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| Portland Community Media Provides SmartAccess for Youth |
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Oregon-based Portland Community
Media (PCM) has been a forerunner in
community cable access for almost 30
years.
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PCM crew member Russell Hill
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Today, the non-profit produces
more than 700 hours of original programming
and averages over 7,000
new video programs and 8,000 hours
of producer services each year. It administers
six cable channels that reach
almost 1.5 million citizens in the greater
Portland metro area, and provides free
airtime for community member programs
on its channels and streams programming
on pcmtv.org.
by Nancy Caronia
Recently, PCM established the
SmartAccess Multimedia and Training
Center (SAMTC), which focuses on the
multimedia needs of underserved and
under-supported communities, and
where PCM’s Portland Youth Media
introduces 10-to-18-year-olds to the
multi-layered aspects of multimedia.
To get cameras in those hands, PCM
purchased 30 JVC GY-HM100 camcorders,
which will serve in a variety of
applications.
“A lot of our on-call folks and volunteers
come from our training programs,”
said Jason Tait, PCM multimedia
services manager. “We teach them
on the equipment we use.”
The PCM-owned facilities have two
fully equipped production studios. The
40-by-50-foot Studio A has five JVC GYHD250s
and the 22-by-26-foot Studio B
has three. Each studio has Echolab
switchers, Vinten tripods and Autoscript
Teleprompters. Studio A also has a 12-foot Jimmy Jib arm.
There are Sony monitors for program
and preview in the control rooms as well
as a Mackie 32-channel mixer in Studio
A and a Mackie 24-channel mixer in
Studio B. There are Panasonic camera
monitors and Marshall Electronics monitors
for decks, special roll-ins, and alternative
source video in each studio as
well as access to green and blue screens.
“We want our equipment to be cost
competitive, but also effective,” said
Chief Engineer Ray Larson. “Image
quality and durability have to be there. We’re a non-profit. We have to make things last.
JVC and Ecolab especially have been stellar.”
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A JVC GY-HD250 in action
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Each studio has its own control room. In addition
to producing original shows, these studios are used
for classroom training.
Studio B’s control room does not face the studiothe
result of a conscious decision to help train people
to work in a truck. “If an individual can’t look at the
room where the taping is going on, it orients him or
her to trust monitors and give instructions without
the crutch of being able to simply look into the room
where the taping is going on,” said Larson.
Studio B is also “designed to get people in and
out,” he said. “We can do back-to-back tapings where
groups do cooperative staging. Breaks are taken
between each program and we’re able, in a two-hour
window, to shoot two 30-minute programs. Once, in
three hours, we recorded two hours of programming.
It’s a very darn productive use of the studio.”
CG creations are composed with Compix Media,
which gave a separate license agreement for each
one of PCM’s computers so users can do offline CG
creations. There are 30 Final Cut Pro portable
machines that are used for SAMTC, and the production
department uses both Final Cut Pro and Avid
Adrenalin to edit.
The 60-foot Fred Gerling truck has a similar in
configuration to Studio B. There are five JVC widescreen
format cameras as well as Sony DVCams and
JVC D9 cameras on the truck. There are also Sony
pre-monitors, a Samson 24-channel mixer, and an
Echolab Switcher. The truck is also outfitted with
Camplex fiber optics systems.
“Most CCU cameras are limited to about 600
feet,” said Larson. “And if you are doing baseball or
football games you might have to go out 1,200 feet.
The Camplex system lets us go longer distances.”
The meetings at Portland City Hall are shot with
Panasonic cameras and Fujinon robotics, which for 13
years have had spectacular reliability. Robotics for full
studio cameras are just too expensive, Larson said.
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PCM’S MULTIPLE OUTLETS
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In addition to Channels 22 and 23 on the Independent Television Network (ITN),
which broadcast programs by Portland-area independent producers, channels
include Pulse of Portland (POP) 29, a community interest channel supported by
PCM’s Programming and Multimedia Services Departments including PCM’s
Portland Youth Media (PYM); CityNet 30, a government access channel; and
Community Access Network (CAN) 11 and Metro East 21, also by PCM Multimedia
Services. PCM also streams programming on pcmtv.org.
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PCM also has a small van and a large van with a
lift gate that allows for a mobile unit to travel with
the production crew. Each equipment list is tailored
to the specific shoot and, according to Larson, there
is tremendous flexibility built into the choice of gear.
While PCM does on average seven to 10 productions
a week, there have been times when the
schedule becomes demanding. In November, PCM
did 32 productions in 17 days.
Microsoft Outlook handles all of the scheduling.
“We’ve downloaded it onto our PDAs. It’s a way to
keep track of the client details, date, who is going out
on the shoot, and what equipment is needed,” said
Tait. “We track resources by color-coding everything
so we know how many different production scenarios
are going on during any day. We try to logistically
figure out how the equipment is going from point A
to point B or to schedule people one to two weeks
out. I’d love to know if there is another scheduling
system out there that can help us. We keep getting
busier, but I don’t want to say no to anyone.”
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