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Broadcast engineering or radio 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.
| Occupation | |
|---|---|
| Names | Broadcast engineer
Broadcast design engineer |
Occupation type | profession |
| Description | |
| Competencies | Technical knowledge, Management skills, Professionalism |
Education required | see professional requirements |
Fields of employment | Radio, television, military |
Related jobs | Technologist, RF engineer, engineering technician, Technical operator |
Broadcast engineering involves both the studio and transmitter aspects (the entire airchain), as well as remote broadcasts. Every station has a broadcast engineer, though one may now serve an entire station group in a city. In small media markets the engineer may work on a contract basis for one or more stations as needed.[1]
Modern duties of a broadcast engineer include maintaining broadcast automation systems for the studio and automatic transmission systems for the transmitter plant. There are also important duties regarding radio towers, which must be maintained with proper lighting and painting. Occasionally a station's engineer must deal with complaints of RF interference, particularly after a station has made changes to its transmission facilities.[2][3]
Broadcast engineers may have varying titles depending on their level of expertise and field specialty. Some widely used titles include:
- Broadcast design engineer
- Broadcast Integration Engineer
- Broadcast systems engineer
- Broadcast IT engineer
- Broadcast IT systems engineer
- Broadcast network engineer
- Broadcast maintenance engineer
- Broadcast technician
- Video broadcast engineer
- TV studio broadcast engineer
- Outside broadcast engineer
- Remote broadcast engineer
Broadcast engineers may need to possess some or all of the following degrees, depending on the broadcast technical environment. If one of the formal qualifications is not present, a related degree or equivalent professional experience is desirable.
- Degree in electrical engineering
- Degree in electronic engineering
- Degree in telecommunications engineering
- Degree in computer engineering
- Degree in management information system
- Degree in broadcast technology
Knowledge
Broadcast engineers are generally required to know the following areas, from conventional video broadcast systems to modern Information Technology:
- 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
- Recording engineer
- Broadcast IT
- Video compression - DV25, MPEG, DVB or ATSC (or ISDB)
- Digital server playout 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 / macOS / 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, solid-state MF transmitters (AM radio), tube type VHF, and MF transmitters. Antennas, transmission lines, high power filters, digital modulators, towers, tower lighting systems, and backup generators.
- Health and safety
- Occupational safety and health
- Fire suppression systems like FM 200.
- Basic structural engineering
- RF hazard mitigation
Above mentioned requirements vary from station to station.
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 (diplexing).
Digital audio and digital video have revolutionized broadcast engineering in many respects.[4] Broadcast studios and control rooms are now already digital in large part, using non-linear editing and digital signal processing for what used to take a great deal of time or money, if it was even possible at all. Mixing consoles for both audio and video are continuing to become more digital in the 2000s, as is the computer storage used to keep digital media libraries. Effects processing and TV graphics can now be realized much more easily and professionally as well.
With the broadcast industry's shift to IP-based production and content delivery technology not only the production technology and workflows are changing, but also the requirements for broadcast engineers, which now include IT and IP-networking knowhow.[5]
Other devices used in broadcast engineering are telephone hybrids, broadcast delays, and dead air alarms. See the Glossary of electrical and electronics engineering for further explanations.
Brazil
- SET – Sociedade Brasileira de Engenharia de Televisão e Telecomunicações, Brazilian Society of Television and Telecommunications Engineering, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Canada
Germany
India
Iran
Japan
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Japan Council
Mexico
- Asociación Mexicana de Ingenieros y Técnicos en Radiodifusión A.C. (AMITRA), Delegación Benito Juárez, Mexico
China
China – Hong Kong
Philippines
- Society of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians of the Philippines, Inc. (SBETP), Quezon City, Philippines
Republic of China – Taiwan
- IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS) – Taipei Section
South Africa
- The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC),[17] Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa,
South Korea
- Korean Broadcast Engineers & Technicians Association (KOBETA), Seoul, South Korea (ROK)
Turkey
- Chamber of Electrical Engineers (EMO)[18] (Joint chamber of electrical, electronics and biomedical engineers)
United States
In the United States, many broadcast engineers belong to the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE).[19] Some may also belong to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE),[20] or to organizations of related fields, such as the Audio Engineering Society or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) [21] - IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS).
For public radio, the Association of Public Radio Engineers was created in late May 2006.[22]
Uruguay
- ANDEBU – Asociación Nacional de Broadcasters Uruguayos, Montevideo, Uruguay
 |
- Broadcast Beat
- Radio (formerly BE Radio)
- Radio World
- TV Technology
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