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To: Ian@SI who wrote (35146)	8/12/1998 2:05:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Thanks Ian, I had not heard about the NASA project. There's no limit to human creativity, especially when there's money involved! One chip per person? As long as we're stretching things, let's make it a DVx or 2Real codec chip. Billy

To: Ian@SI who wrote (35146)	8/12/1998 4:33:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

More Engineers needed for digital broadcasting builds.............................. tvbroadcast.com Engineers In Short Supply By Jessica Webb Television station WDCN in Nashville, TN, has a problem that's not uncommon these days. The PBS station's chief engineer Bill Spencer desperately needs an assistant. Spencer advertised the opening locally and nationally and, after waiting several weeks, he received some 12 applications. Unfortunately, out of those 12, he felt only one was qualified enough to merit an interview. WDCN is not alone. The industry-wide technological upheaval that is DTV has brought with it an increased demand for manpower. Stations are either scrambling to find qualified engineers, or they're holding on to the ones they've got with all their might. The evolution to digital broadcasting has created large gaps in the engineering playing field. However, there is some debate over where the holes are. Some say there are not enough engineers to handle the new digital stations. Others say it is because engineers are "going digital" that there is a shortage of their analog counterparts. Still another group believes the gap lies in transmission--the heart of broadcasting--as senior engineers retire and are not being replaced. "The real shortfall in engineering talent is in the area of analog engineers," said Mark Aitken, director of marketing at Comark. "After you get the digital signal from the studio to the transmitter... the fact of the matter is, the transmitter itself is very much an analog-intensive piece of gear." Aitken theorizes the reason for the scant supply of analog engineers is due to the fact that new tricks are being learned. "There is a shortage [in analog] because the focus in the engineering environment of schools has gone toward digital technology. The broad base of education in this country has gotten away from analog and gone toward digital." Ed Miller, president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) feels the deficiency is in the digital arena of the future and in engineering in general. "I think where the shortage exists is in qualified engineers," he said. "The engineers we have now have not diminished because of HDTV. There is a base number of engineers, but how many of them are going to be able to carry the load and move into the next millennium of new technology is really an issue of concern."