Bugyi József, Aranyosné dr. Börcs Janka and Bölcskei Imre

On the occasion of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, the winners of the Dr. Endre Magyari Award were announced at the professional symposium held at the Széchenyi István University in Győr. The commemorative medals of the award established by the President of the NMHH dr. Monika Karas in 2014 were presented by the NMHH Director-General dr. Janka Börcs to Imre Bölcskei and József Bugyi, for their outstanding, decade-long work and life-long achievements in the development of the infocommunications market.

“The name of Endre Magyari is synonymous, amongst other things, with the designing of the national radio network, the management of the Lakihegy and Székesfehérvár shortwave radio stations and the creation of the Budapest studio.The names of the professionals we are now awarding are also closely tied to significant infocommunication events and developments, and their day-to-day work greatly contributed to providing a balanced future for the sector.The significance of their work is unquestionable and I am convinced that future generations will continue to play a key role in shaping the future of telecommunications” — said dr. Janka Börcs Aranyos, lauding the awardees in her speech.

The beginnings of the electric engineer career of Imre Bölcskei are closely tied to the Hungarian Postal Service, where he assumed a position at the Budapest Telephone Directorate in 1967.He is responsible for the installation of the Ericsson AR centres, where he worked as the Chief Installation Engineer.From 1976, he continued his work at the Hungarian Postal Services’ Headquarter as a Head of the development department, working on the development of telecommunication devices as well as managing the Hungarian Postal Service’s Experimental Institute, followed by a position at the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Water Management from 1989 where he was first Deputy Head of Division and later Head of Division.Fom 1992 to 2000, he governed the field of infocommunications as a Deputy Secretary of State.The laid new foundation for the entire field of infocommunications regulations, creating sectoral laws and executive legislation.He is responsible for preparing privatisations, concluding concession contracts, as well as preparing the sector for accession to the European Union.He was also a member of the National Council for Telecommunications and Information Technology until 2010 as well as the president of the Communications Reconciliation Council.Since 2008, he continues to tirelessly support the work of the professional organisations, albeit as a pensioner.

József Bugyi has been working in the field of frequency management for over 40 years, performing a highly diverse range of activities.He has been dealing with the wave propagation of terrestrial mobile services, network design, international frequency coordination calculations and procedures, as well as developing the theoretic and practical background of frequency fees.For decades, he has played a key role in the regulation of the band division and use of mobile systems, as well as in developing their international coordination procedures.He achieved undying merits in the reconfiguration of the 80, 160, 410-430 and 450-470 MHz bands, the layout of the TETRA and GSM-R bands as well as the distribution of public mobile bands.He was one of the theoretic developers of the first National Frequency Allocation Table and the terms of use of the Frequency bands, as well as of the frequency fee regulation based on new principles and extended to new radio telecommunication systems.For over 20 years, as a member of the NMHH, he has been an active and professionally acknowledged participant of various international working groups at ITU and CEPT.

At the infocommunications symposium held in Győr, lectures were given by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority’s experts, including István Bartolits, dr.Mária Akli Kiss and József Putz about subjects including the ongoing changes in broadcasting, the role of frequencies in terrestrial television broadcasting, as well as the future of cable television retransmissions. The event featured speeches from the professional industry players and the latest research and development activities were delineated, while participants had the opportunity to familiarize the latest technologies, trends and the current utilization options of digital developments.

PREVIOUS AWARDEES OF THE DR. ENDRE MAGYARI AWARD

2015 – István Bartolits, Károly Fiala

2016 – László Győrbíró, András Somogyi

ENDRE MAGYARI (1900-1968), ONE OF THE FOUNDIONG FATHERS OF HUNGARIAN RADIO BROADCASTING

He earned his degree in mechanical engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He then began to work at the Experimental Station of the Hungarian Postal Service where he was the first to design a high-powered radio telephone transmitter. The 1kW radio station of Csepel was built based on his designs. In 1923, Magyari installed the 250W Huth transmitters purchased by the Hungarian Postal Service. The test broadcasts were soon aired from the building on Gyáli road, where a “test studio” was set up in the famous furniture delivery truck. He is renowned for launching radio broadcasting services in Hungary. Magyari’s extensive publication activities are marked by a number of books and magazine articles. In the mid-1940s the term “weak-current engineering” was replaced with “communications engineering” and “telecommunications engineering” at his proposal.

THE WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION DAY

17 May is World Telecommunication Day, observed since 1968 to commemorate 17 May 1865, when representatives of twenty countries signed the founding document of the International Telegraph Union in Paris. Hungary joined the Union with the founding twenty countries, yet, of course, at the time, Richard von Metternich signed the founding document on behalf of the Habsburg dynasty and the Kingdom of Hungary. Interestingly enough, it was only years after the founding documents were signed that Graham Bell invented the telephone, although Marconi’s electric telegraph generated such traffic that it required the regulation of telegraphy in the form of an international treaty.