CBG Communications provides consulting expertise to local governments in numerous areas of broadband, technology, telecommunications and cable television. Collectively,
CBG has worked on behalf of local governments and other public sector organizations all across the country. Successful results have been achieved in numerous settings from large metropolitan areas to small towns. Its representatives have had their work published, and they have spoken at local and national conferences and received recognition in national publications.
The skills and qualifications of Mr. Robinson, Mr. Nielsen, and Dr. Book are set forth below. Full resumes for Mr. Robinson and Mr. Nielsen are found at the end of this document.
Thomas G. Robinson - robinson@cbgcommunications.com
Thomas G. (Tom) Robinson is Executive Vice President of CBG Communications, Inc. and is based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania office. Mr. Robinson has worked with local governments all across the country on a variety of cable, telecommunications and ROW management projects, including: wireless networking; institutional networks; infrastructure issues; needs assessments; telecommunications planning and policy development; Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access issues; technical reviews; competitive communications system reviews; cable television franchise renewals; ROW management regulations and ordinances, regulatory agreements and other matters. He is a frequent speaker at telecommunications, local government and technical conferences. Mr. Robinson is published bimonthly in Communications Engineering & Design (CED) magazine.
Prior to joining CBG, Mr. Robinson was, for seven years, Director of Technology Development for River Oaks Communications Corporation, where he worked with numerous local government clients on telecommunications and cable television projects. Mr. Robinson also served for 10 years as Chief of the Cable Regulatory Division of the Department of Consumer Affairs for Fairfax County, Virginia. While there, he was involved in a host of activities related to oversight of one of the nation's largest cable systems. Prior to his work in Fairfax, Mr. Robinson was with Magnavox CATV Systems, Inc. (now part of C-COR), where he worked first as a system designer and then in product management. While at Magnavox, he helped develop and market new amplification systems and products that paved the way toward today's high capacity cable systems.
Mr. Robinson began his career as an announcer, program director and operations engineer in radio and television at several radio stations in the Baltimore/Washington area and at the public broadcasting television and radio stations (WCNY-TV/FM) in Syracuse, New York.
He holds an M.S. in Telecommunications/Film from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a B.A. in Mass Communications from Towson University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Richard R. Nielsen - nielsen@cbgcommunications.com
Richard R. (Dick) Nielsen is CBG Communications, Inc.’s Senior Engineer and is based out of the Saint Paul, Minnesota office. Mr. Nielsen works as lead technical staff for CBG. His work includes underground and aerial construction planning review and analysis, telecommunications system design, application, development and review, data communication system and equipment planning, cable television system performance audits, institutional network design, application development and performance review, as well as review and analysis of other technical issues.
Prior to Mr. Nielsen joining CBG Communications, he spent 19 years with AT&T Broadband and its predecessor companies. The last four were spent as the Institutional Network Manager. While managing he was involved in a wide range of activities, including maintenance of institutional networks (“I-Net”) representing over 20 franchise areas and over 1000 miles of coaxial, HFC and fiber optic plant, supervision of construction activities, designing new and upgrading existing I-Nets, budgeting for new and updated I-Nets, and activation of fiber optic nodes, power supplies, amplifiers, pilot generators and status monitoring systems. Mr. Nielsen regularly represented AT&T Broadband at various meetings relating to I-Net issues. He also worked closely with consultants in evaluating and designing upgrades to existing I-Nets.
For the 8 years prior to being I-Net Manager, Mr. Nielsen was the Technical Supervisor. He supervised 35 Maintenance Technicians and Service Technicians, implemented a plan to bring service levels up to NCTA and FCC standards, and was in charge of reporting all engineering and technical data for national reporting FCC testing and reporting and public files for CLI and Proof of Performance. Additionally Mr. Nielsen spent 4 years as a Headend Technician and was involved in designing, wiring and maintaining headends, hubs and antennas. He was on call 24 hours a day for problems related to headends. Mr. Nielsen’s first 3 years were spent as a Maintenance Technician. He was responsible for maintaining HSN and I-Net plants, field testing of FCC CLI and Proof of Performance requirements as well as working on call (24/7) for outages and problems.
Mr. Nielsen began his career as a technician and installer for Best Vision SMATV and Muller Prybell. Formal education was received at Dakota County Vocational Technical School in its Cable Television Degree Program.