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ABU LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Peter Senger, Deutsche Welle, Germany

2008 Lifetime Achievement Award

The 2008 ABU Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Peter Senger, Chairman, Digital Radio Mondiale, recognising his commitment and outstanding contribution to the development of digital radio, benefiting broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific and other regions of the world.

John Bigeni, DVB Asia

2009 Lifetime Achievement Award

John Bigeni was presented with the 2009 ABU Lifetime Achievement Award on 10 March 2009.

The presentation took take place in connection with the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2009 in Kuala Lumpur and the award recognised his commitment and contribution to the development of digital TV broadcasting in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr Bigeni is the Asia-Pacific Representative of the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB).

DVB, a consortium of over 270 industry players and others in over 35 countries, is committed to developing open technical standards for delivery of digital television and data services worldwide.

An Australian, Mr Bigeni has held several key positions in his career including the Director of Engineering at SBS-Australia and Head of Engineering at ABC-TV. He has involved himself in many industry engineering activities and was the chairman of the Broadcast Industry Technical Advisory Group within Australia.

At the International level, Mr Bigeni has had a long close association with the ABU, where he became the Chairman of its Engineering Committee, a position he held for number of years till 1996. He is currently involved in promoting the DVB set of standards in the region and has seen these standards universally adopted.

John Bigeni passed away in July 2021.

Joan Warner, Commercial Radio Australia

2010 Lifetime Achievement Award

The 2010 ABU Lifetime Achievement Award was presented on 9 March to Joan Warner, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Radio Australia, in recognition of  her outstanding commitment and contribution to the development of digital radio broadcasting in the Asia-Pacific Region.

The presentation was made at the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)  from 9 to 11 March.

Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) represents 99 percent of all commercial radio broadcasters in the country. Ms Warner was responsible for the planning, rollout and implementation of digital radio for commercial radio broadcasters across Australia.

Joan Warner played a leading role in bringing together both the Australian commercial and public broadcasters to achieve an all of industry DAB+ switch on.   Ms Warner’s lobbying of the Federal  Government  resulted  in  securing Band III spectrum for Australian broadcasters and radio industry management of the allocated spectrum.   Australia now has more than 55 digital radio stations on air with the signal covering nearly 60 percent of the Australian population.  Successful implementation in Australia has provided a new impetus to digital radio in the Asia-Pacific region.

As CEO she also oversees the whole of industry marketing campaign, Radio Codes of Practice, audience survey contracts and industry copyright agreements. Ms Warner is responsible for the annual National Commercial Radio Conference, Siren Creative Awards and Australian Commercial Radio Awards.

Ms Warner has worked at senior executive levels in the private and government sectors and holds four degrees including a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Education.

 

Dr Jonghwa Lee, Korean Broadcasting System
2011 Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr Jong Hwa Lee, Executive Director of the Future Media Strategy Department at the Korean Broadcasting System was the recipient of the 2011 ABU Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr Lee has worked for KBS, the country’s national broadcaster, since 1982 when he became Researcher for broadcasting technology at the KBS Technical Research Institute (KBS-TRI) and then its Principal Researcher two years later.

In 1999, Dr Lee was appointed Vice Executive Director of the KBS Engineering Administration Department.  In 2003, he was named Senior Researcher, KBS-TRI and later appointed Executive Director of the Institute’s Multimedia Department.

Dr Lee’s key contribution to KBS and the broadcasting industry is developing and enhancing the T-DMB, a digital radio transmission technology, as the world’s first model for mobile multimedia broadcasting.

As well as putting T-DMB successfully on the market, Dr Lee has contributed to the development of other new media systems such as Web TV portal and smart phone services.

Dr Lee notes that the development of smart media services based on new technologies needs a pathfinder, and KBS has gladly taken up that role.

With its headquarters at Yeouido in Seoul, KBS is Korea’s leading public service broadcaster and the most influential media organisation in the country.  KBS regards it a core duty to reflect the diverse voices of Korea through the distinctiveness of its programmes.  It operates three TV, seven radio and four DMB channels, funded both by a licence fee and by income from advertisements.

KBS launched the country’s first radio broadcasting service in 1927 and the first television broadcasting in 1961.

 

Doan Việt Trung, Voice of Vietnam

2012 Lifetime Achievement Award

Doan Viet Trung, Vice President of Vietnam’s national radio service, The Voice of Vietnam was the recipient of the 2012 ABU Lifetime Achievement Award.

During his long, illustrious career, Mr Trung played a key role in developing and expanding VOV’s radio and television broadcasting network, including medium wave, shortwave, FM and TV. Over the past five years, VOV’s domestic coverage has increased to reach 99.5 percent of the population.

As an engineer and high level manager, he has also taken crucial responsibility in applying advanced technologies to programme content production.

Mr Trung has played an important role in introducing new technologies and new media at VOV, including visual radio (VOVTV); a traffic channel (VOV Traffic) and the webcasting of VOV News. He is Editor in Chief of VOV Online.

He has also provided consultancy services and technical support to the national radio broadcasters in Vietnam’s neighbours, Lao National Radio (LNR) and National Radio of Kampuchea (RNK).

Mr Trung’s responsibilities have included researching ways of using technical facilities to improve the quality of broadcasting and optimise energy and cost savings. He helped implement the regional DRM trial (2005) and HD radio trial (2009) in Vietnam.

He has enjoyed a long engagement with the ABU and has helped organise a number of international meetings including the ABU Technical Committee Meeting in 2005 and the Asia Media Summit in 2008.

 

 

Erina Tobing, LPP Televisi Republik Indonesia

2013 Lifetime Achievement Award

Erina Tobing, Director of Engineering at Televisi Republik Indonesia, TVRI, was awarded the 2013 ABU Lifetime Achievement Award.

During a distinguished career, Ms Tobing has spent more than 30 years with TVRI and made a valuable contribution to the broadcasting industry in Indonesia and the region.

She was appointed Director of Engineering in 2012 for a five-year term – the second time she has held the position. She is responsible for the operation and maintenance of TVRI’s entire network, including its IT development, and supervises more than 1,500 technicians and engineers.

The production chain consists of 24 regional stations and the transmission network with 376 transmitters, in addition to microwave and satellite uplink/downlink facilities for the distribution signal.

Ms Tobing’s responsibilities include utilising the transmitter towers and other related facilities to create revenue for TVRI.

She has had extensive experience as a broadcaster since joining TVRI in 1982, including several years in programme production. She was Director of Engineering from 2003 to 2006, after which she was appointed Advisor to TVRI’s Board of Directors on engineering matters. She held the position until taking up her present post last year.

Ms Tobing holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado. She has been closely involved in the migration to digital TV in the Asia- Pacific region, and is active in national and international professional organisations, including the ABU, where she served three consecutive terms on the Technical Bureau.

The broadcasting industry in the region has benefitted greatly from her contributions.

 

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