The Society of Broadcast Engineers has announced the recipients of the 2025 SBE National Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements by individual members, local chapters, and Sustaining Member companies. Among the organization's highest honors are the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year and the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year awards.

Doug Irwin, CPBE, AMD, DRB, of Burbank, CA, a member of SBE Chapter 47 Los Angeles, has been named the 2025 Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year. With nearly four decades of experience on both coasts, Irwin manages one of the most complex and influential radio operations in the country.

His career has navigated the challenges of industry consolidation and evolving technologies, yet he remains deeply committed to advancing engineering standards and mentoring the next generation of professionals. As one Chapter 47 member stated, "Doug exemplifies unwavering dedication and genuine passion for broadcast engineering."

In addition to serving as the regional engineering lead for iHeartMedia Los Angeles, Irwin is also a longtime consultant and contributor to TV Tech sister brand, Radio World.

David Bialik, CBT, of New City, NY, a member of SBE Chapter 15 New York City, is the recipient of the 2025 James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year award. An SBE member for 15 years, Bialik played a key role in organizing the 2024 and 2025 Ennes Workshops covering Media Over IP, held during the NAB Show. He also serves on the SBE Education Committee and is co-chair of the AES Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery.

Currently serving as the director of engineering for MediaCo NY, Bialik is a frequent contributor to Radio World. You can read some of his columns here.

Blackmagic Design has received the SBE Technology Award for its DeckLink IP 100G, a PCIe Gen 4 card capable of capturing and playing back up to eight channels of HD and Ultra HD video simultaneously within SMPTE 2110 IP systems. This marks the company's fifth win in this category. DeckLink IP cards are designed for seamless integration with IP-based broadcast infrastructures, offering high-performance, multi-channel video workflows.

Mark Lee of Compass Media, based in the Cayman Islands, has been awarded the Facility Innovation of the Year award. In a groundbreaking effort, Compass Media extended its WheatNet-IP audio network across 85 miles of underwater fiber to link its four radio stations with the two smaller Cayman Islands. This achievement significantly enhances media access and connectivity across the region, uniting communities through broadcast for the first time on this scale.

For the fourth consecutive year, SBE Chapter 15 New York, NY, has been recognized with the Best Chapter Communication Award. Rather than relying solely on a traditional newsletter, Chapter 15 effectively engages its members through a variety of platforms, including email, the chapter website (sbe15.com), Twitter, Facebook, and Zoom.

The Wisconsin SBE Chapters, in partnership with the 2024 Wisconsin Broadcasters Association (WBA) Media Technology Institute, have been honored with the award for Best Chapter or Regional Educational Event. The annual three-day institute, held in June, provides a comprehensive and immersive learning experience designed to support the professional development of broadcast engineers at all career stages.

With the announcement, SBE Awards Committee Chair Terry Douds, CPBE, said, "Recognition and encouragement of outstanding efforts of SBE members is a key part of the SBE's mission. Congratulations to all the award recipients."

The recipients will be recognized during the SBE Awards Dinner held at the SBE National Meeting, Sept. 24-25 during the Midwest Broadcast and Multimedia Technology Conference, presented by the state broadcast associations of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON—If you work in either radio or TV and are about to embark on a “repack” project (as I am) then what you are about to read may not seem very amusing at all.

The incentive auction has been over for quite some time, and we can now point to the following facts:

• Verizon indicated initially that they were going to participate, but in the end, did not
• AT&T is already selling the 600 MHz spectrum that it picked up
• Sprint never participated
• T-mobile ends up the only one of the big four that collected a substantial amount of 600 MHz spectrum

“The incentive auction largely sprang from Congress’ National Broadband Plan in 2010, which tasked the FCC with conducting a first-of-its-kind of auction that paid TV broadcasters to relinquish their 600 MHz licenses so that wireless carriers and others could buy them in an auction,” according to fiercewireless.com. “Expectations were high...Prior to the start of the auction, Moody's predicted it could generate as much as $60 billion in winning bids. After all, AT&T said in 2014 it would purchase between 20 MHz and 40 MHz of spectrum in the auction...but the auction only ended up generating roughly $20 billion in winning bids.”

To be fair, $20B is nothing to sneeze at, but it represents only a fraction of what was originally expected. AT&T now has access to a swath of 700 MHz spectrum because of its FirstNet deal, so the spectrum they bought is already expendable. The other major incentive auction winners included Dish Network, Comcast and U.S. Cellular. U.S. Cellular will likely build out its 600 MHz holdings, but it’s unclear whether Dish and Comcast will actually use theirs, according to the same article. Dish has said it will build an IoT network. Comcast could use its 600 MHz spectrum for its Xfinity Mobile or its own IoT network known as MachineQ.

So what has really happened here? Why has the 600 MHz “beachfront” property suddenly dropped off in value? The reality is that technology moved along a lot faster than the U.S. Government did. Spectrum owners are using what they already have in more efficient manners. Verizon, as an example, is using MIMO (multiple in, multiple out), non-licensed Wi-Fi spectrum (i.e., LAA), smaller cells and carrier aggregation. In addition the big four and others are increasingly interested in milli-meter wavelengths too, especially when it comes to 5G.

I hope we don’t look back a few years from now and call this entire debacle a complete waste of time. 

This article originally appeared on TVT's sister publication Radio. 

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.