Spectrum Bridge executive Rick Rotondo explains how his company is testing a variety applications for devices in the TV band's white spaces in Wilmington, N.C. He's preparing a paper on the results so far of the test to be presented at next month's NAB Show. It will also point out that there's a good opportunity for broadcasters to also use this unlicensed spectrum — to offer additional broadband services as well as make it as part of their newsgathering operations, to send material from the field back to the station.

Lynn Rowe, the head of tech for the 13-station group, describes how the company is implementing a service-oriented architecture that will make operations more efficient, as well as position it to exploit new media opportunities such as mobile broadcasting, VOD and  advanced advertising. Rowe also discusses plans for centralizing some functions and studio HD news.

Mark Aitken, Sinclair's director of advanced technology, spells out a number of reasons why his company isn't interested in giving up any of the spectrum now occupied by its 58 television stations. Besides the fact that he doesn't think the government will approve of kicking back money to broadcasters for their auctioned spectrum, there's a much bigger — and potentially game-changing reason: mobile DTV.

Peter Symes, SMPTE's director of standards and engineering, details the technical groups efforts at developing standards for 3-D television and discusses other work affecting broadcasting, including audio-video synchronization, aspect-ration conversion, closed captions, a new SMPTE time code, broadcast automation and ultrahigh-definition television.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the DTV transition has been the poor performance of many VHF stations. Their signals don't seem to reach as far or penetrate buildings as well as those of their UHF counterparts. Richard Mertz, of consulting engineer Cavell, Mertz & Associates, says for high-band V's, the answer seems to be higher power. For low-band V's, the outlook is bleak.

The Florical GM and former NBC O&O guru is one of the few in the business with a broad background in centralizing master control at stations. He discusses broadcasters' renewed interest in centralcasting as well as spelling out the three major variations along with some of the pros and cons of each.

The CEO of VCI Solutions says if TV stations are to survive the new economic realities, they need to focus on putting their investment into their content — producing more of it that's more local — and get away from spending large sums on how the content gets to the consumer. To do that, she says, stations should move to sharing master control functions, not just within groups, but with competitors as well.

Bonten Media's vice president of engineering (or vice president of headaches) has a full plate, overseeing the operations of the group's stations in seven markets. What's occupying his time theses days is increasing efficiency, implementing HD news, finalizing the DTV transition and gearing up for mobile DTV — all while keeping an eye on costs.

The top exec at the new media tech company explains how TV stations and other local media can implement and make money from his new iPhone content platform that will let pump out news, sports, weather and whatever else they can think of to the growing legion of iPhone users.

Sinclair's vice president of new technology says the future of TV stations is in making sure their signals can be received on the ever-growing list of mobile devices. And if stations are not making sure their new digital transmission systems have full redundancy, they could be making a "fatal mistake."

The station group interconnected its small market stations in Louisiana and Texas with fiber and high-speed Internet links so that it could offer news at many of the stations for the first time. But it soon discovered that the home-grown network can provide other efficiencies, including centralized station promo production and long-form program distribution.

The CTO of the Public Broadcasting Service says he is wrestling with the same DTV-transition problems as his commercial counterparts but, at the same time, is pushing ahead into file-based program distribution, mobile broadcasting (real and non-real time) and multiplatform services.

The chief engineer of two of the four commercial stations (WECT and WSFX) involved in the early digital television trial in the North Carolina market is learning that procrastination and the age-old troubles with broadcast reception may conspire against a smooth national transition next February.

Wayne Ruting claims to have business intelligence software that allows station group execs to look over the shoulder of every GM — every sales person, for that matter — in their groups at any time to make sure they're making their numbers. It works by gathering all station data into one easily accessible "warehouse."

Sony has the lion's share of the broadcast camera market and intends to keep it with a two-prong strategy, simultaneously developing XDCAM camcorders using optical disks and memory cards, says the SVP of sales and marketing. Both will "continue to evolve."

The group that used to be the Clear Channel stations has one old hand in charge of its technology and he likes his new management's "laserlike" focus on TV station operation as he heads up the group's digital conversions and addition of subnets.

Telecorps’ Wexler Video division thinks it has the answer to getting the most out of TV stations’ field reporters. Its new BackPack lets journalists shoot material and then use cellular technology and the Internet to send it directly back to the station without a live truck or a microwave truck, and without hitting a WiFi hot spot.

The equipment supplier's president says that after adding to its offerings by purchasing companies, it is now focusing on making sure all of its various product lines work perfectly together to help stations run as efficiently as possible.

Panasonic’s marketing chief offers arguments as to why the P2 HD field acquisition format is best choice for broadcasters as they move to file-based workflows and HD.

A TV station is a TV station, right? Wrong, according to the chief tech at the ABC O&O in Philadelphia. At the new plant he's building, file-based workflow is a top priority and the digital broadcast transmitter will be just one of many outputs.