Post Council News Conference unpacks the latest decisions for viewers

City Administrator Steve Barg hosts Marshfield’s Post Council News Conference

by Tom Loucks, Director of Communications, City of Marshfield

The City of Marshfield Communications Department provides a recap of every regularly scheduled Council meeting in a television program called Post Council News Conference.  The program is hosted by the City Administrator Steve Barg along with questions coming from the media.  Each program is generally about 30 minutes and highlights the important decisions made by the Common Council the night before.  The program is televised throughout the week on Charter Spectrum Cable Channel 991 (City Channel),  streaming/on-demand on Roku, Apple-TV, Amazon Fire Stick, the City YouTube Channel, the City website at ci.marshfield.wi.us and shared on the Marshfieldbroadcasting.com website.

“This program is a great way to recap important decisions made by the Council, so residents have a better understanding of what was decided or going to be decided in future meetings,” said Barg.

Luckily, Stoughton had an old modulator tucked away and WSTO was back on the air the same day

By Derek Westby, Senior Network Administrator, City of Stoughton

In March of this year a Stoughton WSTO TV staffer walked into the studio and was alarmed to see that the decades-old analog modulator had stopped working.  For those of you not familiar with how local PEG (public education, and government) programming gets onto a video service provider’s cable system, just know that if this equipment breaks, the local PEG channel is off the air. For those of you who manage PEG media centers, you well know this was catastrophically bad news because these extremely antiquated devices are the only way we can provide a signal to Charter Spectrum (Charter).  And you can’t buy them anymore.

Just how obsolete are these modulators?  Consider this.  WSTO uses a full HD digital broadcast server to store and output the programming it produces.  In order to be compatible with Charter’s method of carrying the PEG channel, however, the City of Stoughton had to purchase a server with a special output that reduces the quality of the video signal by converting the digital HD signal to an analog SD signal acceptable to the antiquated analog modulator that was discontinued at least decade ago but Charter insists we must continue to use. 

On that scary day, once the WSTO staffer noticed that the signal was no longer outputting from the modulator it was all hands on deck.  We began a search of our shelves to find the city’s final backup modulator to get the channel back on the air.  Within a short time we had found it, connected it up and we were back on the air! 

The City of Stoughton was lucky to have had a spare.  It had once been needed to go live from another city building, but with digital upgrades completed by the city several years back, it was no longer needed.  A digital network is in place that uses higher quality RTMP streaming to carry the signal back to the WSTO studio. 

So although this was a short-lived outage, it could have ended disastrously.  If either of the modulators for the City of Stoughton’s two PEG channels go off the air again, we do not have another spare and we can’t purchase one because this product is no longer sold. 

WSTO started working with Charter to identify how to upgrade the equipment to modern encoders similar to what TDS is already using to carry PEG channels in HD and the company quoted me a price of just over $10,000.  I did some comparison shopping and found that another brand with the same specifications could be purchased for just over $4,000.  But Charter does not want to use that brand.

But the price of the new equipment is not the only stumbling block.  Several cities have been waiting well over a year for Charter to install the equipment they have agreed to purchase and Charter keeps pushing delivery back. 

This spring the reason became clear when one media center was told by Charter that if it wanted its programs carried in HD, it would need to pay for transmission and quoted the city $780 per month or nearly $10,000 per year.  Never mind that state law requires video service providers to transmit PEG programming at no cost to cities.  But apparently Charter is only willing to do that if cities continue using obsolete analog modulators that will soon break, forcing PEG channels off its systems. 

OCA Media teams up with fellow PEG centers to livestream high school rugby to a national audience

By Paul Zwicker, Executive Director, OCA Media

Back in the 1980’s, I worked as a news photographer for Madison’s ABC broadcast affiliate WKOW-TV.  As a member of the Wisconsin Rugby Club, I would often borrow a Sony Betacam to record and replay games to the delight of the players who gathered together after the match.

For the past twenty plus years I have continued to record rugby games, but for the last several years, as a coach for the Oregon High School Rugby Club, I have also been producing the Wisconsin High School Boys Rugby Championships.

This year, OCA Media took this event to a new level.  In partnership with The Rugby Network, OCA Media streamed the Division 1 and Division 2 Championships to a national audience!

In all, a staff of seven from three local media centers streamed this event live from the Madison United Rugby Complex in Cottage Grove on Saturday, June 4, 2022. 

WSTO Stoughton supplied cameras, wireless intercoms and a video transmitter along with announcer headsets and support equipment. WSTO employee, Spencer Meier operated a live camera while Derek Westby operated video playback, audio and graphics. Audio feeds from the referee, PA system announcer, play-by-play announcers, field audio mics and video playback kept Derek quite busy.

Ben Becs, Village of McFarland WMCF, helped the OCA staff as floor manager and instant replay operator for the streams. Ben's position was responsible for cuing the team to run onto the field on time and getting those much-needed replays cued up and played back in a hurry

OCA staffers, Josiah Wampfler and Jordan Hake, operated cameras. Josiah along with Derek figured out some video logistical issues that always seem to present themselves just before we go live on these bigger productions.

Technical Director, Natalie Hinkley of Hinkley Productions operated the video switcher and directed production crew for both games.  Pre-production included script writing and talent and staff coordination, as well as building graphics, video introductions and commercial breaks.

As producer, I spent a lot of time coordinating coaches, players, PA announcers, broadcast announcers and crew before the stream began. Once underway, I helped direct the first half of the Divison 2 match letting crew know what to expect from a game many people do not grow up with here in the United States.

Viewers can sign up for free on therugbynetwork.com and watch replays of the games.  The 2022 Division 1 game between the Green Bay Leprechauns and the Muskego Warriors and the Division 2 match between the Marquette University High School Hilltoppers and the Elkhorn Demon Elks will also be available soon for replay on all Wisconsin Community Media member stations.

OCA Media is a non-profit organization dedicated to covering the Village of Oregon.  Funding for the media center comes from city-allocated video service provider fees and program sponsorships. Media platforms consist of school and community cable TV channels on TDS (channels 1019 and 1020 – both in HD), Charter Spectrum (channels 983 and 984 – both in SD), and OCA’s YouTube channel.

Covering hundreds of local events each year, most of them live streamed, has been a challenge for the small staff of OCA Media, which consists of four part-time employees, several Oregon High School staffers and a student, who started as a high school staffer and is now pursuing a degree in television production at Madison College.

The Wisconsin High School Boys Rugby Championship coverage is an income-producing event for OCA Media due to the sponsorships garnered by tournament director, Richard Bergemann.  This exciting opportunity caps off an arduous month for OCA Media, which produced more than 30 live streamed local events in 30 days. Since COVID, the OCA Media audience has come to expect livestreaming of events and OCA has had to step up its game to cover the many end-of-school-year events like performing arts performances (4th grade to high school), soccer, lacrosse, school and government board meetings, and Oregon Area Senior Center events.

I’ve really enjoyed bringing the Wisconsin High School Boys Rugby Championship to the attention of a large nationwide media audience.  It’s quite a feather in our cap!  And it shows what collaboration between local media centers can accomplish with determination -- even with our small budgets.