HARTFORD, Conn.—The 2019 edition of the IEEE BTS Symposium wrapped up on Thursday, Oct. 3, but not before handing out a pair of awards to industry veterans: Gary Cavell and David Layer.

Cavell was the recipient of the 2019 Jules Cohen Award for Outstanding Broadcast Engineering. Cavell is the president of Cavell, Mertz & Associates and has spent his 40 year career in the industry working in radio and television engineering management, facility design and construction, program production and system station system development. Earlier this year, Cavell was recognized with the 2019 NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award.

The organization then honored Layer with the 2019 BTS Symposium Matti Siukola Best 2018 Symposium Paper Award for his paper, “Pilot All-Digital FM Field Test Project.” Layer is the vice president of advanced engineering for the NAB.

For more information about this year’s IEEE BTS Symposium, click here.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—IEEE BTS’ announced the first ever winner of the Jules Cohen Award for Outstanding Broadcast Engineering, Electronics Research Inc. President Thomas Silliman. The award seeks to recognize broadcast engineering work that shows integrity and professionalism; quality and thoroughness; extent and reach; and commitment to client success. The award was handed out at the 2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium, which took place from Oct. 13-16.

Thomas Silliman

Silliman began his career as director of engineering at ERI. He has served two terms as president of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers and the recipient of the 2008 NAB Engineering Award. Silliman currently sits on the board of Tri-State Public Radio and TV in Evansville, Ind. He also is the secretary of IEEE BTS.

The Matti S. Siukola Memorial Award was also handed out at the 2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium, with David Layer, senior director of advanced engineering for NAB, named the recipient. Layer won for his paper “All Digital Radio AM Field Test Project,” which was presented at the previous IEEE Broadcast Symposium.