Renovations
Building and Grounds
We have been busy upgrading more than our equipment. We have done some yard cleanup (landscaping is yet to come); We have repaired our crumbling sidewalk, repaired our weathered roof slates and gutters, installed new flashing, and two new HVAC units, and given our Control Room a nice facelift. (See more.)
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Equipment Upgrades
 As for equipment, we now have new studio and field HD cameras, digital video Broadcast Pix switchers, a digital audio mixer, an
expanded lighting grid with new lights, digital flat-screen monitors, new
digital AV cleaners, cool slingboxes, and new computers and office
furniture for our recently expanded staff. We have also upgraded our robotic camera and switcher equipment in the School Committee meeting room at Arlington High School. Now those meetings will be as crisp and clear as the recently improved Selectmen meetings. ( See more equipment.) |
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Our Newest Hire
J.R. Curtis (photo: K.LoNigro)
After uprading building & grounds, and purchasing new equipment and furniture, ACMI moved quickly to add Mr. J.R. Curtis to the staff-- our man on the education and government access beat. J.R. officially began his ACMI oddyssey on Monday September 24th and already he is working to expand Arlington Studio programming offerings on the Ed & Gov channels. He will work with the Arlington Public Schools system and other educational organizations, as well as with the various Town committees to develop their capacity to produce more programs to inform and enlighten Arlington's cableviewers.
Welcome aboard J.R.!
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ACMI Open House
YOU'RE INVITED to our November open house!
Please join us on the 17th of November for hot cider and a tasty nosh during a warm and cozy drop-in gathering of ACMI family and friends. It will be an opportunity for the Board and staff to celebrate an early thanksgiving for the many blessings of our first year at Arlington Studio. We are looking forward to catching up with you then.
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2007 Grads, Away!
Arlington Studio was proud this past June to cablecast, from its newly production- wired Press Box, the 2007 commencement exercises of all three area high schools: Arlington High, Arlington Catholic, and Minuteman Tech. The programs were replayed in their entirety throughout the summer as a sendoff for the diligent grads and as a memorable reminder for the proud parents. DVDs of these programs were also offered to the Arlington public for a nominal fee.
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Halloween Video Shorts & T-Shirt
Send in your very coolest YouTube-style short video of this October's All Hallow's Eve. Tape your spooky activities, scary costume, and wierd friends doing whatever you do on October 31st. Send us a DVD by November 15th and, if it's not too naughty, we'll put it on the air. We'll even teach you to upload it to YouTube if you like.
Do it !
We'll give you a 2007 official ACMI T-shirt! |
Attention Members!
If you have not yet picked up your ACMI 2007 T-shirt, COME and GET IT!
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We are always thinking of our dear ACMI members, Arlington
residents, town departments and officials, and all of our friends and
supporters who have helped make our first year so special and rewarding.
All the best to all of you from all of us at
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Dear ACMI Members and Friends,
Since the last newsletter we sent to you, a lot has happened here at Arlington's community television station.
The Arlington Studio reception area is waiting to receive YOU!
In our previous newsletter we told about the upgrading of our physical plant and the hiring of new staff that happened during the first half of ACMI's first year of managing and operating Arlington Studio. Now, as we approach our first anniversary, we have some stories for you of our latest renovations, our hottest new equipment, our newest hire, our expanded programming and workshop schedules, and our most ambitious Town Day coverage yet. And, of course we want you to know about what's coming up ahead as well. So let's get started.
First, the Board and staff of Arlington Community Media Inc. wish to thank you, our members, for your support and patience during our ambitious first year. We have experienced a rapid and healthy growth of membership during the past 12 months and are now poised to flourish during the upcoming year with new productions from new member producers wearing new Arlington Studio T-shirts as they attend new training workshops and producer gather-ins. The ACMI Board and we who staff ACMI's Arlington Studio are most grateful for your energetic and enthusiastic participation in community television production. We look forward to our second year of working and creating together with you, our talented members.
(Not a member yet? Download a membership application form here.)
Check out our stories on this page, and click through on the links, if you like, to see and read more.
Happy Autumn from your community television station.
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Expanded Programming and Training Workshops
Access Production Manager, Lakis Koulouris, teaches a class on shot composition.
Yes, we have more programs filling our channels and new channels to boot. On August 31st, ACMI added three new channels to its existing six so that Verizon customers might receive ACMI's Arlington Studio community programming as well.
Right Turn LIVE! and College Life are two of our new in-studio productions, and more are expected, most notably a bi-weekly current events program hosted by a member of the Arlington Advocate news staff. On October 26th and November 28th we will shoot our first-ever live concert productions at 85 Park Avenue -- complete with audience! Arlington band Hurra Kam Rada, recipient of the national Hometown Video Best Music Video Award for its entry, "Milkman", will present live shows in our studio on those evenings. The concerts will also be taped for subsequent presentation elsewhere. You will be reading more about this soon in the Arlington Advocate, where each week you will also conveniently find the Arlington Studio TV Schedule and Program Notes.
This past summer ACMI offered new training workshops at Arlington Studio in portable
HD camera operation, shot composition, and digital video editing in
Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. Workshops in lighting and on uploading
video to the internet will be added in the future.
ACMI continues to offer advanced learning opportunities and creative ways to inspire and empower our membership. As an upcoming example, we present ACMI FilmTalk at 7pm on October 25th, co-hosted at the Studio by ACMI Treasurer and volunteer producer, Kathy Colwell. The public event will allow ACMI-member movie buffs and aspiring local videomakers to study films and videos for their production values and editing techniques. It will be a fun way to learn from the pros on tape and from each other in person. Come veteran and novice alike. Popcorn included! (See more workshop photos.)
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Our Most Ambitious Town Day Coverage Ever!
It's mid-August and the ACMI elves are restless. They know that Town Day is coming in three weeks and they know this year Arlington Studio's coverage of it has to be great. The best equipment in Arlington cable TV history has been delivered, the volunteers are streaming in to help, the plans are being drawn; but something is missing... Ah, yes, the ACMI booth; what is to be done about that?
Nancy Richardson admires her husband's handiwork.
Enter Don Richardson, set designer and builder for Arlington Friends of the Drama. Don accepts the challenge of building a small replica of the Arlington Studio building itself as the ACMI Town Day booth. He then draws the design, buys the lumber, measures and cuts, sculpts and paints, and voila! After a few painterly touches by friend Dennis James Russas, the mini studio is portaged to Mass Ave and erected at 8am to become the interview set for Arlington Advocate reporter, Shauna Stavely and her notable Arlington guests.
Meanwhile, on the Portico studio set, just off the Town Hall parking lot, stand-up comedian and former Town Day emcee, Steve Katsos joins Town Treasurer, Steve Gilligan, to host all other on-camera guests. There are two brand new studio cameras and multiple crew members at the portico and three cameras and crew at the Main Stage to capture, LIVE and on tape, the cheerleaders and bands there. While that's happening, Producer Jeff Munro, Director Jim Akimchuk, Assistant Producer Lakis Koulouris, Unit Director Adam LoNigro, and a crew of at least three others are upstairs in the Selectmen's meeting room / TV Control Room managing the whole circus like pros. And all this on, maybe, four hours sleep.
All together, 25 ACMI CREW shirts were visible at one time or other -- LIVE on Arlington community television. Outreach & Programming Coordinator, Walter Locke watched it all from his bed where he lay recovering from wrangling the ACMI booth the evening before. He thought it was all quite miraculous! ACMI E.D., Norm McLeod was duly impressed himself and congratulated the entire crew during the program sign-off at 3pm. It was a marathon well run and, afterwards, the ACMI staff was not shy about cablecasting the replay again and again.
We hope you enjoyed the show too.
(Photo above: D. Richardson)
( Click here for more TownDay photos.)
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Happy Anniversary to ACMI
ACMI's Executive Director, Norman McLeod, prepares for the non-profit corporation's first Annual General Meeting, set for October 23rd.
It seems ever-so-hard to believe it, but it has been a whole year since ACMI officially took over, on September 26th of 2006, the management and operation of Arlington Studio. As years go, it's been a whopper! All ACMI members, as well as the general public are invited to this annual open meeting. Come, if you wish, and hear the news in brief of this eventful year gone by and our plans for the future.
Date: October 23rd
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: 85 Park Avenue, Arlington, Massachusetts
RSVP: Walter@ArlingtonStudio.com
Official Public Notice:
Arlington
Community Media, Inc., pursuant to it's Bylaws and Article 9.1 of it's
Television Access Agreement with the Town of Arlington, will hold its 2007 Annual
Meeting on Tuesday, October 23 at 7pm. This public meeting will be held
at the Arlington Studio, 85 Park
Avenue, Arlington.
ACMI
members, friends, and the general public are invited to attend as the ACMI
staff, board, and volunteers will provide a summary of the past year's activities and events, and a look ahead to next year.
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