The term of the present council of BES is ending shortly and through this Newsletter I would like to thank all of you for providing the support to the current council during various activities in the past 2 years. The executive along with the council members have tried their level best to work in a transparent manner for the growth of the society. Chairmen of various BES committees and BES local chapters have also poured in their best efforts in this direction.
Despite the worldwide industry recession BES Expo 2010 the 16th International Conference and Exhibition on Terrestrial and Satellite Broadcasting has gone quite well. The conference was attended by around 1100 delegates from media & industry and the exhibition also witnessed enhanced participation of exhibitors and visitors. I would like to congratulate and compliment various council members and committee chairmen who have worked hard to make the event a grand success.
The broadcasters in our country will be facing another challenge in October' 2010 when the country hosts Common Wealth Games. We are all gearing up and I take this opportunity to give my best wishes to all those who are directly and indirectly involved in this activity.

Broadcasters in India are gearing up for the next challenge, the Common Wealth Games coverage to be held at New Delhi, India during Oct. 2010. The event will witness many technical marvels during the show, which involve state of the art equipments and skills. Broadcast Engineering Society (India) has always been providing the platform to the broadcast engineers of our country for interaction and introduction to new technologies prevailing in the world. And it has been an endeavor to bring the latest developments in the broadcast world to be showcase at BES Expo, every year. Preparation for BES Expo 2010, scheduled in February. are in full swing and various committees are working with full dedication to make the show successful.

2009 inherited the legacy of the challenges for broadcasters. The 26/11 incident at Mumbai, the live relays of the commando operations on TV channels, had steered a serious debate about the codes and ethics of broadcasting. Nevertheless, broadcasting has proved equally potent during such demanding situations. Some of the FM stations at Mumbai and a few TV channels came out with bold programmes to unite the people of Mumbai and our country in their Fight against Terror.

This first issue of BES Review from the new BES council is being presented to you with variety of articles from Radio, Television, Research and Industry. Apart from technical articles on Radio and TV News automation, Role of Radio in disaster management & relief, Role of media in education, Digital Right Management, this issue brings to you information in regular columns such as What's New, Website Review and View Point.

This issue of BES Review is focused on the coverage of the recently held BES EXPO-2008 event at Pragati Maidan. Extensive Reports on the Exhibition and various topics discussed in the conference have been included. To enrich the reports, number of photographs have also been included. I hope readers will find these reports useful and interesting.

The July-December issue is in your hands. It is dedicated to '80 years of Broadcasting in India'. The articles received from some of the veterans in the field of Broadcasting narrate the history of eighty years of Broadcasting in India. I am quite confident that readers will find it very interesting.

Broadcast Engineering Society (India), which has recently entered its 21^st year, is the only Society of the broadcast engineering professionals in India and has always stood to project and protect interest of the broadcast engineers at National and International forum.

Airwaves have been an important medium for extending information, entertainment and education to Indian masses in the last 80 years. As on date, the broadcasting sector is a major component of entertainment industry in India with revenues of US $ 2 Billion in 2007. As per a recent study, the Indian Television Industry stands at over US $ 0.9 Billion today and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22% to US $ 2.4 Billion by 2011.

The year 2007 is poised to be an eventful year for Indian Broadcasting. st Implementation of CAS from 1 January has triggered a fierce competition between the Cable and DTH operators. The viewer is at cross roads, craving for unbiased information about all the systems.

It gives me immense pleasure to present this issue of BES review to you, the first from the new council. Past three months have witnessed, apart from BES Elections, World Telecom Day celebrations by BES HQ & various chapters, lectures & special programmes at select Chapters,

The availability of suitable spectrum and choice of cellular or broadcast overlay are the major issues to be addressed. An update on the subject, provided in the Review may be interesting.