5.0. SWCSR 09-20-2018 Sherburne Wright Cable Commission
Equipment, Technology and Production Report
September 20th, 2018
Production Update
Summer is always a busy time for us and this year was no exception. We covered parades in
Buffalo, Big Lake, Watertown, Rockford, Cokato, Monticello, Delano and Dassel. We also
covered the parade that was held in Maple Lake for St. Patrick's Day. Coronations were recorded
in Maple Lake, Cokato, Buffalo, Rockford and Big Lake. The vast majority of our events happen
during the 3 months of June, July and August with the beginning of August being the busiest.
We had some challenges with the truck and production trailer this summer but the cities rose to
the challenge to help the show go on.. In Rockford the truck overheated on the way to setup for
the parade. Luckily I had a volunteer from Rockford, Rick Eberspacher, helping me and we
pulled into his driveway and put 2 gallons of anti-freeze in to cool it off.
Before the Cokato events we had problems with the truck not starting so Cokato sent down their
former Mayor and current Councilmember Butch Amundsen along with their Ambulance driver
Jim Erickson to help pull both trailers to Cokato. The day after the coronation when we tried to
bring the production trailer back the road in front of our storage facility was closed to build a
roundabout, so Buffalo pitched in and donated space to store the trailer until we could get access
to the facility again.
In Dassel, Delano and Big Lake city staff pitched in to help move the trailers to their events.
Mert is helping me go through the truck repair records to come up with a solution.
We also had one of the roof air conditioners go out in the production trailer. It has a total of 3 so
were able to switch over to one of those. We cannot operate the equipment in the trailer without
these in the summer. We will be getting estimates on the repair of the unit.
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Movie in the Park
We also covered Movie in the Park dates including Buffalo, Downtown Maple Lake, Delano,
Cokato, Rockford and Big Lake. We had a very good turnout in all the cities this year. All the
cities do a great job of getting volunteers to help with the setup. I want to give special shout outs
to the following:
Rockford pairs the event with the Coronation. The young ladies who are involved with the event
use the movie to help raise funds for the Coronation and did an amazing job setting up the screen
and packing it up at the end of the night. For the outgoing Rockford royalty, this was their 2nd
year doing this and they blew me away with how they worked as a team. They had a great
turnout and made it a bonding event for all those involved in the Ambassador program.
In Delano the parents at the elementary school all pull together to make the event happen and
they use this as a kickoff to the new school year. This is by far our nosiest event with hundreds
of happy kids who get to stay up late to watch a movie outside with their school mates.. It is
always an amazing event.
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New Volunteers
We welcomed several new volunteers this year and they couldn't have come at a better time.
They were a huge help in covering the events this summer and 2 of them have interest in learning
how to cover city council meetings. A young lady from Rockford we met at the Rockford
Coronation named Taylor is going to start covering the council meetings in Maple Lake next
week. The current meeting producer, Parker, is moving on to full time employment in the
production field and she will be taking over for him. Volunteers are really the life blood of our
event coverage so it's a very big deal when we get new ones
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Volunteer Visit
This summer one of our long time senior volunteers from Buffalo had a stroke. When I spoke
with his wife she said his biggest disappointment was that he wouldn't be able to volunteer this
summer. He has been one of our most dependable and longest serving volunteers and this was a
huge disappointment for everyone that knew him. I went and visited him in Minneapolis at a
rehabilitation center and gave him this shirt and told him we will welcome him back whenever
he is ready. Tina and the Elk River staff signed a card that we gave him.
Maple Lake Councilmember John Northenscold
John passed away on September 1st. He was a big supporter of everything the commission and
SWTV did. He used to show up at our volunteer events and always asked us how he could help.
He most recently was the Grand Marshal in the Maple Lake St. Patrick's Day Parade and had
made a point of thanking us after the event. We can't do this without the support of our city
council members and John will be missed.
Rocktoberfest
Our next trailer shoot is Saturday October 4th in Rockford for the music festival
"Rocktoberfest". Bands include: 4pm Shane Martin, 5:30pm Kat Perkins, 7pm Tim Mahoney,
8:30pm GB Leighton. We already have volunteers who are excited to help out. This will be our
3rd year covering the event.
Candidate Forums
We will be recording the Candidate Forum in Big Lake at the school on Monday October 22nd.
This forum is the first event that we ever covered remotely and Gina Wolbeck and her son were
the first production crew members we had. There are certain races that are of interest in all
communities. Delano recently was kind enough to share their Candidate Forum with Monticello
so that residents could see the candidates for Sheriff If you tape a forum or want a copy that was
recorded in another city please contact me.
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Wireless Microphone Changes
As I mentioned at the last meeting, Congress authorized the FCC to auction off spectrum in the
600 MHz band to make way for wireless broadband use. The auction resulted in frequencies
from 614 to 698 MHz being sold to cell phone companies such as T-Mobile and others. These
are bands that were used by low power TV stations and wireless microphones. The FCC order
listed a phased in timetable to allow users until 2020 to vacate the use of these frequencies with
one catch. T-Mobile, who won the auction, decided to use those frequencies sooner so we are in
the process of replacing all our affected wireless microphones.
At the time of our last meeting I had requested purchasing replacement microphones and
received approval from the commission. Everyone who owns a wireless mic also was going
through this process and it caused a back order of our microphones. This worked out to our
advantage as prices have come down since then and we are able to replace our existing Audio
Technica wireless microphones for half the cost that we were first quoted. Our shipment has
arrived and I will be changing out the affected microphones in September and October.
Monticello VieBit Live Streaming and Assistive Listening System
We installed the live streaming and VOD equipment in Monticello that was requested at the last
meeting and that has been up and running successfully. You can view it at:
www.monticello.viebit.com
We also installed a new assistive listening system. The previous system needed to be upgraded
due to RF interference. This time we installed an optical based system so that this issue cannot
happen it the future. This upgrade was much appreciated by those in Monticello who use this
equipment.
Elk River Council Chambers Overflow Meeting Room
We installed the upgrades that Elk River requested at the last commission meeting. They are very
happy with the equipment in their meeting room and it is used on a daily basis.
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Rockford Council Chambers
We installed the new presentation monitors in the Rockford council chambers and the
commission received a very nice compliment and thank you from their City Administrator, Dan
Madsen as well as the city council.
Council Chamber Presentation Computer Systems and Touch Panel Installs
Since the last commission meeting we have upgraded the older council meeting presentation
computers in many of our cities and are currently in the process of upgrading others. These
systems allow staff and council to display documents so that they can be seen by the audience in
the chambers as well as by those watching via the cable TV coverage. The new touch monitors
have been installed in all cities and these allow the presenters to annotate documents. These new
touch monitors conclude the upgrade process from the SmartBoard Sympodiums that we needed
to replace. I'm very happy to report that we no longer have to pay any subscription fees for use of
the Sympodium software.
Sherburne Wright Equipment Purchase Requests
3 Camera Portable System
This summer in order to cover multiple events that were happening on the same day I pulled
together a portable recording system that was easy to use and setup in areas where the host city
did not have the room to park our production trailer. I used equipment that we already own but
had never put together in this way. We used it to cover the Monticello parade, Watertown parade
and the Rockford Coronation.
The volunteers liked using it and it allowed us to cover events that we would not have been able
to record. I showed this to the production staff in Elk River and they expressed interest in using it
if we could package it in an easy to move configuration.
In the past the producer used 2-3 separate cameras and then edited the footage together later. It
was very time consuming and it sometimes took weeks to get the events on the city cable TV
channels.
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In Rockford when we used it to cover the coronation we set it up in the school on the Saturday
before the event. On Sunday we used the production trailer to record the parade in the morning
next to city hall and then after the parade we went over to the Rockford high school and used the
portable system to record the coronation. We would never have had the time to pack up the
trailer and set it up at the school in time to record the event.
I'm researching ways to secure this equipment in portable racks that can be easily moved and
then connected together in much the same way that we put together the Movie in the Park
projection equipment. All we will need is equipment racks. Having a system like this will allow
us to cover more events and require fewer volunteers and more importantly fewer staff hours to
record an event. For each of the events we covered with this system we were able to put the
program on the channel right after the event was finished.
This will be a huge help to our future production coordinator as well as the Elk River production
crew. With your approval I will package this system into equipment racks. I expect the costs to
be minimal as we already own everything but the racks. I will bring the equipment purchase
request back at the next meeting but I expect it to be under$1000.
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Posted are some photos of us using the 3 camera system in Monticello to record the parade.
We setup 2 tents and put the announcers right next to our equipment and crew.
Rockford and Cokato Council Chambers TriCaster Upgrade
As part of an 8 year plan the commission proposed upgrading all the TriCaster systems in each
of our 10 cities. This year it's Rockford and Cokato's turn.
The TriCaster is the heart of our council chamber meeting production systems and provides the
camera synchronization, character generated graphic titles and computer presentation system
interface with both the chambers audience monitors as well as the cable TV channel.
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We would upgrade their current TriCaster as well as the monitor interface and control switcher.
Once we take delivery on the equipment this install would start in late fall. After the install is
completed we will provide city staff with training. Once these cities are installed it would
complete the upgrade replacement of the TriCaster systems in all commission cities.
Rockford Action Requested:Approval of the purchase from AV Solutions of Qty. (1 Samsung
40"displays at$499.00, Qty. (1) Newtek TriCaster at$9,995.00 and Qty.(1)Netwek MiniCS
Control Switcher at$2,495.00, for a TOTAL COST with tax and software- $14,071.99
Cokato Action Requested:Approval of the purchase from AV Solutions of Qty. (1 Samsung
40"displays at$499.00, Qty. (1) Newtek TriCaster at$9,995.00 and Qty.(1) Netwek MiniCS
Control Switcher at$2,495.00, for a TOTAL COST with tax and software- $14,071.99
Total Cost for All Projects Requested: $28,143.98