WHITMAN – If the work being done to upgrade the studio equipment at Whitman-Hanson Cable Access TV were a reality show, someone might have arrived, cameras in tow, to “surprise” the staff with the work being done in 48 hours or so.
They’d be giving interviews on the arrival of their benefactors about how much they needed an upgrade, only to be “surprised” as truckloads of equipment arrived shortly afterward with everything they ever hoped for – and some things they never thought of – to make WHCA the envy of the local broadcasting world.
But this isn’t “reality” television, and while the work being done at the WHCA studio on South Avenue in Whitman has taken more time than they’d like, Executive Director Eric Dresser said Monday he expects everything to be up and running by September.
“It’s more than just a redecorating, indeed,” he said.
Income received from cable subscriptions and internet Zoom, while use of that streaming platform has been peeled back of late, fees have financed the upgrade.
“It’s been wholly funded by WHCA,” Dresser said of the cost. “This is really what the capital money that comes down from Comcast is for. It’s part of the capital funds that come [to us] from your cable bill.”
It allows people to come in and create a show, as well as the cost of bringing in experts for locally produced programs in keeping with WHCA’s mission statement to “entertain, inform and educate the public” through the use of modern technical equipment, and training.
“We’re really trying to simplify the access,” he said. “You bring the talent, we’ll handle the tech.”
Then the goal will be to find people in the community who have something they want to talk about, host a show or appear on a show.
The work had been paused during COVID as everything went to Zoom and the resulting supply chain kinks delayed it a bit more, Dresser said.
“We had been talking about our capital plan for quite some time, and Zoom kind of turned everything on its head.”
Dresser said they found Zoom still has its uses, such as a platform for bringing in subject matter experts during meetings they broadcast.
“You can have the [experts] come in without having the logistics of having them drive down,” he said.
COVID also pointed to the fact that they were creating a lot of programs that were “basically vessels for a singular idea” rather than a series of shows.
“We’ve created a bunch of programs here that people can plug into like that,” he said [See related story, Page one]. Some of those are event-related like a recent best burger contest in Hanson.
“We just hope that the studio turns into another super-easy turnkey place for people to come to and do programs,” he said, whether in-person, virtual or hybrid.
He was speaking to members of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) at Whitman Park during the Boston 25 Zip Trip on Friday, Aug. 11 and he explained to them how WHCA could meet with them on Zoom, help develop public service announcements and calendar bits and longer interviews they can use at meetings or to promote their programs to other DAV chapters across the state.
In fact, the pandemic only highlighted the limitations of WHCA’s old equipment that people were already beginning to notice.
“People were starting to prefer to produce out in the field or to bring field equipment into our studio,” he said.
The reason?
WHCA’s studio was only able to broadcast in standard definition, even though its streaming platform uses high-definition. They have been stuck, like cable stations nationwide with standard definition because that is all Comcast would provide.
It’s like comparing an old Kinescope video of the Ed Sullivan Show to your typical cable news broadcast today. Streaming is done at a resolution of 1080 dpi while standard cable broadcasts at 480 dpi. While WHCA records and streams in 1080 high-definition, but has only broadcast over television in 480 because of the limitation of Comcast’s equipment.
“My guess is [Comcast] would have to do pretty significant infrastructure investments,” he said. The scope of that investment in Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns is daunting on its own.
So what’s new at the studio?
They can use dimming effects with lighting now, where the choices had been only “on” or “off.” Color lighting can also be adjusted so the control room will have a degree of control they’ve never had before, Dresser said.
The control room itself has been upgraded.
“We worked really hard to make sure the equipment that we put in there is the same or extremely similar to what we have in other production locations,” Dresser said, offering the WHRHS equipment as a case in point. “We did that first for a couple of reasons.”
The WHRHS equipment was replaced last year, in part for the student training benefit and in part because of the IT breach at the school last summer. The two select board meeting rooms in Whitman and Hanson had video equipment replaced the year before that with software “95-percent the same” as what was installed at the high school and is going into the studio.
Of course, the old equipment which crowded the control room, but equated to a “yell from a very small voice,” has had to be removed before the new stuff can be put in.
“It did [have the right oomph] at its time, and its not to diminish any of [late Executive Director Steve Roy’s] the work,” Dresser said. “Steve was a wizard at putting all this stuff together. He had a very advanced setup in place here for the early part of the 2010-15 period.”
They also had to coordinate schedules with WHCA’s engineer, who lives part-time in Germany, because he had to remove a lot of wire. A lot of wire. They filled two trash toters with cable.
Some of it has been reused, but some will be offered as well as other discarded equipment to the public at something of a garage sale in the near future, Dresser said. The specific date will be posted on WHCA’s social media, with no reasonable offer refused.
Floors and Kitchens Today in Whitman redid the flooring, including some needed leveling.