by Eddy Cologna, Fanwood Television

I have been working with the Borough of Fanwood for several years.  Towards the end of 2019 when China was in lockdown and we in America weren’t even dreaming of such a thing, the Borough was upgrading their sound system in the Council Chambers and looking into a multiple camera remote system.  The purchase has been moving slowly due to the pandemic.

Fast forward a few months to February 2020, the Mayor of Fanwood, Colleen Mahr, and some health officials had a 4 camera shoot about the dangers of Covid, and what could happen.  All this was shot in person, with some social distancing but no masks because the information was confusing, even for health officials.  Not long after that, the lockdown occurs.  Masks were required, social distancing enforced and only essential personnel were allowed to physically come to work in borough hall.

Here at Manalapan Township Television Network

By Jan Zachary, Cable Television Coordinator, Manalapan

Our EG (Educational/Governmental) station formed in the fall of 2004 when the Township Committee created the Cable Television Advisory Committee (CTAC).  When I discovered the new committee in 2005, I joined at once.

by Dimitry Mikhaylov, Vice President, Fair Lawn Television

We in Fair Lawn were just dreaming to switch our old analog plant to digital. In fact, the digital upgrade didn’t begin until 2019 when our old Leightronix server was suddenly dead, and we got a chance to replace all our outdated equipment at once. As late as 2019 seems, there are some surprising advantages to coming late to a new technology. Digital workflow was a mature, robust system that was adopted by broadcasters at every level, and we had the advantage of learning from all those who were on the bleeding edge of adoption.

by Cindy Hahn, Executive Director, C-NET

Here’s my big confession: I do not like technology.  I don’t trust it, I don’t enjoy it, and I generally believe that things work better without it.  But I am running a PEG organization…..so I naturally deal with it.

Things were going just swimmingly at C-NET prior to March of 2020. Our tiny staff and crew of Penn State interns were traveling around the County with cameras, microphones and an array of other equipment to cover the meetings of sixteen different entities — Seven municipalities, two school districts, the County government, a regional Council of Governments, three regional Authorities, the local Library and Penn State.  We produced over 500 programs in 2019.