NESCom taps NVISION Routers for Production Truck

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 32×32 SD-SDI router for the
internal and external video routing, a 32×32 AES digital audio router, and nine
32×32 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.