Established in 2007, Infinity Park is a municipally-owned multi-use sports and events complex. A world-class rugby stadium lies at the center, serving as the home field of the Glendale Raptors Rugby Football Club. Infinity Park is also the home of the Serevi Rugbytown Sevens Tournament which takes place in August each year and attracts teams from around the world to compete for a winner-take-all $10,000 cash prize.

The May meeting started with refreshments followed by an introduction to the facility with seating in the stands. Wayne Brenengen provided the introduction and then conducted tours of the video production facilities built around two NewTek Tricasters and a NewTek 3 Play replay server. He also discussed the method of streaming rugby matches to a worldwide network.

SMPTE-SBE48.org met at the Park Hill Golf Club to conclude another successful year for our combined SMPTE section and SBE chapter.

At this year’s luncheon we honored one of our members, Don Hayford, who last month retired from KUSA-TV after 33 years with the station. Prior to KUSA Don worked in radio including a stint in Breckenridge, CO. Our group was pleased to recognize Don for his long time commitment to Denver broadcasting.

We would like to thank ZeeVee Incorporated and Paul Beckelheimer as a new sustaining member and sponsor of the December luncheon. Thanks as well to Harmonic and Fred Ramsey and RF Specialties and Jim Schoedler who also sponsored this event.

Cris has been with Crawford Broadcasting for 30 years as Director of Engineering for the company’s multi-station operations. He has served on the board of SBE and as national Education Chair. During his tenure as Education Chair he kicked off the SBE Online University. Cris has given presentations to SBE Chapter 48, most notably one on the relocation of KBRT-AM from Catalina Island to a mountaintop site in Orange County, which Cris has described as the most challenging and rewarding project of his career.

Following the dinner SMPTE Rocky Mountain Section chairman Jim Schoedler gave a short illustrated talk on Super Bowl XLIX. Three of the Denver Broncos NFL Game Day Coordinators traveled to the University of Phoenix in Glendale, AZ for this year’s game.

Jim spent 10 days working at the Pro Bowl, NFL Media Center, and Super Bowl. He also discussed some of the ways in which the venue and the events differed from the previous year in New York and New Jersey.

The evening’s guest speaker was Jenny Gentry, VP of Finance and Legal Affairs for Colorado Public Radio.

She described how CPR went from a single college-owned radio station to a statewide network, while also recounting the evolution of programming on public radio stations in general. A lively question and answer session followed her talk.

photos by Tom Goldberg

Abstract:
On February 28, 2013 the “switch was thrown” and AM radio station KBRT went on the air from its new site at Oak Flat in the Santa Ana Mountains of Southern California. Formerly located off the California coast on Catalina Island, after the switch the city of license became Costa Mesa, California.

Cris Alexander talked about the history of the station, why it left its resort home, the technical, regulatory and management challenges associated with this multi-year project, and the features of the new state-of-the-art installation, illustrated with many photos.

It’s not every day that broadcast engineers get to build a new AM station, so attendees very much appreciated this presentation.

Refreshments of Sandwiches, Chips, Cookies, and Soft Drinks were provided.