New “All In One” OMNI Solutions with Closed Captions!

Randy Visser

by Randy Visser, East Sales, Cablecast Community Media


Video play-out systems provide community media operations the tools they need to distribute their content to members of their communities, and beyond.  Early systems involved the use of multiple video tape machines, and eventually DVD players that were programmed by external devices to play, and then switch, programming from one source to another.  You never knew if this complex chain of events was going to work as planned, and the set-up time to cue tapes and calculate “pre-roll” times for every event made the process challenging and time consuming. 

Social Media Stats – March 2022


by Doug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee

The Newsletter Survey results are in!  Keep your eyes open for changes coming soon.  We are very excited about these changes and look forward to using the new and improved newsletter to help market JAG better. 

President’s Message: February 2022

by Bob Duthaler


A Look Back At 2021 and Looking Forward To 2022


The best way to get a feel for what the future of an organization holds is to look at its past. With that thought in mind, I though it important to share with you the year end reports from some of our committees. I hope by reading these you will realize all the effort and hard work these committees have done all for the betterment of our members.

Social Media Stats – February 2022


by Doug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee


Let me officially announce the start of the Social Media subcommittee. This is great news as I take a larger role in JAG, now I will have assistance in running our social media accounts. This will only make our social media campaign stronger and extend our reach. This will also give us a chance to post more information on our accounts and maybe add more places where you can find information about JAG and the Eastern Video Expo.
If you have an interest in joining the Social Media subcommittee but do not believe you have the time for the commitment, just know that a) you don’t have to join a formal committee to be a part of the subcommittee and b) subcommittees are very informal and won’t require a lot of time. You can contact me at dseidel@piscatawaynj.org if you are interested in joining the subcommittee.

Montclair TV34 had to adapt to the COVID-19 Pandemic       

  by Rick Gearhart, Montclair



Like many other entities, Montclair TV34 had to adapt to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  The last official meeting that was in person was on March 9, 2020 – A Planning Board Meeting.  Once the state of emergency took effect, the township immediately found a solution to host our meetings virtually.  The Township uses Webex, a virtual meeting platform.  To get these on TV, I use the program OBS – this allows me to capture the Webex window and stream it directly to my broadcast server (and Youtube for online viewers).  The online meeting program works well with not only the Council Meetings.  With the pandemic, I realized the importance of live video.  All official meetings are streamed live, and will be streamed live even after the pandemic is over.  We also implemented a call-in feature allowing the public to participate.  I hope to get back to in person meetings sometime this year, as the Township purchased a new TriCaster model and 3 PTZ cameras, which gives us the ability to stream live in HD to both our cable channel and Youtube.  With Youtube Live, the meetings are available right away after they finish – there is no wait time for anyone that missed the meeting.  The TriCaster was installed the same month that the pandemic hit.

JAG AWARDS: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD; ENTER THE JAG AWARDS

JAG AWARDS IS OFFICIALLY OPEN!

JAG AWARDS CLOSE FEBRUARY 28

Winning an award is exciting news.  It feels good to be acknowledged for the hard work you and your team has done.  Even more important is the fact that winning an award can be used as a great marketing tool.  You can announce it to your administration; send a press release to your local media outlets; include it on your website and social media; include it in a newsletter.  It can also lead to greater involvement from your viewers.

JAG Joins the Alliance for Community Media

  by Dave Garb, Legislative Committee Chair



Members of JAG, I am pleased to announce officially that we have become an Organizational Member of the ACM – the Alliance for Community Media.  The ACM’s mission is closely related  to that of our own organization.  They advocate, promote and preserve the rights of communities to have access to media training, production, distribution, civic engagement and education in support of diverse community voices.  This is achieved through Public, Educational and Government Access channels and other forms of media.

TelVue: Workflow, Captioning, Apps, Monetization and More

by Jesse Lerman, President/CEO, TelVue



Broadcasting in an increasingly connected world means your community channels and programming need to be accessible and available everywhere – on cable, streaming, over-the-top, mobile apps, and social media.  Modern broadcast systems have evolved to make all of this easier to manage and automate, from instant publishing to automatically adding multi-language closed captions to live and on-demand programming.  Captioning your programming delivers even more value to your diverse communities, and also makes your government meetings fully searchable.  Reaching more viewers on new platforms opens up opportunities for revenue generation – including sponsorship, membership, pay-per-view, pay-per-download, and subscription models.

JCETV: Origin and present day status of Jersey City’s Educational and Municipal Channels.


My video production experience began in the mid 1980’s when cable television came to Jersey City.  At Seton Hall University in the early 1970’s I was taught filmmaking and television production on the then “portable” 1 inch machines. I also learned a lot about broadcasting and hosting a radio show for three years on the pre-Heavy Metal WSOU.  But the 1980’s arrival of Suburban Cable to the second largest city in New Jersey looked to me like uncharted territory for producing local commercials.

Federal Communications Law and Policy: What to Expect in 2022


After years of frenzied federal activity in the communications space, particularly by the Federal Communications Commission, 2021 was a relatively slow year for local governments in terms of battling proposals that would harm community interests and PEG access operations.  On the flip side, this reprieve also meant that little has been done to curb the harmful impacts of past laws and decisions.  So, what will 2022 bring?