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Date: 7/18/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — Jeff Mastroianni, executive director of Easthampton Media — also called EMedia — came before the Selectboard on July 11 to discuss renewal or extension of the town’s contract with the public access station. While board members groused in previous meetings about non-working equipment and the inability to stream town meetings Mastroianni emphasized the value of the many recent changes and updates at the video production facility.
The biggest change board members hoped to see was coverage of School Committee meetings.
“What would be the cost for doing the School Committee too?” board member Jon Lumbra asked. “Maybe we can fund it, maybe we can’t.”
“It is an issue to have the School Committee meetings recorded here,” said Christine Fowles, chair of the Selectboard. “People are interested.”
Lumbra said there is technology money available to turn on the Norris Library for School Committee meetings, the only events, at this point, that need video coverage there. A bigger concern, the live streaming of meetings, was addressed in May 2022 when the station installed a new playback system.
“That system is functioning perfectly,” Mastroianni said. “That gave us the ability to live stream again.”
Streaming live meetings on the internet was required by the town during the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, live streaming appears to be adopted permanently. The alternative was to stage meetings on Zoom, which were recorded, then broadcast on EMedia’s Channel 191.
Mastroianni said that a camera for recording meetings, an easy to operate push button model, should be available for use in the board room. EMedia’s executive director was not around when the last three-year contract was signed and wouldn’t take responsibility for the previous difficulties or less than optimal equipment.
“Where we ended up now versus what we signed on for initially is quite far apart,” Mastroianni said. The goal now is to bring more Southampton users into the station, to take advantage of all the new updates and capabilities the station added in the last year. “This is something we’re doing in Easthampton right now.”
EMedia partnered with Valley Eye Radio, a nonprofit news reading service for those with visual and reading difficulties, in December. Listeners tune in to hear the Westfield News, Wall Street Journal, Greenfield Recorder and other publications read aloud every day.
Mastroianni talked up another new capability, close captioning for the visually impaired. In August, captioning will further expand to be multi-lingual. Transcription of meetings, another discussed service, will be more of a challenge. A quote from a local vendor, Mastroianni said, was “not agreeable.”
The station bought new camera kits, field equipment for community producers, including lavalier microphones that clip to a subject’s clothing and transmit audio to the camera. The station’s studio equipment has also been significantly updated, with new sound equipment purchased in January of this year.
“We just desperately needed all that stuff,” Mastroianni said.
The new audio gear may have been paid for with money from a $50,000 ARPA grant from the City of Easthampton. A Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for $30,000 was also secured that month, further enabling technology purchases. One purchase, a lighting console, will give users full control over the fill lights and followspots in the studio.
For those intimidated by shooting video, an all new feature is a podcast studio. Mastroianni said five new podcasts are underway. Fowles asked if outside users were allowed. A handful are out of towners, most are from Easthampton and one from Southampton.
“We only have one Southampton person involved and I’d really like to figure out how to get the word out,” he said.
The grants also made it possible to purchase new Canon 4K studio cameras, prosumer quality, which made it necessary to acquire beefier computers able to handle larger video files. Reserving the equipment will also be easier now, after the station’s website was revamped a few months ago.
Mastroianni affirmed that all the new gear makes EMedia one of the most well equipped facilities of its kind anywhere. He also emphasized in a later conversation that public access stations are important because they give community members a voice where they most need to be heard, in their home community.
“I constantly tell people,” Mastroianni said, “what’s happening at Southampton Town Hall on a Tuesday night is way more important to them, in their daily lives, than the circus in Washington.”
Mastroianni’s presentation seemed to reassure board members that value was received. The relationship between the town and the station will be renewed.