Broadcast engineering

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
• 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

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 (sometimes referred as Broadcast 3.0) 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 broadcast engineering terms for further explanations.

Broadcast stations often call upon outside engineering services for certain needs. For example, because structural engineering is generally not a direct part of broadcast engineering, tower companies usually design broadcast towers.

Other companies specialize in both broadcast engineering and broadcast law, which are both essential when making an application to a national broadcasting authority for a construction permit or broadcast license. This is especially critical in North America, where stations bear the entire burden of proving that their proposed facilities will not cause interference and are the best use of the radio spectrum. Such companies now have special software that can map projected radio propagation and terrain shielding, as well as lawyers that will defend the applications before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), or the equivalent authorities in some other countries.

• Broadcast Beat
• Radio (formerly BE Radio)
• Radio World
• TV Technology

• Engineering technician
• Technical operator