VSB Seminar in Montreal next week

Gary Sgrignoli has announced that he will be presenting his VSB Combo Seminar at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Monday and Tuesday Nov. 24 and 25. The Montreal Chapter of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society is hosting the seminar. The combo seminar begins with a review of VSB fundamentals in the first half-day and then focuses on measurements in the following day of the seminar.

In some ways, DTV transmission is simpler than analog TV transmission; there are no video or sound modulation level adjustments to worry about at the transmitter site.

While transmitter non-linearity is as great or greater concern for DTV was for analog TV, the correction is now done more or less automatically. There's no need to worry about slope and threshold linearity corrector adjustments at different video levels.

Transmitting the correct data stream, specifically the correct PSIP tables, is critical to avoid reception problems on some TV sets or set-top boxes. An incorrectly adjusted transmitter not only leads to a reduction in its coverage area, but also can interfere with other stations if out-of-channel emissions exceed the FCC limits.

Sgrignoli's VSB seminars give broadcast engineers an opportunity to become comfortable with ATSC transmission technology while providing the skills the engineer needs to make sure his station is providing the best signal, the best coverage and the least interference to stations on nearby channels.

While nothing had been posted about the seminar as of Thursday, try checking the MSW DTV Transmission and Measurement Seminar Web page or the IEEE Montreal Web site for additional information.

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.