Old Bridge Television

by Aime Alonzo Station Manager

My name is Aime Alonzo. I am the newly appointed Station Manager of Old Bridge Television or as we call it, OBTV.  I was pleased to learn about JAG and to meet many of its supportive members on the phone and at this year’s Eastern Video Expo.  Let me tell you a little about myself and the station.

I am an actor and a member of SAG/AFTRA.  In college I majored in Theater and Film Production, but life’s twists and turns took me to Law School.  After earning my Juris Doctorate Degree, I worked traditional jobs, but the yearning to be creative kept nagging at me.  I went back to acting.  I acted in award winning independent projects, produced some independent films and directed an independent series.  I also worked as a background actor on TV shows like “Law & Order”, “The Equalizer”, “FBI” and movies like “Players”, and “Your Place or Mine” which will be out soon on Netflix.   I am very happy to have joined OBTV.  My duties also include overseeing the township website and serving as the Business Administrator’s executive assistant.

Old Bridge Television is one of the founding members of JAG.  Currently it has only two staff members, including   me, the station manager, and Jacob Turchi, a media production technician.  OBTV covers the township council meetings, the zoning meetings, and the planning meetings.  Original shows include the “Old Bridge Outlook”, the Mayor’s PSAs, and coverage of township events like the Memorial Day Parade and Old Bridge Day to name a few.  We broadcast on Altice channel 15, on Fios channel 22, and on YouTube.  In addition to the cable channels, I worked on getting OBTV programming to broadcast on streaming platforms.  Residents of Old Bridge can now watch OBTV on Apple TV, Roku, Fire Stick and on android and iPhone apps.  Before I began working at the station, I reviewed programming footage.  Since my first day on the job, I made it a point to improve the look of our broadcasts.  I have experimented mostly with lighting and with JAG’s help, I have explored other technical solutions until we are able to upgrade our equipment.

Our studio is comprised of a filming area and a control room.  We use three JVC PROHD compact shoulder mount cameras (model number GY-HM850CHU) that are permanently mounted on Bogen tripods (model number 3068 and 3127).  Attached to our cameras are JVC Zoom Servo Units and Focus Manual Units which are manipulated on our tripods.  We have Swit Electronics Co. LCD Monitor Screens that we use for more flexible viewing and as a composition and framing tool.  The studio has 12 ceiling mounted lights that we manipulate as needed. Five lights are Dracast LED 1500 Wi-Fi Headlights, six are Dracast LED 200 Headlights and one Dracast LED 1500 Headlight with no Wi-Fi.  We also have, positioned behind two white window panels which are used as a background in the studio, four ADJ Mega Go Bar 50 RGBA LED lights that change color.

Our court room/council chamber has three PTZ cameras and a second control center right in the council chamber.  This is unusual because we also have a control room which has all the equipment necessary to broadcast from.  The cart holds a broadcast switcher from Broadcast Pix (1000 Panel) a microphone mixer from Shure (model M367), and a Sony joystick remote camera controller (model RM-IP10).  During council meetings our technician sits at the controls in the council chamber to monitor the broadcast.  In the chamber we use 14 Shure XLR Gooseneck microphones (model MX418D/C), two Shure Wireless Gooseneck Microphones (model MX890G5) and one Shure wireless handheld microphone (model DD4ULX2).  The XLR microphones are used by the council members, the two wireless goosenecks are used at the guest table and the wireless handheld mic is used by residents that want to make comments during the meetings.  The equipment on our cart allows us to zoom in and out to provide viewers with a closer look at each speaker.  This makes for a more interesting meeting. When we film on location, we use a Panasonic 4K Portable camera (model AG-DVX200) that we attach to a LiveU Live Unit (model LU-SOLO) to enable us to broadcast live to our YouTube channel.  We also use a NetGear WIFI puck (model Nighthawk MR1100) as a hot spot.  We recently started broadcasting live on Facebook as well.  We are always working with the Mayor and the Business Administrator to identify programming opportunities that will keep our residents informed and involved in the community.  We thank the Mayor and the Business Administrator for their continued support, and we look forward to upgrading our equipment so that we may provide residents with high quality programming.