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Dr. Batson has served as an independent director of ERF Wireless since January 2005 and has more than 40 years experience in all fields of telecommunications, with a major focus in satellite communications and wireless systems. He also serves as president, chief executive officer and chairman of X-Analog Communications Inc., positions he’s held since March 1992. Prior to X-Analog Communications, Dr. Batson served as president of X-Analog's predecessor company, CADSA Inc.
Dr. Batson received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Arlington State College (now the University of Texas at Arlington) in 1963 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Houston in 1967 and 1972, respectively.
In 1963, Dr. Batson joined the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas, and worked in Flight Operations and Analysis on Guidance, Navigation and Command Systems for the Gemini Program. From 1964 to 1968, he served in the U.S. Army as an electronics instructor in the Artillery and Missile School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1966, he returned to the Manned Spacecraft Center and worked until 1983 on a wide variety of problems pertaining to statistical communication theory as applied to communications systems for manned spaceflight programs, including Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab and the Space Shuttle. He personally developed the conceptual designs for the Space Shuttle S-band and Ku-band communications systems, which incorporated several state-of-the-art advances in the areas of modulation, coding, synchronization and spread spectrum, at data rates of up to 50 Mbps. As manager of the Systems Analysis Office of the Tracking and Communications Division, he was responsible for communications, tracking, instrumentation, and data systems engineering and analysis for the entire Space Shuttle Program.
In 1980, while still at NASA, Dr. Batson founded X-Analog's predecessor company, CADSA Inc., which was originally a consulting company specializing in satellite communications and voice/data/video applications. In 1983, he resigned from NASA to devote himself full-time to CADSA. From 1983 to the present, CADSA/X-Analog has become a diversified telecommunications company, providing a wide range of products and services.
Dr. Batson was heavily involved in the design and implementation of the USCI (United Satellite Communications Inc.) video network, the first operational DBS (direct broadcast satellite) system. His contributions to USCI included extensive analysis efforts and preparation of the technical portions of several FCC filings, responses, etc., that eventually resulted in regulatory approval of the use of medium-power FSS (fixed satellite service) satellites for provision of DBS services to the home consumer market. He also participated in the design of the STARLOK video scrambling system that was developed by General Instruments for USCI.
Another significant project directed by Dr. Batson was the total engineering effort associated with the design, development, implementation, testing, maintenance and operations of all elements of TI-IN Network, a provider of satellite-based interactive (one-way video/data, two-way audio/data) educational programming. As part of this project, he directed the design, development and manufacturing of several specialized microprocessor-based equipment items which provided various features such as wireless keypad data response from remote classrooms, customized automated audio talkback and addressable hardcopy distribution.
Dr. Batson was also responsible for the design and implementation of a digital video compression system for National Technological University that replaced their satellite-based analog system. He directed the design, development, integration/test and initial manufacturing efforts associated with this project.
Dr. Batson has been an adjunct member of the faculties of Rice University and the University of Houston, where he taught graduate courses in space communications, digital communications, statistical communications theory, information theory, estimation theory and coding theory. He has also developed and taught numerous short courses on topics such as speech processing, video processing, spread spectrum communications, data communications, digital communications, satellite communications, space communications and navigation, and systems engineering.
Dr. Batson is a senior member of the IEEE and a past chairman of the Satellite and Space Communications Committee of the IEEE Communications Society. He served for several years as Editor for Satellite and Space Communications for the IEEE Transactions on Communications and was guest editor of a special issue of the Transactions dealing with Space Shuttle Communications and Tracking. He was program chairman of the National Telecommunications Conference (NTC '80) held in Houston in December 1980 and general chairman of the National Telesystems Conference (NTC '82) held in Galveston, Texas, in 1982. He has also been active in the Instrument Society of America, having served as Director of the Telemetry Division. He is a member of Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. Dr. Batson has published more than fifty papers in virtually all areas of communications. |
