The New England School of Communications (NESCom) an affiliate of Husson University in Bangor, Maine is giving its students a comprehensive education in the broad spectrum of communications’ disciplines, with concentrations in audio engineering, a/v technology, video production, journalism, radio, theater, web media, and marketing. Its curriculum now includes a mobile television production facility housed in a 32-foot truck that’s equipped with NVISION’s Compact Routers and Synapse modular terminal gear.

NVISION collaborated with Rodney Verrill, Executive Director of Video Production at NESCom, to determine the routing system requirements for the NESCom mobile production unit. The challenge was to meet the routing requirements with high-performance systems on a tight budget. The solution included several NVISION Compact Router products, including a 32x32 SD-SDI router for the internal and external video routing, a 32x32 AES digital audio router, and nine 32x32 remote control panels. NESCom also has two 18-slot frames of NVISION’s Synapse modular broadcast products that are used for the audio and video signal processing within the truck, as well as analog to digital conversion.

“NVISION has enabled us with a compact, yet rock-solid routing infrastructure for use at remote applications. All the NVISION compact routers and Synapse gear have worked flawlessly in the rugged environment of a production truck,” says Verrill. “With NVISION, we were able to put together a cost-effective and high-quality routing system that is scaleable into the future for added functionality, such as HD and 3Gb/s.”

NESCom students are gaining hands-on experience in the mobile production unit, working side-by-side with industry professionals. For example, last January a twelve-person NESCom crew used their equipment to stream three games of ESPN’s Hoop Hall Class in conjunction with Grass Roots TV. The games were the first original content produced for ESPN360, which offers the largest collection of sports video-- highlights, analysis, original content, and more. Six students had key roles – technical director, replay, audio, graphics, assistant producer – and a graduate student was the director. ESPN provided seasoned professionals, including a CG operator, and Grass Roots had experienced freelancers working the event. “This type of professional-level experience is invaluable for students,” says Verrill.  “They’re working with and learning from the pros, which gives a huge boost to their confidence and resumes. There’s no greater reward than that.”

Other projects for the NESCom production truck include working along side the pros at Maine’s PBS station for nation-wide semi-finals and final coverage of twenty Maine high school basketball tournament games which are televised for three weeks every year. The truck is also highly used within the Husson University campus for broadcasting basketball and football games, as well as live one-hour broadcasts of concerts performed at the Session at One College Circle. Coming up this fall is a big project for Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. It will be a live, remote production from the L.L. Bean headquarters in Freeport, Maine, a primary sponsor of Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife events. In the works is the revitalizing of a program for public awareness within Maine, which will be shot in the studio and out in the field with Maine biologists and game wardens.