About Meintel, Sgrignoli and Wallace
Bill Meintel
Partner/Technical Consultant - (540) 428-2308
Bill Meintel holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and has 36 years experience in the communications field. After graduation, Bill was employed by the Federal Communications Commission, first as a field engineer and then in the Mass Media Bureau’s Policy and Rules Division. While in Policy and Rules, Bill served as the division’s computer expert and directed the development of several major computer modeling projects related to spectrum utilization and planning.
He entered private practice in 1989, and has been heavily involved in technical consulting, computer modeling and spectrum planning for the broadcast industry. During that period he co-authored a report for the NAB on spectrum requirements for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), created a plan for independent television broadcasting for Romania and has been extensively involved in spectrum planning for digital television (DTV) in both the US and internationally. Bill is a member of IEEE and Tau Beta Pi.
Gary Sgrignoli
Partner/Technical Consultant - (980) 225-7620
Gary Sgrignoli is a principal engineer and founder of Sgrignoli Consulting, a firm that he established in 2004. Gary received his BSEE and MSEE from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1975 and 1977, respectively. He worked as a design engineer in the R&D department of Zenith Electronics Corporation for 27 years before leaving to become a consulting engineer.
He has worked in the R&D design area on television “ghost” canceling, cable TV scrambling, and cable TV two-way data systems before turning to digital television transmission systems. Since 1991, Gary has been extensively involved in the VSB transmission system design, its prototype implementation, the ATTC lab tests in Alexandria, VA, and both ACATS field tests in Charlotte, NC. He holds 35 U.S. patents, and is the recipient of the IEEE Matti S. Siukloa award.
Gary was involved with the DTV Station Project in Washington DC, helping to develop DTV RF test plans. He has also been involved with numerous television broadcast stations around the country, training them for DTV field testing and data analysis, and participated in numerous DTV over-the-air demonstrations with the Grand Alliance and the ATSC, both in the U.S. and abroad.
In addition to publishing technical papers and giving presentations at various conferences, he has held numerous digital VSB transmission system seminars around the country since 1998, and was named the 2005 SBE Educator of the year.
Dennis Wallace
Partner/Technical Consultant - (202) 251-7589
Dennis Wallace has an extensive background in Digital Television Systems. Dennis managed all the Laboratory RF Testing of the Grand Alliance ATSC HDTV System, having served as the RF Systems Engineer at the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC). He managed test plans, configurations, and operations for Grand Alliance Testing and several Datacasting Systems. Prior to joining ATTC, Dennis held positions in Field Operations Engineering, Applications Engineering, and was Product Manager for two Television transmitter manufacturers.
In July 1997, Dennis founded Wallace & Associates a broadcast engineering and consulting firm specializing in Digital Television, RF Propagation Measurements, Spectrum Policy issues, and Technical Consulting. His clients include major broadcast groups, The DTV Station Project, ATTC, Trade Associations, and both Professional and Consumer Electronics Manufacturers.
He has worked on the Broadcast side, as well, holding Chief Engineer and Operations Manager positions with both radio and television stations.
Dennis has authored several papers on the topics of Digital Television transmission and results of testing of the DTV systems, which have been published in the IEEE Transactions and other publications. Dennis has been a presenter at the IEEE Broadcast Technology Symposium, NAB, and several SBE Conferences, as well as providing DTV presentations for SCTE and IEEE Chapters.
In 1999, Mr. Wallace was awarded the prestigious Matti S. Siukola award by the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society.
Mr. Wallace is a Certified Broadcast Television Engineer by the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He is also a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, SMPTE, an Associate member of the Federal Communications Bar Association, and is active on several industry standards committees and the ATSC.