Ep. 5 - Meeting Coverage Workflows: Covering 11 Cities with 3 Full-Time Staff

Hi there, Brady, how's it going? Good. How are you? I'm doing well. Doing well. I'm happy to have you on the podcast today. We've been talking about workflows. Yes. And the logistics of your workflow is kind of crazy. And I've, I've known about it for a while cause you and I have, you know, talked about this and worked on this in a different project. I just really wanted to bring you on the podcast for our listeners to talk about what you guys are doing, because it's, it's really complex. It's really impressive. And I just think other cities, like if they, if they heard what's possible and they heard how you're making it happen. That they would want to do it too. So let's dig into it. Uh, so first of all, Brady, you are the. I'm the programming coordinator here at Campbell media. Okay. And you guys have three full time employees. Uh, yes, we're three full time employed staffs. Uh, and we have one part time person that comes in here. Uh, Throughout the week as well to kind of fill in some duties and a lot of contractors. Yes Yes, lots and lots of contractors because since we are a very small staff and we cover all of the county Uh, we have a lot of things going on that we just can't all be at the same time So yeah, and so this is campbell county, kentucky. Yes, you are Just a little bit outside of cincinnati. Yeah. Yeah, we're right below cincinnati right over the river That's us, Campbell County. Awesome. And you all are covering how many different cities? Yeah, we've got 11 different cities that we cover plus the fiscal court, which also has, uh, several different types of meetings that we will cover for them as well. So in total, there's around 19 different kind of regular based meetings that we'll cover, uh, four of which we do live regularly. So you all are doing this with three full time employees. Part time employee and a handful of contractors. What does that look like? Yeah. So on a typical day, we'll have contractors mostly cover our meetings, but we will fill in, especially on evenings where we're already working to cover meetings. Um, we typically. Have a single camera shoot for a lot of these meetings as well. So it makes it a lot easier with our limited staff, especially because some of the locations we go to for some of these meetings are old homes and older buildings that don't have the infrastructure for, um, you cameras to be kind of set up, you know, and left there over time to be able to cover these meetings constantly, especially because some of the meetings are just once a month, some of them are twice a month. So they're not in there constantly using the same chambers. We're in every one of these 19 different locations. There's probably 15 or 19 different meetings that we cover. There's probably about 15 different locations. So we've got a lot of ground to cover here. So you're tearing down and setting up. Each time you don't have permanent setups in each correct. Yeah, correct. We only have one permanent setup and it's on our studio here where we cover our own cable board meetings. Other than that, everywhere else it is. We bring the camera tripod, um, any audio gear we need, any kind of live streaming equipment that we need, they'll be brought in and then torn down and removed at the end of the meetings. So what kind of live streaming equipment are you guys using to get that done? We're currently using the video. Um, there's several different versions of that. Teradek? Yep, yep. From Teradek. Yes, correct. Um, so for live streaming, we're currently using the video Teradek systems, um, that have been working great with us to live stream to an RTMP feed, to which then we ingest that through our playback system with Cablecast, and we will distribute that onto our stations, onto our apps for live broadcast, and um, some, Meetings also would like us to broadcast to Facebook. So we will multicast that out as well to Facebook and social media platforms. So are there several different meetings happening at the same time? Sometimes, um, back when COVID happened, it was pretty much all meetings were live, and we would have nights where we'd have four meetings sometimes going on simultaneously. Um, those were definite challenges. Right now, so Uh, it's kind of gone down a little bit from how many cities want to be broadcasted live. Um, but we will sometimes have moments where we're doing a live meeting and we're broadcasting a football game at the same time simultaneously. Luckily, we don't have too many of the cities that go live that overlap a lot, so we've been able to avoid that, thankfully. But, um, if it happens, we're definitely prepared to be able to multicast. We'll, uh, kind of, uh, Overrun programming on one of our other channels to be able to get that broadcasted live and we'll put little graphics on Television to redirect viewers onto the appropriate channel for the live broadcast So most things are still going on to a cable channel as well as on like your social media and your streaming apps Yes, exactly. Yeah, we we still broadcast everything. Uh currently right now to our uh cable Station and then from there we will simulcast that onto our website for live streaming so that people can go to our website to watch the whole thing live television on their same thing with our apps. They can go in and watch our apps on their phones or on their OTT boxes as well. And if the meetings require us to go to social media, we'll be broadcasting on there as well. I like that. And I want to talk a little bit later about, you know, feedback and, and what you hear from the community on this stuff. But right now, I want to get back to your setup. So it sounds, it sounds pretty lean. It sounds like you guys are going in with a really lean setup, you know, setting it up, tearing it down each time. Um, about how many different kits do you have to, to have to cover that? We've currently got about, um, 12, uh, Sony NX cams at our facility right now to be able to properly cover all of the government meetings and city events that we cover. Um, all of them equipped with tripods, XLR cable, headphones. Uh, plenty of batteries on each camera as well, and every bag will usually equip some HDMIs and Ethernet cables. Currently, right now, we have about four, uh, the Teradek video units, just to have our bases covered in case something goes wrong with one of them. We'll have a backup, and just in case we have several things that need to be going live simultaneously as well. So you guys are pretty IP based at this point. Pretty much solely IP set up, not using a lot of SDI. Do you still use SDI in your studio setup? We use SDI in our studio currently. Um, and it's mainly just because we have just a simple 3 camera setup in our studio. Outside of that, yes, we are using a lot of IP based, uh, especially when we go out on the field to do multicam productions, whether it's sports or concerts, we'll use NDI. We, um, we have some bird dog boxes, which are, uh, converters to convert HDMI signals into an Ethernet NDI signal to, uh, send back into our production truck so that we can receive all those, uh, video signals and audio signals and, uh, kind of distribute those appropriately for the, uh, multicam production. And when we go live, we also. Uh, go Ethernet, NDI. So that'll require an HDMI out of the camera into the bird dog box to convert that. So yeah, it's less and less SDI cables that we're seeing on our productions recently. And it's, I think it's great that you keep mentioning that you guys do sports coverage and I know you do some other community coverage as well. Um, you guys are really unique in the way that you are really a public entity, right? You are a government, um, office or what am I trying to say? You guys. Yeah, we're. We're definitely, we're a government entity, but we do all, we definitely are, you know, the public as well. You know, we're, we're constantly, you know, making sure that they're being able to be informed from their local government and entertained by the events going on in their own cities. So yeah, and we allow people to come in still and create their own content as well. And we work with a lot of nonprofits to be able to get some of their information out to the public as well. And that's awesome. And so it sounds like you're, you're using your truck a lot more for the community coverage than, than the meeting coverage. The meetings. Yeah, exactly. Uh, cause of all of our, a lot of our meetings are, like I mentioned, they're in remote locations, sometimes in old homes, even was where they've kind of set up. Um, So a lot of locations don't require a lot of cameras. We train all of our contractors to be able to know when to pan to, you know, different, uh, speakers. Um, we train them on how to properly get, you know, bring any, uh, any kind of PowerPoint slides. If anyone gives a presentation, how to introduce themselves, how to retrieve that information to be edited back into the meeting. But yeah, we've kind of, you know, Kept it very simplistic in the production, um, to kind of help us accommodate for having so many places we have to be, because if we were sending multiple people out to every government meeting, for example, usually a Tuesday is our busiest. Uh, tends to be like the second Tuesday of the month. We usually have like six meetings sometimes. And if we had to send multiple operators out to each one of those, we just, it would be a challenge definitely to be able to get enough people on board to be able to properly cover all that. Yeah. That's a lot. Six meetings happening basically in the same time, in different places. Yes. And so, so meetings are still like the majority of what you all produce. I would say, so I say it's, it's now pretty even between meetings and content that we create for the community. Um, so it's kind of even handed there. We have a lot of like shows that we do like cooking shows or gardening shows as well that we do on a regular basis and combine that in with sports coverage and, uh, different city events. Like we just had Arbor Day events this last weekend where we had three different cities having different events. Proclamations being read, awards being given, presentations from people at, uh, conservation districts, uh, and extension offices at those events. So we had contractors out covering that kind of stuff. So we have an instruction on how to plant your own tree that's up live on our website right now. Nice. So it, it is a constant flow of both, you know, stuff to provide for the community and the government meetings to be able to keep them informed. I love that. Hi, Michelle here. We hope you're enjoying this episode of the Government Video Podcast. I'm taking a short break from today's discussion to remind you that this podcast is brought to you by Cablecast Community Media. We're a cross platform video solution from Tightrope Media Systems, and despite our name, we help cities, towns, and other local media organizations get their video to viewers on all digital platforms, including cable. If your organization operates a cable channel, um, but we help you reach residents whenever and wherever they watch. Be it on your city's website, on mobile streaming apps, on over the top platforms like Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, or even on their mobile phone. And we even help you push your content live to social media. We've been helping small non commercial stations launch professional, affordable, and efficient video initiatives for over 25 years. And our customers love us because we have great customer support and we have fierce industry loyalty. So if your organization is in need of cross platform video automation and delivery for local coverage of city council meetings or other local events, reach out to our team and schedule a demo today. And if you do, be sure to mention that you heard about it here on the Government Video Podcast to receive a special discount. That's all for me for right now. Back to the episode. So, I mean, we're going to do a whole other episode on the structure of your department because I think it's so interesting and so unique. So I hope our listeners will stay tuned in the future for that episode. Um, but I just also want to talk a little bit right now about what's going on. guides this programming. When it comes to the meeting coverage, that sounds like that's the main, um, work of the department. Who is issuing, uh, that, who's commissioning that work for you guys? Yeah, so, uh, all of our coverage for the government meetings are mainly commissioned by the cities. Uh, so we work for them, um, so typically the cities will come to us. To ask us, you know, can you cover these meetings on a regular basis? Um, or sometimes they'll say, you know, we, we know we don't normally have you cover this meeting, but this one's very special. And it's very important. We would like you to come in to cover that as well. Um, so it's being commissioned by the cities to kind of coming in and asking us to cover them. So, um, we'll wait until they. Come to us, or if citizens ask for meetings to be covered, we always ask them, you know, talk to your city council, you know, let them know it's something you're interested in. And if the city reaches out to us, we will gladly come out and cover their meetings, broadcast them live. If they wish, we get them up on our website for people to view online by the next day, and they'll be broadcasting on TV the next day for people who don't have Internet access. So we try to make sure that that's available in every form and aspect for everybody that needs it. Wants to, you know, be able to view what's going on in their community. And what about your community programs? Where are those requests coming from? Yeah. Uh, some of the requests are coming from the cities asking us, um, kind of sending out, uh, press releases saying, you know, we're having this event going on. Um, a lot of them are us kind of going out and saying, you know, What we think the community wants or if we're getting input from citizens on content, they would like to see I know sports we you know, again, we didn't have a lot of people come to us asking for sports But we decided, you know, we've got enough people we've got enough Equipment and we think that we can give them a lot of great coverage And we will go out and seek as many sports coverage events that we can do either as a full staff Or as sending a single camera out and kind of editing graphics and impose to make it presentable, um, kind of stepping up the, you know, presentation a little more than just what you see a lot of, um, a lot of high school sports with just kind of a single, uh, stationary camera covering the field. We try to put a lot more production value into it if we can, but yeah, and then some, some of the, uh, some of the coverage we do. Um, also is promotional, um, that again would get kind of, um, given to us by the, the mayors of cities or other council members of cities. They may come to us and say, Hey, we have this big event coming up, but we really want to make sure people know about it. So we'll work with them, develop a script, shoot promotional video for it. Sometimes we'll even use, uh, footage that we've covered of the event in past years to mix in with that. To kind of showcase people, hey, this is what's been happening in case you haven't, you know, been there yet. Um, so a lot of it gets commissioned by council members or mayors. But we do try to make sure we're listening to the community on any ideas that they may have that they wish was covered. Uh, any ideas that they, you know, would like to see more of. We have lots of PSAs Tell the community to reach out to us. You know, we have one running right now. It says, like what you see, you know, wish you saw something that you're not watching right now. Reach out to us. Contact us. Let us know what you would like to see. So we take all that feedback and try to make sure that we're giving the community the best coverage they've got of their county. That's awesome. And tying that a little bit more directly back to workflow, you mentioned before, Um, that you all do a lot of multicasting. So you're getting your live coverage out to cable, you're getting it out on streaming apps on, you know, mobile and OTT platforms, and you're also getting it out on social media. And I want to know, is that a result of feedback from the community? Like, have people been asking you to put That content on those different platforms. Do you do you track how many people are watching on those platforms? Was that look like for you guys? A lot of it for the government is based off what the cities ask of us. Um, but a lot of the cities decided, you know, they after covid, they said, you know, we're fine going back to our old. Platform of just being, you know, broadcast on TV next day and, um, being available on the website on demand. Some cities decided they saw their community had a lot of outreach of saying, we really liked being able to see this live. So we've left those up, um, at their request, uh, Broadcasting live to television. Um, and one city's even noticed that they have a larger following of people, um, that enjoy watching it through their social media so that the way they can tune in on Facebook to watch it. Um, just because they've noticed, you know, People reaching out to him after covid, once some of those things kind of went away getting that, you know, um, community outreach saying, hey, we liked that, you know, uh, and listening to those people. And so the communities have relayed the, that message to the city and the city has passed that message back on us to let us know what kind of coverage that they would like to continue doing for their meetings. That's awesome. So, I guess for my final question for these workflows, um, a lot of our listeners are in, in different places. Some people are already doing a lot of what you do, or maybe doing it in a different way, but some people haven't started at all, you know, or they're, they're new to the department and they're trying to figure out how to make these things happen. Um, what would be your best piece of advice to give someone that's, um, just getting started maybe with meeting coverage? In general, or with. Adding on to the production, you know, like adding these layers of being able to cover multiple events or Distribute to multiple platforms. I'm just curious what what things have come up for you that you think a newcomer would would want to know Yeah, um for people just getting into this or people who are in Already covering meetings and want to improve on their production or workflow. Um, I would say the first thing to do is definitely reach out to the cities and to the community to see what kind of needs they would like filled, um, and kind of go from there and determine what they want. And then after that, kind of think of what they. Might want that they don't know they want yet. Um, think of what you would want as a citizen in the community. Kind of take yourself out of being in the role of, um, production or producing and put yourself in the role of citizen and think, what would I wish I had from my access center? What would I, you know, want to have given to me? Uh, and how would I want it presented? And, um, I would start from there, because I think that's what we've done a lot with our website, our production, um, and our content. We've kind of thought of, how would I want to get this information? Where would I want to get it, and what kind of information would I want to have, uh, from my city, and try to provide that for them. Yeah, I think that's really great. I think that's a good guiding light. Just put yourself out there. In the citizen role because you are, in fact, a citizen, right? Um, yes, yes, exactly. And then on top of that, I would also say to, you know, focus on that content and less of the production value. First, try to make sure you can get that content to the citizens first and then. Improve upon that every step you can. Um, so if you're only capable of doing certain kind of, you know, things, depending on your budget or your facility, try to find what you can do to make ends meet to be able to capture that content and then start finding the simplistic way of simplifying those productions so that you can start multiplying that and getting more coverage, which is kind of a lot of what we've done. Since again, we cover a lot and there's only, you know, So the best thing is just to start is what I'm hearing. Yes, exactly. Yep. Just get out there, start going and, uh, learn along the way. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Brady. And as I mentioned before, I know we're going to have you on for a couple more topics to, to hear more about your department structure, which is very unique and interesting. And also in another future episode, we're going to hear about. your plans to start closed captioning a lot of your programs and how you all are going to make that happen with the funding and, and the logistics of that. So thank you so much for joining us, Brady. No problem. Thank you.