Broadcast and the young engineers

There are about 30 registered engineering universities in Pakistan, most of them offer degrees/ courses in Electrical, Electronics, Computers, Telecom etc. There are many engineering graduates passing out each year with the intention of doing job in the local market. The broadcast industry as of now has not been in the focus of those engineers, despite the growing number of TV channels in Pakistan. The following information will give a brief idea about the broadcast engineering and the role of engineers in this field.

Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential parts of broadcast engineering, being their own subsets of electrical engineering.
Duties of a broadcast engineer include:
• Maintaining broadcast automation systems for the studio and automatic transmission systems.
• Dealing with complaints of RF interference.
• Regulating the clarity, signal strength, and the range of sounds and colors for radio and television broadcasts.
• Installation and modification of technical broadcasting equipment
• Qualification

Broadcast engineers may need to possess degree in one of the following field:
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronic Engineering
• Telecommunications Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Management Information System
• Broadcast Technology



Requirement
Broadcast engineers are generally required to have knowledge in the following areas :

• Conventional broadcast
– Audio/Video instrumentation measurement
– Baseband video – standard / high-definition
– Broadcast studio acoustics
– Television studios - broadcast video cameras and camera lenses
– Production switcher (Video mixer)
– Audio mixer

• Broadcast IT
– Video compression - DV25, MPEG, DVB or ATSC (or ISDB)
– Digital server payout technologies. - VDCP, Louth, Harris, control protocols
– Broadcast automation
– Disk storage – RAID / NAS / SAN technologies.
– Archives – Tape archives or grid storage technologies.
– Computer networking
– Operating systems – Microsoft Windows / Mac OS / Linux / RTOS
– Post production – video capture and non-linear editing systems (NLEs).

• RF
– RF satellite uplinking – High-powered amplifiers (HPA)
– RF communications satellite downlinking – Band detection, carrier detection and IRD tuning, etc.
– RF transmitter maintenance - IOT UHF transmitters, solid state VHF transmitters, antennas, transmission line, high power filters, digital modulators

• Conventional Broadcasting
The conversion to digital broadcasting means broadcast engineers must now be well-versed in digital television and digital radio, in addition to analogue principles. New equipment from the transmitter to the radio antenna to the receiver may be encountered by engineers new to the field. Furthermore, modern techniques place a greater demand on an engineer's expertise, such as sharing broadcast towers or radio antennas among different stations
• Company’s Expectations
For the Position of Broadcast Engineer Companies expect you to have:
• Basic concepts of broadcasting
• Knowledge of broadcast systems.
• Basic IT
• Basic Networking
• Knowledge in maintenance, usage, and design of technical broadcast equipment.
• Skill in responding to operational/technical equipment problems.
• Hands-on experience of installation, integration and configuration of broadcast equipment.

• Ways to achieve
• Internships
• Certifications
• Short courses
• Member ships of societies
The information in this article is compiled and contributed by Bilal Hasan and Sheeraz Adil