Ali Dernaika2024 Lechner Award Recipient

2024 Lechner Award honoree Ali Dernaika serves as Co-Chair of ATSC Specialist Group S43, with his work revolving around broadcast core technologies and the formulation of Broadcast Core Network standard.

“Broadcast Core Network is a central technology for developing datacasting businesses. You can think of it like the ‘AirBnB’ of renting spectrum capacity. Broadcasters may have some available bandwidth some of the time – like a room in a house that’s not always in use. And enterprise customers may wish to temporarily use this capacity for sending files, media or other data – like booking a room. Broadcast Core Network is the platform that connects broadcasters who have available spectrum with enterprise customers seeking a cost-effective way to distribute data. But that description is just the tip of the iceberg. With Broadcast Core Network, the world of broadcast collided with the networking world. Working on this new concept, Ali took on the role of educator, patiently helping ATSC members understand not just the big picture, but also the details of how core networks function, what they do, and how a successful platform could be designed – not to mention greatly expanding everyone’s acronym vocabulary! Before his work, Broadcast Core Network was a foreign concept, and now it’s becoming part of the vernacular among our membership and beyond,”

– Madeleine Noland, ATSC President

Dernaika is a senior solution architect, specializing in digital video services within HPE’s Communications Technology Group. His expertise has been instrumental in shaping TV service architectures and deployments, encompassing the entire spectrum from linear TV to interactive services across multiple systems. Presently, his focus centers on driving digital transformation through the adoption of cutting-edge IT and virtualization technologies, harnessing the power of IT cloud solutions.