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APRE PREC 2007 PREC 2008

Public Radio Engineering Conference 2009

Click for the Agenda

PREC 2009 Support Provided by the following (in alphabetical order):
Axia, Broadcast Electronics, DTS Neural Surround, ERI, Harris, Nautel, NPR Labs, Omnia, PRSS, and Telos Systems.
(See the company logos below the Agenda for their web links)

2009 APRE SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY !

The Association of Public Radio Engineers (APRE) is offering a limited
number of scholarships to cover registration and some travel costs for
public radio engineers wishing to attend this year's Public Radio
Engineering Conference, to be held on April 17-18, 2009, at the Las
Vegas Convention Center. Made possible through a grant from Harris
Corporation
, the scholarships are targeted at public radio engineers who
are new to the field and have never attended a PREC before.

Nominations for scholarships must be received no later than 2100 EDT,
Monday, April 6, 2009.

We are very excited about being able to do this again - the APRE board
of directors originally thought that because of the economic uncertainty
facing many stations that we would not be able to continue the
scholarship project this year; in large part, because we know these are
challenging economic times for all of us, we did not ask for donations
from our peers in public radio engineering for the fund this year.

In fact, a number of APRE board members who work for companies which
have travel and conference restrictions in place are personally funding
their own expenses to attend and host PREC this year because of our
belief in the importance of this conference for our industry.

The good news is that Harris Corporation's generous donation to
APRE/PREC will allow us to once again offer a limited number of modest
scholarships to this year's APRE Public Radio Conference. (as an
example, I was able to book a flight and a hotel on Freemont St - old
Las Vegas - for about $400 this year...)

Even though some of us 'old heads' in Public Radio may not be able to
attend this year, the scholarship fund will allow APRE to continue our
efforts to provide opportunities for new engineering and technical
operations staff to experience the training and face-to-face meetings
with experienced engineers and equipment vendors at the PREC.

Because of the fact that this last minute donation has made the
scholarship possible after all, the time frame is exceptionally short
this year - the deadline for applications will close at 2100 EDT Monday,
April 6, 2009. Because of this very short notice, we hope that perhaps
folks who submitted recommendations last year might wish to resubmit
those nominations at this time.

To be quick and fair, the APRE Scholarship committee will select a
number of applications based on the following criteria:

1) Full-time employee of a public radio station

2) Engineering or operations staff member

3) Never attended a PREC before

4) Preference will be given to those who are new in the field and who
are interested in a career in broadcast engineering or operations

5) Some technical aptitude and/or experience with broadcasting, computer
operations, and related technologies (in order to benefit from PREC)

6) Otherwise unable to attend PREC because of station or personal budget
constraints

7) Permission and support from your manager or supervisor to attend PREC

8) Ability to fund any additional costs (food, etc) not covered by the
scholarship - we don't want you living in your car, eating out of a
dumpster in Las Vegas during PREC - this isn't COMDEX-'76....! :)

From the pool of applicants who, in the opinion of the committee, best
meet the above qualifications we will literally draw names from
a 'hat' (or a virtual hat based on industry standard randomness
algorithms) and contact the recipient as soon as possible so that they
may make travel arrangements for PREC.

A portion of the scholarship will be applied to the PREC registration,
and the Saturday evening PREC Dinner - we believe that one of the
functions of the PREC is to have time to meet and socialize with your
peers, so the Dinner is an important component. There will also be a
pizza and beverage Night-Owl session on Friday sponsored by DTS/Neural,
so food costs will be minimal for the attendees.

Interested applicants should send a brief (no more than 50-100 word)
application explaining why you would like to attend PREC, how you think
you and your station would benefit, and a short description of your
duties, experience, and future aspirations in radio.

Managers, supervisors, mentors and friends may recommend applicants, but
be sure you can verify and provide the items above.

Please send applications/recommendations as soon as possible to:

rparker@vpr.net

Because of the short time frame, email is preferred - please put the
following in your subject line: PREC Scholarship Application

Also, please, no attachments - just plain text is much preferred.

In particular xxx.doc, xxx.docx, and especially .rtf files generated by
Microsoft Exchange servers will be sent to the spam bucket by our spam
filter and never read by anyone - you have been warned!)

Also, the decision of the 'hat' is final - and again please note - the
deadline for applications/nominations is 2100 EDT Monday, April 6, 2009.


2009 APRE Engineering Achievement Award nomination form is now available. To nominate a candidate, please download the form, complete it, and email it to Gordon Carter (complete instructions and guidelines are within the document).

Click here to download the 2009 PREC Registration Form (word doc, 564kb) or Click here to download it as a .pdf document

 


PREC 2009 Agenda

Friday and Saturday 17–18 April 2009
Las Vegas Convention Center
North Hall, Room N232 (2nd Floor)
3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas NV  89109

Friday 17 April 2009

0715–0800

Registration and Continental Breakfast

0800–0815

PREC 2009 Welcome
Ralph Hogan, President APRE

0815–0900

HD Audio and Data Delivery by Satellite
Ralph Hogan—moderator
Mike Pappas, Digital Audio, KUVO-FM—presenter

0900–1015

Moving Digital Audio Around the Plant
Ralph Hogan—moderator
Jay Tyler, Wheatstone—presenter
Tag Borland, Logitek Systems—presenter
Kirk Harnack, Telos/Axia—presenter
Ted Staros, Director, Pacific Design Center—presenter

1015–1030

Morning Break

 

1030–1145

Getting the Audio to the Station and the Transmitter
Jobie Sprinkle—moderator
Kevin Campbell, APT-X —presenter
Kirk Harnack, Telos/Axia —presenter
Chris Crump, Comrex Corporation —presenter
Chuck Alexander, Director, Intraplex Products—presenter

1145–1230

Consequences of Transmission Methods for Audio
J.J. Johnson, DTS (formerly Neural Audio, Microsoft, and Bell Labs Research)—presenter
Rich Rarey, NPR Labs—presenter

1230–1330

Lunch and AM Tower Facility Presentation
Rich Parker—host
Steve Johnston, Wisconsin Public Radio—presenter

1330–1500

NPR Labs Update
Dan Mansergh —moderator
Mike Starling, NPR Labs—presenter
John Kean, NPR Labs—presenter

1500–1545

HD Data Services—Opportunities for Broadcasters
Dan Mansergh —moderator
Paul Brenner, Broadcast Traffic Consortium—presenter

1545–1600

Afternoon Break

 

1600–1730

Getting it on the Air—Challenge of Increased HD Power
Antennas, combiners, transmitters and the rest!
Dan Mansergh—moderator
Keith Pelletier, Dielectric—presenter
Bob Surette, Shively Antenna—presenter
Derek Small, Myat—presenter
Tom Silliman, ERI—presenter

1730–1830

Early Evening Break

1830–2100

PREC 2009 ‘Night Owl’ Session—Presentation—Q&A
(Pizza and beverages by DTS)
What have they done to my song, Ma?
Audio codec technology, compromises for transport, best practices for reduced bit rate audio, history. 
Rich Parker—moderator
J.J. Johnson, DTS (formerly Neural Audio, Microsoft, and Bell Labs Research)—presenter

 

Saturday 18 April 2009

0800–1700

SBE Ennes Workshop- Continuing the Digital Transition
LVCC

Society of Broadcast Engineers

 

1900–2200

PREC Annual Engineering Dinner
 (paid confirmed guests only)

 

Click here to download the 2009 PREC Registration Form (word doc, 564kb) or Click here to download it as a .pdf document

 

PREC Support Provided by the Following:

Nautel Ltd.          Broadcast Electronics, Inc.      

DTS Neural          ERI (Electronics Research, Inc.)

   

  NPR Labs Logo       Public Radio Satellite System

 

 

 

 

 

 


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