With Repack In The Past, Dielectric Reorganizes RF Team

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With the spectrum repack fully in the rearview mirror, Dielectric has promoted its TV Antenna Manufacturing Manager to Director of RF Systems and Components.


The new role is part of the company’s shift in strategy to better serve broadcasters in the post-repack world.

Earning the promotion is Mike Spugnardi, who applied his extensive Dielectric experience
to lead all strategic repack initiatives around inventory control, production planning and
maximizing capacity.

“His successful strategy ensured that more than 1,000 repack customers were transitioned to new channel assignments within very tight timelines,” Dielectric says.

Now, Spugnardi is poised to bring that same strategic focus to the company’s RF Systems
and Components division. This includes new product designs that reflect changing
customer needs in today’s reduced UHF spectrum in the United States, as well as making
products more efficient for international TV and radio customers.

“Mike’s emphasis on the finer details was a primary reason we were so well-prepared for
repack, which was arguably the busiest period of Dielectric’s nearly 80 years of existence,”
said Cory Edwards, Director of OEM, Distributor and Southeast Asia Sales at Dielectric. “He is now leading the charge with an emphasis on new products and existing product redesigns, particularly around our UHF TV filters.”

Edwards says many of these changes optimize Dielectric’s bandpass filters for Channels 14 to 36, which represent the post-repack UHF band in the United States and much of the global broadcast market. In addition to redesigning existing filters, the company is adding models to serve increasingly common power levels. This includes 5kw and 22kw models that will allow Dielectric to provide more efficient single-filter designs for these power level requirements, while providing additional headroom to accommodate the higher peak powers of ATSC 3.0.

Spugnardi will lead a newly expanded team of senior RF engineers and mechanical
designers, which Edwards says will “strengthen our bench for a new RF era.” He is also
leading the charge on developing new internal technical resources.