A full day of LPTV activities are planned on Monday, April 9, 2018 at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Sessions will be held in the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino, Suite 2812.
Marge Johnson, Technical Support Analyst with TitanTV, Inc. will start the morning with a primer on PSIP. One of the most misunderstood parts of the broadcast transmission systems, PSIP provides the metadata for which channel the end user punches into to the TV. But what else does it do? Johnson will answer that question and more.
With majors in both Business Administration and Computer Science, Marge has enjoyed a successful career in the technical field. Her experiences include more than a decade of installing and maintaining Novell Networks and teaching Novell and Microsoft Network Certification classes. Marge Johnson lives in Cedar Rapids, IA where she is the go-to person TitanTV’s clients rely on for expertly and quickly resolving their PSIP and television scheduling questions.
Next, Rob Folliard, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel for Gray Television and ATBA Chairman will lead a roundtable on Finding the Road to LPTV Permanence. The ideas to bring stability and future proofing of LPTV and Translators will be discussed.
Rob is responsible for legal matters at Gray’s television stations, and Rob oversees Gray’s relationships with its MVPD partners, including negotiating retransmission consent agreements. Prior to joining Gray in 2014, Rob spent nine years in the Washington, DC offices for Cooley, LLP and Dow Lohnes, PLLC, where he represented television broadcasters at the FCC, in transactional matters, and in retransmission consent negotiations. Rob received his Juris Doctor from George Washington University (summa cum laude) in 2005 and a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University in 1997.
Following at 11am, Michael Couzens, Attorney at Law will lead a briefing on the upcoming Special Displacement Window. Are you ready to file? Michael, Started as a TV guy before law school. TV was his passion, then TV licensing. At the FCC, he worked on [TV] Network Inquiry Special Staff, but they had no interest in changing TV. Moved on to Low Power TV Inquiry Staff where they did change TV, creating a new broadcast service. His specialties include being an active Member of the Bar of D.C. and California. FCC regulatory, business formation and transactions, contracts, and general business law.
On tap for the afternoon, our focus will continue on the future of LPTV with the a session on applying ATSC 3.0 with Joshua Weiss and Vern Fotheringhamof Edge Spectrum Inc. Louis Libin from HC2 Broadcasting will discuss New Opportunities in LPTV.
Joshua D. Weiss has nearly 20 years of experience in broadcast television, production, and church ministries. He currently serves as vice president of business development for Edge Spectrum, Inc., and is general manager of IBN Television. He is producer of CrossTalk International, Today With God and Wize Flix television programs. He serves as associate pastor at Abundant Life AG in Grand Prairie, TX, where he and his wife, Nancy, lead worship and are responsible for all media. Joshua teaches Church Media at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. He serves as the chairman of the Church Media Committee for the National Religious Broadcasters, has an MA in strategic communications, and is working on his Ph.D. in communications at Regent University.
Vern Fotheringham has dedicated his professional career to bringing the benefits of true broadband communication services to the global population. He has been and continues to be a catalyst for change and progress in driving this evolution forward. He has specialized in early-stage company development and maturation through the IPO and M&A stages. Together with highly skilled and experienced professional colleagues, he translates his clarity of vision into efficient operations and self-sustaining profitability.
Mindful of all fiduciary duties, he is a proven steward of investment capital who is focused on protecting the interests of all stakeholders. Mr. Fotheringham has been a serial entrepreneur in telecommunications, serving as a founder, CEO, Chairman or board member of eighteen innovative telecommunications companies, including: Norcom Networks, Digital Satellite Broadcasting Corp, Advanced Radio Telecom, Bazillion, Broadstorm, Terabeam, Adaptix, Mead Instruments, Castanet, Kymeta, and V-Satcast.
Louis Libin is an expert in the development of wireless communications and has over twenty-five years experience in media management, from business and strategy development (former CTO of NBC), project management for developing nations, to serving as the United States spokesman on wireless and interactive data systems the (ITU) UN in Geneva. Well known as a professional advisor in the telecom, software and communications industries. Libin has advised clients regarding FCC issues for over two decades. Libin has been profiled in many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times. Libin is founder and President of Broad Comm, Inc., a broadcast technology consulting group. Clients include General Electric, NBC, ABC, CBS, Turner, Olympic Committees equipment manufacturers, governments and a myriad of media start-ups. Libin has successfully served as an officer or director of many companies. Libin also advised the US State Department on communications projects, NASA, the NFL, the NBA, the PGA, among others.
How do you cool your transmitter? Our next roundtable will discuss Air and Water Cooled Transmitters. Led by Perry Priestley, he has worked in the professional broadcast industry for over 40 years. Perry currently is the CEO for Anywave, North America. Most recently Perry worked for Comark, and Linear Industries as Vice President of Sales and previously has held positions with iBiquity, Thales, Marconi, Varian and Philips. Perry has presented at over 50 different technical conferences worldwide. Perry worked in many engineering positions from radio and TV development to transmission installation. Perry earned an HND in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, England.
At 6:00 pm, the annual LPTV/Translator Reception will begin with a VIP Reception for ATBA Members and Guests Only in the Westgate Ballroom E. The doors will open for everyone at 7:00 pm, for the Awards Ceremony, Welcome and Door Prizes. Prizes include an Apple Watch from QVC/HSN, TitanTV Mediastar package, Amazon Echo from NuestraVision and Lobsters from Maine from Dielectric just to name a few.
LPTV @ NAB will continue on Tuesday with a News Roundtable to discuss producing news on a Budget with Eric Wotila from NewsNet. Lee Miller, ATBA Communications Director and MSGPR CEO will lead a Station Marketing roundtable on Web, Social Media and On Air Promotion.
Eric has been involved in television news for over ten years. He got his start in television by working at Cadillac’s public access cable station beginning in 2002. After working at the public access station for a few years, Eric launched “Local Edition,” a 5-minute local news cut-in that aired hourly on HLN throughout Northern Michigan. Eric has also worked as a freelance photojournalist for numerous TV stations in northern Michigan before launching MI News 26.
Eric’s passion is reporting on community interest stories — local people and groups with interesting backgrounds — and he feels MI News 26 is a great place to do so. When he’s not in the studio, in the field or in the edit suite, Eric spends much of his free time playing video games with friends and watching science fiction.
Lee Miller has been involved in the Broadcast business for over 30 years, working in television news operations, creative services, promotions, public service and television network management. As a conference speaker, he has taught on subjects ranging from television news operations to audio-video technology. Miller is a winner of multiple Addy and network television awards for production of television, radio and print.
Visit ATVBA.com for the times and schedule.
