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Brick Television Station B20 Gets Upgrades
New Technology Will Enhance Viewing Experience By Keith Hagarty
In an effort to improve the content of the municipal television station, the township council recently awarded a bid for the purchase of a new digital recording system to Rush Works Media of Texas.
"Our municipal station is a tremendous asset to our community and we are going to work hard to make it the best station it can be," said Mayor Stephen Acropolis. "Purchasing this system is a great step towards making Channel 20 one of the first places residents turn to when they are looking to learn about our community."
Expecting to have the system operational by the end of January, the township purchased the tapeless recording system from Rush Works' Toastmaster Digital Meeting Acquisition System. The system includes a digital switcher, audio mixer, character generator and four Canon VC-C50iR pan/ tilt/zoom cameras to be mounted in the municipal courtroom. A single user will now have the ability to switch between up to 36 pre-set camera angles.
"This is going to improve the viewing experience for people watching our televised meetings," said Edward Moroney, an employee of the Administration Department. "Using the system's multiple camera angles and graphics, we will be able to help the viewers better follow what is being discussed and by whom."
Moroney said he first observed the system's abilities at the Alliance for Community Media Mid-Atlantic Region and Jersey Access Group Conference in June. The system is designed to capture events in digital form, thereby eliminating the hassles associated with videotapes, such as limited recording space and storage and use capacities. The files can be immediately uploaded to the digital server the township recently purchased to manage content on the municipal television station.
Brick is no stranger to utilizing the latest technological innovations for its residents' viewing pleasure.
For using the latest streaming video technology to broadcast their council meetings to the public via the Internet, Brick was recently named recipient of the 2007 Innovation in Governance Award for Records Management in the 21st Century by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and the League of Municipalities.
In September, the township contracted the San Francisco-based Granicus, Inc. to provide the online service for a little over $10,000: $9,640 of which was devoted to startup costs, $684 a month for storage, distribution management, proactive support, 24/7 system monitoring and continuous software upgrades.
The new Toastmaster Digital Meeting Acquisition System is portable and provides the township with a virtually limitless amount of opportunities to create content for the municipal television station.
"The system's portability is one if its best features," said Mayor Stephen Acropolis. "We will be able to take a few cameras and the Toastmaster on location to film 'on the road' shows, sporting events, seminars, concerts and basically anything that we can think of. This is going to be exciting."
While the council meetings are currently broadcast and archived on the township's Web site- www.twp.brick.nj.us- Acropolis would like to see other township meetings, such as those for the planning and zoning boards, also broadcast to the public in the coming new year.
"It is imperative that elected officials work to create transparency in government and open it up to the people it serves," he said. "We did that when we started televising council meetings. I want to extend those efforts."
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