The Association of Central Canada Broadcast Engineers (CCBE) held their annual Career Development Conference, August 26-27, at the Kingbridge Centre in King City, ON.
During the pandemic, an in-person conference could not take place but free virtual training sessions were offered to members until a semi-normal routine could be resumed. It was a little shorter and the registration was offered at a reduced rate. Attendance exceeded expectations with over 100 registered delegates.
Some of the topics covered in the technical papers included regulatory changes, HD content delivery, virtualization and cloud-based technologies, ATSC 3.0, accessibility in broadcasting, cyber-security and a discussion on how to recruit and train new technical staff.
Scaling back the conference allowed the opportunity to have all the vendor displays in one area, similar to a trade show floor.
The annual awards banquet allows broadcast engineers the opportunity to recognize their peers for outstanding achievement in the industry. The CCBE Engineering Excellence Award is presented to an individual or group who has displayed a high standard of engineering accomplishment in Canadian broadcasting. This year’s recipient was Brian Hinz, Senior Engineering Manager of Blackburn Media.
Ron Combden, President CCBE (left).
The Bob Norton Ambassador of the Year Award is named in memory of the first recipient, Bob Norton, who was an icon of the Canadian broadcast community and delivered the first technical paper of the CCBE back in 1951. This year’s award went to Ted Paley of Ron Paley Broadcast.
The CCBE Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an individual who made outstanding contributions to the Canadian broadcast community throughout their career. This year’s winner was Roger Cole, Chief Engineer of Television and Radio for Kingston and Peterborough at Corus Entertainment. A graduate of the Electronics Technology program at St. Lawrence College, Roger started his career at CKWS Kingston before moving on to Brockville, Chatham and finally, back to Kingston where he has been for the last 30 years.
The CCBE George McCurdy Bursary Award is given to a student in a Technology Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) who is working towards a career in Engineering. The latest recipient is Olatunji Oloko, Bachelor of Applied Technology.
Now that this year’s conference has ended, the Executive Committee is already starting to plan a 70th anniversary conference next year, which will be bigger and better. More details will be posted at ccbe.ca as they become available.
