ATSC Honors S. Merrill Weiss with Outstanding Contributor Award

By Doug Lung
published


The Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) took time during its annual meeting at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington DC this week to present S. Merrill Weiss its highest technical honor, the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award. Mark Richer, ATSC President, commented, "Merrill is very adept at analyzing complex issues, putting them in perspective and recommending strategies to move the process forward. He has played a key role in many of our standards development efforts."

The Lechner Award is named for its first recipient, Bernard Lechner and is "bestowed one a year to an individual representative of the membership whose technical and leadership contributions to the ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary." John Godfrey, VP, Samsung Electronics and Chairman of the ATSC Board of Directors said, "It's a pleasure to welcome Merrill into the long list of TV industry experts who have earned recognition for their contributions to the standards-setting activities of ATSC. Anyone who has worked alongside him knows that he exemplifies the spirit of cooperation that makes collaborative progress possible."

In the field of broadcast RF technology, Merrill's work includes the original A/110 "Synchronization Standard for Distributed Transmission" and its successor A/110:2011 "ATSC Standard for Transmitter Synchronization". He was also actively involved in and provided technical contributions to the A/153 Mobile DTV standard. Merrill is always willing to share his expertise with other broadcast engineers and has presented many papers at the IEEE Broadcast Technology Symposium and the NAB Broadcast Engineer Conference on topics ranging from distributed transmission system design, the proper way to model antennas with mechanical beam tilt and, most recently, identifying and correcting passive intermodulation at transmitter and cell phone sites.

Some recent recipients of the Lechner Outstanding Contributor award include Jim Starzynski from NBC Universal in 2011, Pat Waddell from Harmonic in 2010, and Wayne Bretl from LG Electronics/Zenith in 2009.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.