SWCSR 02-03-2010 Commission
Sherburne Wright Cable
• February 2010 Production Report
Elk River Northstar Commuter Rail Grand Opening
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shot more than three hours of footage for this 3(t
minute production.
Big Lake Northstar Commuter Rail Grand Opening
This was my first real schedule conflict.
The Big
Lake and Elk River grand opening events were
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The only problem with the
was very dark. I needed to spend a fair amount of • ,.. ..,..,
time increasing the brightness of the video and
color correcting footage. The end result was
overall similar to the Elk River Production, except
there were more speakers and fewer interviews.
Levi gave me 2hours of footage, and I used some
of the Elk River footage for this 30 minute
production.
Maple Lake Ice Fishing Tournament Promo
A 2V minute promotion of the Maple. Lake Ice
Fishing Tournament was
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Delano Senior Center"Silver Bells" Christmas Program
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On December 5th the Delano Senior Center presented two performances : =: , 41*
at Delano City Hall. I recorded both performances using the council
chambers video system. The performances featured the senior choir - • :
singing traditional songs and the writing club reading original pieces. 1 i
Both performances were slightly different because the writing club had
changed presenters presenters and readings. I combined both performances into
one,creating a 70 minute program. :A ...4v,144,rEgg,---,,,i------4 ?,1411%,;,?;;•• "44,„.0. , ,
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Open House for Taxpayers Forum
State Representative Mary Kityraeyer asked the City of 4 4,,,,,,,..,,,,- ,,,,,,,....*.,,:,.. it,in,r _:'!„,,,,...;•,,,,
Big Lake to use their facilities for an open house _ ,„ _, „ „ , • ,,,,,,,,, , -,,,,,,p-o,'A,.,
ii• presentation on the changes to the Green Acres Law' —.F.:'. ',.4 The city asked if I would record the event. I used the ,,
existing council chambers tricaster system for f-,,,,,,,k,
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recording, then edited in premier adding some lower ,
thirds and reducing length. The total runtime was 2
,
hours.
Maple Lake Parade Promo
Maple Lake's St Patrick's Day Parade is coming on March 13th. Using last year's parade footage, I
created three promotional videos which I distributed to each member city. Each video has its own
theme which ties into the main St Patty's Day theme. I plan to do promos for each city using the
previous year's parades and distributing them to all member cities.
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Delano Fire Department House Burn
111/ On January 9th, Delano Fire Department did a
controlled training burn on a house near Delano, The -
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production for the footage, I thought it would be an rommoot 4
opportunity to get some file footage for later use. Bob
dressed me in turnout gear, I grabbed the oldest
camera I could find, and headed into the fire. I also " 114,
asked a friend of mine if he would be interested in
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helping run a camera. Between the two of us we got
some interesting and somewhat spectacular shots. We
got about 4 hours of footage.
Other Projects In Progress
The Monuments in Delano are nearly done. Sometime soon I'll be able to shoot the final shots of
construction and piece it all together.
Buffalo Airport Video, winter has stalled this production as well, although I probably have enough
footage to produce a short promo,it won't tell the complete story.
• Dassel Historic Society presentation of Between Fences, I took the tour and videotaped it. But we not
discussed what we want to do with it.
Snow Plowing Video, I did two ride-a-longs, one with Delano at 4 in the morning, and one with
Rockford in the afternoon. I got four interviews and lots of snow shots. Editing is in progress.
Maple Lake Fishing Tournament, Eric from Maple
Lake, my friend Tim and I spent Saturday January "
30th on the ice on Maple Lake videotaping the 35th
annual fishing tournament. We have about 4 hours of
footage from the event. I have been working with
Maple Lake's meeting producer on editing and this
event will give him plenty to work with. "11. 1
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• Sherburne Wright Cable Commission
1st Quarter 2010 Report
Hard Drive Upgrades for Nexus Systems
We are currently in the process of upgrading the hard drives on our Ultra Nexus playback
systems in all cities. We had failures of the Lacie Brand hard drives in Dassel and Delano
in the last month. We were able to restore most of the programming in each of these cities
but it was a long process.
factArjs
The new drives are called Buffalo(brand name) 1 TB hard disk arrays. They have been
pre-certified by Leightronix and setup with special software at the Leightronix factory
before they were sent to us. They have recommended that we change out all the cities
ot,it,a drives and also add a second set as a backup precaution.
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Some cities have asked to be upgraded as soon as possible because they are worried
about losing programs of which they do not have archival copies made. I have looked at
all our city systems and I prioritizing the upgrades in cities where there have been recent
problems.
Please be aware that it takes about 2 days to do this update in each city. Many cities have
very large amounts of data on their systems and it takes quite awhile to transfer these
• large video files safely. We are also updating the firmware for each Nexus system.
Equipment Training
We have been providing ongoing refresher training for our city cable casters and city
staff During this training I often receive requests for books or other visual aids. To
answer these requests I have put together a DVD training library that covers the edit
system and some of the major pieces of equipment(such as the Tricaster)that are used to
tape council meetings etc.
I am setting up a check out system for these DVD's so that anyone in our member cities
can use them. I will be sending out quarterly e-mails to let everyone know when new
titles are added to the library. If you have any staff members that you feel need any
refresher training please let me know.
Windows Software and Computer Replacement
In our 10 member cities we have over 65 computers that use Windows operating
software. These include our Smart Board systems,Nexus playback systems, Scala
bulletin board systems, Matrox edit systems and other devices that use Windows such as
Tele-prompters and TriCasters.
I have been asked about upgrading some of these devices to the Windows 7 operating
system. We have to look at what each manufacturer requires and have been planning
updates where necessary. Mert Auger is helping us to get bulk Microsoft licenses to help
4111 lower our costs. Some devices do not expect to have Windows 7 updates for awhile and
will continue to run on XP.
Many of these computers are custom built and need special drivers and interfaces to work
with our equipment. The Smart Board computers for example still use serial ports which
are not usually installed on newer computers anymore. In Elk River we recently had to
replace a faulty computer and we were able to build a computer that supported the Smart
Board system drivers and also run Windows 7.
Here are some other highlights from this past quarter.
Production Trailer
The production trailer is currently being built. We have been told to expect delivery in 6
weeks. We are getting together the necessary equipment and parts. I am estimating that it
will take us 2-3 weeks of work to.get everything installed. If everything goes according to
plan we plan on having it at our next commission meeting for a tour.
Mark and I are making plans to have it at all city festivals. We plan to offer tours and
create videos that will run on a screen mounted outside the trailer that highlight the
Sherburne Wright Cable Commission programming. It will of course be used to tape all
city parades and other festival,events. If you work with your city festival committees
please let them know that we will be contacting them to organize this display.
11111 Teleprompter Systems
A new teleprompter system was recently installed in Elk River. We are finishing the
install in Delano in February.
Edit Systems
We are currently installing a new edit system in Elk River. This system was approved last
summer but the parts were not available until recently. This system is different from
others in that it will edit in both Standard definition and High definition.
Updates to edit systems in Dassel and Monticello were also done recently.
Monticello FiberNet
We have been contacted by Monticello's new FiberNet service and have been asked to
provide a signal from city hall for them so that they can start fibercasting Monticello's
channel.
We have similar setups in Maple Lake and Big Lake where we have more than one
company. In these cities we have setup a distribution amp so that each company can get
the same signal we are providing to everyone. I am setting this same system up in
Monticello. It will have a composite BNC out and mono audio out. The connections are
setup so that when a company makes adjustments to their equipment it doesn't affect the
other companies gear.
•
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We are requesting that FiberNet provide us with a subscriber feed so that we can monitor
their channel for any technical problems.
Equipment Requests
Sherburne Wright Cable Commission Area Wide Channel
As mentioned in Mr. Vose's report, we have met with Tucker Carlson and he has
informed us that Charter is happy to have programming start on the channel. I am
resubmitting the equipment request so that we can proceed with this project.
As Mentioned previously the equipment will need to be located in the city of Buffalo so
*6e that it can be connected into the Charter head end. It will have a character generator and
\I\, Nexus system so that it can playback programming 24 hours a day.
We also would also like to create a web site that can be linked to the Nexus so that
viewers can access the programming and channel information via the interne. This web
t
site would be exclusive to the Sherburne Wright Cable Commission. It would list our
1 entire Movie in the Park dates,the channel playback schedule, live event taping schedule
, (etc.
el'.7"- The quote for this package totals $35,744.60 and includes the Ultra Nexus bundle that
1 I includes the digital video server, 2 TB rack mount hard disk arrays, a Scala Infochannel
Designer system, scan converter and Totevision rack mount monitor.
Illkel INf-,)
,Criet As before Leightronix will help us to configure the system,AV Solutions will help me
build it.
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Wireless Camera System
During the taping of parades and other city events we have gotten requests to set up a
camera at several different remote locations. These locations have not been accessible to
use because our cameras could not physically be located at the requested sites because
they were limited by their cables.
We would like to purchase a wireless transmitter and receiver camera system. This will
allow us to place a camera within 300 feet of the trailer without needing to use cables. As
an example, we can place a camera on a float, across a busy street, on a lift etc.
Our first parade is in Maple Lake in March and they have asked us to station a camera
farther down the street from City flail. We currently are unable to do this because we
cannot run the cables to this location. Having a wireless camera system will allow us to
provide the coverage they have requested.
Many new stations use this wireless technology and we anticipate being able to use this
equipment for many events. It is especially handy in covering sporting events like hockey
games where it can be difficult to run cables near the ice surface.
110
The equipment includes a Sony camera with SDI connections, a transmitter, receiver and
antennae array that would be mounted on the new production trailer. Cost is $5995 for
the wireless receiver transmitter system and $7500 for the camera package.
City Hall Replacement TV Channel Monitors
Each of our city hall control rooms has a small TV that is used to monitor Channel 16
(Channel 20 in Dassel). These TV's are kept on all the time and are due to be replaced.
Many of them are having technical problems and it is difficult for staff to see the picture
clearly.
We have a very specific type of monitor that is needed that fortunately is very cheap to
replace compared to other equipment. The cost for replacement in each city is $199 plus
tax.
1111
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• 2010 1st Quarter Equipment Requests
Big Lake
Item Model# Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199 00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Buffalo
item Model# Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Cokato
Item Model# Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Dassel
item Model# Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB ITB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Delano
Item Model# Item Description Qty, Price Each Total
41110 1 N1630W
Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00
1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix
1
$1,199.00 $199.00
2 1TB
$1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Monticello
Item Model* Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Elk River
Item Model* Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
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am Model# Item Description Maple Lake
Qtv. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Rockford
Item Model* Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leightronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
Watertown
Item Model# Item Description Qtv. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 1TB 1 TB Raid drive array for Nexus/from Leighlronix 1 $1,199.00 $1,199.00
Total $1,398.00
All Cities-Commission shared equipment
Item Model* Item Description Qty. Price Each Total
1 N1630W Viewsonic 16"LCD TV Video monitor 1 $199.00 $199.00
2 CW-5HD IDX Wireless Transmitter receiver system 1 $5,995.00 $5,995.00
3 PMW-EX1 Sony SDI Camcorder System 1 $7,500.00 $7,500.00
4 Leightronix Area Wide Channel Nexus Playback system 1 $35,744.60 $35,744.60
Total $49,438.60
Equipment Total Total $83,418.60
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