Bits By the Bay 2026 Day 1 Agenda

Bits by the Bay 2026Meet the Speakers · May 20–21, 2026 · Rod-N-Reel Hotel, Chesapeake Beach, MD

Ed GroganAdvanced Technology Engineer (Retired)U.S. Department of DefenseEdward T. Grogan holds a BSEE and MSEE from Drexel University and is retired from the DoD after 43 years working on advanced technologies. He was one of the lead DoD engineers who helped define progressive HDTV as the format for both DoD and industry. He continues working as a contractor in a specialized technology field he first introduced to the government. In his spare time, Ed supports local community and school theatre productions by providing sound and video — now 4K HDR — to educational environments. He is a member of HPA, the Visual Effects Society, and a life member of SMPTE.

James SnyderDigital Media Engineering ConsultantJames Snyder is an Emmy Award-winning consultant specializing in digital media engineering, data and media archiving, preservation, production, project management, and systems design. His 45+ years of experience includes 14 years as Senior Systems Administrator for the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) at the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, and 2½ years as Senior Design Engineer for the NAVCC project. His responsibilities encompassed all audio, video, and film preservation and digitization technologies, including long-term data preservation planning, technology services to the U.S. Congress, and standards liaison with media content producers worldwide. Previous work spans commercial, non-commercial, and government organizations including PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, Reuters, Discovery, Turner Engineering, and multiple U.S. Federal agencies. He has contributed to the ATSC digital television standard, the HD Radio standard, the AXF Archive eXchange Format (SMPTE 2034), and the first consumer commercial HDTV satellite service. Snyder participates in SMPTE standards work and contributes to the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.

Jason PaquinChief Executive OfficerChesapeake Systems (CHESA)Jason Paquin is the CEO of CHESA, a systems integrator and services provider specializing in media workflows, storage, asset management, and broadcast solutions. His career began in audio engineering, providing a hands-on technical foundation in media production. At CHESA, he has served as Engineer, Project Manager, Director of Professional Services, and CTO before becoming CEO. Under his leadership, CHESA has grown from a primary focus on post-production into a provider of full-scale broadcast and enterprise media solutions. Jason is deeply committed to community building through CHESA's regional media user groups, fostering continuous education and collaboration around industry trends and technical challenges.

Jason QuinnDirector of Engineering & Chief Technology OfficerNew Mexico PBSJason Quinn leads the engineering team responsible for maintaining 35 mountaintop translator sites, as well as NMPBS facilities on Sandia Crest, in Santa Fe, and in Albuquerque. His team also provides PBS programming delivery and engineering support for Navajo Nation Television. Jason is currently overseeing the expansion of ATSC 3.0 across New Mexico, with additional NextGen TV translators coming online in the coming months. He chairs the New Mexico State Emergency Communications Committee, leading efforts to modernize the state's aging emergency alert distribution network, and is developing a statewide shared engineering support program for all 15 public media television and radio stations in New Mexico.

Jim DoyleVice President, Rocket Surgery Creative & Professional ServicesRoss VideoJim leads an elite team of managers, artists, developers, and researchers who deliver cutting-edge solutions to Ross clients around the globe. He drives the long-term strategic vision for the company's Creative and Managed Services business, partnering closely with Sales & Marketing teams and working directly with customers to turn bold ideas into real-world results. Doyle has built a career at the intersection of creativity, technology, and operational excellence — designing compelling broadcast graphics, scaling creative services, and pioneering efficient graphics workflows that have become industry standards. Prior to Ross, he served as General Manager of Media General's centralized graphics operation MGFX, and as Director of Design at NBCUniversal. He holds a B.A. in Visual Communication from UT Austin, an Executive MBA from TCU, and Master's Certificates in Marketing Strategy and AI Strategy from Cornell University.

Jing ZhouRegional Account Manager – U.S. East & Public SectorsHarmonic, Inc.Jing Zhou is an expert in broadcast technology who drives Harmonic's definition of key broadcast-related product requirements, positioning, and competitive analysis — helping build a unique and distinguished vision for the company. He is also actively promoting market awareness and adoption of ATSC 3.0 technologies. Jing brings over 20 years of experience in broadcast engineering and IT technology planning, project management, systems design, acceptance testing, and user training. His tenure includes more than 11 years at Warner Bros. Discovery, where he managed global Automation Playout systems and Business Continuity Planning, and 8 years at encoding manufacturers where he led solution trials, managed complex projects, and developed technical strategies. He holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Joel LovellSenior Storage Solutions ArchitectSpectraLogicJoel Lovell specializes in exabyte-scale data infrastructure for high-performance computing and media & entertainment environments. He designs large-scale archive and data lifecycle architectures that bridge object storage, tape, cloud, and active production workflows, with deep expertise in long-term retention, data durability, and cost-optimized storage strategy. His work focuses on helping organizations manage massive data growth across AI pipelines, media archives, backup ecosystems, and large-scale content repositories. Joel regularly collaborates with enterprise customers and engineering teams on solutions for HPC, AI, broadcast, post-production, and enterprise archive modernization.

John MailhotSenior VP, Product ManagementImagine CommunicationsJohn Mailhot has worked in the field of digital high-definition television systems since 1990, beginning with system design and algorithms for the AT&T-Zenith team during the ACATS competition, then as technical lead for the digital HDTV Grand Alliance encoder at Lucent Technologies. He subsequently held engineering manager and general manager roles at Lucent Digital Video, Aastra Digital Video, and the Harris Broadcast Video Networking Group — leading well-known products including FlexiCoder, VideoRunner, NetVX, Selenio MCP, and Selenio Network Processor (SNP). Today, Mailhot is Senior VP of Product Management for Playout and Infrastructure at Imagine Communications. He holds dual bachelor's degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from MIT and has been recognized as a SMPTE Fellow for his work as editor of SMPTE 2110. He also serves on the boards of the Video Services Forum (VSF) and the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA).

Karl KuhnFounder · SMPTE FellowSherwood Insights LLCKarl Kuhn founded Sherwood Insights LLC to provide technology training, leadership coaching, and mentoring for corporate clients and individuals seeking new levels of success. During his 45+ year video career, Karl held leadership positions at major video technology providers, including Principal Solutions Architect and R&D Inventor. Raised to SMPTE Fellow in 2015, he holds three U.S. patents and one Japanese patent covering In-service Testing of Digital Broadcast Video. Karl is a contributing author to the 11th edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook (Chapter 2.9: Digital Video Standards and Practices), a past SMPTE Eastern Region Governor, past SMPTE North American Sections Director, and a Certified PMP through the Project Management Institute at George Washington University.

Kyle SuessCo-FounderAmira LabsKyle Suess is the Co-Founder of Amira Labs, where he builds AI software that helps TV, radio, and streaming/OTT teams detect, understand, and resolve media issues in real time. He works closely with Tier 1 broadcasters and international media operators across master control, engineering, and operations to deploy secure, low-latency solutions for monitoring, compliance, language identification, and QC automation across live streams and VOD for on-prem, cloud, and hybrid workflows. Kyle is especially focused on making AI usable for engineers: locally runnable, reliable at scale, and aligned with the realities of 24/7 media operations.

Ling Ling SunVice President of TechnologyMaryland Public Television (MPT)Ling Ling Sun oversees the day-to-day operations of broadcast distribution, technical operations, and information technology services at MPT. Prior to joining MPT, she served for more than a decade as Chief Technology Officer at Nebraska Public Media. Sun currently serves as a director on the ATSC Board and as Chair of the NAB TV Technology Committee. She has served two consecutive terms as Chair of the PBS Engineering and Technology Advisory Committee, and served on the PBS Interconnection Committee. Sun also led the NAB Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology (BEIT) Conference Program Committee in 2023 and 2024.

Lynn ClaudySenior Vice President of TechnologyNational Association of Broadcasters (NAB)Lynn Claudy joined NAB in 1988 as a staff engineer and has held positions of Director of Advanced Engineering and Technology and Vice President before assuming his current role in 1995. Prior to NAB, he was employed by Hoppmann Corporation, a communications systems integration firm, and served as a part-time Professor of Physics at American University. Lynn is a member, current Vice Chair, and former Chair of the ATSC Board of Directors. He holds a B.A. in music from Oberlin College, a B.S. in electrical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Nick LanganStaff WriterRadio WorldNick Langan joined Radio World's editorial team in 2024. A member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers' Chapter 15, he has a lifelong passion for long-distance FM radio propagation and is an adjunct faculty member in the Computer Science department at Villanova University. He is also the creator of RadioLand, an FM radio location mobile app completed for his Villanova graduate thesis. Nick lives in the southern New Jersey Pine Barrens with his Airedale Terrier, Judy.

Skip PizziOwner & PrincipalSkip Pizzi Media Consultant LLCSkip Pizzi is a media technology consultant based in the Philadelphia area. He has previously held staff positions at NPR, Microsoft, and the NAB, and has authored several books — most recently A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers, 4th edition. Skip serves as Vice Chair of ATSC Technology Group 3 (which developed the ATSC 3.0 standard) and chairs ATSC's Brazil Implementation Team. He represents Fraunhofer at ATSC, and LG Electronics at both ATSC and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and was Project Manager for the NextGen TV transition in New York City. Skip was the 2017 recipient of ATSC's Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award and holds a B.A. from Georgetown University.

So VangVice President, Emerging TechnologiesONE Media TechnologiesSo Vang is responsible for engineering elements of ONE Media's overall deployment of Next Generation broadcasting and related technologies, with direct oversight of the ONE Media Labs. Prior to this role, he was Vice President of Advanced Technology at NAB, leading strategy and technology development for ATSC 3.0's interactive platform deployment. He was a key facilitator among broadcasters, consumer electronics companies, and equipment vendors supporting the launch of NextGen broadcast nationwide — managing the first NextGen TV Home Gateway, advanced targeted advertising, usage measurement, interoperability testing, and the conformance test suite for Next Gen TV products. Previously, he was Vice President of Advanced Media Platforms at CableLabs, responsible for the OpenCable project.

Tom PflaumFounder & Principal ConsultantTPFL ConsultingTom Pflaum is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience in the broadcast and media industry, specializing in video processing, cloud-native workflows, and emerging technologies. With deep expertise across the full media lifecycle — production, post-production, distribution, and supply chain — Tom bridges complex technical challenges with business outcomes. At Telestream, he spent more than a decade building and leading global solutions architecture teams, driving the transition from on-premise video processing to SaaS platforms and managing product roadmaps for Vantage and Diva. As founder of TPFL Consulting, Tom partners with media companies to design and implement cloud and AI-powered workflows that streamline media management, production, and distribution.

Tricia McRaeNational Sales ManagerLink ElectronicsTricia McRae has more than 20 years of experience in sales and customer service in the broadcast technology industry. Fluent in English, Spanish, and French, she is experienced in assisting Link Electronics customers throughout the entirety of the purchasing process and beyond. Tricia brings a global perspective to accessibility and captioning technology, helping broadcasters navigate the evolving landscape of compliance requirements and viewer engagement.

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Speaker Bios