Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission
“It was a great thing for us, and what my contract producers love is they don’t have to come here and get a camera and tripod." – Jim Lundberg, Operations Manager at Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission
Problem
The Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission handles Cable TV negotiations and public access production for 11 suburbs surrounding Lake Minnetonka. As a part of their community service, they assist their member cities with broadcasting city council meetings. For decades, they would have freelance production staff meet at their HQ to pick up gear. After sitting in a meeting for an hour or two, they would then need to tear everything down and return it before the LMCC closed their doors. After doing this for so long, they decided it was time for a change. They wanted a no-frills installed system in each one of their cities that could be operated by anyone. Many of these cities are small, some of which have a population of less than 1,000 people. Because of this, LMCC needed a barebones solution that was identical across buildings, and had no unnecessary frills.
Solution
Z Systems designed a value-engineered system including two PTZOptics cameras, a Roland video switcher, and two DataVideo SD Card recorders. These base systems were installed in 10 of their member cities over the course of 4 years. PTZ cameras mounted on the walls allowed operators to view all around the dais and follow conversations. Some cities even adopted a birds eye view camera to help show visual presentations from guests. Multiple cities also opted for an upgrade to the Datavideo NVS-35, which allows for livestreaming.
"Z-Systems is very good at reacting when we have an issue." - Jim Lundberg, Operations Manager at Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission
Aftermath
These systems have helped LMCC, the cities they provide, and the operators who record these streams. Thanks to the installed video production systems, operators no longer need to spend an hour driving to and from the LMCC headquarters to acquire gear. City administrators no longer need to arrive early and stay late to watch over the operators, and LMCC has less administrative tasks to deal with. It also has allowed cities to broadcast their own events as well, such as planning commissions, parks and recreation meetings, and more.
