Welcome!

Thank you for visiting the Washington DC Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. We're glad you're here!

Chapter 37 is a very diverse group, including a variety of media professionals in the Nation's Capitol. Our members include local radio and television engineers, national and international network technicians, consulting engineers, electronics manufacturers and Federal employees working in broadcast related positions.

Regardless of your area of broadcast interest, you are sure to find a warm welcome at the Washington DC Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. Please join us at our next meeting and try us out for size. We hope you will enjoy your visit.

Upcoming Events

Please check out details of our next meeting. We hope to see you there!  Future SBE meetings include: 

• We're skipping a November meeting in Washington but our friends at Chapter 46 Baltimore have invited us to their November meeting, detailed below.  
• November 20th (12:30 PM) Baltimore's SBE Chapter 46 will be hosting a webinar with Jacob Daniluck from TieLine, who will discuss how to handle Internet congestion when doing remote broadcasts.  The meeting will be held at WBAL, 3800 Hooper Ave. in Baltimore.  Although remote access to the webinar is possible, you'll miss out on lunch that is kindly being sponsored by TieLine.  For more information and to place your lunch order, please contact James Richardson by e-mail.  
• December 4, 2019 (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM):  SMPTE/AES/SBE Holiday Party.  See our next meeting page for details.

SBE National News

SBE Authorizes New Chapter: 106 Panhandle

The Board of Directors of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the association for broadcast and multimedia technology professionals, approved the application for the newest SBE chapter, Chapter 106 Panhandle, which serves SBE members in the Florida Panhandle and southern portions of Alabama and Georgia. The action was taken at the Board of Directors meeting on Oct. 15, held during the SBE National Meeting in Madison, WI, in conjunction with the Broadcasters Clinic. Chapter 106 brings the number of active SBE chapters 115. The chapter leaders are Chair Mark Johnson, CSRE, of Linkup Communications; Vice Chair Alan Lane, CSRE, AMD, DRB, of Cumulus Media; and Secretary/Treasurer Ricky Carter of Alarado Media.

To form a chapter, a minimum of 10 SBE members must hold at least three meetings, and then submit an application to the SBE National Office. The application is reviewed and voted on by the SBE Board of Directors. Chapter 106 members met more than the required three times before submitting the chapter application. The organization process was also delayed by Hurricane Michael in 2018.

Commenting on the new chapter, SBE President Wayne Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE, said, “The SBE members in the Florida Panhandle area have been without a chapter for some time. The efforts of Mark Johnson and others in the area to organize a chapter have paid off, and all the chapter leaders and organizers deserve the credit for their work in establishing the chapter to serve SBE members in the area.”

Instructions to Download and Install Updated Security Firmware to EAS Units

(updated Nov. 5, 2019)

FEMA has released the new Federal Bridge certificate bundle for Sage and DASDEC users. The certification must be installed by Jan. 7, 2020, for the proper validation of CAP alert messages from IPAWS. The deadline was extended (from the original date of Nov. 8, 2019) after stations reported problems with installing the updates.

Sage Endec Users
Sage Alerting Systems will have the mandatory firmware rev 95 posted sometime on Nov. 1, 2019. To download the software, go to www.sagealertingsystems.com, and enter the serial number of your Sage unit. If you do not qualify for the free upgrade, you must first contact a Sage distributor, pay the required fee and they will unlock your serial number for the download.

Only Sage units with serial numbers between B417611 through B429999 qualify for free upgrade. You do not have to contact your vendor if your unit serial number is in that range.

You must download and install into the Sage unit before Jan. 7, 2020. If you have multiple Sage units, each download is keyed to the serial number. If you accidentally upload to the wrong Endec, nothing bad will happen, but the update will not succeed and you’ll get an “update failed” message in the history on the Version page.

Download the firmware to a PC, log onto the Endec with a web browser, then click upload firmware.

DASDEC Users

The new FEMA IPAWS Certificate for DASDEC/One-Net is now posted: www.digitalalertsystems.com/DAS_pages/resources_fsb.html. Instructions and download link for the bundle are found at that site.

This is a free certificate update, which may be used for versions 3.x and v4.x software. If you are running version 2.6 software, this certificate file should function as well.

Separately, note that FEMA’s upcoming TLS change is already supported in v3.x and v4.x software. If you are a DASDEC user, no further action is required for the TLS update. You do need to upload the certificate bundle for the new Federal Bridge Certificate by Jan. 7, 2020.

2019-2020 SBE Board Takes Office, Committee Chairs Assigned

The Society of Broadcast Engineers, the association for broadcast and multimedia technology professionals, held its National Meeting Oct. 15 and 16 in Madison, WI, in conjunction with the Broadcasters Clinic. Among the events during those two days, the SBE Board of Directors met, and the SBE held its annual Membership Meeting.

At the Membership Meeting on Oct. 16, the 2019-2020 officers and directors were sworn in to begin their new terms. (The results of the SBE election were announced on Aug. 29.) SBE President Wayne Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE, also announced his committee chair appointments for the coming year, which were reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting on Oct. 15. The committee chair assignments follow.

On the committee assignments, President Pecena said, “The skill and experience of the SBE Board of Directors and committee chairs is wide and varied, and I look forward to drawing on their abilities to continue the forward progress of the SBE as we implement plans from the 2018 strategic planning conference and develop new opportunities for our members.”

President Pecena also appointed two directors to serve on the SBE Executive Committee, which also includes all the officers and the past president. Roswell Clark and Geary Morrill were appointed and approved by the Board, and they join Pecena, Vice President Andrea Cummis, Secretary Kevin Trueblood, Treasurer Ted Hand, and Immediate Past President Jim Leifer.

The national board of directors of the SBE is responsible for the development of policy and determines the programs and services the society provides to its 5,000 members.

* These committee chairs do not serve on the SBE Board of Directors.

SBE Enhances MemberPlus Opportunity

On Jan. 2, 2018, the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the association for broadcast and multimedia technology professionals, introduced the SBE MemberPlus member benefit. The enhanced member benefit allows Regular, Senior or Associate members to upgrade their membership with full access to the more than 80 Webinars by SBE. Response to the SBE MemberPlus program has been positive, and more than 1,000 members have added SBE MemberPlus to their regular membership.

At the SBE Board of Directors meeting, held Oct. 15, 2019, in Madison, WI, the program was further expanded to provide the member benefit to SBE Life members and SBE Student members, who previously could not participate in the program. Called SBE Life MemberPlus and SBE Student MemberPlus, SBE members in these two categories will be able to add the benefit to their membership beginning in January of 2020.

SBE MemberPlus has been available to Regular, Senior or Associate members for the cost of annual dues, plus $90; a total of $175. On Jan. 2, 2020, Life members will be able to add SBE MemberPlus to their membership for $90. Student members will be able to opt for SBE MemberPlus when they join or renew, also for $90. Existing SBE Life and Student members can add the option beginning Jan. 2 by contacting the SBE National Office by phone at 317-846-9000.

SBE President Wayne Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE, commenting on the member benefit, said, “The SBE educational efforts have grown significantly in recent years, and SBE MemberPlus provides the greatest access to our leading educational tool: Webinars by SBE. Providing access to Life and Student members allows younger, as well as more experienced SBE members, to continue learning by taking advantage of this popular benefit.”