Engineering

Cleveland State University, Fenn College of Engineering. BSEE 1993 Received a student leadership award from the Electrical Engineering department for Student Leadership as spearhead of the school’s entry into a robotic vehicle competition. Also, took first place in my senior year in the engineering competition week ping-pong ball harvest contest, building my entry from discarded VTR parts.

In 1999 wrote the DTV Survival Guide for McGraw-Hill. This book explained the retrofit process and technology behind a television station converting from analog to digital technology. This opportunity grew out of the dozens of articles that I wrote for Broadcast Engineering magazine. In addition, I have written sections of the National Association of Broadcasters Engineering Handbook.

FPresident, Chief Engineer, Instructor, and Janitor for Northeast Technical Training Group/Atwood Video Productions 4/14 – 9/17, Auburn, CA

Developed and started a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching qualified veterans high tech skills using professional television equipment, including two 53' purpose built television production trailers.

NTTG taught basic television production operations, remote television logistics, basic math, electrical and electronic technician skills, along with project management (Curriculum). Company evolved into a content production studio known as Atwood Video Productions. We lost our lease and that forced us to liquidate and close the production facility.

Systems Engineer/Independent Contractor – Systems Integration July 1998 – June 2011

Worked on many integration projects for companies such as Sony SI, Signasys, Conseho LLC, and Panasonic, Scripps-Howard, CNN, Fox Sports, Sports Net NY, ESPN, along with many retrofits and rebuild of local television broadcast stations. Was involved with all phases of these projects, from conceptual through to final design, and implementation, testing, commissioning, and punch list resolution.

Oversaw H verses CP RF propagation tests at KICU for the NAB Model Station group in 1999.

Wrote C+, Javascript, and VB code for testing, diagnostic, and control of equipment that comprised part of larger systems.

Was a technical consultant and designer for the Nextel Broadcast Auxiliary Service microwave frequency repacking project for the Raycom group of broadcast stations 2008-2010.

I oversaw the RF integration for Panasonics jumbotron project at Charlotte Speedway, in conjunction with SBE and BST, in 2010 & 2011.

Sony Electronics, Inc. July 1993 – June 1998, San Jose, Ca.

Sustaining Engineer for Sony high end broadcast cameras, and VTRs. This involved training field engineers, being a technical liaison with Japan engineering, investigation and suggesting engineering fixes for systemic issues, and writing diagnostic software and firmware for various equipment using C, C+, VB, and assembly languages. Also, became the Sustaining Engineer for Sony system level products, namely television routers, and newsroom/ video server systems. Ended up working closely with Sony’s System Integration division integrating products into small to extremely large installations, including those on foundations and on wheels. Also, developed field method for determining how close a digital signal is to its error cliff. Made presentations of the procedure to SMPTE, and NAB before large groups, designed (wrote 8051 controller code) automatic handheld tester for the process.



On the following page is a cut sheet of a product that I was involved in designing that provided a inexpensive way to check a signals error headroom,

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I wrote VBA code to use Excel instead of AutoCAD. It automated many graphical and spreadsheet tasks. Click on the photo above to see some examples.

I have a good understanding of coding in raw HTML, and the use of CSS, along with using Javascript.

Always found maps interesting and carried that interest into creating a website. Geography opens up the scale and scope of what can be realized by taking a wholistic view of events and how they interrelate. Often it leads to a systemic understanding of world events and trends, instead of trying to process disjointed nuggets of information.