John Kean joins Cavell, Mertz & Associates

John Kean joins consulting firm, Cavell, Mertz & Associates as a senior engineer following 11 years of service as senior technologist for NPR Labs.

Kean has been involved with dozens of leading broadcast technology projects, including digital audio broadcasting, RF signal propagation analysis, and signal mapping. Along the way he has supported the efforts of the National Radio Systems Committee though his studies of AM Modulation-Dependent carrier level compatibility with HD Radio, as well as studies of the performance of single-sideband FM stereo and it compatibility with present-day FM receivers.

Kean also developed and supervised a major study for the Consumer Electronics Association into loudness range preferences of listeners

Kean’s background includes service as the director of wireless architecture for a nationwide data network where he was responsible for fixed wireless technology, network design oversight, and network integration, and also an earlier stint at NPR where he focused on technology projects for the network and FCC regulatory activities on behalf of public radio.

He later joined the engineering consulting firms Jules Cohen & Associates and Moffet, Larson & Johnson, where he focused on PCS systems, analog and digital TV and radio facilities, FCC regulations, microwave and satellite systems, and mobile cellular networks. He returned to NPR in 2004 to help establish NPR Labs. 

Kean was a senior member of the IEEE, was the chair of the National Radio Systems Committee’s AM Study Task Group, was past president of the IEEE Broadcast Symposium and the Washington, D.C., section of the Audio Engineering Society.

He was also a contributing author to three prior editions of the NAB Engineering Handbook, was a co-author of the Recommendation for Loudness of Audio Streaming and Network File Playback, the Audio Engineering Society’s first technical document providing metrics for Internet audio, and has been a recipient of the Association of Public Radio Engineers Engineering Achievement Award.

Kean also holds a U.S. Patent for a technical algorithm for determining the signal coverage capability of In-Band On-Channel (HD Radio) broadcasting.