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.
Then, of course, everything changed. And for many months, it was a matter of producing the best programs we could utilizing Zoom. “Can you hear me now?”, “Please mute yourself” and “Your cat is in the way” became the phrases of our life.
Wide shot of a State College Borough Council meeting. The Mondopod is set up at the far end of the Council dais so that Council members can see virtual participants. Audio is provided to C-NET and amplified through the Borough’s installed audio system
And now, everything has changed again. Elected officials and members of the public have decided that they like attending meetings on their couch in their pajamas, and so what now? The dreaded HYBRID meetings. For the last three months or so, C-NET has been tasked with helping various government and regional organizations figure out how to allow elected officials, board representatives and the public to participate in meetings both physically in a meeting room and virtually.
Shot of the Mondopad at a State College Borough Council meeting. The bottom right view on the mondopad is the view of the meeting room provided to virtual
This means, of course, that everyone must be able to see and hear each other AND C-NET needs to obtain audio and video from both the room and the virtual platform. This would be a reasonable challenge if all sixteen meeting rooms had the same audio systems, etc., but they do not. Some of the rooms in which we work include installed mounted cameras and audio systems with reliable wireless internet. Other meeting rooms have no installed technology at all.
The result has been a myriad of different solutions. For meetings in the State College Borough Council Chambers, we are live switching between a Zoom feed and the mounted cameras in the room. The in-person participants are seeing the Zoom feed on the mondopad and hearing the audio through the Borough’s audio system.
A ”Meeting Owl” sits on a small table with a laptop at the Halfmoon Township Board of Supervisors meeting. The Own provides a microphone and 360 degree camera for remote participants.
We are using a Meeting Owl in several of the meeting rooms in which we work. This relatively inexpensive (less than $1,000) device uses a 360 degree camera and microphone to provide a view of the room and audio to and from the people in the meeting room and the Zoom participants. The Owl works particularly well in smaller meeting rooms.
Shot of the Zoom feed at the Halfmoon Township Board of Supervisors meeting using an Owl. The top view is the view from the 360 degree camera of the Owl.
A third configuration includes a lap-top camera and a high-quality exterior microphone to provide video and audio to Zoom participants, while the Zoom video is projected onto a screen in the room. In this case, C-NET live switches between the Zoom feed and our single camera. This has proved to be the most problematic of the various solutions.
A laptop and microphone placed on a small table in from of the Board table. The laptop feed is projected onto a screen in the room. The room’s installed audio system provides audio to the in-person participants. The exterior microphone provides audio to the virtual participants.
Another interesting outcome of the pandemic is that the public’s tolerance for a single camera panning between speakers is lessening. Virtual meeting platforms allow the speaker to be instantly highlighted on the screen, and we are finding that the public expects this to be the case with in-person production as well. To assist with this challenge, C-NET has recently purchased a Rushworks VDESK Compact PTZ Production and Streaming System as an affordable way to turn more meetings into multi-camera productions. More switching…..less panning.
I want to give a shout-out at this point for the annual JAG Eastern Video Expo. It was, of course, unfortunate that the Expo was cancelled in 2020 and had to be virtual in 2021, but the challenges brought about by the pandemic are precisely why this type of collaborative group conference is so valuable. For the most part, PEG stations have small staffs and modest budgets, and reinventing the wheel takes time and money. Talking to others who are facing the same challenges and issues helps everyone. We network, we learn, and we form relationships that will help us down the road. I’m very much looking forward to the next Expo!
C-NET is fortunate to have the financial support of the sixteen organizations that we serve. And we are committed to finding and designing solutions to meet the changing needs of their staffs and the public. Hybrid meetings and changes in the public’s expectations are here to stay. So while I don’t like technology, I am fortunate that the rest of the wonderful C-NET staff is talented, creative and willing to go the extra mile for our community.
C-Net Logo
C-NET is Centre County’s Government and Education Access Television Network. C-NET administers two channels, CGTV (channel 7) and CETV (channel 98) on the Comcast and Windstream Cable Systems. All of C-NET’s locally produced programming is available to view on-line, on-demand at cnet1.org. C-NET’s programming ranges from public meetings to high school sports, concerts, and local festivals. A C-NET member agency must sponsor each program that airs on the channels. There are currently 16 members: Bellefonte Area School District, Bellefonte Borough, Centre County Government, Centre Region Council of Governments, the Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority, College Township, Ferguson Township, Halfmoon Township, Harris Township, Patton Township, Penn State University, Schlow Centre Region Library, State College Area School District, State College Borough, the State College Borough Water Authority, and the University Area Joint Authority.
by Ken Fellman, Of Council, Helmer, Conley and Kasselman, PA
Ken Fellman
As Americans have spent a significant amount of time on the internet during the pandemic, the federal government has created several programs addressing broadband deployment. Here, we address two major Congressional initiatives that provide significant funding to expand broadband networks. On March 11th, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which allocates funding to state, county, and municipal governments, and establishes that state and local governments receiving this funding may use it “to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.” As of this writing (August 12, 2021), the House will be considering the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by the Senate, which establishes a $42,450,000,000 grant program to states who in turn award subgrants to local governments and other entities for broadband and other infrastructure projects.
On May 11th, the Treasury Department released interim regulations describing the allowable use of ARP funds. These regulations define “broadband infrastructure” as infrastructure designed to provide service to unserved or underserved households and businesses that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical 100 Mbps speeds. [1] The regulations also define “unserved and underserved households or businesses” as one or more households or businesses that are not currently served by a wireline connection that reliably delivers at least 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed. Thus, local governments may use ARP funding to provide broadband infrastructure to households that do not currently receive reliable service of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds, so long as that broadband infrastructure is designed to reliably support symmetrical 100 Mbps speeds.
These regulations also provide flexibility to local governments: “Understanding that States, territories, localities, and Tribal governments have a wide range of varied broadband infrastructure needs, [these regulations] provide award recipients with flexibility to identify the specific locations within their communities to be served and to otherwise design the project.” The Treasury Department notes that local governments have the discretion to determine whether 25/3 Mbps service is being “reliably delivered” in an area, and the discretion to determine whether ARP funds may be expended on improving broadband infrastructure in that area.
To receive ARP funding, counties and metropolitan cities (municipalities with a population of 50,000 or more) must request money directly from the Treasury Department; smaller cities (which the ARP calls “non-entitlement units of local government” or “NEUs”) receive ARP funding from their state. To apply for funding, local governments must have a valid DUNS number as well as an active registration with the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM) database. According to the Division of Local Government Services of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (the “Division”), funds for NEUs are distributed through the State Treasury. These local governments must execute an Award Terms and Conditions Agreement and submit a Local Fiscal Recovery Fund Distribution Request and Certification Form to the Division to request payment. Unlike ARP funding to state and local governments, the Infrastructure Act (assuming the House approves it without major changes) will create a grant program run by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for broadband projects. NTIA will award grants to states who will then award subgrants to local governments and other political subdivisions for broadband projects. 10% of this grant money is set aside for high-cost areas based on the proportion of unserved locations in high-cost areas in the state compared to those in all states, with the remaining amount allocated to states based on the proportion of unserved areas in the state relative to the unserved areas in all states. [2] The Act defines “unserved location” as a broadband-serviceable location that either has no access to broadband service or lacks access to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload service. States may award subgrants for a variety of reasons, including unserved and underserved areas, connecting eligible community anchor institutions like public housing authorities and healthcare providers, and for broadband project planning and data mapping.
[1] In areas where it is not practicable to build out networks that meet these speeds for reasons such as excessive cost or geography or topography of the area, the network must meet or exceed 100 Mbps download speed and between 20 Mbps and 100 Mbps upload speed and be scalable to 100 Mbps symmetrical.
[2] States must apply for funding; if a state fails to apply, a political subdivision or consortium of political subdivisions of the state may apply instead.
I am sure you all might have memories of this during some point in your life when you asked the Magic 8-Ball, “What Does The Future Hold?”. Did you get the answer? Did it leave you with “Ask Again Later”? Well, I am here to tell you it doesn’t take the Magic 8-Ball to get a glimpse into the future of access television, it just takes JAG along with some of our guest panelists from our conference sessions. In this article I am going to explore briefly with you some of the topics we discussed at our conference, allow you to watch these again (or for the first time) and see what valuable information you can gather from it
Outlook Good
In the session “The Future of PEG Access: Where Do We Go From Here”, I was fortunate enough to participate with three other people from around the country on this panel. J. Robertson from Hawaii, George McCollough from PrincetonTV and Mike Wassenaar of the ACM. We talked about how the COVID Crisis affected our operations, the various things stations did to remain relevant, how we emerged from the pandemic and what we learned from this situation that will carry us into the future.
You May Rely On It
Our discussions take you down the different paths that stations and municipalities went down during the crisis, along with how we emerged as well. Learn about how these stations all faced their own challenges, the ingenuity to evolve from those challenges and how they positioned themselves during this crisis. You will learn how stations adapted and positioned themselves as the source for updated information on both a local and state level as well. We also tackle the future hybrid meeting and its position in our operations. This round table discussion is something that you are going to want to watch again and again, and us it as a tool for your operations. This session is informative not only on a technology side, but extremely helpful on the management and operations side. This session can be found in the Members Only Section of the JAG Website under recorded webinars.
Signs Point To Yes
In another session that I was lucky to be a part of was “How Technology Will Shape The Future of PEG Stations”. This panel was comprised of forward-thinking individuals who not only represent manufacturers who support our industry, but these same people understand our operations, the communities in which we serve and our industry as a whole. Jesse Lerman of Telvue, Randy Visser of Cablecast and Rush Beesley of Rushworks gathered together to discuss every aspect of PEG operations and technology. As a group we tackle everything from live broadcasts, IPTV, OTT and other streaming platforms and social media. With the great strides connectivity, shared resources, remote access and more are all discussed. I urge you to watch this session again and again, use it as a resource guide and tool for your operations and a blue print on how your station might move forward. I have no doubt at the very least you will find an idea that you could bring forward to your station and municipality now and others you can use to plan out your station operations down the road. This session is one hour long and jam-packed with tremendous information and insight. This session can be found in the Members Only Section of the JAG Website under recorded webinars.
It Is Decidedly So
JAG is releasing another group of videos from our conference this month. There are six new videos posted. Besides the two I mentioned that deal with looking at the future of community access, one addresses Broadband and the other three are user groups by TelVue, Cablecast and Varto (Tricaster). There are many new videos on JAG’s website in the Members Only section for you to view. This requires a password and on September 1 the password will change. Contact Linda Besink, Treasurer at lbesink@gmail.com if you have any problems.
As I started this article, I will end the same way. It does not take a Magic 8-Ball to figure out the future of PEG Access, it takes JAG and the great compliment of members, users, manufacturers, and people in the industry we have positioned to be part of our sessions, webinars and discussions during meetings. Take advantage of this!
by Dustin Dumas, Station Manager, South Orange Maplewood Television
Dustin Dumas
The 2021 Eastern Video Expo conference was designed to bring the media community together to learn and share and this year it was virtual. As the station manager for South Orange Maplewood Television, I was looking forward to attending to learn and share ideas of best practices as well as see what the vendors offered for our small station and, of course, attend the JAG Awards!
The Expo did not disappoint and despite not being able to meet the other attendees in person, the virtual aspect did not hinder learning and connecting with the community.
Technical
From a technical aspect, the Expo was well-run. The main room and the breakout rooms were easy to access and the chat function within those rooms allowed for participants to engage with speakers and ask questions. Engaging was one of the biggest concerns I had when considering attending this virtual conference. I wanted to be able to fully participate and not just listen to speakers disseminating information to me. Due to the technology, there was minimal lag with speakers and audience questions were addressed in a timely manner since there was a dedicated person taking questions for the speakers. This was a good move as I have attended other online conferences where the speaker has had to both field and answer questions and this had not been done very smoothly. The technical organization of this aspect of the Expo made it much more interesting to attend virtually and be better able to engage with the speakers.
Affinity Lunch: Social Media
I was fortunate to be asked to co-host the Social Media Affinity Lunch and speak on social media and how it is best used to engage your audience. This was a great example of sharing knowledge as well as learning from attendees. The information shared was useful to attendees just starting with social media as well as those who were knowledgeable about social media. The combination of different levels of social media experience allowed everyone to participate. For example, one attendee was just venturing into social media and had specific questions on getting started. The open roundtable discussion allowed for several people to share their experiences with different platforms instead of just the two co-hosts. This type of interaction among the group was helpful in enabling everyone to learn.
JAG Awards
Given that the entire expo was virtual this year, I was curious as to how the JAG Awards would be presented. The awards presentation turned out to be upbeat and fun. While the awards were being presented in each category, it was nice to have each winner be able to give a short speech in real time. Although we were not physically in the same room, the use of Zoom helped create an awards ceremony that was both lively and fun for everyone involved. The addition of the red carpet event allowed everyone to show a little bit of flair of how they would walk the carpet. The red carpet was entertaining and creative since some took the traditional path of walking the red carpet while others chose to celebrate the red carpet in other ways from their offices. Given the limitations of having a virtual awards show, the JAG Awards turned out great!
The 2021 Eastern Video Expo conference covered many topics this year, more than I have space to cover in this column, but suffice it to say that this year’s expo was a good way to share ideas, learn and network with others in the industry. I learned many things that I will be able to take back to my home station and share with our producers and, in general, help create better programming.
While I look forward to meeting again in person, the virtual aspect of the conference did not deter attendees from being able to learn and, in fact, allowed me to attend more panels since it only involved me Zooming into another room.
by Doug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee
Doug Seidel
I have been busy updating our JAGonline.org website, this is going to be a big improvement. I won’t spoil all of the surprises but you will notice the change when you see it. This update will fix some issues like the slideshow on the homepage, and improve the formatting of things like the logos for our organizational members. Things will fit better on the pages and links to other pages will be easier to find. I am pretty excited about this update (especially because it will make my life easier to update the site) and hope to share the site with you all sometime in September! In the meantime if there is anything you want to see improved on the website, or if you have updated information about your content on the website (i.e. station address, contact e-mail) send that information to dseidel@piscatawaynj.org so we can make this site even better.
By Jesse Lerman, President and CEO, TelVue Corporation
Jesse Lerman
With accessibility gaining momentum both as a core mission and a compliance requirement, Closed Captioning is top of mind for Community Media broadcasters, and modern technology has made captioning affordable. As you move towards making your channels and programming accessible, what are the technology and workflow tradeoffs to consider?
Before reviewing some of the workflow considerations, let’s look at the two main types of captioning technologies available. Human captioning, where humans are scheduled to listen to the program audio and type out the captions, or Artificial Intelligence (AI) captioning, where audio is processed by computer programs and speech is automatically transcribed – also known as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) or Speech-to-Text (STT). Human captioning is highly accurate, but resource intensive and comes with a hefty price tag. AI captioning is automatic, highly scalable, with 80-90s % accuracy, and orders of magnitude more affordable.
For AI-based captioning solutions, the algorithms may run on dedicated hardware on-premise, or in the cloud. Cloud Speech-to-Text services have gone mainstream with major cloud computing providers including Google, IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft all offering services, as well as specialty providers. For both human and cloud-based AI captioning, it is common to stream audio and text over the Internet between the station and the cloud for processing. Audio and text are both low bandwidth, so this can easily be done reliably and with minimal latency.
TelVue LIVE cc with HyperCaster
Hardware captioning solutions can be quite expensive, with very high start-up capital expense in the $50k range. They also typically require caption encoders, which can easily cost an additional $4k to $6k per channel.
There is a growing trend in broadcast towards all-in-one systems, that simplify workflow, reduce complex integration points between varied systems, save money, extra rack space and power, and make support easier with one point of contact. Integrating captioning directly with playout and automation helps save money by eliminating the need for dedicated captioning hardware and traditional captioning encoders. Such integrated systems can provide hooks for using both AI captioning engines and human captioning. While AI captioning is so much more affordable and continues to get better, there may be times where specific events require the accuracy of human captioning.
For both human and AI captioning, quality audio with minimum background noise, and clear dialog without too many simultaneous speakers are all important for accuracy. AI captioning supports advanced features such as Custom Language Models to improve accuracy that allows configuring a list of commonly spoken names, words, and phrases so the automatic captioning knows what to expect. For example, a list of Council Member names for meetings.
Eliminating the need to manage caption events, scheduling, configuration, and file processing across multiple applications and systems.
Set-and-forget rules for which channels, live programming, or content is captioned, with which settings including program-specific Custom Language Models.
Automatically generating captions for videos right from your existing content interface.
Automatically marrying live captions with corresponding recordings for replays.
Displaying captions in native channel confidence monitors.
Highlighting which events will be captioned, and which content has captions.
Publishing captions along with videos for streaming, mobile, OTT, sharing and archiving.
Tight integration also allows for cost savings when combined with AI captioning engines and usage-based pricing by captioning unique programming only. Offline files and live events are processed once, saving the captions for replays. If you take replays and CBB out of the equation, you will likely find that your yearly usage-based caption cost will be extremely affordable. Grants and Sponsors for captioning can further offset costs.
AI captioning can also be used to solve more nuanced caption workflow challenges, such as Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) in which case there may be two separate audio tracks that both need captioning in different languages, or using AI language Translation services to present captioning in multiple languages. For live events on Cable, that could mean CC1 in English, and CC2 in Spanish, even if there is only one English-only audio track. For streaming & OTT, that could be any of 100+ languages you select that are important to your community.
Selecting Closed Captions
Captioning your programming opens up additional benefits beyond accessibility. Once you have captions available, the caption transcript text can be useful as searchable metadata. Viewers of your on-demand programming can search the captions to find specific topics of interest in your meetings and programming, and drill right to that part of the video. Some AI captioning also supports Speaker Diarization that automatically detects and tags each individual speaker, potentially useful for meetings and transcripts.
Searching the captions
TelVue recently launched SmartCaption™ LIVE to make captioning for Community Media broadcasters easy and affordable. SmartCaption integrates directly with the TelVue HyperCaster, no additional equipment required, providing the many all-in-one benefits. SmartCaption also supports a standalone server for simple integration with other playout systems, offering many of the same workflow and automation advantages. In both cases, usage-based pricing leveraging modern, AI-based captioning helps you control your costs and makes multi-language captioning ultra-affordable for live and offline captioning supporting both broadcast and streaming/OTT workflows.
Captions generated with SmartCaption are also compatible with TelVue CloudCast that displays captions in the web player, mobile (iOS & Android), and OTT apps (Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV). The CloudCast web player and mobile apps support Caption Transcript Search to make your meetings searchable, and captions can be translated to over 100 languages to allow viewers to select their language of choice. Captions can be embedded in broadcast files as standard CEA-608/708 in Connect for JAG Media Exchange sharing. SmartCaption also offers a powerful, cloud-based caption editor when quickly touching-up existing captions is required.
Now is a great time to start captioning your programming for accessibility and to better serve everyone in your community. The pricing for captioning is finally PEG-friendly, there are numerous options available, and the technology is ready for prime-time.
J Robertson, Managing Director – Ho’ike Kauai Community Television, Hawaii
When you choose to attend a community media conference you hope to be informed, engaged, inspired, and amazed.
For more than a decade I have had the unique pleasure of attending the annual JAG Conference known as the Eastern Video Expo. That experience has introduced me to new technology, production equipment, familiarity with vendors, skill development, political public policy practices, and a truly rewarding association with the people who regularly attend the gathering. Each year I look forward to a trip from the Garden Isle to the Garden State.
J takes a selfie with Eastern Video Expo in background
For the better part of the past year and a half life has transitioned to a not so realistic ZOOM life. Every Board meeting is on ZOOM, every council meeting, every community meeting, every family gathering and more. Life became a bunch of little boxes in a grid with mute buttons, screen shares, and a litany of background screens. Yes, I’ve seen your living room. One ends up blurry eyed with a migraine. Often these meetings are back-to-back on a never-ending cycle. The use of ZOOM has been a boon for communication and a tedious intrusion into time and space. It is also fraught with technical issues, failures, frozen panes, and bad connections. With an average of 5 ZOOM meetings a week and sometimes more the experience has been varied.
The Eastern Video Expo 2021 has reinforced my idea that ZOOM can and is a good tool. Being familiar with programs and virtual conferences for a while it was immediately apparent that the technical side of the Expo was in excellent hands. Doug Seidel over at Piscataway Community Television is remarkable. I watched as he juggled several simultaneous meetings, brought together social gatherings, managed the awards program, facilitated panels and the never-ending demand to add content via either video or power point. It was flawless. It was superb and the best technical display of pulling pieces together I have experienced. Doug and his team did an exemplary job in production. And for that matter the entire conference committee delivered an outstanding conference in all aspects. The topics, the panelists and the presentations were some of the best nationwide. Another impressive element was the knowledgeable and well-prepared moderators of each session. They continually fostered a cohesive discussion without straying off course.
The ability to execute the programs meant a meaningful experience at the conference. The knowledgeable panelists were showcased in the best fashion. The transitions were supremely smooth. The audio came through loud and clear. It was so perfect the attendees didn’t even notice, that’s how good it really was. One of the more interesting experiences was sitting on my lanai in Hawaii (yes early in the morning) listening to an outstanding music composer describe editing and sound while in England – brought together by folks in New Jersey. And it is true that a panel I participated in started at 4am Hawaiian Time but that was fun considering the other members of the panel and the attending audience.
The best part of this conference is each and every one who attends, along with access to the best vendor selection. This conference brings people together with an emphasis on delivering valuable information and access to the developing technology. All made possible by the Conference Committee and the JAG Leadership.
This conference brought back so many wonderful memories of years past while getting to reconnect with my dear friends in the JAG organization and the conference planning group. To see and speak with vendors was terrific. It was also a platform to thank those vendors who kept us running with advanced technology while taking the pandemic head on. I miss the annual trek to New Jersey, the friends I’ve made through the years, the associations, and the loads of fun during the events. It is my true hope to attend the 2022 Eastern Video Expo in person to continue to build these relationships, learn more, and experience the wonderful nature of the people of the Jersey Access Group.
By Adam Goldberg, Chief Engineer, Broadcast and Media Operations, College of the Arts, Montclair State
The School of Communication and Media Building (SCM) on the campus of Montclair State University opened in September of 2017. Designed to be a professional production space for the school’s TV, Film, Radio, and communications programs, the building hosts a variety of productions spaces.
These include:
2 HD TV studios with control rooms, each equipped with 3 Sony studio cameras with prompter, one jib camera, wireless microphones and IFBs, ETC lighting system, Sony switchers, VizRT graphics, AutoScript prompter, an Omeon server system with 6 channels of play/record, and a SSL audio board.
A 4K TV studio and control room with 3 Sony studio cameras with prompter, one jib camera, wireless microphones and IFBs, ETC lighting system, Sony switchers, VizRT graphics, AutoScript prompter, an Omeon server system with 2 channels of HD play/record, a Sony server system with 2 channels of 4K play/record, and SSL audio board.
Studio set
A professional film sound stage with 3 company power switches.
A 187 seat presentation hall with a 4K DCP projection system and 17-speaker 7.1 surround sound system. Additionally, the room is equipped with 6 Sony PTZ cameras and its own control room with a Sony switcher, PTZ controllers, ETC lighting system and Yamaha audio board to record presentations and live productions.
Presentation Hall
A 21st century live newsroom featuring television feeds from across the world surrounding its own news set. As the communications hub of Montclair State, the newsroom runs Avid iNews and is equipped with 3 Sony studio cameras, prompters and PTZ camera.
All of these spaces are interconnected to each other via a central video/audio/data Evertz Router. All use one RTS Adams Intercom system.
The facility is also connected to the LTN network. This allows us to send signals and receive live videos from around the world. As a result we’ve hosted uplinks for NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, PIX, NPR, BBC, and private events.
News set with camera operator, control room, final output
The building’s second floor is primarily dedicated to audio production. The state of the art facilities center on a 24-channel ProTools audio recording studio and a 16 channel ProTools Foley studio with multi-surface substrate floor, gravel/dirt pit and splash pool. The audio area also features 4 small ProTools post-production rooms for editing.
Just adjacent to the audio area of the building is the campus radio station WMSC, consisting of an On-Air live 24/7 room, prerecord productions room, and overflow talk room. The station can be heard locally on 90.3 FM, and internationally via wmscradio.com. WMSC is also streaming live on the iHeart Radio App as one of a few select college radio stations to be allowed onto the platform.
Audio recording studio
There is also a 35 seat private movie theater with a 4K DCP projection system and 16-speaker 7.1 surround sound system available for film screenings.
To support these facilities and the roughly 200 classes per semester offered by the School of Communications there are 5 computer labs ranging from 16 to 31 seats per room. All the labs are preloaded with Avid Media Composer, Avid ProTools, Adobe Creative Suite, Davinci Resolve, AutoCad and Vectorworks, just to name a few. The school offers class in Audio/Sound Design, Communication and Media Arts, Communication Studies, Documentary, Journalism, Filmmaking, Public Relations, Sports Media and Journalism, Television Production, Fundamentals of Speech, and a MA program in Public and Organizational Relations. More information on classes and degree programs can be found at: montclair.edu/school-of-communication-and-media/
There are also three additional mediated classrooms in the building used mostly for lecture courses for the Communication Studies and Public Relations programs. The building is also connected to other buildings on campus via dark fiber. Directly adjacent to the building is Morehead Hall where the academic offices are for the School of Communications and Media. The connection to this building allows us to send and receive multiple video signals between the two buildings, creating an interlink between the offices, conference rooms and two mediated classrooms with the production spaces in SCM.
The production spaces are also connected to two theaters on campus. Kasser Theater is a 500-seat professional theater. Seven PTZ cameras permanently mounted in the theater connect back to the production facilities in SCM. Additionally, there are video, audio, and intercom connections between the two facilities allowing the spaces to be fully interconnected for production. We are currently about to go into our third season of recording and producing shows in conjunction with MSU Peak Performances. (peakperfs.org)
Theater
Memorial Auditorium, the second theater on campus, seats 1000. Currently, the fiber run between our two facilities allows us to bring in studio cameras and additional support equipment in order to cultivate the theater into a production space.
We have also run fiber connections to the campus football field where other events are captured and/or streamed live, including Montclair’s annual graduation ceremonies. This past June, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we streamed 19 ceremonies over a one week span with 4 studio cameras, jib, 3 PTZ cameras and one wireless roaming camera all switched and streamed live.
Camera operator with wireless transmitter recording graduation
In addition to supporting the classes and other university initiatives, the building is also available for third party rentals. Our clientele list includes ABC, NBC, CBS, Google and Telemundo. We also do several recurring talk shows for local politicians in the area. We provide clients with a variety of rental packages ranging from a full technical crew provided by MSU, a mix of MSU and client crew, and space-only rentals. This is a great opportunity for our students to work side-by-side with industry professionals. In all three scenarios MSU provides engineering support to ensure the equipment and spaces are operating correctly.
Director watches film shoot on news set
In the past we’ve also rented facilities to Netflix and independent film makers, and hosted gubernatorial debates, film screenings, town hall meetings and private events. We were even honored to host a lecture by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg soon after the building was open.
More information about the building and rental areas can be found at: montclair.edu/bmo
As we slowly return to in-person studio shoots, there will still be many who may not be able to return to the studio and some who will prefer the flexibility of filming outside of the studio. That’s great but what elements are important in virtual video production. In this column I will discuss network connectivity, camera phones, clothing, B-roll and images.
Network – Keeping It Connected
Producing a show outside of the studio has its own unique set of challenges but when taping a show via a web conferencing tool, there are additional challenges, especially when striving to create a product comparable to one taped in the studio. One way to get the highest quality product is ensuring your network is operating at maximum capacity. While having Wi-Fi is nice and very convenient, when shooting a show virtually, the stability of your Internet is extremely important to the overall production quality. It is best to be connected “straight into the wall” as opposed to using Wi-Fi. Some of the issues with Wi-Fi are that during taping, the frame may freeze, the video and audio may become unsynchronized or the connection may drop altogether. These are not things you want to have happen during your taping, especially if this can be prevented by connecting your cable directly into the wall to your device. You may still have issues with direct connectivity, but your chances are significantly reduced compared to relying solely on Wi-Fi. There are so many other things to worry about when taping virtually, your connectivity should not be one of them.
Internet cable plugged into wall
On the other hand, if you have to use Wi-Fi because you are unable to connect a cable to your device, disable all other unnecessary devices connected to your Wi-Fi while taping. If you are familiar with your router and it has an app, many will allow you to prioritize devices. This is useful when disconnecting other devices is unavailable to you. By prioritizing the device (Computer, iPad, iPhone, etc.) you will be using to tape, this will allow that device to have the strongest connectivity. However, ideally, disconnecting other devices that will be competing for the same bandwidth is ideal.
Regardless of whether you are using Wi-Fi or are plugged into the wall, do a test run before your actual taping to ensure everything is set up as you want. Things may still not go as planned but with a little preliminary work, you can, at the very least, prevent a major mishap.
Camera Phones – Use What You Have
Independent producers continue to have to use resources outside of the studio and many times that means using the camera that they have. And in many cases that means their phones. If you had told me five years ago that producers would be relying on the device that they had in their pockets as a means of producing a show, I would have wrinkled my brow and thought that it did not seem feasible. My thinking would have been that phone camera videos are a novelty where you can shoot a low-resolution clip of an event and send it to on to a friend but would have nowhere near the quality of an in-studio production. Well, here we are in 2021 and not only have circumstances prevented us from using the perfectly good equipment in the studio for the last year but the camera phones available today are excellent! My phone has 4K capabilities and there is already a next generation phone after it! If you will be using your phone for taping, there are a few things to consider. Storage is one. 4K videos are huge and if you do not have enough storage on your phone, it does not matter if you use 4k if you can only store 5 minutes on your phone. Determine if the highest resolution available is the best solution for you, otherwise, use a resolution that is compatible with the storage capacity of your phone and the requirements of airing on television, such as high definition (HD).
The other consideration is the orientation of your phone. Unless you are going for an artsy look and want to have black bars on either side of your footage when it airs on television, turn your camera so that it is in landscape mode, not portrait. That simple 180 degree rotation turns your footage from one a concertgoer may have taken to footage that may be indistinguishable from something shot in a television studio. Shooting in landscape mode increases the overall production quality of your end product and makes it look more professional. I have used footage from my phone in HD and 4K on television and no one knew it was shot on the phone due to the quality of the footage. However, there are other things to consider, such as audio and lighting, which I have covered in a previous column. The bottom line is you can shoot great footage with the camera you have as long as it meets the specifications for where it will air.
Clothing –What Not To Wear
Virtual taping is new to many of us and one thing we may not be used to is the head and shoulder shot that is inherent in taping with virtual web conferencing tools. As a consequence, be aware of clothing that may have unintended consequences. In a taping that I did early on, after we had decided to tape shows virtually, I wore a blouse with thin shoulder straps. The unintended effect of having my hair over the straps was that it looked as though I was topless. Seeing the obvious faux pas early in the taping, I was able to correct it, but it reminded me that even clothing choices had to be thought out carefully to ensure that the production quality stayed the same. My choice of clothing would not have been a problem with our traditional studio shot but because our shots were all head and shoulder shots, my clothing choices had to be approached differently.
In addition to making sure your clothing choices do not make you look nude, if you choose to use a green screen, be aware that your clothing choices will make parts of you disappear depending on if there is green in your outfit. This has always been the case but because you don’t need an actual green screen on some of these web conference tools, people have forgotten that they cannot wear green. Choosing your clothing for a virtual taping has to be intentional due to the restricted frame space and color limitations if you choose to use a green screen. One thing that people have been taking advantage of is that you do not have to wear the accompanying skirt or pants when wearing a suit jacket so that is even more of an incentive to make sure that everything in the camera frame looks great since you do not have to worry about the bottom.
B-Roll and Images
Unlike being in a studio where you can have performers and multi-camera shots to create movement and visual energy to a show, taping shows virtually usually becomes talking heads talking straight on in square boxes. Unless the people are famous, charismatic or have a huge fan base, you are going to have to keep the attention of the audience. The number one way is to tell a great story and have a compelling discussion; however, there are a few ways to enhance the story that only take a few more minutes of preparation.
The first way is inserting images. For example, let’s say the show is about a new electric car that is coming to the market. The people discussing the car may talk about the specifications of the car such as the time it takes to get from 0-60, the horsepower, the green footprint of the car and more. These are all nice things to verbally describe the car but when an image is inserted at the very instance when the car is being described, the audience not only hears about the car but they are now able to see the car. This impact on the viewers takes the car from a theoretical concept to an actual physical car. They now have an image that allows them to see the size of the car, the shape and even the color of the car. Now your audience is more accurately able to understand this specific car and, thus, become more engaged in the story that you are telling.
Now let’s take it one step further and talk about B-Roll. B-Roll is additional footage that complements the current discussion. Using the example above where there is a new electric car coming to market and it is being described beautifully, now, instead of inserting an image, you insert a video clip of the same electric vehicle in motion. Now, as the car is being described, you audience gets to see the size of the car, the color and the shape. However, they also get to see just how fast the car is, as it speeds away, along with the screeching of the tires with smoking rising, if audio is included. The viewers are treated to being able to see the movement of the car and the sounds of the car. The B-Roll footage provides additional information to the audience that complements the discussion and makes for a fuller, more engaging story to keep your viewers engaged, interested and excited. This is what you want as a storyteller!
Inserting images and B-Roll can be as simple as inserting an author’s book image when she is saying the title of her book or inserting a few seconds of B-Roll from the author’s book signing. The reason to insert B-Roll and images is to keep your viewers engaged, connected and enhance the story you are telling.
As independent producers, understanding how network connectivity, camera phones, clothing, B-Roll and images can produce a high-quality product that will keep your audience engaged is important. All of these pieces working in concert, can assist in telling a wonderful and powerful story.
Dustin Dumas is the host and producer of Dustin’s Kaleidoscope and What’s Up Around Town. She is the station manager of South Orange Maplewood Television (SOMAtv) and serves as Vice Chair on the Jersey Access Group, External Relations Committee. She has been part of community television stations in Illinois, California and New Jersey and enjoys helping people tell their stories.
In any year, pulling off a successful conference is no easy feat, but during so during a pandemic while doing something that we never did before is just outstanding! I am so happy to announce to our membership what a great event we were able to pull off virtually for three days, but I think they already know that since they attended. So let me break this down with a quick recap and some thank you mentions along the way.
Screenshots from TelVue and Cablecast presentations
No conference would be successful without the support of our partners and sponsors. I am so proud to say that many of our organizational members stepped up and made this event possible. I would like to thank our Conference Partners who did some heaving lifting not only financially, but they were “All In” on this event. Both TelVue Corporation and Cablecast took on that role and pledged their support. They understood it was not only the conference they were supporting… but JAG. For that our membership is greatly appreciative. In addition, TelVue Corporation sponsored the JAG Awards (more on that later).
The generous support did not stop there. Our tried-and-true organizational member Varto Technologies was once again there to support our organization and cause. Helping behind the scenes, financially and with workshop sessions they showed JAG members that they are here for us.
Screenshot from Varto’s LiveU presentation
We were also lucky to have the financial and online support of other organizational members of JAG such as Rushworks, Municipal Captioning and DeSisti. They participated in panel discussions, demonstrations and much more. Finally, we were thankful to have additional support from Planet Networks who sponsored our Day Three Keynote Lunch and Broadband Session; Didja TV who introduced us to alternate methods of getting our content out; and DNS Media Group for production and website support and hosting. All of the above is what allowed us to give EVE 2021 participants a great three day event.
Title graphics for workshops
These six presentations have been posted to the members-only section of JAG’s website.
Logos for some of the expo sponsors
The heart of our conference was our master control room in Piscataway. This was the hub for our Zoom oversight. With Doug Seidel at the helm as our technical producer, he monitored all the zoom feeds, started and ended sessions, helped bring panelists and moderators into the sessions and kept it all running smoothly on the web via our website. This truly was the heart of our operation for the three days (and even more with prep) during our conference. Doug was logged in to every laptop and computer he could get his hands on to monitor feeds and zoom accounts.
Master control at Piscataway TV
I was operating out of the WBMA-TV studios to do the live virtual stage, interview guests, panelists and vendors. Stephen Kwiecien, who cut the show in Bloomfield and took in the live zoom feeds, was ready to go live every day at 8:30 am. We spent the next eight hours each day doing a live show with interviews, video roll-ins and more. The heart of the conference never stopped beating even when sessions were over. The master control room became the main production center for the live JAG Awards Show. This was a combination of live in-studio and remote zoom feeds. George Fairfield, the mastermind behind the show, paid homage to the JAG Awards shows of the past that included entertainment, comedy,
Bob on set at WBMA-TV studios
presenters and more. This year’s show included a Red Carpet Event hosted by Simon Mandal which featured comedy and magic! Simon continued to entertain the audience and nominees of the JAG Awards throughout the whole evening. The combination of Simon’s magic and interactive experience with the audience, the tremendous entries for this year’s JAG Awards, along with the comedic stylings of George Fairfield and Samantha Urash as the studio hosts, made for a fun evening. The creative juices were running, both while preparing for such a big event and during it as well. The staff and crew at Piscataway TV who undertook this with George and Doug are recognized for their hard work and dedication. You can watch the JAG Awards on our YouTube Page or website VOD Player.
George and Sam hosting the JAG awards
Simon Mandal did a yeoman’s job not only hosting the JAG Awards Red Carpet and the JAG Awards, but earlier that day as our Keynote Speaker during the EVE 2021 Keynote Lunch. It was there that Simon gave us a unique perspective of his career journey that included being an inventor, playwright, song writer, magician and more. Along the way he taught us magic tricks and provided tips to get our own creative juices flowing and ways in which to step up our game a notch or two. The combination of storytelling, interactive magic and life lessons made for an extraordinary Keynote address….one which left us with tips and tricks for our productions and everyday life. If you missed this or just want to see it again, it is available on the Members Only section of the JAG website.
Simon Mandal shows a magic trick
Finally, I want to thank the Conference Committee for all their hard work. I have a great co-chair in Geoffrey Belinfante and Vice-Chair George Fairfield. We were blessed to have a great committee working together to put on such a great event. The committee included Linda Besink, our Treasurer, along with committee members Stephanie Gibbons, Dave Garb, Dave Ambrosy, Anthony Pagliuco, Lee Beckerman, Jeff Arban and J. Robertson. We were lucky enough to have the guidance, wisdom and support of our Managing Director Rich Desimone who kept us on course during this whole project. And I want to especially thank the person I made a phone call to months before all this started and asked if he would work with me to pull this off and could we do this…. thankfully he said yes, but we both had no idea of what we were getting in to. Again, Doug Seidel was the heart of the conference between updating the website and technically producing 53 zoom events spread out across 3 days. A big THANK YOU TO ALL
News & Events
Posted: August 31, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Member Spotlight: The New Post-Pandemic Normal Or You Want Us to Do What??
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.
Then, of course, everything changed. And for many months, it was a matter of producing the best programs we could utilizing Zoom. “Can you hear me now?”, “Please mute yourself” and “Your cat is in the way” became the phrases of our life.
And now, everything has changed again. Elected officials and members of the public have decided that they like attending meetings on their couch in their pajamas, and so what now? The dreaded HYBRID meetings. For the last three months or so, C-NET has been tasked with helping various government and regional organizations figure out how to allow elected officials, board representatives and the public to participate in meetings both physically in a meeting room and virtually.
This means, of course, that everyone must be able to see and hear each other AND C-NET needs to obtain audio and video from both the room and the virtual platform. This would be a reasonable challenge if all sixteen meeting rooms had the same audio systems, etc., but they do not. Some of the rooms in which we work include installed mounted cameras and audio systems with reliable wireless internet. Other meeting rooms have no installed technology at all.
The result has been a myriad of different solutions. For meetings in the State College Borough Council Chambers, we are live switching between a Zoom feed and the mounted cameras in the room. The in-person participants are seeing the Zoom feed on the mondopad and hearing the audio through the Borough’s audio system.
We are using a Meeting Owl in several of the meeting rooms in which we work. This relatively inexpensive (less than $1,000) device uses a 360 degree camera and microphone to provide a view of the room and audio to and from the people in the meeting room and the Zoom participants. The Owl works particularly well in smaller meeting rooms.
A third configuration includes a lap-top camera and a high-quality exterior microphone to provide video and audio to Zoom participants, while the Zoom video is projected onto a screen in the room. In this case, C-NET live switches between the Zoom feed and our single camera. This has proved to be the most problematic of the various solutions.
Another interesting outcome of the pandemic is that the public’s tolerance for a single camera panning between speakers is lessening. Virtual meeting platforms allow the speaker to be instantly highlighted on the screen, and we are finding that the public expects this to be the case with in-person production as well. To assist with this challenge, C-NET has recently purchased a Rushworks VDESK Compact PTZ Production and Streaming System as an affordable way to turn more meetings into multi-camera productions. More switching…..less panning.
I want to give a shout-out at this point for the annual JAG Eastern Video Expo. It was, of course, unfortunate that the Expo was cancelled in 2020 and had to be virtual in 2021, but the challenges brought about by the pandemic are precisely why this type of collaborative group conference is so valuable. For the most part, PEG stations have small staffs and modest budgets, and reinventing the wheel takes time and money. Talking to others who are facing the same challenges and issues helps everyone. We network, we learn, and we form relationships that will help us down the road. I’m very much looking forward to the next Expo!
C-NET is fortunate to have the financial support of the sixteen organizations that we serve. And we are committed to finding and designing solutions to meet the changing needs of their staffs and the public. Hybrid meetings and changes in the public’s expectations are here to stay. So while I don’t like technology, I am fortunate that the rest of the wonderful C-NET staff is talented, creative and willing to go the extra mile for our community.
C-NET is Centre County’s Government and Education Access Television Network. C-NET administers two channels, CGTV (channel 7) and CETV (channel 98) on the Comcast and Windstream Cable Systems. All of C-NET’s locally produced programming is available to view on-line, on-demand at cnet1.org. C-NET’s programming ranges from public meetings to high school sports, concerts, and local festivals. A C-NET member agency must sponsor each program that airs on the channels. There are currently 16 members: Bellefonte Area School District, Bellefonte Borough, Centre County Government, Centre Region Council of Governments, the Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority, College Township, Ferguson Township, Halfmoon Township, Harris Township, Patton Township, Penn State University, Schlow Centre Region Library, State College Area School District, State College Borough, the State College Borough Water Authority, and the University Area Joint Authority.
Posted: August 31, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Understanding Broadband Grants
by Ken Fellman, Of Council, Helmer, Conley and Kasselman, PA
As Americans have spent a significant amount of time on the internet during the pandemic, the federal government has created several programs addressing broadband deployment. Here, we address two major Congressional initiatives that provide significant funding to expand broadband networks. On March 11th, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which allocates funding to state, county, and municipal governments, and establishes that state and local governments receiving this funding may use it “to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.” As of this writing (August 12, 2021), the House will be considering the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by the Senate, which establishes a $42,450,000,000 grant program to states who in turn award subgrants to local governments and other entities for broadband and other infrastructure projects.
On May 11th, the Treasury Department released interim regulations describing the allowable use of ARP funds. These regulations define “broadband infrastructure” as infrastructure designed to provide service to unserved or underserved households and businesses that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical 100 Mbps speeds. [1] The regulations also define “unserved and underserved households or businesses” as one or more households or businesses that are not currently served by a wireline connection that reliably delivers at least 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed. Thus, local governments may use ARP funding to provide broadband infrastructure to households that do not currently receive reliable service of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds, so long as that broadband infrastructure is designed to reliably support symmetrical 100 Mbps speeds.
These regulations also provide flexibility to local governments: “Understanding that States, territories, localities, and Tribal governments have a wide range of varied broadband infrastructure needs, [these regulations] provide award recipients with flexibility to identify the specific locations within their communities to be served and to otherwise design the project.” The Treasury Department notes that local governments have the discretion to determine whether 25/3 Mbps service is being “reliably delivered” in an area, and the discretion to determine whether ARP funds may be expended on improving broadband infrastructure in that area.
To receive ARP funding, counties and metropolitan cities (municipalities with a population of 50,000 or more) must request money directly from the Treasury Department; smaller cities (which the ARP calls “non-entitlement units of local government” or “NEUs”) receive ARP funding from their state. To apply for funding, local governments must have a valid DUNS number as well as an active registration with the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM) database. According to the Division of Local Government Services of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (the “Division”), funds for NEUs are distributed through the State Treasury. These local governments must execute an Award Terms and Conditions Agreement and submit a Local Fiscal Recovery Fund Distribution Request and Certification Form to the Division to request payment. Unlike ARP funding to state and local governments, the Infrastructure Act (assuming the House approves it without major changes) will create a grant program run by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for broadband projects. NTIA will award grants to states who will then award subgrants to local governments and other political subdivisions for broadband projects. 10% of this grant money is set aside for high-cost areas based on the proportion of unserved locations in high-cost areas in the state compared to those in all states, with the remaining amount allocated to states based on the proportion of unserved areas in the state relative to the unserved areas in all states. [2] The Act defines “unserved location” as a broadband-serviceable location that either has no access to broadband service or lacks access to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload service. States may award subgrants for a variety of reasons, including unserved and underserved areas, connecting eligible community anchor institutions like public housing authorities and healthcare providers, and for broadband project planning and data mapping.
[1] In areas where it is not practicable to build out networks that meet these speeds for reasons such as excessive cost or geography or topography of the area, the network must meet or exceed 100 Mbps download speed and between 20 Mbps and 100 Mbps upload speed and be scalable to 100 Mbps symmetrical.
[2] States must apply for funding; if a state fails to apply, a political subdivision or consortium of political subdivisions of the state may apply instead.
Posted: August 26, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Conference Review: 2021
by Dustin Dumas, Station Manager, South Orange Maplewood Television
The 2021 Eastern Video Expo conference was designed to bring the media community together to learn and share and this year it was virtual. As the station manager for South Orange Maplewood Television, I was looking forward to attending to learn and share ideas of best practices as well as see what the vendors offered for our small station and, of course, attend the JAG Awards!
The Expo did not disappoint and despite not being able to meet the other attendees in person, the virtual aspect did not hinder learning and connecting with the community.
Technical
From a technical aspect, the Expo was well-run. The main room and the breakout rooms were easy to access and the chat function within those rooms allowed for participants to engage with speakers and ask questions. Engaging was one of the biggest concerns I had when considering attending this virtual conference. I wanted to be able to fully participate and not just listen to speakers disseminating information to me. Due to the technology, there was minimal lag with speakers and audience questions were addressed in a timely manner since there was a dedicated person taking questions for the speakers. This was a good move as I have attended other online conferences where the speaker has had to both field and answer questions and this had not been done very smoothly. The technical organization of this aspect of the Expo made it much more interesting to attend virtually and be better able to engage with the speakers.
Affinity Lunch: Social Media
I was fortunate to be asked to co-host the Social Media Affinity Lunch and speak on social media and how it is best used to engage your audience. This was a great example of sharing knowledge as well as learning from attendees. The information shared was useful to attendees just starting with social media as well as those who were knowledgeable about social media. The combination of different levels of social media experience allowed everyone to participate. For example, one attendee was just venturing into social media and had specific questions on getting started. The open roundtable discussion allowed for several people to share their experiences with different platforms instead of just the two co-hosts. This type of interaction among the group was helpful in enabling everyone to learn.
JAG Awards
Given that the entire expo was virtual this year, I was curious as to how the JAG Awards would be presented. The awards presentation turned out to be upbeat and fun. While the awards were being presented in each category, it was nice to have each winner be able to give a short speech in real time. Although we were not physically in the same room, the use of Zoom helped create an awards ceremony that was both lively and fun for everyone involved. The addition of the red carpet event allowed everyone to show a little bit of flair of how they would walk the carpet. The red carpet was entertaining and creative since some took the traditional path of walking the red carpet while others chose to celebrate the red carpet in other ways from their offices. Given the limitations of having a virtual awards show, the JAG Awards turned out great!
The 2021 Eastern Video Expo conference covered many topics this year, more than I have space to cover in this column, but suffice it to say that this year’s expo was a good way to share ideas, learn and network with others in the industry. I learned many things that I will be able to take back to my home station and share with our producers and, in general, help create better programming.
While I look forward to meeting again in person, the virtual aspect of the conference did not deter attendees from being able to learn and, in fact, allowed me to attend more panels since it only involved me Zooming into another room.
Posted: August 23, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Social Media Stats – August, 2021
by Doug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee
I have been busy updating our JAGonline.org website, this is going to be a big improvement. I won’t spoil all of the surprises but you will notice the change when you see it. This update will fix some issues like the slideshow on the homepage, and improve the formatting of things like the logos for our organizational members. Things will fit better on the pages and links to other pages will be easier to find. I am pretty excited about this update (especially because it will make my life easier to update the site) and hope to share the site with you all sometime in September! In the meantime if there is anything you want to see improved on the website, or if you have updated information about your content on the website (i.e. station address, contact e-mail) send that information to dseidel@piscatawaynj.org so we can make this site even better.
Jersey Access Group
facebook.com/pegtv
linkedin.com/company/jersey-access-group
instagram.com/jersey_access_group
EASTERN VIDEO EXPO
facebook.com/Easternvideoexpo
instagram.com/easternvideox/
Do not forget to check out our YouTube channel Have something you want on our YouTube channel? Send a link to dseidel@piscatawaynj.org for review.
New Content:
Mayor’s Summer Concert – WoodbridgeTV
Meet the Mayor – SOMATelevision
Aging Insights 119 – NJAAW
Posted: August 12, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Closed Captioning and Workflow Considerations for PEG Broadcasters
By Jesse Lerman, President and CEO, TelVue Corporation
With accessibility gaining momentum both as a core mission and a compliance requirement, Closed Captioning is top of mind for Community Media broadcasters, and modern technology has made captioning affordable. As you move towards making your channels and programming accessible, what are the technology and workflow tradeoffs to consider?
Before reviewing some of the workflow considerations, let’s look at the two main types of captioning technologies available. Human captioning, where humans are scheduled to listen to the program audio and type out the captions, or Artificial Intelligence (AI) captioning, where audio is processed by computer programs and speech is automatically transcribed – also known as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) or Speech-to-Text (STT). Human captioning is highly accurate, but resource intensive and comes with a hefty price tag. AI captioning is automatic, highly scalable, with 80-90s % accuracy, and orders of magnitude more affordable.
For AI-based captioning solutions, the algorithms may run on dedicated hardware on-premise, or in the cloud. Cloud Speech-to-Text services have gone mainstream with major cloud computing providers including Google, IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft all offering services, as well as specialty providers. For both human and cloud-based AI captioning, it is common to stream audio and text over the Internet between the station and the cloud for processing. Audio and text are both low bandwidth, so this can easily be done reliably and with minimal latency.
Hardware captioning solutions can be quite expensive, with very high start-up capital expense in the $50k range. They also typically require caption encoders, which can easily cost an additional $4k to $6k per channel.
There is a growing trend in broadcast towards all-in-one systems, that simplify workflow, reduce complex integration points between varied systems, save money, extra rack space and power, and make support easier with one point of contact. Integrating captioning directly with playout and automation helps save money by eliminating the need for dedicated captioning hardware and traditional captioning encoders. Such integrated systems can provide hooks for using both AI captioning engines and human captioning. While AI captioning is so much more affordable and continues to get better, there may be times where specific events require the accuracy of human captioning.
For both human and AI captioning, quality audio with minimum background noise, and clear dialog without too many simultaneous speakers are all important for accuracy. AI captioning supports advanced features such as Custom Language Models to improve accuracy that allows configuring a list of commonly spoken names, words, and phrases so the automatic captioning knows what to expect. For example, a list of Council Member names for meetings.
Tightly integrating captioning directly with playout & automation streamlines captioning workflow, enabling:
Tight integration also allows for cost savings when combined with AI captioning engines and usage-based pricing by captioning unique programming only. Offline files and live events are processed once, saving the captions for replays. If you take replays and CBB out of the equation, you will likely find that your yearly usage-based caption cost will be extremely affordable. Grants and Sponsors for captioning can further offset costs.
AI captioning can also be used to solve more nuanced caption workflow challenges, such as Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) in which case there may be two separate audio tracks that both need captioning in different languages, or using AI language Translation services to present captioning in multiple languages. For live events on Cable, that could mean CC1 in English, and CC2 in Spanish, even if there is only one English-only audio track. For streaming & OTT, that could be any of 100+ languages you select that are important to your community.
Captioning your programming opens up additional benefits beyond accessibility. Once you have captions available, the caption transcript text can be useful as searchable metadata. Viewers of your on-demand programming can search the captions to find specific topics of interest in your meetings and programming, and drill right to that part of the video. Some AI captioning also supports Speaker Diarization that automatically detects and tags each individual speaker, potentially useful for meetings and transcripts.
TelVue recently launched SmartCaption™ LIVE to make captioning for Community Media broadcasters easy and affordable. SmartCaption integrates directly with the TelVue HyperCaster, no additional equipment required, providing the many all-in-one benefits. SmartCaption also supports a standalone server for simple integration with other playout systems, offering many of the same workflow and automation advantages. In both cases, usage-based pricing leveraging modern, AI-based captioning helps you control your costs and makes multi-language captioning ultra-affordable for live and offline captioning supporting both broadcast and streaming/OTT workflows.
Captions generated with SmartCaption are also compatible with TelVue CloudCast that displays captions in the web player, mobile (iOS & Android), and OTT apps (Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV). The CloudCast web player and mobile apps support Caption Transcript Search to make your meetings searchable, and captions can be translated to over 100 languages to allow viewers to select their language of choice. Captions can be embedded in broadcast files as standard CEA-608/708 in Connect for JAG Media Exchange sharing. SmartCaption also offers a powerful, cloud-based caption editor when quickly touching-up existing captions is required.
Now is a great time to start captioning your programming for accessibility and to better serve everyone in your community. The pricing for captioning is finally PEG-friendly, there are numerous options available, and the technology is ready for prime-time.
Posted: August 4, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Eastern Video Expo 2021 reinforces my idea that ZOOM is a good tool.
J Robertson, Managing Director – Ho’ike Kauai Community Television, Hawaii
When you choose to attend a community media conference you hope to be informed, engaged, inspired, and amazed.
For more than a decade I have had the unique pleasure of attending the annual JAG Conference known as the Eastern Video Expo. That experience has introduced me to new technology, production equipment, familiarity with vendors, skill development, political public policy practices, and a truly rewarding association with the people who regularly attend the gathering. Each year I look forward to a trip from the Garden Isle to the Garden State.
For the better part of the past year and a half life has transitioned to a not so realistic ZOOM life. Every Board meeting is on ZOOM, every council meeting, every community meeting, every family gathering and more. Life became a bunch of little boxes in a grid with mute buttons, screen shares, and a litany of background screens. Yes, I’ve seen your living room. One ends up blurry eyed with a migraine. Often these meetings are back-to-back on a never-ending cycle. The use of ZOOM has been a boon for communication and a tedious intrusion into time and space. It is also fraught with technical issues, failures, frozen panes, and bad connections. With an average of 5 ZOOM meetings a week and sometimes more the experience has been varied.
The Eastern Video Expo 2021 has reinforced my idea that ZOOM can and is a good tool. Being familiar with programs and virtual conferences for a while it was immediately apparent that the technical side of the Expo was in excellent hands. Doug Seidel over at Piscataway Community Television is remarkable. I watched as he juggled several simultaneous meetings, brought together social gatherings, managed the awards program, facilitated panels and the never-ending demand to add content via either video or power point. It was flawless. It was superb and the best technical display of pulling pieces together I have experienced. Doug and his team did an exemplary job in production. And for that matter the entire conference committee delivered an outstanding conference in all aspects. The topics, the panelists and the presentations were some of the best nationwide. Another impressive element was the knowledgeable and well-prepared moderators of each session. They continually fostered a cohesive discussion without straying off course.
The ability to execute the programs meant a meaningful experience at the conference. The knowledgeable panelists were showcased in the best fashion. The transitions were supremely smooth. The audio came through loud and clear. It was so perfect the attendees didn’t even notice, that’s how good it really was. One of the more interesting experiences was sitting on my lanai in Hawaii (yes early in the morning) listening to an outstanding music composer describe editing and sound while in England – brought together by folks in New Jersey. And it is true that a panel I participated in started at 4am Hawaiian Time but that was fun considering the other members of the panel and the attending audience.
The best part of this conference is each and every one who attends, along with access to the best vendor selection. This conference brings people together with an emphasis on delivering valuable information and access to the developing technology. All made possible by the Conference Committee and the JAG Leadership.
This conference brought back so many wonderful memories of years past while getting to reconnect with my dear friends in the JAG organization and the conference planning group. To see and speak with vendors was terrific. It was also a platform to thank those vendors who kept us running with advanced technology while taking the pandemic head on. I miss the annual trek to New Jersey, the friends I’ve made through the years, the associations, and the loads of fun during the events. It is my true hope to attend the 2022 Eastern Video Expo in person to continue to build these relationships, learn more, and experience the wonderful nature of the people of the Jersey Access Group.
Posted: July 30, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Designed to be a professional production space
By Adam Goldberg, Chief Engineer, Broadcast and Media Operations, College of the Arts, Montclair State
The School of Communication and Media Building (SCM) on the campus of Montclair State University opened in September of 2017. Designed to be a professional production space for the school’s TV, Film, Radio, and communications programs, the building hosts a variety of productions spaces.
These include:
All of these spaces are interconnected to each other via a central video/audio/data Evertz Router. All use one RTS Adams Intercom system.
The facility is also connected to the LTN network. This allows us to send signals and receive live videos from around the world. As a result we’ve hosted uplinks for NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, PIX, NPR, BBC, and private events.
The building’s second floor is primarily dedicated to audio production. The state of the art facilities center on a 24-channel ProTools audio recording studio and a 16 channel ProTools Foley studio with multi-surface substrate floor, gravel/dirt pit and splash pool. The audio area also features 4 small ProTools post-production rooms for editing.
Just adjacent to the audio area of the building is the campus radio station WMSC, consisting of an On-Air live 24/7 room, prerecord productions room, and overflow talk room. The station can be heard locally on 90.3 FM, and internationally via wmscradio.com. WMSC is also streaming live on the iHeart Radio App as one of a few select college radio stations to be allowed onto the platform.
There is also a 35 seat private movie theater with a 4K DCP projection system and 16-speaker 7.1 surround sound system available for film screenings.
To support these facilities and the roughly 200 classes per semester offered by the School of Communications there are 5 computer labs ranging from 16 to 31 seats per room. All the labs are preloaded with Avid Media Composer, Avid ProTools, Adobe Creative Suite, Davinci Resolve, AutoCad and Vectorworks, just to name a few. The school offers class in Audio/Sound Design, Communication and Media Arts, Communication Studies, Documentary, Journalism, Filmmaking, Public Relations, Sports Media and Journalism, Television Production, Fundamentals of Speech, and a MA program in Public and Organizational Relations. More information on classes and degree programs can be found at: montclair.edu/school-of-communication-and-media/
There are also three additional mediated classrooms in the building used mostly for lecture courses for the Communication Studies and Public Relations programs. The building is also connected to other buildings on campus via dark fiber. Directly adjacent to the building is Morehead Hall where the academic offices are for the School of Communications and Media. The connection to this building allows us to send and receive multiple video signals between the two buildings, creating an interlink between the offices, conference rooms and two mediated classrooms with the production spaces in SCM.
The production spaces are also connected to two theaters on campus. Kasser Theater is a 500-seat professional theater. Seven PTZ cameras permanently mounted in the theater connect back to the production facilities in SCM. Additionally, there are video, audio, and intercom connections between the two facilities allowing the spaces to be fully interconnected for production. We are currently about to go into our third season of recording and producing shows in conjunction with MSU Peak Performances. (peakperfs.org)
Memorial Auditorium, the second theater on campus, seats 1000. Currently, the fiber run between our two facilities allows us to bring in studio cameras and additional support equipment in order to cultivate the theater into a production space.
We have also run fiber connections to the campus football field where other events are captured and/or streamed live, including Montclair’s annual graduation ceremonies. This past June, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we streamed 19 ceremonies over a one week span with 4 studio cameras, jib, 3 PTZ cameras and one wireless roaming camera all switched and streamed live.
In addition to supporting the classes and other university initiatives, the building is also available for third party rentals. Our clientele list includes ABC, NBC, CBS, Google and Telemundo. We also do several recurring talk shows for local politicians in the area. We provide clients with a variety of rental packages ranging from a full technical crew provided by MSU, a mix of MSU and client crew, and space-only rentals. This is a great opportunity for our students to work side-by-side with industry professionals. In all three scenarios MSU provides engineering support to ensure the equipment and spaces are operating correctly.
In the past we’ve also rented facilities to Netflix and independent film makers, and hosted gubernatorial debates, film screenings, town hall meetings and private events. We were even honored to host a lecture by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg soon after the building was open.
More information about the building and rental areas can be found at: montclair.edu/bmo
Posted: July 16, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Independent Producer Corner: Four Ridiculously Simple Things That Will Increase the Production Quality of Virtual Shows
By Dustin Dumas
As we slowly return to in-person studio shoots, there will still be many who may not be able to return to the studio and some who will prefer the flexibility of filming outside of the studio. That’s great but what elements are important in virtual video production. In this column I will discuss network connectivity, camera phones, clothing, B-roll and images.
Network – Keeping It Connected
Producing a show outside of the studio has its own unique set of challenges but when taping a show via a web conferencing tool, there are additional challenges, especially when striving to create a product comparable to one taped in the studio. One way to get the highest quality product is ensuring your network is operating at maximum capacity. While having Wi-Fi is nice and very convenient, when shooting a show virtually, the stability of your Internet is extremely important to the overall production quality. It is best to be connected “straight into the wall” as opposed to using Wi-Fi. Some of the issues with Wi-Fi are that during taping, the frame may freeze, the video and audio may become unsynchronized or the connection may drop altogether. These are not things you want to have happen during your taping, especially if this can be prevented by connecting your cable directly into the wall to your device. You may still have issues with direct connectivity, but your chances are significantly reduced compared to relying solely on Wi-Fi. There are so many other things to worry about when taping virtually, your connectivity should not be one of them.
On the other hand, if you have to use Wi-Fi because you are unable to connect a cable to your device, disable all other unnecessary devices connected to your Wi-Fi while taping. If you are familiar with your router and it has an app, many will allow you to prioritize devices. This is useful when disconnecting other devices is unavailable to you. By prioritizing the device (Computer, iPad, iPhone, etc.) you will be using to tape, this will allow that device to have the strongest connectivity. However, ideally, disconnecting other devices that will be competing for the same bandwidth is ideal.
Regardless of whether you are using Wi-Fi or are plugged into the wall, do a test run before your actual taping to ensure everything is set up as you want. Things may still not go as planned but with a little preliminary work, you can, at the very least, prevent a major mishap.
Camera Phones – Use What You Have
Independent producers continue to have to use resources outside of the studio and many times that means using the camera that they have. And in many cases that means their phones. If you had told me five years ago that producers would be relying on the device that they had in their pockets as a means of producing a show, I would have wrinkled my brow and thought that it did not seem feasible. My thinking would have been that phone camera videos are a novelty where you can shoot a low-resolution clip of an event and send it to on to a friend but would have nowhere near the quality of an in-studio production. Well, here we are in 2021 and not only have circumstances prevented us from using the perfectly good equipment in the studio for the last year but the camera phones available today are excellent! My phone has 4K capabilities and there is already a next generation phone after it! If you will be using your phone for taping, there are a few things to consider. Storage is one. 4K videos are huge and if you do not have enough storage on your phone, it does not matter if you use 4k if you can only store 5 minutes on your phone. Determine if the highest resolution available is the best solution for you, otherwise, use a resolution that is compatible with the storage capacity of your phone and the requirements of airing on television, such as high definition (HD).
The other consideration is the orientation of your phone. Unless you are going for an artsy look and want to have black bars on either side of your footage when it airs on television, turn your camera so that it is in landscape mode, not portrait. That simple 180 degree rotation turns your footage from one a concertgoer may have taken to footage that may be indistinguishable from something shot in a television studio. Shooting in landscape mode increases the overall production quality of your end product and makes it look more professional. I have used footage from my phone in HD and 4K on television and no one knew it was shot on the phone due to the quality of the footage. However, there are other things to consider, such as audio and lighting, which I have covered in a previous column. The bottom line is you can shoot great footage with the camera you have as long as it meets the specifications for where it will air.
Clothing –What Not To Wear
Virtual taping is new to many of us and one thing we may not be used to is the head and shoulder shot that is inherent in taping with virtual web conferencing tools. As a consequence, be aware of clothing that may have unintended consequences. In a taping that I did early on, after we had decided to tape shows virtually, I wore a blouse with thin shoulder straps. The unintended effect of having my hair over the straps was that it looked as though I was topless. Seeing the obvious faux pas early in the taping, I was able to correct it, but it reminded me that even clothing choices had to be thought out carefully to ensure that the production quality stayed the same. My choice of clothing would not have been a problem with our traditional studio shot but because our shots were all head and shoulder shots, my clothing choices had to be approached differently.
In addition to making sure your clothing choices do not make you look nude, if you choose to use a green screen, be aware that your clothing choices will make parts of you disappear depending on if there is green in your outfit. This has always been the case but because you don’t need an actual green screen on some of these web conference tools, people have forgotten that they cannot wear green. Choosing your clothing for a virtual taping has to be intentional due to the restricted frame space and color limitations if you choose to use a green screen. One thing that people have been taking advantage of is that you do not have to wear the accompanying skirt or pants when wearing a suit jacket so that is even more of an incentive to make sure that everything in the camera frame looks great since you do not have to worry about the bottom.
B-Roll and Images
Unlike being in a studio where you can have performers and multi-camera shots to create movement and visual energy to a show, taping shows virtually usually becomes talking heads talking straight on in square boxes. Unless the people are famous, charismatic or have a huge fan base, you are going to have to keep the attention of the audience. The number one way is to tell a great story and have a compelling discussion; however, there are a few ways to enhance the story that only take a few more minutes of preparation.
The first way is inserting images. For example, let’s say the show is about a new electric car that is coming to the market. The people discussing the car may talk about the specifications of the car such as the time it takes to get from 0-60, the horsepower, the green footprint of the car and more. These are all nice things to verbally describe the car but when an image is inserted at the very instance when the car is being described, the audience not only hears about the car but they are now able to see the car. This impact on the viewers takes the car from a theoretical concept to an actual physical car. They now have an image that allows them to see the size of the car, the shape and even the color of the car. Now your audience is more accurately able to understand this specific car and, thus, become more engaged in the story that you are telling.
Now let’s take it one step further and talk about B-Roll. B-Roll is additional footage that complements the current discussion. Using the example above where there is a new electric car coming to market and it is being described beautifully, now, instead of inserting an image, you insert a video clip of the same electric vehicle in motion. Now, as the car is being described, you audience gets to see the size of the car, the color and the shape. However, they also get to see just how fast the car is, as it speeds away, along with the screeching of the tires with smoking rising, if audio is included. The viewers are treated to being able to see the movement of the car and the sounds of the car. The B-Roll footage provides additional information to the audience that complements the discussion and makes for a fuller, more engaging story to keep your viewers engaged, interested and excited. This is what you want as a storyteller!
Inserting images and B-Roll can be as simple as inserting an author’s book image when she is saying the title of her book or inserting a few seconds of B-Roll from the author’s book signing. The reason to insert B-Roll and images is to keep your viewers engaged, connected and enhance the story you are telling.
As independent producers, understanding how network connectivity, camera phones, clothing, B-Roll and images can produce a high-quality product that will keep your audience engaged is important. All of these pieces working in concert, can assist in telling a wonderful and powerful story.
Dustin Dumas is the host and producer of Dustin’s Kaleidoscope and What’s Up Around Town. She is the station manager of South Orange Maplewood Television (SOMAtv) and serves as Vice Chair on the Jersey Access Group, External Relations Committee. She has been part of community television stations in Illinois, California and New Jersey and enjoys helping people tell their stories.