Western Association of Broadcasters (WABE) President Rob Brown says the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) has confirmed it’s leaving the future training of broadcast engineers for radio and television to the industry, beyond the current session. SAIT announced last March that its Broadcast Systems Technology (BXST) program – the last broadcast engineering course of its kind in the country – would fall under provincial budget cuts following the graduation of the current second year cohort. Established in 1969, the program was one of the few certified by the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) and had just established a new state-of-the-art lab. While WABE had hoped the program’s cancellation might be reviewed, Brown said it’s clear future training will have to be spearheaded by the industry. WABE has been leading discussions with SAIT on steps forward, which Brown said could include the addition of a third year, broadcast-specific course addition to the college’s Electrical Engineering Technology program, a Radio-frequency (RF) engineering add-on to NAIT’s Wireless Systems Engineering Technology course, or other ways to upscale related programming. Read more here.

Stingray Business and Space Factory Media have announced an agreement to provide custom music, insights, and AV systems solutions for FAT Brands, a global franchising company that acquires, markets and develops fast casual and casual dining concepts. Under the agreement, Stingray Business and Space Factory will provide custom curated music and Stingray’s mobile AI/consumer insights service Chatter, into one integrated media solution for Fatburger and Johnny Rockets restaurants. The core Stingray platforms deployed will be the Stingray Music for Business App and the SB3 streaming Media Player, designed for enterprise brands and fully licensed for commercial use. Ratha Khuong, General Manager of Stingray Business, says the deal marks an important breakthrough for Stingray Business as it significantly expands its music and media partnerships in the U.S. The solutions will launch in April 2021 at Johnny Rockets and Fatburger and within the next year at FAT Brands’ other concepts: Buffalo’s Cafe, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Elevation Burger, Yalla Mediterranean and Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses.