Community Relations - Channel 99 Government Access TV Digital Upgrade

WCSP Channel 99 Titusville Government Television Broadcast Renovation /Digital Upgrade

Late in 2001, Jim Thomas and Adrian Kilgore of Titusville’s Community Relations/Media Services and Richard Stillwagon, Titusville’s Grant Coordinator, applied for a Florida Emergency Management Preparedness and Assistance Grant. In 2002, Titusville’s Community Relations/Media Services was awarded the grant and Jim Thomas, Adrian Kilgore and Robert Brown, a new hire within Community Relations/Media Services, began purchasing new equipment covered under the grant that would enable Titusville’s Community Relations/Media Services to accomplish three primary goals:

1. Produce Emergency Management Videos intended to educate the public in Emergency management as well as what citizens can and should do in emergency situations, and

2. Provide enhanced, relevant 24 hour programming over WCSP Channel 99

3. Upgrade existing cameras within the chamber, allowing for a quality broadcast picture for meetings, while still allowing for the cameras to be utilized within the field to produce Emergency Management videos to fulfill the grant.

It is important to note that the equipment in question was researched and chosen to become components in a broadcast facility designed specifically to meet the needs of Titusville’s Channel 99. In other words, Channel 99 Master Control was not upgraded with an all-in-one "off the shelf broadcast package." Indeed, to my knowledge no such plug and play package exists in that all broadcast facilities will have specific needs of their own. Extensive research and knowledge of each piece of equipment and how it works within a system was necessary to build and maintain a successful Control Room.

WCSP Channel 99 Titusville Government Television

WCSP Channel 99 Titusville Government Television Old Control Panel

It has long been the mission of Channel 99 to provide Governmental programming relevant to Titusville citizens in an effort to also provide the means by which citizens can learn what their government does, how it works and why it is important to them. Throughout 2002-2003 the efforts of the Community Relations staff, specifically Robert Brown and Adrian Kilgore made major strides toward fulfilling this mission.

New racks for the upgraded equipment were assembled and installed, as were state-of-the-art digital cameras and tape decks. A satellite system was received and installed that would enable Channel 99 to broadcast State Legislative sessions from Tallahassee. Two digital servers that would allow 24 hour unattended broadcasting were integrated into the system, as were two computer systems (one that would control the digital servers and one that would enable enhanced graphic capabilities). All of which required cabling, configuring and troubleshooting. Adrian has persistently re-configured the system to improve broadcast capabilities and separate the Chamber audio and training PowerPoint's from the televised broadcasts so as to allow both to occur simultaneously without interruption. Additionally, Robert Brown has been developing scheduling tools with aid from MIS that will enable them to utilize the server scheduling software to its full capacity.

WCSP Channel 99 Titusville Government Television Control Panel Updated

Technical issues with the new cameras and their remote controllers required nearly three months of fine-tuning while software and firmware compatibility concerns were equally frustrating. However, the efforts of Adrian and Robert have been diligent if not relentless. As a result, the original mission of Channel 99 is nearly realized. Already there is a noticeable and refreshing new flavor to Channel 99’s programming. It is currently a rare occurrence to tune to Titusville’s Government Channel only to find an endlessly scrolling power point presentation. One is more likely to find uninterrupted broadcasts of City Meetings, State Legislative Sessions, Public Service programming and much more.

Finally, It is worthy to note that all of this was accomplished with minimal downtime and virtually no interruption of the live coverage of city meetings that citizens have come to expect from WCSP.