CBA is proud to announce the two engineers who have  received bursaries to visit one of the world’s largest international conference for the professional broadcast industry, in the Netherlands. Competition for the popular bursary was even stronger this year, with many more meeting the main criteria, and little to separate the candidates in the shortlist.

Congratulations to Solomone Finau and Bright Nkaka, who will be attending the IBC in Amsterdam from September 12 to 17.

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Solomone Finau

Solomone Finau (left) is chief engineer at Tonga Broadcasting Commission. He joined the commission in 1995. Since taking over the role of chief engineer in 2009, Finau has been moving the broadcasting systems at TBC towards digital.  He has developed ICT infrastructure to move from the linear or real-time analogue format to nonlinear file-based systems.

He has technical qualifications from across Asia-Pacific; Malaysia, Singapore, India and Fiji.

Tonga was the only Pacific island country selected by ITU for the digital broadcasting roadmap project. Tonga’s government has set next year as the date for analogue signal switch-off. Finau will continue to play a lead role in digital transition for the country.

Finau said that visiting the IBC will enable him to make the right choices of suitable equipment for digital migration appropriate for Tonga.

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Bright Nkaka

Bright Nkaka (left) is a principal engineer in planning and development at the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation. He joined in ZNBC in 1999 as an electronics technologist. Bright is in charge of planning and development for both TV and radio. He is currently involved in upgrading the analogue TV studio to a server-based digital platform in preparation for digital migration.

Bright is also involved in replacing analogue TV transmission with DVB-T2, and a two-phase expansion of FM radio transmission to rural parts of Zambia.

He feels that the benefit of visiting IBC is exposure to the latest trends in broadcasting – which will enable him to make informed decisions for the broadcaster when drawing up technical plans for upgrades – improving output quality and operational efficiency.