Brick goes Hollywood with new video system
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP - The bland videos of Township Committee meetings and other events on BTV20 will soon be a thing of the past.

Township Council members awarded a $29,204 contract at the Dec. 18 council meeting to Rush Works Media, Carrollton, Texas, for the purchase of a tapeless, portable digital video recording system.

The system's portability is one of its best features, Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said.

"We will be able to take a few cameras and the Toastmaster on location to film on the road shows, sporting events, seminars, concerts and basically anything we can think of," the mayor said.

The portable system also eliminates the need to create a television studio in town hall, Edward Moroney, an administration staff member, said.

"Right now, if we want to tape something in a studio setting, we have to go to the schools," he said. "The schools have their own systems."

The system - the Toastmaster Digital Meeting Acquisition System - features a digital switcher, audio mixer, character generator and four Canon VCC50iR pan/tilt/zoom cameras that will be mounted in the municipal courtroom.

"One user can sit in the back and switch between 36 different camera angles," Moroney said. "Right now, we use a single shot camera, with a single shot panning back and forth to follow the action. This will help the viewer to better follow what's going on at a council meeting."

The system captures events in digital form and does not use videotape. The files can be immediately uploaded to the digital server, he said.

"B20 will be operating off a digital broadcast server," Moroney said. "We are not going to use tape or DVDs. It's ready to be seen by the people."

Moroney got his first look at the system in action at the Alliance for Community Media Mid-Atlantic Region and JerseyAccess Group conference in June. He was impressed with what he saw.

"It seems fairly simple," he said. "You don't have to be an expert in television production to utilize it. We're going to be able to do anything we want. The possibilities for use are endless, and we hope to use it extensively."

The new system will allow township employees to create graphics, including news feeds at the bottom of the screen and captions to identify who is speaking, Moroney said.

"It's going to give us more options to create content for B20," he said. "Our plan is to make B20 the best television station it can be."

The new system could be up and running as early as the end of January, Moroney said.

"They're coming in to install it and train us," he said. "They'll train a handful of people in town hall to use it."

Acropolis said he hopes to eventually have Planning Board and Board of Adjustment meetings televised in addition to Township Council meetings.

"Anything we feel the public would have an interest in seeing," he said.