A welcome surprise awaits visitors to the Society of Broadcast Engineers webpage: a modern, sophisticated, redesigned website — with a cheery bouncing SBE logo — that is both pleasing to the eye and easier to navigate.
The redesign includes new drop-down items that break key SBE areas into easy-to navigate silos, from a section on education to one on certification to another on membership. A scrolling layout in the news and headlines section highlights personnel announcements, scholarship recipients, regulatory deadlines and updates on the organization’s national convention.
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The catalyst for the new website redesign came from the last SBE strategic planning effort held in 2018, said Chriss Scherer, member communications director for the Society of Broadcast Engineers. Previously, updates and enhancements had been added in here and there, which resulted in more workarounds as website technology management evolved.
This redesign gives SBE a fresh start and gives the organization greater flexibility going forward, he said.
The most notable change is obviously the look, Scherer said, which is cleaner and more streamlined. Another significant change goes on behind the scenes and is invisible to users. “The new site is built on a content management system,” he said. “With the CMS approach, the site is now optimized for use across multiple device platforms: web browser, tablet and mobile.”
The previous site was built on discrete pages, which was an accepted method at that time, Scherer said. “The redesign also allowed us to refresh many areas of the site and reorganize all the information we present there,” he said.
The site allows users to easily search for other SBE members as well as search for suppliers and contract engineers. The site also highlights a monthly, virtual program called SBE WEBxtra, which provides information on broadcast technology and SBE itself. While it’s not intended to replace a local chapter meeting, SBE members who do not have a chapter near them — or miss a chapter meeting — can connect with SBE WEBxtra online to stay involved.
In addition, the site also gives users easy access to frequency coordination tools including an easy-to-skim list of local coordinators and details on the volunteer frequency coordinator accreditation process.
Scherer said there are more enhancements in the works, which will be rolled out as they are developed.
“We spent the first week after the relaunch checking links and information after the launch,” he said. “Some older files may not be available yet, and there could be a broken link here and there.” If site visitors find something that isn’t right, please let Scherer know by emailing [email protected].
