When Town Hall reopens this spring, it will be more than just a pretty face—its eyes and ears will be much improved as well. A new $92,000 audiovisual system proposed for Town Hall was approved unanimously by the selectmen at their Feb. 2 meeting. In addition to that equipment, the Harvard Community Cable Access Committee (HCCAC) is purchasing new broadcasting and recording equipment to be installed in the telecommunications room in the back corner of upper Town Hall. Together, the components of the new system will provide high-definition broadcasts of meetings, as well as new capabilities, including the ability to clearly display documents being discussed at meetings so that attendees and viewers at home can better follow the discussions.
The proposal was submitted by HB Communications, an audiovisual communications company based in North Haven, Connecticut. HB senior account executive Chad Pierce and design engineer Justin Dorsey worked with Town Administrator Tim Bragan and members of the HCCAC over the past few months to put the plan together.
The new equipment includes four high-definition cameras in the large meeting room, two smaller high-definition cameras in the small conference room, wireless microphones, a sound system, and a projection system. The projection system is designed to work at a distance of 25 feet, which is about the distance from the table in the large meeting room to the wall where an automatic screen will be installed. Presentations or documents loaded from a laptop into the projector can be fed directly to the broadcasting system so that they can be displayed clearly both at the meeting and on the broadcast or recording. Wireless microphones will alleviate the tangle of cords and tripping hazards on the floor. New speakers will distribute sound throughout the meeting room, and many of the audiovisual elements will be controllable from a wall-mounted control panel. In addition, with training, board and committee members will be able to control recording and broadcasting from their tablets or phones, allowing more meetings to be broadcast without the presence of HCCAC personnel. Pierce told the selectmen that all of the audiovisual elements of the system will be “intuitive and simple to operate” and that HB will instruct select town personnel on how to use the system; theoretically, they will then be able to train board and committee members to use the system.
Old cameras won’t work
According to Bragan, the cameras currently in use in the old library’s Hapgood Room will not work in Town Hall’s large meeting room because the distance from the walls (where the cameras would be mounted) to the meeting area is too far. In addition, the old cameras will not work with the new recording and broadcast equipment. In an interview after the selectmen’s discussion, Pierce said the existing cameras are 15 to 20 years old and could be converted to work with the new system, but the conversion would cost almost as much as new cameras.
How much it all costs
The four HD cameras for the large meeting room will cost about $14,000, the wireless microphones will also cost $14,000, the projection system about $5,000, and the sound system about $11,000. The microphones can be shared with the small conference room, but according to Bragan, the projector is designed to work only in the large meeting room. He added that the town has a portable screen and projector that could be used in the conference room. Additional equipment needed in the conference room, including two small high-definition cameras, will cost about $9,000. The total for both rooms, including installation and training, comes to $92,000. The amount budgeted for audiovisual equipment for Town Hall is only $5,000, but Bragan told the Town Hall Construction Committee at its Feb. 8 meeting that the remainder of the money could come from the budget for furniture, fixtures, and equipment, which is $130,000, or from the soft-cost contingency budget, which is $116,000.
What the cable committee is buying
The $92,000 price tag does not include the digital high-definition recording and broadcasting equipment the new cameras are designed to work with. That equipment and its installation will be purchased with funds that Charter Communications provides for local-access operating support. In an interview after the selectmen’s meeting, HCCAC Chairman Bill Johnson said he is still negotiating a price with HB Communications for that equipment, but it will probably be around $45,000. Johnson also said that the new system will support live streaming, but the town does not currently have the servers or high-bandwidth Internet to enable streaming. He added that since streaming competes with Charter’s service, Charter will not support it financially, but the HCCAC is looking at other ways to enable live streaming.
When will it be ready?
In order for the entire system to be functional when the renovation of Town Hall is complete, a lot of pieces have to fall into place. According to the timeline in HB’s proposal, because the new equipment requires a fiber-optic network, the fiber network that Charter committed to in January 2015 between the Bromfield School and other town buildings needs to be installed from Town Hall to the cable studio in the school by March 31. GVW, the Town Hall contractor, needs to provide electrical support for the cameras and also needs to install the projection screen in the large meeting room, which is part of its contract with the town. At the Town Hall Construction Committee meeting Feb. 8, Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro said that HB would like to begin installation during the final six weeks of the project, provided that the environment is dust free. Committee member Pablo Carbonell said he thought that requirement would be difficult to meet. But if all goes well, and GVW meets its April 21 completion date, the first meeting could be broadcast from Town Hall on May 17.
