byKen Fellman, Of Counsel, Helmer, Conley & Kasselman, PA
As an affiliate of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, JAG annually provides a session at the League’s annual conference on communications related issues. JAG has had a history with the League of identifying and educating on relevant communications topics to New Jersey’s local governments. In past years JAG sessions have addressed cable regulation, social media and wireless facilities deployment. This year, on November 17th we gathered in Atlantic City to discuss one of the most pressing issues to New Jersey municipalities – new funding for broadband networks.
At the start of the session, we had a video welcome and an introduction of the importance of broadband deployment to all New Jersey communities from Congressman Josh Gottheimer. Joining me on our panel was Christopher Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance and Robert Boyle, CEO of Planet Networks. Robert spoke about the work his company is doing to connect New Jersey communities to 21st century broadband, while Chris and I addressed the new programs coming from Washington, D.C. to promote broadband deployment and usage in hard to serve areas, and the once in a generation opportunity this provides New Jersey communities to take control of their broadband futures.
byDoug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee
As we get into the holiday season social media traffic seems to go down. Part of this is most likely due to people using their online time to shop instead of socializing. I tend to see a lot of people take a break from social media during the end of the year too. Always a good thing to keep in mind when planning out your social media strategy — don’t count on the social media boost around the holidays.
In other JAG news, a quick reminder to check out the website. There are two new videos on the website for all to see (they are also featured on our YouTube page) concerning broadband and over the top delivery for your content. These videos are not just in our members only section because they can help you sell the need for better broadband and over the top delivery to your town. Share these videos with anyone that could benefit from them.
JAG president Bob Duthaler and Piscataway Community TV Station Manager George Fairfield discuss ways municipalities can continue to reach their citizens after the pandemic. Now that local governments have given the public access to their council meetings and other municipal events in their homes, can they go back to business as usual? Today, reaching your community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. Our panelists will explore all the new ways to engage citizens with over the top (OTT) devices and applications: like: Roku, AppleTV, web applications and mobile devices.
JAG president Bob Duthaler and Piscataway Community TV Station Manager George Fairfield discuss ways municipalities can continue to reach their citizens after the pandemic. Now that local governments have given the public access to their council meetings and other municipal events in their homes, can they go back to business as usual? Today, reaching your community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. Our panelists will explore all the new ways to engage citizens with over the top (OTT) devices and applications: like: Roku, AppleTV, web applications and mobile devices.
Buy a new car in 2022 and the engine is going to be reliable enough no matter what you buy, but in the early days of automobiles the reliability and quality of the prebuilt engines which “coach manufacturers” built their autos upon varied greatly, and you needed to be aware of which vehicles had a top-tier engine and which had a bottom-tier engine.
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.
Faces for Board of Trustees: Thank You To The Past and Hello To The New
To quote a Billy Joel song (with some slight “JAGish” changes) “So many faces in and out of our lives, some will last, some will just be now and then…” so goes some of the people on our board. Happily, these “faces” that are leaving our board currently have played an important role in the growth and development of the organization and more importantly they lasted! I would like to take the opportunity to thank them for their time and efforts for their years of service. Additionally, I would ask that you reach out to them personally and thank them for their service. Although they may be stepping away from the board, I know that they will continue to be a part of JAG and help in any way possible. Join me in thanking: Dave Ambrosy (EBTV), Jeff Arban (RUTV) and Darryl Love (Scotch Plains). I would also like to point out that current JAG VP, Dave Garb has committed to running for another term.
JAG will be at the League of Municipalities November 17 & 18 Sign up for the conference Broadband: November 17, 1:30pm in room 404 Mayors and Administrators are always looking for funds to help stretch their limited budgets. Although NJ sits between to communications hubs NYC & Philly there are many areas in the state, …
Leaders Wanted: Each year JAG holds an annual vote for board members. It is the opportunity for members of our organization to step up, be proactive and participate in the leadership of the Jersey Access Group. This may seem like a daunting task to members, but it should not be perceived as such. Rather, this should be viewed as an opportunity for you to share your unique talents and perspective. JAG benefits from a diverse board with a wide array of valuable insights all sharing the desire to enhance both PEG and JAG. All are welcome to nominate themselves and participate in our upcoming board elections.
by Paul A. Distefano, Regional Sales Manager, DeSisti Lighting
What if, today, you need to interview a town official in their office? What if that official’s office is in a century old building with dark wood panels and incandescent lighting? What if that official’s office is in a 1970’s era cookie cutter building with overhead fluorescent tubes in the range of 4000K? What if it is a modern building with LED lighting which is nice and efficient, but not necessarily the highest color rendering because it was chosen to achieve a specific light level and a camera recording in there was not even an afterthought? What if any of these scenarios is further complicated by large windows and window dressing insufficient to control this ambient light….. even if you are lucky and the windows are oriented north/south instead of east/west? What if later that day, you need to cover a musical performance at a school, the library, the senior center, or some other venue that has similarly flat, ugly, low CRI, lighting? Wouldn’t a splash of color on the wall or reflecting off the performer’s guitar make the image more appealing, interesting, or just prettier? What if you also need to provide lighting for a still photographer in the room as well? What if there was a single line of lighting fixtures that could allow you to creatively light under all these varied scenarios, and more, allowing you to record the highest quality images with your camera, whether it is a pro quality 3-chip or your cell phone? Why, it would be the Zelig of lighting fixtures! Well, it exists….. and it is called the Variable White + Color technology provided by DeSisti! By the way, when the technology was first presented to us in its early development stage a couple of years ago, I made the same “Zelig” reference and my heart sunk when my clever reference was met by blank stares from my much younger colleagues on the Skype call. I’m banking on the average age of my friends here at JAG being old enough to get it, though.
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
NJLM Broadband Session Report
by Ken Fellman, Of Counsel, Helmer, Conley & Kasselman, PA
As an affiliate of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, JAG annually provides a session at the League’s annual conference on communications related issues. JAG has had a history with the League of identifying and educating on relevant communications topics to New Jersey’s local governments. In past years JAG sessions have addressed cable regulation, social media and wireless facilities deployment. This year, on November 17th we gathered in Atlantic City to discuss one of the most pressing issues to New Jersey municipalities – new funding for broadband networks.
At the start of the session, we had a video welcome and an introduction of the importance of broadband deployment to all New Jersey communities from Congressman Josh Gottheimer. Joining me on our panel was Christopher Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance and Robert Boyle, CEO of Planet Networks. Robert spoke about the work his company is doing to connect New Jersey communities to 21st century broadband, while Chris and I addressed the new programs coming from Washington, D.C. to promote broadband deployment and usage in hard to serve areas, and the once in a generation opportunity this provides New Jersey communities to take control of their broadband futures.
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Social Media Stats – December 2021
by Doug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee
As we get into the holiday season social media traffic seems to go down. Part of this is most likely due to people using their online time to shop instead of socializing. I tend to see a lot of people take a break from social media during the end of the year too. Always a good thing to keep in mind when planning out your social media strategy — don’t count on the social media boost around the holidays.
In other JAG news, a quick reminder to check out the website. There are two new videos on the website for all to see (they are also featured on our YouTube page) concerning broadband and over the top delivery for your content. These videos are not just in our members only section because they can help you sell the need for better broadband and over the top delivery to your town. Share these videos with anyone that could benefit from them.
Posted: December 8, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Broadband Panel
JAG president Bob Duthaler and Piscataway Community TV Station Manager George Fairfield discuss ways municipalities can continue to reach their citizens after the pandemic. Now that local governments have given the public access to their council meetings and other municipal events in their homes, can they go back to business as usual? Today, reaching your community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. Our panelists will explore all the new ways to engage citizens with over the top (OTT) devices and applications: like: Roku, AppleTV, web applications and mobile devices.
Posted: November 26, 2021 by Doug Seidel
OTT Panel
JAG president Bob Duthaler and Piscataway Community TV Station Manager George Fairfield discuss ways municipalities can continue to reach their citizens after the pandemic. Now that local governments have given the public access to their council meetings and other municipal events in their homes, can they go back to business as usual? Today, reaching your community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. Our panelists will explore all the new ways to engage citizens with over the top (OTT) devices and applications: like: Roku, AppleTV, web applications and mobile devices.
Posted: November 12, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Closed Captioning: Lots of Options
by Daniell Krawczyk, Owner, Municipal Captioning
Buy a new car in 2022 and the engine is going to be reliable enough no matter what you buy, but in the early days of automobiles the reliability and quality of the prebuilt engines which “coach manufacturers” built their autos upon varied greatly, and you needed to be aware of which vehicles had a top-tier engine and which had a bottom-tier engine.
Posted: November 12, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Spotlight: Fanwood Dealing with the Pandemic
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.
Posted: November 4, 2021 by Doug Seidel
JAG at NJLOM
JAG will be at the League of Municipalities November 17 & 18 Sign up for the conference Broadband: November 17, 1:30pm in room 404 Mayors and Administrators are always looking for funds to help stretch their limited budgets. Although NJ sits between to communications hubs NYC & Philly there are many areas in the state, …
Posted: October 16, 2021 by Doug Seidel
DeSisti Presentation – The Most Versatile Lighting Technology Yet
The Most Versatile Lighting Technology Yet
by Paul A. Distefano, Regional Sales Manager, DeSisti Lighting
What if, today, you need to interview a town official in their office? What if that official’s office is in a century old building with dark wood panels and incandescent lighting? What if that official’s office is in a 1970’s era cookie cutter building with overhead fluorescent tubes in the range of 4000K? What if it is a modern building with LED lighting which is nice and efficient, but not necessarily the highest color rendering because it was chosen to achieve a specific light level and a camera recording in there was not even an afterthought? What if any of these scenarios is further complicated by large windows and window dressing insufficient to control this ambient light….. even if you are lucky and the windows are oriented north/south instead of east/west? What if later that day, you need to cover a musical performance at a school, the library, the senior center, or some other venue that has similarly flat, ugly, low CRI, lighting? Wouldn’t a splash of color on the wall or reflecting off the performer’s guitar make the image more appealing, interesting, or just prettier? What if you also need to provide lighting for a still photographer in the room as well? What if there was a single line of lighting fixtures that could allow you to creatively light under all these varied scenarios, and more, allowing you to record the highest quality images with your camera, whether it is a pro quality 3-chip or your cell phone? Why, it would be the Zelig of lighting fixtures! Well, it exists….. and it is called the Variable White + Color technology provided by DeSisti! By the way, when the technology was first presented to us in its early development stage a couple of years ago, I made the same “Zelig” reference and my heart sunk when my clever reference was met by blank stares from my much younger colleagues on the Skype call. I’m banking on the average age of my friends here at JAG being old enough to get it, though.