Member Profile: Kent Walker, Qualcomm

Posted on April 2, 2014 in ATSC News

Kent Walker is the Vice President of Technology at Qualcomm Inc. He stays connected to the ATSC through his work leading Qualcomm’s evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) team in corporate research and development.

Walker earned both his bachelor’s and master’s engineering degrees (and a certificate in acoustical engineering) at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  He started his career in the Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) satellite communications division during the late 1970s, when cable distribution transitioned to satellite.

Later, Walker went on to work on the original VideoCipher team at Linkabit that ultimately merged with General Instrument. It was there in the 1990s that he first was introduced to ATSC as he worked on aspects of MPEG2 digital video compression technology, as it was integrated into the A/53 ATSC Digital TV Standard. Walker also spent time with M/A-Com and Harris Corporation.

Bringing such as broad background to the ATSC’s standards efforts, Walker was asked about what’s the most beneficial part of ATSC membership. “Working together is key,” he says. “The ATSC provides a unique forum where the wireless mobile segment can work in collaboration with broadcasters.”

At Qualcomm, Walker provides technical leadership in the MediaFLO technologies division (technology developed for transmitting audio, video and data to portable devices).  “Many aspects of the eMBMS design will be potentially very beneficial to ATSC 3.0,” says Walker.  “ATSC 3.0 becomes even more crucial to the potential integration of TV into the fabric of mobile wireless development.”

Walker is active in the ATSC 3.0 process, and the ATSC benefits from his fertile mind and keen insights across various industry stakeholder groups.  He’s earned a number of patents and has led teams responsible for the development of analog and digital video satellite receivers, audio signal processors, video scrambling and many others.

He credits his involvement in streaming media to his long-standing interest in music and audio.

Posted in ATSC News