PSN and has been a journalist for 17 years after receiving his master's degree in writing from Columbia University. He has also worked in recording studios and had a short (two years), frightening experience as a broadcaster in the mid-1980s.