broadcast engineering are merging, albeit at a slow pace," observes Shane Pechacek, an old-type broadcast engineer who is making the transition to the new IT arena. "I started as a production systems engineer; then, about 4yrs into it, I saw that equipment was changing to use more commodity hardware rather than proprietary, and were becoming more IT based. I just finished my degree in software architecture and I can say I am really glad I went that route. I am now the only one in our company that knows both the broadcast and IT side and it makes my job A LOT EASIER being able to do that. Right now, a consultant was hired to look at how the industry is moving in technology and whether or not to merge the IT and broadcast departments (both our director of IT and engineering are retiring soon). Hard to say right now what they are going to do, but it kind of makes sense to start making that transition now rather than later."
The consensus seems to be that the broadcast engineer must adapt to the new world the way it stands or go the way of the dinosaurs. The IT director must have an ample background in analog theory as well as its digital counterpart of the future. They must be a mixture or hybrid of both in order to survive. Only this new position will continue in the vast global marketplace of today and tomorrow.