Wellesley Media Corp., the town’s local access provider, on Thursday presented the Wellesley Free Library Foundation with a check for $70K to convert the Wakelin Room into a cutting-edge digital studio (a YouTube video of the presentation will be posted Friday). The funds came from Wellesley Media’s capital budget.
In fact, Wellesley Media Executive Director James Joyce says that robotic HD TV equipment was completed a couple of weeks ago in the main library branch’s primary meeting space. The equipment has already been used to cover a town-wide financial update by Hans Larsen, the town’s executive director.
“This is the first HD robotic video studio in Wellesley,” Joyce says. “We have two other robotic video setups in Town Hall, but neither of them is HD…yet.”
A robotic HD TV system allows one person to direct a multi-camera event, including audio and graphics. It used to take 4 or 5 people to handle all these chores, including switching between cameras. There’s not setup or breakdown either — just turn on a power switch and go.
Once Wellesley Media moves off the Comcast INET to town fiber (for moving video around), the outfit will be able to go live from the library, Joyce says. Live coverage is currently limited to Town Hall, the high school and middle school. Wellesley Media, of course, also provides its content through various formats, including on-demand and via social media.
Wellesley Media has a good track record of supporting the library. Last year it donated $50K to purchase Apple products and programming used by patrons.
The Wellesley Free Library Foundation was established by the Library Trustees in 2008 as the main supporting organization of the library.
