City of Edina, MN
Until recently, Edina City Hall did not have the ability to televise its city council meetings to the public. The 50-year old building housed old technology that was no longer meeting the needs of the city's community. Jennifer Bennerotte, Director of Communications, and Eric Anderson, Assistant City Manager decided to change that.
“We wanted to be forward-thinking,” explained Bennerotte. “For instance, we knew there would soon be a requirement to broadcast in HD, so we began the process by looking at all of our options."
Digital TV technology for the city's Civic Center
They first looked at what Bennerotte referred to as a “bare bones” installation. Deciding quickly that it would not meet their current or future needs, they considered a system that would be one step up from a basic installation. Finally, they looked at digital TV technology and the decision was made. Shortly thereafter, Anderson contacted Alpha Video.
Working with BKV Group architects, Alpha provided and installed the broadcast and audiovisual systems for a variety of spaces in the city's new Civic Center, including the council chambers studio and control room, and a community meeting room.
Sony DXC series cameras and a Telemetrics robotic system are central components to the SDI-based broadcast facilities for both the council chambers studio and control room. Other manufacturers included in the project were Ross Video (digital switcher), Inscriber (character generator), Panasonic (VTRs), Videotek (test and measurement) and Sony Electronics (LCD and plasma displays).
Numerous system benefits
Both Anderson and Bennerotte say the benefits of their new system are numerous. “We are able to keep our audience's attention for a longer period of time,” said Bennerotte, “by broadcasting programs such as C-Span II when we aren't broadcasting city council business.”
Bennerotte says the response from the community has been outstanding. “We know people are watching our channel,” she explained. “We now have more requests for programming, so we know people are watching.” In addition, civic and community groups are now asking that the city list their events to the public using the Alpha-installed Scala software.
“We went into this project almost completely blind to the technology we needed,” said Bennerotte. “But it was an absolute dream to work with Alpha's installation team. They were never annoyed with our numerous questions, and every technician was professional and courteous to us at all times. Without the Alpha staff, this project would not have happened as smoothly as it did.
