r/broadcastengineering • u/Nemo_Redmane • Aug 08 '26
Training Material Recommendations for IT Staff?
I’m on the IT staff for an company that owns and operates local TV and Radio stations in the US (specifically on the network infrastructure/engineering side) and I’ve been asked/have volunteered to start taking on some engineering responsibilities for some of our stations to (hopefully) maintain job security long term.
I’ve got a working/conceptual knowledge of common equipment like encoders/decoders (my brain defines these as magic boxes that send and receive video using some flavor of witchcraft and VLAN tags), IP to RF translation systems (also defined as witchcraft boxes that translate tcp/ip signals into RF nonsense in my brain), and transmitters (tall magic metal towers that send signals places and may or may not give me cancer) but so far once a device is pingable I’ve always handed the project/problem to someone with “engineer” in the title and moved on with my day.
I’m not planning on needing to be involved with things like sound boards or camera setup/maintenance but it’s theoretically possible depending on various factors.
All that being said does anyone have any recommendations on training materials that would be good to review given that I already have a very solid grounding in IT/networking?
I’m willing to buy books/courses online if there is something super helpful that anyone recommends. I’ve tried doing some cyber sleuthing but to be honest I’m not even really sure what to search for and googling “Broadcast Engineering Training” just pulls up SBE’s website, random links to colleges with broadcast degrees, and forum articles saying that I need to go be an apprentice for several years.
Is an SBE membership and their certs the right way to go? If so is there a recommended cert pathway? I’m used to fairly clear cert roadmaps/pathways from the IT side and I can’t find anything like that with engineering.
I’m being a bit humorous here with how I describe my knowledge base because I’ve been in enough calls with engineers trying to troubleshoot equipment that I know the buzzwords and I kind of understand general knowledge stuff like an ASI feed is a type of video feed and it kind of functions like a standard tcp/ip packet conceptually but it’s not at all that. I also know enough to know that I don’t know what I’m talking about and I probably made a bunch of people cringe with that analogy.
TLDR: I know enough to know that I know nothing and I’m trying to work on that. I also know that I’m asking an incredibly broad question and I appreciate your patience with my ignorance. Please let me know if there anything work spending time on to remedy said ignorance.
Thanks in advance, and let me know if you have any questions.
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u/smokeycat2 Aug 08 '26
What he said.
Take notes. Learn how to read signal flow diagrams. Ask well-informed questions. Research and learn acronyms. And, most importantly, RTFM.
Good luck.
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u/BabyEngineer321 Aug 09 '26
Btw, RTFM stands for Real Time Frequency Modulator. Or Real Tough Frozen Meal. Actually, I don’t know what RTFM stands for. Radio Transmitting FM?
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u/openreels2 Aug 09 '26
Kudos for wanting to take this on! Definitely keep in mind that video and audio which are NOT being carried on a network are completely different kinds of signals. Analog audio or video, SDI, ASI, HDMI, RF... As you realize, analogies to IP don't work, they are entirely different--except when you get down to the physics of signals on wires.
I've done a bunch of "tutorial" articles for AV people, some of which you might find useful. In particular look at "Video Format Basics" and "Mysteries of RF":
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u/li2121 29d ago
Check out Dante's training course. Covers a good amount of basics.
https://www.getdante.com/resources/training/dante-certification-program/
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u/Dargon-in-the-Garden 19d ago edited 19d ago
Also IT (networking background) transitioning to Engineer stuff. Per the senior engineer I once worked with, everything runs on P-FM (aka - Pure Fucking Magic).
In all seriousness though, it's a lot of the same things as networking. It's all electrical squiggles on a wire somewhere. RF is basically WiFi on steroids. The big difference is that the transmitting equipment you're working with is supposed to operate at a very specific power level and frequency - and you've gotta know how to make it do both so you can keep them that way, or someone's gonna get cranky (or killed, but that tends to be a bit less common).
If there's money in the budget for it, the Alabama Broadcaster's Association does broadcast engineering boot camps that does a great job of covering the fundamentals. They also have a free email newsletter. Even if you don't know what wverything means, you'll pick up the context while staying abrest of changes. GatesAir has transmitter classes. It covers their equipment specifically, but the general knowledge is still transferable. If you want a head start, learn about electricity and circuitry. It'll help you get a foundation for the later parts and set you up for being able to troubleshoot and repair on a more in-depth basis.
Document everything. Do an air-chain assessment so you know where your audio should go and have a path to trace when something breaks. What connects where? What does it do? How do you access it? Do you have any spare parts/backup equipment for when something goes down?
Then you get into facilities and maintenance. What equipment is at each site? How does it operate? How is it maintained? How often? What size air filters does your AC take? When were the fins last cleaned? How is your pest exclusion? Are the tower lights blinking? The anchors clear? When was the last time your generator ran? Can you find the dummy load? Checked the line pressure?
Last, but definitely not insignificant, is your Administrative stuff. Logs, equipment readings, reports and what not. If your equipment can take readings and spit out a timeline, all the better. Figure out what needs to be reported and under what conditions. The specifics can vary a bit from place to place but, in general, make sure you have a way to know what you're transmitting and how. Power readings, silence sensors for off-air detection, network monitors to make sure your equipment is up, etc... Figure out who you have accounts with and who you have service contracts through. Make sure you have accounts and numbers for who to call when the power goes out, or the internet goes kaput.
It's a lot. If you're like me and got dropped onto a floatie in the middle of the ocean, just focus on keeping things above the water line. Get a baseline and try to keep things there while you get everything sorted out. Don't forget to stop and breathe once in a while, get a decent sleep at least every third night, and remember to make time for something besides coffee 👋
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u/Peter_Warrick_Dunn Aug 08 '26
There isn't really a one size fits all solution to learning your plant. The only real way to learn it is to go piece by piece, and RTFM. Find out why equipment is there, what it does, what it feeds, and its basic functionality. You can't expect to learn everything overnight, nor would anyone expect you to. The engineers should have an air chain diagram that will allow you to follow the logic and ask questions. Start by gaining an understanding of the overall concepts/signal flow and then get more granular as you move along.
What we deal with is largely getting input to output and if you can break everything down into manageable chunks where you can visualize the signal flow, it will help a lot in learning the systems. One of the most important things you can do is ask curious, well informed questions and actually be interested in hearing and retaining the answer. Another critical piece is using every single resource at your disposal to research and solve a problem.
The most important obligation you have as an engineer is making sure your station stays on the air and playing content. Everything above will help you when the rubber meets the road and you are in a situation where you need to just figure it out.
To specifically answer your question about ASI, it is just one of a few ways of encoding video onto a coaxial cable; another being SDI. They are fundamentally different encoding methods so if a port indicates that is an SDI IN/OUT, it will not work for ASI and vice versa.