Video distribution services have been growing exponentially in the past decade. Cisco Visual Network Index Report predicts that globally, IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020, up from 70 percent in 2015. 

In accordance with the Bylaws of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, I am writing to solicit nominations for the Awards Board and the Nominations and Appointments (N&A) Committee. This year, the Society will be filling THREE positions on the N&A Committee for the term 2018-19 and THREE positions on the Awards Board, one position for a two year term for 2018-2019 and two positions for the regular three year term for 2018-2020. Nominations must be received no later than Friday, 29 September 2017.

The Fellow Reference Committee is seeking nominations for three new members of the 2018 Fellow Reference Committee. The term of appointment is three years, non-renewable (1 January 2018-31 December 2020). 

The IEEE annual election begins on 15 August, and the IEEE Signal Processing Society is committed to ensuring that its members are prepared with sufficient information about the candidates in order to make their best informed decisions. 

This issue features the next installment of our regular column, "Getting to Know Your Fellow Researchers", highlighting Douglas O'Shaughnessy, who is a Professor at INRS-Télécommunications (University of Quebec) in Montreal, Canada and the author of the textbook Speech Communications: