The equipment used for cablecasts of Three Rivers City Commission meetings from City Hall will be upgraded as the result of action by the city commission during its meeting Tuesday evening (August 5th).

Commissioners approved the purchase of a Leightonix Nexus unit at a cost of $7,995, an amount that is under the $10,000 budgeted for such equipment.

According to a city staff report on the subject, the current equipment “is difficult to maintain due to its age.”

The new unit will replace the programming switcher, the recording tape deck, and the announcement software.  It has digital record and playback, is able to control tape decks remotely, program playback events and house software for announcement.  The programming is done on software on a computer that prevents overlapping events and is graphic in design as opposed to the current switcher that requires eight lines of programming to perform one action and four actions to program one event.

Mayor Allen Balog welcomed the upgrade by saying, “I’ve had enough complaints in the short time that I’ve been up here that either they can’t hear us, or they can’t see us, or both.  I certainly would be in favor for this upgrade because I do know there’s a lot of interest in commission meetings and people do watch it.”

The recommended unit is the only one found that combines all the features requested in one unit and is geared toward small local access channels.

The local coverage from City Hall appears on Comcast cable channel 13.