WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — As media technology workflows become increasingly software-defined, IP-based, and interconnected, organizations need professionals with the skills to implement, manage and support them. To help meet that need, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is expanding access to practical, industry-focused education through open standards, foundational learning, instructor-led education, and hands-on training.

Building on its open-access Standards Library, SMPTE's education offerings help professionals progress from learning the fundamentals to applying them in real-world IP media environments. The journey begins with the free, self-paced ”Essentials of Media over IP (EMIP)” course available on-demand, and continues with the instructor-led “Understanding SMPTE ST 2110” virtual course, beginning July 21.

Developed in collaboration with EVS, the free EMIP course introduces the fundamentals of IP networking for media. Participants can then continue with “Understanding SMPTE ST 2110,” where live instruction, demonstrations, and interactive discussions explore the standards, technologies, and workflows used in professional IP media facilities.

Graduates of Understanding SMPTE ST 2110 are eligible to participate in the SMPTE ST 2110 Practical Lab, an immersive hands-on experience developed in collaboration with Lawo. Understanding SMPTE ST 2110 is a prerequisite for the Practical Lab, where participants configure, synchronize, test, and troubleshoot IP media systems using technologies from leading industry partners including Lawo, Arista Networks, Meinberg, Bridge Technologies, Matrox Video, AJA Video Systems, Macnica, Leader Electronics, NVIDIA, Embrionix, and others.

The course is led by Willem Vermost (EBU), Wim Van Roy (Lawo), Gerard Phillips (Arista Networks), Chris Lapp (Cisco) and Leigh Whitcomb (Meinberg). Guest lecturers include Felix Poulin (Radio-Canada), Andreas Hildebrand (Lawo), Olivier Ettlin (Simplexity), Pedro Ferreira (Bisect), Stefan Ledergerber (Simplexity) and François Legrand (Radio-Canada).

“Making SMPTE standards freely accessible was the first step,” said Maja Davidovic, director of education at SMPTE. “We’re building on that foundation with a connected learning experience that takes professionals from foundational knowledge to practical application, helping them develop the skills needed for today's evolving media technology landscape.”

Beyond its online courses and hands-on training, SMPTE delivers immersive education through the SMPTE Roadshow at NAB Show New York, technical programming at IBC and the annual SMPTE Media Technology Summit, giving media professionals opportunities to continue developing their expertise throughout the year.

Registration is now open for the next session of “Understanding SMPTE ST 2110,” beginning July 21. Learn more and register here.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE has launched its summer 2026 education lineup, which includes two standalone courses, an intensive boot camp and a hands-on practical lab built to develop expertise in IP networking and SMPTE ST 2110.

Introduction to IP Networks and the ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp begin June 11, with Understanding ST 2110 starting later in the summer.

Introduction to IP Networks (ITIPN), June 11-July 9, provides a foundation in IP networking suited to those new to the field as well as experienced professionals seeking a refresher. Participants work through every layer of the network stack, cover multicast and protocols, such as DNS and RTP, and gain hands-on experience with Wireshark, earning a certificate of completion and eligibility for the SMPTE Practical Lab.

The comprehensive ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp for IP Networking Professionals, June 11-Sept. 1, includes 20 modules across three courses, Introduction to IP Networks, Understanding ST 2110 and IP Network Design. Participants progress from networking fundamentals through PTP timing, synchronization and redundancy, network design and operational change management. Live coaching sessions, led by technologists from organizations, including the EBU, Lawo, Arista, Cisco and Meinberg, run Tuesdays and Thursdays and are recorded for on-demand access. Participants who complete the program and pass the final exam earn the industry-recognized SMPTE Certificate of Achievement.

Starting later in the summer, Understanding ST 2110, July 21-Sept. 1, offers an in-depth, practical exploration of the ST 2110 standard, covering uncompressed and compressed video, audio and data encapsulation, timing and synchronization, redundancy and network traffic shaping.

The SMPTE Practical Lab, available to those who complete Introduction to IP Networks, Understanding ST 2110 or the full Boot Camp, provides a sandbox environment in which to design, sync and troubleshoot live-production workflows. The Practical Lab is made possible by the support of partners, including Lawo Academy, Arista, Blackmagic Design, Meinberg, Bridge Technologies, Matrox and AJA Video Systems.

The standalone courses and the boot camp are instructor-led with live coaching sessions recorded and available on demand within 24 hours so participants can take part from any time zone.

“The move to IP is one of the most significant shifts our industry has seen, and our goal is to make the expertise behind it accessible to everyone who needs it,” said Maja Davidovic, director of education at SMPTE. “Our instructors are real-world practitioners who design and run these systems every day, our live sessions bring in special guest participants, and the learning stays hands-on and interactive throughout. Whether you’re taking your first steps in IP networking or preparing to lead a full ST 2110 migration, you'll be working through real challenges alongside the people shaping the field.”

SMPTE is offering member and non-member pricing for the courses, including:

• Introduction to IP Networks (ITIPN): $399 for members and $599 for nonmembers.
• Understanding ST 2110: $399 and $599.
• ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp: $799 and $999.
• Practical Lab: $99 and $199.

Student and hardship discounts are always available for all SMPTE Education courses. Registration is available online.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has released more details about the SMPTE ST 2110 IP Media Roadshow at the 2026 NAB Show, announced last month.

On Tuesday, April 21, SMPTE will hold a a first-of-its-kind, full-day in-person bootcamp, designed to equip media professionals with the practical knowledge needed to confidently design, deploy, and operate IP-based production systems.

The program runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Rm. N252 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Grounded in real-world broadcast, live production, and hybrid environments, the Roadshow goes beyond theory — focusing on how IP media systems actually perform in the field. As the organization responsible for developing and maintaining the SMPTE ST 2110 standards, SMPTE brings a depth of expertise and vendor-neutral perspective unmatched by any other training provider, connecting specification language directly to operational practice.

“The industry’s shift to IP-based production is well underway, and professionals need more than theory — they need practical, systems-level knowledge they can apply from day one,” said Jesse Janosky, Senior Engineering Leader and ST 2110 Instructor at JPM Technology Consulting. “This Roadshow bridges that gap — grounding standards in the real-world decisions engineers face every day.”

Full-Day Program Schedule
Opening with a welcome and introduction to the SMPTE ST 2110 Working Group from Merrick “Rick” Ackermans — Director of RF and Transmissions Engineering at CBS/Paramount, Chair of the SMPTE ST 2110 Drafting Group, and a SMPTE Fellow — the bootcamp moves through six structured modules that progress from foundational concepts to hands-on system design. Jesse Janosky provides a run-of-day overview before the technical sessions begin.

• Module 1 — ST 2110 Foundations & Standards Overview (Chris Lapp, Cisco): An introduction to the ST 2110 standards suite and the foundational principles of IP-based media transport.
• Module 2 — Precision Time Protocol (ST 2059) for Live Production (Willem Vermost, EBU): A deep dive into how PTP enables deterministic synchronization across live production facilities, followed by a supplementary session on warning signs and failure modes when PTP begins to drift, led by Steve Kolta of Meinberg.
• Module 3 — Audio Over IP in ST 2110 Environments (Andreas Hildebrand, Lawo): Coverage of AES67 and ST 2110 audio transport standards, including packetization, flow configuration, MADI over IP, and practical deployment considerations.
• Module 4 — Network Fabric Design for Media (Gerard Phillips, Arista Networks; Chris Lapp, Cisco): Multicast routing, bandwidth planning, and redundancy strategies for networks carrying real-time, uncompressed media, followed by a session on identifying bottlenecks led by Cassidy Lee Phillips.
• Module 5 — Deployment and Operational Failure Points (Nestor Amaya, EVS): Identification of the design decisions and configuration errors most commonly encountered in the field, and a practical framework for avoiding them.
• Module 6 — Team Practicum: Sample RFP and System Design (Jesse Janosky & Cassidy Lee Phillips): A collaborative exercise built around a realistic RFP scenario covering client needs assessment, workflow mapping, functional diagramming, product research, and deployment partner qualification. The day concludes with team RFP presentations.

What attendees gain extends well beyond the six modules. A shared technical vocabulary, greater confidence in infrastructure decision-making, and a clearer picture of where adjacent technologies — including IPMX, NDI, Dante, and JPEG-XS — fit within the broader standards landscape are among the key takeaways. The program is suited for broadcast and media engineers, systems integrators, live and remote production teams, media IT and cloud professionals, early-career professionals, and students.

Registration is available a la carte and includes a NAB Show Floor Pass. Non-members pay $550; SMPTE members, NAB members, students, and government attendees are eligible for the $450 rate. Discounts are also available for SMPTE Education alumni.

Register for the show here. Click here for more information about the SMPTE ST 2110 IP Media Roadshow /

Surging college commitments to bankrolling students’ hands-on experience with virtual production in film and TV degree programs are rapidly closing the knowledge gap that has been a significant drag on the industry’s VP adoption rate.

From schools specializing in creative arts to big universities on both coasts and in many locations between, the last few years have seen a transformation in how students are taught not only to plan and execute productions, but also to work as writers, actors, set designers and other participants in the new creative environment. For the first time, vast numbers of undergraduates, as well as graduates and working professionals who need to update their knowhow, have access to the latest advances in LED volume design, multipanel synchronization, 3D in-camera visual effects (ICVSF), virtual object placement, automated lighting dynamism, camera tracking and other hardware and software technologies that are impacting every facet of professional video production.

“After the pandemic there was a retraction in virtual production because people weren’t able to use the technology,” Habib Zargarpour, co-head of VP at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, said. “We’re now getting a new generation of professionals who are able to do this work.”

The Right Environment
USC’s soon to be completed Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production, which will greatly enhance an existing VP curriculum, is moving in the direction taken by a long list of institutions like New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with its new Martin Scorsese Center for Virtual Production, and the Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD), with professional-scale LED volume projects in Savannah and Atlanta.

Some other well-equipped VP learning centers include the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation, Arizona State University’s Media and Immersive eXperience Center, Texas A&M University’s Virtual Production Institute, the University of Florida’s Digital Worlds Institute and the University of South Florida’s Zimmerman School of Mass Communications.

NYU’s Scorsese Center, now midway through its second year, occupies 45,586 square feet in a building on the university’s 35-acre Innovation Campus along the Brooklyn waterfront. The facility supports two 3,500 square-foot double-height stages, two 1,800 square-foot television studios, state-of-the-art broadcast and control rooms, dressing and makeup rooms, a lounge and bistro, scene workshops, offices, postproduction labs, finishing suites and training spaces.

“We’re really proud of our facilities,” said Sang-Jin Bae, Tisch arts professor and Scorsese Center director. “A major benefit of what we’re teaching is we’re focused on providing an environment where you can learn the hard skills you need.”

This goes to the quality of the instruction as well as the equipment, he added. For example, the use of the all-important Unreal Engine software stack is taught by three Scorsese staff members who are Epic Unreal Authorized Trainers.

Among the many emergent VP innovations working with Unreal Engine’s real-time execution of 3D environments at the center, Bae lists VICON’s motion-capture system used in camera tracking; AV Stumpfl’s PIXERA media server, supporting 2D playback on the LED volumes; MegaPixel VR processors orchestrating displays on ROE Visual’s BlackPearl2 LED panels; and the ARRI Alexa35 Camera and Zeiss lenses that serve to mitigate the moiré effect resulting from mismatches between camera sensors and LED display patterns.

Of course, learning the technical dimensions is just part of the VP education process. In fact, a recurrent theme arising in discussions with educators like Bae is the extent to which the technical skills they teach are subservient to the goal of achieving creative success. “We’re coming from the end user storytelling side,” he said.

Winging It?
The VP education agenda unfolding at SCAD is no less impressive with regard to both the scale and sophistication of technical support and the range of learning experiences. As with everyone else engaged in bringing VP onto college campuses, the undertaking that started at SCAD in 2021 has been a “figure-it-out-as-you-go” experience, said Quinn Orear, associate chair of film and business at SCAD, who leads the film and TV department at the Atlanta facility.

“This technology is so new for everybody; a lot of us had to learn in step with students,” Orear said. But having no “how-to playbook” to work with had its advantages, including freeing staff “to be creative in discovering new ways to use the technology” aided by training provided by the teams that built the sites.

The experience has also brought into play a new realm of collaboration across disciplines that traditionally worked separately. Production design, visual effects, video game development, editing—it all came together with a faculty “that keeps our feet in the industry as we teach,” Orear said.

The first VP LED volume and XR stage installation was completed in 2021 as part of an expansion project on the 11-acre lot at Savannah Film Studios, which SCAD bills as the “largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in the nation.” The project is now in its third stage, adding two sound stages and new backlot facades to over 40 separate street facades and more than 8,000 square feet of dressed set spaces that model historic Savannah, big-city streetscapes, and small-town USA scenes from a variety of eras.

A year later, SCAD opened the second VP stage at the recently expanded SCAD Digital Media Center in Atlanta, which, like the Savannah stage, comprises a 60-by-16-foot curved LED wall coupled with a 38-by-20-foot LED ceiling. Both stages are powered by Disguise xR technology running on Disguise VX 4 and RX II servers with LED volumes supplied by DeNyse Digital.

Orear said SCAD, with over 100 degree programs, has made VP training available wherever it’s needed. And, with the Atlanta facility sitting amid a thriving Hollywood East production environment, the VP assets are also getting plenty of commercial use, which contributes further to the general learning atmosphere. “We’re seeing a lot of cross-disciplinary collaboration,” he said.

A Multidisciplinary Mix
A similar culture prevails at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) in Los Angeles, where the first two courses in VP were launched in 2022 in support of short filmmaking using the Unity game engine. This was followed by the implementation of the Unreal Engine, with the installation of an LED wall supplied by Sony. A class in LED volume usage followed with students now competing to have their five- to 10-minute projects produced for presentation at the end of the school year.

“We have students from production, animation, interactive, experimental animation, cinematograph—graduates as well as undergraduates,” Zargarpour said. “The multidisciplinary mix has worked well with roles shifting and students learning the best way to make use of the LED wall and how to integrate real with virtual sets.”

SCA doesn’t yet offer a degree in VP, but “we’re working on it,” he added. “Once the new [Blavatnik] center is ready, we’re going to be able to make greater use of the VP technology.”

Funded by a $25 million donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation announced in mid-2025, the project is still in the design phase with the goal of getting it done “ASAP,” Zargarpour said. The plan, which he helped develop and builds on lessons learned from work with the current LED stage, calls for a multiuse space housing two stages with wraparound LED panel walls, as well as performance capture, camera tracking and lighting systems, along with multiple classrooms and labs equipped with 3D design software and digital asset libraries.

Understandably, given that the schools profiled here and the many others committing to VP are rooted in cinematic arts training, support for use of VP in live sports, news and other TV-centered productions is generally not part of the curriculum. Live “is currently outside our domain,” Zargarpour said. Occasionally, SCAD’s VP facilities are used by “students who want to learn about how LED volumes are utilized in live production,” Orear said, but such experiments are “feeling like early days as that evolves.”

CYPRESS, Calif.—For-A America has partnered with the Tim Russert Department of Communication at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, providing an HVS-1200 video switcher, FA-9600 signal processor, and MV-1640IP multiviewer for its TV production studio.

The equipment offers hands-on experience in professional broadcast operations—from live studio productions to sports broadcasting‚ with the actual systems employed worldwide.

“Students at this university will become leaders in the media industry, and our partnership with For-A gives them a chance to be trained at the same level of technology they’ll see in studios and out in the field,” said Dan Slentz, director of Blue Streak Media at John Carroll. "With the HVS-1200 video switcher, FA-9600 signal processor and MV-1640IP multiviewer, we can produce everything from a live sporting events to weekly wrap-up shows, while giving our students hands-on technical and creative instruction."

The new system has significant benefits for the school’s multi-camera studio, now equipped with talent monitors, teleprompters, wireless handheld cameras, and high-end playback systems, For-A said. Students can combine different video sources easily, synchronize wireless feeds, and explore greater creativity in real-time using For-A’s signal processing and IP-based multiviewing technology.

The upgraded studio was launched at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 25. Beyond its fundamental TV production and editing, the complex can now host ambitious productions like music videos, speech programs and streamed events.

Slentz said of his new video production system: “We can now go live to YouTube at the press of a button, and the FA-9600 signal processors give us the flexibility to bring wireless cameras and computer inputs into productions. This changes what we can offer for students, not just as class exercises, but as productions that feel and look like professional television.”

Expanding Sports Production Capabilities
Sports management has always been a popular and successful academic track at John Carroll. Thanks to the new For-A switcher, sports broadcasting is an area of focus at the Department of Communication. The university now has a high-end production tool it can exploit to develop live and recorded coverage of football, soccer, volleyball, and other events for Rock Entertainment Sports—a statewide sports network Slentz was instrumental in launching.

“The switcher helps us support simultaneous events and deliver high-definition live events,” Slentz said. “That’s a requirement as John Carroll grows its national coverage through its athletic programs and its expanded communication outreach throughout the U.S.”

A Future for an Innovation Center
Slentz said he’s looking to create an Innovation Center within the O’Malley Center, where the communication department is headquartered. The Innovation Center will be a digital hub connected to the TV studio. The concept: create an experimental lab space for students to play and learn about production workflows, data-driven communication and multiplatform content methods.

Chair of the Tim Russert Department of Communication Brent Brossman made note of the relevance of this vision. “Our O’Malley Center is the first destination for prospective students and their families,” Brossman said. “The Innovation Center not only will give us state-of-the-art resources for teaching and research, it also will help us display how we prepare students for actual careers in communication and media. For-A’s sponsorship is at the heart of bringing that vision into focus.”

STAMFORD, Conn.—Charter Communications has awarded $1.1 million in Spectrum Digital Education grants to 55 nonprofit organizations that work to expand access to digital tools, skills training and resources in the communities the cable operator serves.

Since launching in 2017, Spectrum Digital Education has committed more than $11 million to support 204 community-based nonprofits across the 41-state service area Charter serves under the Spectrum brand.

“Technology is a powerful equalizer, but only if people have access to a computer and then know how to use it,” said Rahman Khan, group vice president of community impact at Charter. “Through Spectrum Digital Education, we’re helping our nonprofit partners turn connectivity into real opportunities for their communities, from education and employment to everyday connection and independence.”

Spectrum Digital Education partners with nonprofits that share a commitment to using technology as a tool for opportunity, whether to pursue education, find employment, access health care or stay connected to news and information and to their friends and family, Charter said. The nonprofits selected to receive a 2025 grant support a wide range of community members, from seniors and veterans to students and job seekers, with programs covering one-on-one technology coaching, AI skills courses and certificates, and community tech hubs that make digital tools more accessible.

Since launching, Spectrum Digital Education has awarded 383 grants, helping to distribute nearly 20,000 laptops and sponsor more than 45,000 digital education classes, benefiting nearly 188,000 community members nationwide.

In making the announcement, Spectrum provided several examples of the grants.

Among the 2025 Spectrum Digital Education grantees are Human-I-T, a Pasadena, California-based nonprofit that will use Spectrum’s funding to distribute refurbished laptops to low-income seniors in Southern California, as well as access to tech support and a digital literacy course on AI basics.

In Texas, Dallas City Homes will build a computer lab inside an affordable housing community, serving as a hub for digital learning, workforce training and college application assistance.

The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky in Hazard will expand an initiative that offers mobile STEM instruction, summer coding and engineering camps, and a professional certificate in computer science for AI to middle and high school students.

These grants also support individuals taking a step toward something bigger – getting a degree, applying for a job or reconnecting with family.

In South Carolina, one of those individuals is Charlotte, a recent graduate of the Senior Technology Program at Senior Citizens Association (SCA) of Florence County, a four-time Spectrum Digital Education grant recipient. Charlotte used the skills she learned in class to access telehealth services, stay in touch with family and friends, and even traced back her genealogy. Through Spectrum Digital Education, Spectrum is helping bridge the digital gap for seniors—like Charlotte—to create stronger and more connected communities.

Additional 2025 Spectrum Digital Education grant recipients include:

• Acton Digital Inc. (Hawaii)
• Bridge the Digital Divide (California)
• Community Building Institute Middletown (Ohio)
• Intergenerational Tech Inc. (Kentucky)
• Kramden Institute Inc. (North Carolina)
• The STEM Alliance (New York)
• Wesley House Association (Missouri)
• YMCA of Greater Birmingham (Alabama)

More information is available at https://corporate.charter.com/digital-education.

On Air, a 26-hour global live broadcast will take place on Oct. 16 2025, delivering a continuous stream of original and pre-recorded content managed entirely by university and college students.

The project has been put together by the Global Media and Entertainment Talent Manifesto, with backing from ITV Studios, SMPTE, AWS, Vizrt and Deluxe.

Each participating institution will contribute at least one hour of live programming to the broadcast. Confirmed universities/locations include: Auckland University of Technology (SMPTE), Baltic Film and Media School, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart (SMPTE), Hong Kong Design Institute (SMPTE), Lycée René Cassin – Biarritz, Medieklyngen – Media Cluster Norway, University of Sao Paulo in partnership with Faculdade Casper Libero, University of Surrey, University of Texas (SMPTE), and York University with Ravensbourne University London as the central hub for master control room, playout control and operations.

The aim is for On Air to give participating students real-world experience, international exposure, and networking opportunities, as well as offering media and entertainment organisations direct access to a diverse pool of future-ready creatives and technologists.

“On Air exemplifies the power of collaboration between education and industry by providing an opportunity to connect with and support the next generation of talent,” said Carrie Wootten, founder of the Global Media and Entertainment Talent Manifesto. “By giving students real-world experience, hands-on learning and visibility among potential future employers, we can help ensure the future of our sector is more innovative, inclusive and sustainable.”

Tim Guilder, head of production technology – ITV Studios at ITV, added: “ITV is committed to helping foster the next generation of talent and we’re proud to be supporting On Air and providing technical support and studio access to this exciting project. The scale of this project will give creatives and technologists more global opportunities to shine.”

The On Air team is looking for a distribution partner and any platform integrators to take the project further. More details about the project are available here: http://mediatalentmanifesto.com/on-air

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The 2025 NAB Show has announced that proposals for technical papers and panels are now being accepted for the 2025 NAB Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) Conference. 

The Conference is part of the 2025 NAB Show, held April 5-9, 2025 (Exhibits April 6-9), at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“NAB Show continues to be the premier destination for industry professionals to showcase cutting-edge advancements in broadcast engineering and IT,” said John Clark, senior vice president, NAB Emerging Technology and executive director, PILOT. “The NAB BEIT Conference plays a crucial role in driving innovation, and this year’s call for papers will highlight groundbreaking work from both seasoned professionals and emerging voices. We’re excited to see the wide range of technical expertise and forward-thinking solutions that will be presented in 2025.”

The NAB BEIT Conference is designed for broadcast engineers, technicians, technology managers, developers, contractors, equipment manufacturers, consultants and researchers. The event will address current and technical topics, with a forward-looking emphasis on the evolution of technology across radio, television, digital and the broader media and IT ecosystem, the organizers said. 

Papers selected for the NAB BEIT Conference will also be published in the “Proceedings of the 2025 NAB BEIT Conference” in April 2025.

Submissions are required to fall under one of the NAB BEIT Conference’s focus areas. Those include: 

• Broadcast Radio 
• Broadcast Television  
• Broadcast Facility Design 
• Digital Online Operations 
• Positioning, Navigation and Timing Via Broadcast Signals
• Audio and Video Technology 
• Technical Regulatory Issues 
• Cybersecurity for Broadcasters 
• Generative AI
• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in Broadcasting 

For a complete list of categories and additional details, please visit the official Call for Proposals.

Proposals must be submitted by Friday, November 8, 2024. Incomplete or late proposals will not be considered. Notifications will be sent to accepted presenters by January 17, 2025.

NAB Show is committed to ensuring diverse representation within its programming and encourages diverse voices from various backgrounds to submit proposals. Proposals explaining the underlying technologies used in new broadcast products or services will be considered.  Note: Proposals promoting company products or services will not be accepted.

For more information, contact Jarell Gibbs, NAB BEIT Conference Coordinator.

In partnership with the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS), graduate and undergraduate students (18+ years old) are invited to submit papers for the NAB BEIT Conference. Papers must align with one of the NAB BEIT categories and will be reviewed alongside professional submissions. The selected best student paper will be presented during the NAB BEIT conference and published in the Proceedings. The best student paper award will be presented at the NAB BEIT Opening Session at the 2025 NAB Show, with travel assistance provided to the winner.

Student papers must be submitted by the same deadline as NAB BEIT submissions—November 8, 2024—via the NAB BEIT Conference Student Paper Submission Portal.

The 2025 NAB BEIT Conference Committee includes prominent industry experts, chaired by Sun Sachs, SVP of Product, Design and Engineering at Townsquare Media and the 2024 NAB Digital Leadership Award Honoree: 

• Sun Sachs, SVP Product, Design and Engineering, Townsquare Media (Chair)
• Rick Ackermans, Director RF and Transmission Engineering, CBS Operations and Engineering
• Harvey Arnold, Senior Vice President, Engineering, Sinclair Broadcast Group
• David Burke, Chief Technology Officer, Gray Media
• Cindy Cavell, Director, Capitol Airspace Group
• Felipe Chavez, Chief Operating Officer, Bustos Media
• Terry Douds, Broadcast Operations Supervisor, Ohio University/IEEE BTS
• Thomas Edwards, Principal Solutions Architect, AWS
• Sarah Foss, CTO, Audacy
• Anil Kokaram, Chair of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Trinity College
• Dave Kolesar, Broadcast Engineer, WTOP/Hubbard
• Rebecca Hanson, Director General, NABA
• Chris Homer, Director of Engineering, KGUN9 TV
• Stan Moote, CTO, IABM
• Jason Ornellas, Regional Director of Technology, Bonneville International Corporation
• Anthony Plosz, CTO, Graham Media Group
• Marisabel Rodriguez, Global Services Manager, Google Cloud
• Joe Seccia, Regional Director of RF Transmission, TelevisaUnivision
• Dean Stoneback, Senior Director of Engineering and Standards, SCTE
• Partners

NAB Show also reported that it would like to recognize its partners for the NAB BEIT Conference, including the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS), North American Broadcast Association (NABA) and Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE).

For more details on the NAB BEIT Conference, including the full conference committee, visit here.

STAMFORD, Conn.—Charter Communications has announced it will commit $1 million towards Spectrum Digital Education in 2023, bringing its total investment in the multi-year initiative to $9 million. 

The funds support access to broadband education, training and technology. Nonprofit organizations that offer broadband education, training and technology can apply to be considered for the grant here. Applications are accepted from Thursday, June 1 at 9 AM EDT through Friday, June 23 at 5 PM EDT. Grant recipients will be announced in late summer, the operator said. 

Since the program’s 2017 launch, Charter has partnered with over 100 organizations, impacting more than 100,000 people across 22 states and Washington D.C. Grant recipients have used funding to expand digital skills training for seniors, install adaptable technology labs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and provide devices like tablets and laptops to those in need.

“Since the pandemic, many essential services related to employment, education and health care have moved online, leaving the unserved and underserved even further disconnected from the resources needed to successfully navigate today’s world,” said Rahman Khan, group vice president of community impact for Charter. “The funds granted through Spectrum Digital Education directly support organizations that aim to bridge the digital divide in communities where our customers live and work.”

Charter reported that the Spectrum Digital Education has been instrumental in helping individuals nationwide gain access to broadband technologies and resources. In 2022, Janet Kenty of Charlotte, NC was living at a homeless shelter with her three children when a pipe burst, destroying much of her family’s belongings, including her computer. Fortunately, local nonprofit and Spectrum Digital Education grant recipient E2D had an upcoming event to distribute 600 laptops to 300 families in need and were able to provide a replacement computer for Janet and her children. More about her story is available here.

Other Spectrum Digital Education grantees have used funding to provide digital skills training to members of their local communities. Buffalo, NY nonprofit and grant recipient VIA (Visually Impaired Advancement) was able to help a legally blind community member land a job at Explore & More Children’s Museum through the VIA Workforce Experience Training Program. 

Another grantee in Syracuse, InterFaith Works of Central New York, delivered in-home digital skills classes to a 70-year-old veteran with mobility issues, enabling him to effectively use his iPad to access telehealth services. In Oxnard, CA, LULAC National Educational Service Centers, Inc. supported a mother who was having difficulty communicating with her son’s teacher by providing her with the training she needed to navigate the school’s digital tools.

To be eligible for a Spectrum Digital Education grant, organizations must serve communities within Charter’s 41-state service area and have 501C(3) tax-exempt status. More information on how to apply is available here.

LAS VEGAS—The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) association for broadcast and multimedia technology professionals has announced that it will once again exhibit and hold several events at the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas between April 15 and 19.

In addition, the SBE will hold its first event before the convention begins: The SBE Ennes Workshop at the NAB Show on April 14-15. Other events will continue through the entire convention.

The SBE Ennes Workshop is a stand-alone event from the NAB Show with separate registration from the convention. This year the Workshop will offer two separate educational tracks: RF 101 Boot Camp and NextGen Broadcast. Attendees can register for one or the other. Both will be held at the Westgate Resort, so it’s convenient to arrive two days early and attend the SBE Ennes Workshop before the exhibits open.

The NextGen Broadcast track also serves as an ideal preparation for the SBE ATSC3 Specialist Certification exam. A special SBE ATSC3 Certification exam opportunity will be offered following the session on April 15. To apply for an SBE Specialist Certification, an individual must already hold a prerequisite SBE certification. To take the exam at the NAB show, applications must be submitted by March 3.

During the 2023 NAB Show, the SBE will hold several meetings. The SBE Board of Directors and Education Committee will meet on April 16, and the SBE Certification Committee will meet on April 15. SBE members may attend these meetings, but portions may be closed.

The highlight of the SBE activities at the convention will be the annual Membership Meeting and Member Reception, the SBE said. 

Both will be held on April 17. The Membership Meeting brings information about the Society's activities and programs to our members. Several member accomplishments are also recognized at the meeting. The Member Reception will immediately follow. Both events will have prize drawings for attendees.

The SBE will exhibit at the convention as well. The booth will be open Sunday through Wednesday of the convention. The booth is an ideal place to meet the elected leaders and staff of the SBE, and peruse books from the SBE Bookstore and SBE merchandise from the SBE Store. The SBE will also hold a daily prize drawing, so drop a business card at the booth each day for a chance to win a gift card.

Unless noted, all SBE events will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Complete details on all the SBE events will be posted and updated at sbe.org/about/news/sbe-2023-nab/.  

FALL RIVER, Mass.—As part of its curriculum to train students for broadcast careers, BMC Durfee High School, which is part of Fall River Public Schools, has been providing students with hands-on experience with cameras from JVC Professional Video in a new upgraded television studio. 

For the new studio, Rene Kochman, director of operations for FRED TV (Fall River Education) and FRG TV (Fall River Government), was looking for user-friendly cameras that could withstand students’ use without compromising image quality and eventually he selected the brand’s KY-PZ100N PTZ Remote Cameras with JVC RM-LP100 Remote PTZ Controllers. 

In addition to the PTZ cameras, the high school also has a selection of handheld JVC models, including the GY-HM890U and GY-HM850U ProHD Shoulder Camcorders.

BMC Durfee High School’s broadcasts run as part of a Public, Educational and Government (PEG) channel, meaning the school operates a television studio for student use, as well as  community access television stations for the Fall River area. 

“We generate a lot of programming, and JVC is a huge part of that,” Kochman said. “The educational access channel handles all the school committee meetings. We also run the government access channel, which takes care of all the city council meetings and the mayor’s initiatives. The students are very involved in the production side of what we do, not only for the school but also for the PEG channels.”

The high school’s broadcast program starts with an exploratory class and expands to three levels of electives as students grow more familiar with the skills. 

These classes follow a diverse curriculum, focusing on a combination of critical analysis and media literacy with complex, hands-on production. Students begin by familiarizing themselves with smaller cameras and eventually move on to using JVC to produce their own public service announcements, documentaries and news or talk shows. 

For students who want to jumpstart their broadcast careers at an early stage, Fall River Schools’ two middle schools have full TV studios stocked with JVC cameras. Elective classes and clubs working within the studios are available for interested students looking to participate and learn the trade before high school. 

“We have around 20 fixed PTZs throughout the high school, as well as down at the government center for the city council meetings,” Kochman said. “For locations that we know we’re going to continually return to and produce from, we will affix the cameras there. We also have portable ones that we bring and mount on a tripod. In those instances, the students operate the PTZ cameras using JVC RM-LP100 Remote PTZ Controllers. We have three of them throughout the city at our various meeting locations, as well as 10 in the high school for the different departments―culinary arts, cosmetology, FRED TV, etc. The high school studio is really high-end, and we did not skimp at all on the JVC camera systems. It was an investment, but it shows. The videos that we produce from that studio are just stunning, everything from basketball games and events in the auditorium to the school’s Thanksgiving Day football game. I have people comment that the picture quality, in particular from the robotic cameras, is just stunning.” 

For Kochman his decision to go with JVC wasn’t based on durability and quality alone. “The versatility of the PTZs was a big factor for us, but you also have to look at cost per quality,” he added. “There are a lot of other expensive cameras out there, but JVC stands out as a great value, especially for a high school television station or PEG channel. Since the industry has shifted and gravitated towards streaming services, we now simultaneously broadcast and stream content. All our meetings and projects are posted on Facebook or YouTube, and it’s been an easy transition thanks to the file formats that JVC offers. Beyond that, JVC has evolved its products to be extremely user friendly. The menus are easy to work with, they look dynamite, and that’s what it really comes down to for me. In terms of what I’ve seen from the brand with cost, durability, state-of-the-art image quality and ease-of-use, it was a no-brainer for us to go with JVC.”

TAMPA, Fla.—Vū Technologies has donated an LED Screen and 4K LED processor to The University of Tampa that is valued at $750,000. 

This is Vū’s second major workforce development donation in the past year. Last fall the company, which is an fast-growing operator of virtual studios for the film, video and advertising industries, made a donation valued at more than $500,000 donation to the University of South Florida.

“Vū stands at the forefront of the future of filmmaking, and like any emerging technology, our number one challenge is building out the workforce and ensuring we find individuals to fill these highly-skilled and high-paying positions,” said Tim Moore, CEO of Vū Technologies. “We are thrilled to partner with The University of Tampa as we develop a talent pipeline of graduates who will become leaders in the next generation of filmmaking.”

“The relationship that UT's College of Arts and Letters has with Vū is truly a synergistic one,” said David Gudelunas, Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “We are both committed to making Tampa a place where technology and art contribute to the economic and cultural vitality of the city. The new LED volume on our campus will provide an unparalleled opportunity for students in the College of Arts and Letter to collaborate across disciplinary lines, get the most cutting edge hands-on experience, and produce projects that will break barriers.”

The cutting-edge, virtual production technology donation includes a 30-by-14-foot Vū LED Screen and 4K LED processor with installation to The University of Tampa for the purposes of local workforce development in virtual production. In addition, Vū is donating more than 120 hours of stage time and training at their flagship Tampa studio for students to get hands-on experience with the technology on a larger scale.

“The partnership with Vū and their donation of a LED Volume to UT marks a milestone for our program,” said Gregg Perkins, associate professor, Department of Film, Animation and New Media. “We are now able to train the workforce of tomorrow on a technology that is the future of the film and entertainment industry. Additionally, the ability to have students intern and work on professional shoots at Vu Studio gives them a competitive advantage once they graduate.”

Vū Technologies owns and operates advanced virtual production soundstages utilizing proprietary, patent-pending technologies that empower directors to shoot their talent in photorealistic LED volumes. It owns a rapidly growing network of virtual studios in North America, with studios opening in Orlando and Las Vegas, in addition to its Tampa and Nashville studios.

As part of its workforce development program, Vū has created a learning management system that will be used to track, train, and empower students resulting in certification in Virtual Production. Virtual production is not only a game-changer in the film and video industry but will also impact many adjacent industries such as gaming, military, and medical simulation. 

ARK Multicasting has announced a collaboration with SpectraRep to deploy SpectraRep’s Educast service on the ARK Broadcast Internet Network of NextGen TV stations. The partnership is expected to spur further development of the use of ATSC 3.0 datacasting to provide distance learning services for K-12 and college students in rural communities who lack sufficient broadband access, the companies said. 

“We can help solve and even eliminate a major pain point for millions of K-12, college students, and teachers in rural America,” according to Josh Weiss, Co-Founder & CEO, Ark Multicasting. “This new hybrid broadcast-broadband technology is a complete gamechanger allowing a one-to-many reach which serves as an accretive augmentation to traditional Internet providers struggling with network congestion and last-mile connectivity.”

Carrying the EduCast educational datacasting solution to deliver classroom content on its ATSC 3.0 spectrum will allow ARK to reach millions of students on its network of LPTV stations across 39 states, according to the companies.

“The Covid-19 pandemic sent students and teachers home negatively impacting remote learners without access to adequate broadband,” said Mark O’Brien, President and CTO of SpectraRep. “We realized that we could use our technology with the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast Internet to solve problems in education such as homework gaps and equity much the same way we've supported public safety and law enforcement customers.”

With ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV on the ARK network along with SpectraRep’s EduCast, teachers can securely provide their assignments to students so they can study on their own time. It works seamlessly with whatever learning management system the teachers already use whether it is Google Classroom, Canvas, Blackboard, and others.  

Washington, D.C.—The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) has announced the first annual rankings of schools based on the creative achievement of their students.

The rankings are based on the results from the BEA Festival of Media Arts. In the last five years alone, nearly 6,000 student creative works were submitted from BEA’s more than 300 member institutions around the globe for BEA’s extensive juried process.

Schools and students can submit their creative content in multiple media categories including Audio, Documentary, Film & Video, Interactive Multimedia & Emerging Technologies, News, Scriptwriting, and Sports. Student creative work goes through a rigorous blind-juried process that includes multiple evaluations by both academic and professional experts from cross the country. 

Standards for Festival winners are quite high, the BEA said. On average, only the top 20% of entries are even considered for awards. These finalists are then judged for five levels of awards: First Place, Second Place, Third Place, Award of Excellence and the special honor of being Best of Festival. The rankings take into account both the quantity and quality of student works. For instance, Best of Festival winners are given a higher weight than Awards of Excellence.

Each school’s student achievements are then calculated and ranked for each of the seven competition categories. Additionally, there is an Overall Ranking based on a combined achievement across the multiple media creative disciplines, and specifically in this case, combined across all Festival competitions. Newer categories without five years of results were not considered for this year’s rankings. While the BEA honors outstanding achievements of both faculty and students, the rankings focus solely on student accomplishments. 

In the “2022 BEA Festival School Rankings,” 170 schools are represented with student winners. The statistics are compiled and confirmed by the BEA Festival Advisory Committee, which is made up of past Festival Chairs and Creative Directors.

Based on that methodology, the 2022 top 10 winning overall programs were: 

Rank    School

1. Arizona State University

2. University of Oklahoma

3. Missouri State University

4. Huntington University

5. Syracuse University

6. Elon University

7. Ball State University

8. University of Florida

9. Rowan University

10. University of Southern California

The full rankings, as well as rankings for individual categories such as documentaries, are available here.  

Michigan is planning to boost access to education content through public television with the rollout of a statewide channel providing K-12 instruction. Current has reported that the Michigan Learning Channel is expected to be available from all six of the state’s public broadcasters by early 2021.

Detroit Public Television provided a preview of the channel on Nov. 2. The channel will start by delivering lessons for pre-K through third-grade students in half-hour and hour-long blocks over a multicast channel; upper grade content is expected to rollout quickly. The 24/7 programming will also be available as a digital livestream and on-demand at MichiganLearning.org.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, students have been forced to partake in school from home, with many schools relying on broadband and laptops to provide lessons, which can be a disadvantage for some students based on the area they live in or their economic status. Many states have been using public television in some capacity to provide educational resources.

PLUS: ARK Asks FCC to Subsidize ATSC 3.0 Receivers for Distance Learning

“We reach every, virtually, every person in state [sic] of Michigan,” Rich Homberg, president of DPTV, told Current. “We can light up these devices called televisions that are in every home. An $8 antenna and a television and a broadcast signal—it’s a great place to start.”

Current has more information on the Michigan Learning Channel. 

The pandemic of the last six months has laid bare the stark differences between the haves and have nots in this country and around the world. There are those haves who are fortunate to be able to work from home and there are the “have nots” who are deemed essential and have to work on the front lines, dealing with the public in the hospitals, grocery stores and related service industries.

It’s also revealed the advantages the “digital haves” have over the “digital have nots.” The difference represents the “digital divide” in this country between those who have access to broadband and those who do not—and nowhere is this more evident than in education. Students who have easy access to broadband clearly have advantages over those who do not; this was noticeably evident prior to the outbreak and has become even more pronounced since, especially now that we are in September and the start of a school year starkly different than ever before seen in our lifetimes.

Last year, the FCC issued a report that put the number of Americans lacking access to fixed terrestrial broadband connectivity at 21.3 million; however, a study by BroadbandNow Research in February indicates the number is closer to twice that.

School districts around the country are scrambling to distribute laptops to millions of students who will be forced to learn from home in the largest distance learning effort ever undertaken by this country. Millions of students who live in areas without broadband could fall behind even further than their classmates. Some will be able to access hotspots at designated locations such as libraries and other public facilities, but the fact remains that broadband has become a basic utility that for many, especially students, can now be equated with heat, transportation and health care.

But for many of those students, television can be their lifeline to keeping up with their peers. Yes, that device that for decades has prompted parents to criticize and deride for turning our brains to mush can also serve a vital purpose. Even before the digital divide became a thing, studies showed that “Sesame Street” alone made a quantifiable and important tool for teaching low-income and rural students who did not have access to the same resources of their fellow students.

The New York Times reported on the use of television as a learning tool last month, and while much of it focused on third-world countries, parents and educators in the U.S. as well, know the value of television in the age of homeschooling, especially when turning the TV to the right channel can be a lot less of a hassle than programming a computer.

“Television holds promise as a low-cost complement to online schooling and a lifeline for students with few other resources,” the Times said. “A vast catalog of educational programming exists, but analysts say policymakers have mostly missed an opportunity to make use of it.

“How many parents right now are just trying to figure out how to get through the day while their kids are just watching TV or on the iPad?” Melissa S. Kearney, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, who has published research about ‘Sesame Street’ told the Times. “We could do a lot of good if people who are in a position of trust with those families could point them to some of that positive content.”

In last month’s issue of TV Technology, columnist Armstrong Williams promoted the use of ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV”) as a vital tool and link for helping to bridge the digital divide by advocating a mandate to include 3.0 chips in all new TV sets sold in the U.S.

Today, ATSC 3.0 signals are scarce but growing and 3.0 sets are also scarce and expensive, but ATSC 1.0 is ubiquitous and the ability of many PBS stations and their “diginets” are helping to “fill the educational/digital gap” to students stuck at home. LPTV stations are also playing an important role as well. To learn more, check out http://public.pbs.org/DistanceLearningResources.

During the pandemic, PBS has proven the importance of its role as an educator but with the arrival of ATSC 3.0, that role could become even more vital. In May, TV Technology Contributing Editor Phil Kurz wrote about how current events are prompting educators to think about the possibilities 3.0 can bring to educators.

“It is mind-blowingly exciting what kind of educational opportunities there will be with 3.0,” Angee Simmons, National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) vice president of content told TV Technology. “It’s not just for the kids who can afford it. It breaks through all of these barriers we face everyday—whether it’s because you are living in poverty, or you are living in a rural area with no access. This breaks down those divisions.”

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Closure of the nation’s schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the gap in access to broadband internet service between those with means and those without, those in cities and suburbs and those in rural America.

With classrooms closed, school districts have turned to online meeting tools like Zoom and virtual learning environments like Blackboard Learn to deliver lessons to millions of homebound students. However, these sorts of tools can only be effective if students can access the internet.

The FCC’s “2019 Broadband Deployment Report” puts the number of Americans lacking access to fixed terrestrial broadband connectivity at 21.3 million; however, a study by BroadbandNow Research in February indicates the number is closer to twice that.

Jim DeChant, vice president of Technology at News-Press & Gazette (NPG) Broadcasting, however, says there is an alternative to the internet that can fill this digital divide and deliver lessons tailored to individual students regardless of where they live or their economic circumstances.

“We believe the deployment of ATSC 3.0 and set top [home gateway] devices can substantially accelerate not only the educational and emergency alerting model, but also help facilitate the deployment of 3.0 for other purposes that would be also of great benefit,” says DeChant.

By taking advantage of specific tools available in the ATSC 3.0 standard, broadcasters can deliver lessons over the air to students that can be stored on a NextGen TV home gateway and accessed via Wi-Fi from a home computer, media tablet or cell phone using a web browser, he says.

“It is mind-blowingly exciting what kind of educational opportunities there will be with 3.0,” says Angee Simmons, National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) vice president of content. “It’s not just for the kids who can afford it. It breaks through all of these barriers we face everyday—whether it’s because you are living in poverty, or you are living in a rural area with no access. This breaks down those divisions.”

CES CONNECTION

The wheels began to turn for DeChant in January at the 2020 International CES in Las Vegas. There, he saw the DigiCAP HomeCaster, a gateway device with ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 receivers, 2GB of onboard storage and Wi-Fi capability. 

“We were intrigued by that technology, initially for emergency alerting,” says DeChant. “We’d been given a presentation by RAPA [the Korea Radio Promotion Association] last summer of the Korean gateways they’ve installed publicly to provide emergency alerting information over ATSC 3.0 to devices that may not have an ATSC 3.0 receiver.”

News-Press & Gazette looked at conducting its own tests in Santa Barbara on its Class A station KSBB-CD and applied for a grant from RAPA, which it received. RAPA provided the station group with a South Korean 3.0 airchain and the DigiCAP HomeCaster.

Coincidentally, at about the same time NPG was commissioning the 3.0 airchain and bringing the HomeCaster online, the COVID-19 outbreak was becoming a serious concern. 

“In the process of this, our general manager at the KEYT-TV, whose wife works as an educator, was discussing that the public school students in Santa Barbara—as well as many college students—were having to learn at home,” he recalls. 

“That was great except many of the public school students didn’t have access to high speed internet nor did many of the college students who were suddenly not able to attend class.”

PLUS: ATSC Pres Noland Talks About the Latest 3.0 Developments

Recognizing that its 3.0 airchain and gateway not only could be used for all of “the normal stuff a 3.0 channel should do in America,” NPG began to look at its use in education, he says.

“We are now developing lesson plan materials, and we are going to demonstrate livestream lesson plans and encourage people to use this technology,” says DeChant.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Ramping up NextGen TV deployment to fill this gap will be far easier and less expensive than universal deployment of wireless broadband service. “This is shovel-ready today,” says DeChant. “The transition plans are there; the licenses are active in 1.0; and the 3.0 deployment is a light lift compared to deploying other newer distribution technologies.”

Nor is the consumer side of this equation too much of a lift, especially given the emergency funding Congress has made available for education in the wake of the pandemic, says John Lawson, president of Convergence Services Inc. and executive director of the AWARN Alliance.

“Congress passed the CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security] Act that allocates $13.5 billion for education. Remote learning is one of the eligible uses of that money,” he says.

Signed into law March 27, the CARES Act makes funds available to states to assist K-12 education impacted by the pandemic. Funds are distributed to states. In turn, state education agencies are to distribute at least 90% of the funds to school districts and public charter schools.

Lawson, whose Convergence Services Inc. is co-producing webinars with NETA May 12 on remote learning and CARES Act funding, describes the funding process as “pretty decentralized,” which means public and commercial broadcasters need to coordinate closely with local school districts.

Encouraging school districts to pay for NextGen TV home gateways to facilitate remote learning in the homes of students isn’t all that farfetched, especially if the devices are inexpensive, he says.

“Many school districts already give away computers to students—even before the pandemic,” says Lawson. “The FCC has a whole lot more money to subsidize rural broadband. They have all sorts of money for that. It may be that you open up new streams of funding for these gateways.”

Joonyoung Park, fellow and chief architect of the HomeCaster at DigiCAP, says the target retail price on Amazon for the HomeCaster gateway will be less than $100. However, in quantities that could reach into the millions if this strategy were employed on a massive scale in the United States, the price of the product would be less, he says.

Park envisions a scenario in which local broadcasters will play an important role in HomeCaster distribution. “I think the right way to distribute HomeCaster to local school districts is in collaboration with local broadcasters because they already have a presence in their local markets,” says Park. 

SCHOOL’S OUT

It must be emphasized that this model for delivery of classes to homebound students is far more sophisticated than the approach many public broadcasters traditionally have taken, says Lawson. Rather than blanketing an entire market over the air with a class that may or may not be relevant to individual students at home, classes delivered via 3.0 to home gateways can be school-, class-, subject- and even student-specific because the broadcast standard supports delivery of IP packets for non-real-time (NRT) playback.

“Education requires customization, and this would make the lesson applicable to the right student,” says Lawson. “With 3.0, you have all of these different PLPs [physical layer pipers],” he says. “You could dedicate as many as you want to education and deliver the content overnight so it’s stored on the gateway for the student to use in the morning.”

The back channel students use to submit questions, homework and multiple-choice tests to teachers need not be broadband. Simple dial-up or DSL would suffice, he adds.

Both commercial and public broadcasters have roles to play in developing 3.0 as an educational delivery mechanism. To DeChant, it’s simply a part of being a broadcaster. “We do serve the public, and are licensed to do so.”

To Lawson, this strategy offers the opportunity for greater cooperation in market between commercial and public broadcasters. “Maybe commercial stations that light up 3.0 can do deals with public stations that are still 1.0 to distribute their educational content,” he says.

Regardless of the particulars, 3.0 has an important role to play in the future of education, says NETA’s Simmons. “There is clearly a need for educational materials to get out to students, teachers and districts, and I think 3.0 will provide some amazing opportunities,” she says.

Details about the Remote Learning, NextGen TV & CARES Act Funding webinar and registration are available online. The May 12 webinar begins at 3 p.m. EDT. 

WASHINGTON D.C. (Nov. 24, 2019) — Attendees at The Video Show, coming up on Wed. and Thurs., Dec. 4 and 5, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the Nation's Capital, will be getting more than just an exciting, video-focused exhibit floor and a conference with over 100 sessions. 

A range of information-rich features will be available in addition to the show's slate of content sessions and its FREE exhibition of the latest in video production, post and audio gear (where companies including Sony, Canon, AJA, and Nikon will take part). For a full rundown on the content streams, visit the conference web site.

• C-SPAN's Bus, an interactive mobile exhibit and production studio, will be on site.

• Podcasting expert Eric Nuzum, video producer Amy DeLouise and America's Cup documentarian Gary Jobson will sign copies of their new books.

• TIVA-DC will live stream both days, and AVNation will be producing live podcasts from the show

• Live VR demos will be provided by studio Balti Virtual, while AR expert Stephen Black will share his groundbreaking work.

Anyone with a floor pass to the exhibit space – FREE if you register before Tuesday, Dec. 3 – will have access to a range of innovative features designed to enhance The Video Show experience and provide them with even more actionable insight and knowledge. 

One of the largest conferences and exhibitions on the East Coast, it promises to be a must-attend event for everyone from working professionals to serious enthusiasts.

C-SPAN is There!

Attendees can tour the C-SPAN Bus, an interactive, multimedia mobile classroom and production studio that travels the country, showcasing the network's public affairs programming and resources. The high-tech, interactive C-SPAN Bus comprises: 

• Access to an exclusive interactive experience available on 11 large-screen tablets featuring C-SPAN programming and myriad of political and educational resources.

• A smart TV and classroom area for conversations with students and teachers.

• A high-definition TV production studio for taped and live programming.

• A 360-degree video station featuring C-SPAN's unfiltered coverage of high-profile events and insightful, behind-the-scenes tours of U.S. landmarks.

• A D.C.-themed selfie station where visitors can share their Bus experiences through social media.

TIVA-DC's Live Streaming Studio

TIVA-DC, the Television, Interactive & Video Association of D.C., will be streaming live from the show floor throughout both days. TIVA-DC is a not-for-profit trade group formed to serve the needs of the growing DC-area production community, including Maryland and Virginia. With its focus on the fast-growing local market, TIVA offers a range of career growth opportunities, tech seminars, educational outreach, mentoring and award ceremonies. Attendees are invited to stop by their booth at the exhibition hall to get a tour of their streaming set-up or sign up to be interviewed.

Read more: The Video Show Lands In Nation’s Capital For Inaugural Conference

Book Signing With Podcasting Expert Eric Nuzum

Eric Nuzum, a veteran of NPR and Audible, co-founder of Magnificent Noise and a leading podcast consultant, has had a hand in launching more than 130 podcasts, including some of the most successful out there like “TED Radio Hour,” “Invisibilia,” “Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel,” The Butterfly Effect” and “West Cork.” He'll be on hand both days to sign his brand-new book, “Make Noise: A Creator's Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling.”

Book Signing With Producer and Educator Amy DeLouise

Video producer and author Amy DeLouise will be on site to sign copies of her new book, “Nonfiction Sound and Story for Film and Video: A Practical Guide for Filmmakers and Digital Content Creators (The Producer's Playbook).” Co-written with audio expert Cheryl Ottenritter, the book guides nonfiction storytellers in the art of creatively and strategically using sound to engage their audience and bring stories to life. 

Book signing With Sailing Pro, ESPN Commentator and Filmmaker Gary Jobson

Gary Jobson has spent 31 years with ESPN covering nine America's Cup events. During this time he's also covered six Olympics, produced many documentaries and competed in over 5,000 races. His TV work has won him Emmys, Telly's and an ACE Award, he's authored 19 books and he happened to be the tactician for Courageous, skippered by Ted Turner, when it won the America's Cup in 1977. A prolific lecturer, he'll be on site to sign copies of his books and will be presenting a special session.

Balti Virtual's VR Demos

The team from Balti Virtual (www.baltivirtual.com) will be hosting VR demos on the show floor on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and all attendees are invited to experience some of the VR projects they've completed. Balti Virtual has created VR experiences for such brands as Starbucks, Marvel, Hallmark, Under Armor, Budweiser and Stanley Black & Decker, and they understand the game-changing ability of this technology when it comes to commercial, corporate and government users. 

Artist Stephen Black's AR Demos

AR expert and author Stephen Black will be conducting demos throughout the show, and invites attendees to stop by his booth in the exhibition space to see what's possible with this fascinating technology. Black is an artist who's worked extensively in the areas of fine art, publishing and visual media, tapping AR and other new technologies to create content for broadcast and independent film. 

AV Nation's On-Site Podcasts

AVNation, the network for the audio visual industry, will be hosting a live podcast at The Video Show in Washington D.C. on Dec 4. Tim Albright, AVNation's founder, will be joined on stage by Megan A. Dutta, Content Director for Systems Contractor News, where they'll discuss the expo and current pro AV events. In addition to this session, AVNation will be podcasting from The Video Show exhibit floor, interviewing speakers, instructors, exhibitors and attendees. 

See Video Show Content in the Screening Room

Much of the content that's being discussed in The Video Show's content streams and studios will be available for screening in the conference's Screening Room, accessible to all attendees. In addition to a screening of the documentary 17 Blocks – whose filmmakers will be taking part in the Independent Film content stream – other video sources will include NASA, the National Parks Service, and World Wildlife Fund.

Connect with Your Colleagues

The Video Show represents an unparalleled opportunity for networking and making connections. A number of both national and local trade groups and associations will be on site and well-represented during the event, including SMPTE, TIVA-DC, AVIXA, WIFV, #GalsnGear and DDC. Attendees are invited to take full advantage of this unique gathering of industry leaders and influencers. 

Attendees can register now at The Video Show's registration page to save $25 and secure Early Bird rates for The Video Show's premium Studios. Registration for The Video Show is free through Dec. 3, allowing access to the 80+ exhibitors on the show floor. Early Bird rates for premium Studio content streams are $49 for a one-day Studio Access Pass and $75 for a two-day Studio Access Pass. At the door Dec. 4–5, registration for The Video Show goes up to $25, with one-day Studio Passes available for an additional $49 and two-day Studio Passes available for $75.

Media Contact and Press Registration: Anthony Vagnoni, avagnoni communications, 973-493-8736, anthony@avagnoni.com

Exhibit/Sponsorship Opportunities: Jackie Gospodinoff, jackie.gospodinoff@futurenet.com 

Speaker Opportunities: Cristina Clapp, cristina.clapp@futurenet.com

Meetings & Partnerships: Danielle Blanchette, Danielle.blanchette@futurenet.com

About The Video Show

A premier two-day event aimed at video professionals and enthusiasts alike, The Video Show encompasses every aspect of video and content creation, showcasing industry-leading brands and innovative tech startups and allowing attendees to discover and get hands-on experience with the latest gear and software. Serving the education, government, production, AV and broadcast sectors, as well as vloggers, online content creators and more, The Video Show also includes a robust program of seminars, live demos and masterclasses delivered by industry experts and inspirational speakers across 16 dedicated premium studios. The inaugural 2019 event takes place Dec. 4–5 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. Learn more at https://www.thevideoshow.com/.

About Future PLC

Future is a global platform business for specialist media with diversified revenue streams. Its Media Technology group comprises such industry- leading brands as TV Technology, Digital Video, Video Edge, Government Video, Broadcast Engineering Extra, Radio World, College Media Brief and other titles. Future's wider brand family also includes technology, games, music, home interest, hobbies and B2B, with brands like TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, Homebuilding & Renovating Show, GamesRadar+, The Photography Show, Top Ten Reviews, Live Science, Guitar World, MusicRadar, Space.com and Tom's Hardware. Its magazine portfolio titles also include Classic Rock, Guitar Player, FourFourTwo, Homebuilding & Renovating, Digital Camera, Guitarist, How It Works, Total Film, What Hi-Fi? and Music Week. 

https://www.futureplc.com/

LONDON & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers today announced an agreement to make training by each organization available to the membership of the other at discounted prices.

The agreement also calls for the organizations to look for other areas in which collaboration could benefit the members of each. Calling the deal “something of a milestone,” IABM CEO Peter White said the agreement marks “the beginning of an ongoing collaboration across a number of activities and the start of what we envision to be a long-term partnership.”

As part of the deal, some SMPTE members will have privileged access to IABM Business Intelligence via an exclusive web portal and webinars, and IABM members will be granted access to SMPTE webcasts, the groups said.

“A knowledge exchange with IABM makes a great deal of sense for both of our organizations,” said SMPTE Executive Director Barbara Lange. “IABM’s strength is in business knowledge and research, while SMPTE brings expertise in standards-based technologies—a synergy that will add great value for our respective communities.”

Both organizations published links to their respective courses and educational offerings covered under the agreement, including SMPTE educational offerings and full IABM course offerings.

“Collaboration is not just the latest buzzword—it underpins the future success of both the supply and buying sides of the broadcast and media industries,” said White. “We see media companies increasingly coming together to form alliances in the search for digital speed, scale and geographical reach, and the same thing is happening on the supply side.” 

Video today has gone well beyond entertainment and social media. Educational institutions, companies and governmental organizations increasingly turn to video for internal and external communication, collaboration, teaching and learning, public relations, and more. But how are they approaching video? What's working? What trends are emerging?

Video platform Kaltura's global surveys "The State of Video in Education 2018" and "The State of Video in the Enterprise 2018" shed some light on what real-world organizations are using video for today. 

Government Video Expo is held November 28 and 29 at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The event features 32 live free presentations and a free exhibit floor, as well as additional training opportunities. Register here to attend.

To plan your visit, you can download the show guide in advance here.

Basingstoke, UK — October 25, 2018 - EditShare a technology leader in intelligent shared storage and media management solutions, today announced that The University of the of West England (UWE Bristol) has upgraded the existing infrastructure of its new Arts, Creative Industries and Education media programs facility to a modern, end-to-end, file-based workflow powered by EditShare Flow media asset management (MAM); a 256TB scale-out, high availability no single point of failure XStream EFS 450 shared storage solution for the Film/Animation department, and a 128TB single node XStream EFS 300 shared storage solution and GEEVs ingest and playout server for the university’s Broadcast Journalism program. The advanced, high-performance infrastructure features extensive automation and provides seamless integration with the university’s third-party non-linear editing and graphics systems as well as multi-platform distribution of student-created programs.

Dick Allen, UWE Bristol Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries & Education Technical Resource Manager, Digital Media & Broadcast, selected EditShare to create an immersive infrastructure that connected systems, content, students, and staff. Dick states the importance of having a Media Asset Management workflow, “Managing several programs and hundreds of broadcast and film students requires a detailed level of asset tracking as well as automation capabilities to have an efficient operation. Implementing a media asset management layer is key to optimizing the infrastructure, enhancing collaboration between students and staff, and giving our students a real-world media experience using modern tools.”

At the heart of the new UWE Bristol facility is the EditShare XStream EFS 450 and 300 scale-out storage platforms and Flow media asset management facilitating content access and sharing across the university’s production studio, two large photography studios, animation stop-motion and CGI studios, sound recording and Foley studios, colour grading studios and editing suites which are all connected to the EditShare XStream EFS. The university’s news broadcast studio, which also leverages the EditShare XStream EFS and Flow solutions, is equipped with GEEVS for multi-channel playout to TV and Internet channels. The EditShare powered infrastructure offers an integrated workflow that is student-optimized, providing hands-on experience that mimics real-world workflows that are tightly integrated with the program’s expansive course content.

“EditShare creates an immersive learning environment by connecting systems, content, students and staff,” explains Tara Montford, Managing Director, EditShare. “Flow, XStream EFS and Geevs form the core solution that assists students, staff and research teams to find, reuse and store media assets. It enables collaboration of teams with seamless integration of media systems and embedded tools to retrieve and archive media from a central location. With metadata tracking and asset indexing, staff and students can easily locate and re-use content, increasing the value of asset use.”

UWE Bristol leverages real-world content creation applications including Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Avid Media Composer, ProTools and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve to give students an experience-based curriculum with an intelligent media management layer that brings efficiency to the university’s expansive program. Flow organizes the massive amount of content created and exchanged, acting as a control layer across the EditShare XStream EFS scale-out, high availability shared storage platforms, which are designed to support 4K, 8K, UHD and beyond with near infinite scalability on a no single point of failure architecture. Flow automates media ingest, transcoding, content searches, online to offline movement of media to ensure students are using the correct format and that their content is copied to the right media space.

In addition to providing the core infrastructure housing all UWE Bristol media program assets, the XStream EFS 450 and EFS 300 shared storage solutions provide advanced project sharing capabilities including Avid-style bin-locking, project-sharing and multi-user write access to media spaces for its Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer editing systems. At UWE, student project collaboration is a must, making the EditShare XStream EFS project sharing feature a critical component. Student media and projects can be stored in the same Media Space, or in separate Spaces with files are owned by the members of the Media Space –including media files, media database files, project settings and bins –and any user with permission can modify or delete the files.

For more information on EditShare solutions, please visit www.editshare.com or to read the full case study on UWE Bristol, please visit www.editshare.com/case-studies/cs-uwe

About EditShare

EditShare is a technology leader in networked shared storage and tapeless, end-to-end workflow solutions for the post-production, TV, and film industries. Our ground-breaking products improve efficiency and workflow collaboration every step of the way. They include video capture and playout servers, high-performance central shared storage, AQC, archiving and backup software, media asset management, and Lightworks – the world’s first 3-platform (Windows/OS X/Linux) professional non-linear video editing application.

©2018 EditShare LLC. All rights reserved. EditShare is a registered trademark of EditShare.

Press Contacts

Alex Molina
Zazil Media Group
(e) alex@zazilmediagroup.com
(p) +1 (978) 866 7354

NEW ORLEANS: Together with Gray Television, Loyola University New Orleans' School of Mass Communication (SMC) is creating a student laboratory on campus, a "Producer Incubator Lab," that will introduce producers from Gray Television stations around the nation to Loyola to help coach and educate aspiring producers, as well as deliver lectures on all aspects of production in the television broadcast industry.

For 10 weeks during the Spring 2019 semester, Gray Television will send one visiting professional per week to spend two days in classrooms and lab settings working with SMC journalism students.

"At Loyola University New Orleans, we are training the newsroom leaders of tomorrow," said Sonya Duhé, professor and director of the School of Mass Communication. "Through this partnership, we will continue to expand journalism students' view of what is possible and what is critical in the newsrooms of tomorrow so that they enter the workforce personally and professionally prepared to succeed."

The 10 professionals will be producers drawn from 10 different markets around the country. They will address all aspects of the production of a newscast, from story generation to vetting sources and streaming news.

The Producer Incubator program will be integrated into the Senior Capstone experience, a mandatory semester class in which senior journalism students draw on the skills gleaned throughout their college experience to produce a professional weekly live broadcast.

In the Digital Communications Lab at Loyola, journalism students work on HD cameras to record live and taped interviews and shepherd them to post-production in a state-of-the-art television production studio and installation room. Loyola now has added capability of multi-channels of Skype-enabled live shots with a professional, broadcast quality. Students will use the new equipment to train for broadcasting live shots and interviews.

"Our employees are very excited to introduce the latest tools and technologies in broadcasting and provide hands-on learning to the future leaders of the newsroom," said Mike Smith, director of talent recruitment and retention for Gray Television.

"We at Gray believe this will also be a rewarding experience for our employees as they get to interact on a very organic level with students studying new media and have a meaningful impact on the careers of aspiring producers. Gray TV is committed to developing the next generation of journalists."

"At Loyola University New Orleans, we are training the newsroom leaders of tomorrow," said Sonya Duhé, professor and director of the School of Mass Communication. "Through this partnership, we will continue to expand journalism students' view of what is possible and what is critical in the newsrooms of tomorrow so that they enter the workforce personally and professionally prepared to succeed."

"Producers are the heart of a television station, and we recognize that some of the most crucial parts of their development start in the classroom," Smith concluded. "We're excited to be training tomorrow's newsroom leaders."

Read more: Gray Breaks Ground on New Station in Georgia

Read more: Gray, Raycom To Combine, Creating Third Biggest Station Group

WASHINGTON — TV and radio broadcasters have a new resource to help fund internships to grow the pool of young engineering talent for the broadcast industry.

Pilot, NAB’s technology innovation initiative, in partnership with the National Association of Broadcasters Educational Foundation, today announced the launch of a new program to provide grants to NAB members that establish paid engineering and media technology internships at their radio and TV stations.

“We believe these internships will help NAB member stations attract the best and brightest and expand awareness of the exciting work that a career in broadcast technology can provide,” said NAB CTO Sam Matheny. “We are thrilled to be working with NABEF on this program, as a key component of Pilot’s technology education efforts.”

Initial grants will be for part-time internships in the spring 2019 academic term and full-time internships in the summer of next year. The program is aimed at helping NAB members that do not offer engineering or media-technology internships at the moment.

The new initiative will also help selected stations identify and support interns as well as assist with their attending the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The deadline for NAB members to apply for the grants is Aug. 15 for the spring 2019 internships. The deadline for the summer internship grants is Nov. 2.

“Through these grants, we expect to provide more opportunities for students to explore and learn about broadcast technology and engineering,” said NABEF President Marcellus Alexander. “The result will be an increase in the pool of talent for our industry.”

More information is available on the NAB Pilot website.

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WASHINGTON—The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) last week asked Congress to appropriate $455 million for fiscal year 2021—$10 million more than the annual funding its requested since 2015.

CPB also asked for $20 million in fiscal year 2019 for replacement of the public broadcasting interconnection system and $30 million for the Department of Education’s Ready To Learn program. Last month, Congress allocated $445 million to CPB for fiscal 2020 in its omnibus spending bill.

Patricia de Stacy Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, who made the request April 19 to the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, said 95 cents of every dollar the corporation receives supports local public stations and programs, thereby serving their local communities.

“Through the nearly 1,500 locally owned and operated public radio and television stations across the country, public media reaches 99 percent of the American people from big cities to small towns and rural communities,” said de Stacy Harrison. “At approximately $1.35 per citizen per year, it is one of America’s best infrastructure investments—paying huge dividends in education, public safety and civic leadership for millions of Americans and their families.”

She pointed to CPB’s collaboration with the Department of Education’s Ready To Learn program as an example of how public media combines “high-quality educational content” with the work happening on the ground in local communities.

Besides their work creating broadcast, Web and mobile content, local public broadcasters engage with “community partners” to extend their children’s content via Head Start centers, daycare facilities, local health centers and faith-based organizations, she said.

Referencing public media’s interconnection, de Stacy Harrison told the subcommittee how important the infrastructure is to public broadcasters. “Without it, there is no nationwide public media service,” she said.

Since fiscal year 1991, Congress has consistently funded the interconnection with a separate, periodic appropriation. Doing so gives CPB “the agility to contract for incremental upgrades as innovations in technology are realized and costs come down,” she said. 

WASHINGTON--Interested in a technical career at the Federal Communications Commission? Are you currently an engineering student or recent grad from an engineering school? If so, the new FCC Honors Engineer Program may be exactly what you are looking for.

The new program—intended to attract newly minted engineers to public policy work in the communications field—is a one-year career development program. At the end of the program, participants will be eligible for consideration for continued employment at the FCC.

“The digital revolution is rapidly transforming virtually every aspect of American life,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. “And it’s changing the FCC’s work, too. Many of the issues we confront today are technically complex.”

Honors Program engineers may work in several different areas, including:

· New communications technology and services, such as Next-Gen TV, 5G and the Internet of Things;

· Deployment of broadband service nationwide, including in rural areas;

· Finding technologies to improve communications services for all Americans, especially those with disabilities;

· Public safety communications technologies;

· Policy development to encourage innovation and investment in new communications devices and services.

The FCC will consider many criteria when evaluating candidates, including academic achievement, technical skills and extracurricular activities as well as a demonstrated interest in government service and/or the communications sector.

To learn more, visit the FCC website.

NEVADA CITY, CALIF.–Students in the broadcast media program at Whitney High School arrive every day at 7 a.m. to prepare “Unleashed,” a 15-minute daily newscast featuring news, sports and lifestyle segments. Using Telestream’s Wirecast live video streaming production software, “Unleashed” is prerecorded by 9:07 a.m., in time for the students to leave for their first period class. The award-winning program has expanded into a community television station, branded as WCTV19, which is watched on the school’s TV channel, two local cable channels and the school’s social media outlets.

“This program is designed to teach [students] broadcast journalism skills and then apply those skills to actually producing all of the features and content that we need to make “Unleashed” a professional looking newscast,” explained Ben Barnholdt, teacher/director of the Broadcast Media Program. Barnholdt said his students can put a show together in 40 minutes because Wirecast is user-friendly and fairly automated with presets. 

During the production, a student crew runs the cameras and teleprompters in the studio. In the control room a separate student crew handles the technical execution of the show. While Wirecast integrates the functionality of a video production switcher, Barnholdt has one student switching the four camera feeds using a third-party production switcher. Then that switcher’s output flows in real time into Wirecast where the show’s finishing touches are added.

Students can capture on-screen graphics and video clips from their social media sites using ScreenFlow from Telestream. These assets are moved into Wirecast, which keys them into the bluescreen background on-set. Data displays, such as weather and sports graphics, are created on separate laptops using Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator. For each daily show students update key data, such as temperatures and scores, without having to recreate graphics from scratch.

See also: Telestream Updates Wirecast to v8

Another student uses NewBlue Graphics software on a separate laptop to animate those static graphics and make the show more visually dynamic. Once the graphics are ready to go, they’re transferred over an NDI video over IP network and saved on the Wirecast laptop for playout during production.

Through a Go Fund Me campaign and a technology grant, the media program recently acquired a 25-foot broadcast production trailer pulled by a pickup truck for remote live-streamed shows. The broadcast trailer uses the same Wirecast-driven workflow that is used in the studio control room. 

WASHINGTON—The Sinclair Broadcasting Diversity Scholarship fund has been established, according to a recent announcement from Sinclair Broadcasting Group. This new scholarship program will provide financial support to minority college student who are interested in broadcast, journalism and marketing.

The fund will award up to 10 scholarships of up to $5,000 each year for the next 10 years. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and currently a sophomore or junior at an accredited four-year undergraduate college or university studying in the areas of broadcasting, journalism or marketing and maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.5 at the time of application.

The deadline for to submit an application for the upcoming school year will be April 29 at 11:59 p.m. EST. For more information or to apply for the scholarship, click here.