Harford Cable Network Completes Renovation of Mobile Production Van; Part of 2-Yr Campaign

From Harford Cable Network:

Harford Cable Network (HCN) spent the summer renovating its outdated mobile production van. The nearly $250,000 renovation took one month to complete and is part of the HCN Foundation’s two-year-campaign, Transforming Television in Harford County to the Digital Age.

HCN’s mobile production van, a 2007 Dodge Sprinter Cargo Van, was initially purchased and outfitted in 2007. Extremely outdated, the van’s equipment was over 10 years old and still used standard definition technology. The organization plans to upgrade its entire facility to high definition by 2019, making the mobile production van’s renovations an important investment.

“It was a pleasure to work with VPC, Inc. on the complete renovation of our new mobile production van,” said Kelly Jara, executive director at Harford Cable Network. “Led and staffed by seasoned professionals, the full service-production company demonstrated their 26 years of experience in A/V integration as they proficiently completed the renovation of the van in one short-month.”

With design modifications and equipment upgrades, the state of the art technology in HCN’s renovated mobile production van is the first step in upgrading HCN’s entire facility to high definition. The interior has been modified with new floor and wall covering, equipment racks, counter space, and an HVAC unit. The equipment upgrades include: three Sony HD cameras, three replay machines, several monitors, a Ross Graphite all-in-one production system and Wi-Fi capability. The Ross Graphite all-in-one production system consists of a digital switcher, digital AV labor, and XPression graphics machine.

The renovations and upgrades made to the van will improve the quality of HCN’s productions. The equipment will provide better picture quality, as HCN will be able to playback more replays during games, will have access to professional 3D and animation graphics, and will be able to live stream sporting and local events.

“Transforming HCN with this new state of the art equipment will allow us to better serve Harford County,” added Jara. “Through our programming, we’re committed to serving the citizens of the county by informing, educating, entertaining and promoting a sense of community. We believe that this new technology will help us deliver on our mission.”

On September 7, 2018, HCN began live streaming all sporting and local events on Facebook. Moving forward, HCN plans to continue this practice, which provides Harford County residents with an easy way to view community events live. To connect with HCN go to www.harfordcable.org, Facebook (HCNTV), Twitter (@HarfordCable), or watch programming on VOD (https://hcn.viebit.com ) and YouTube.

HCN will continue its HD upgrade in its headend (December 2018) and studio/control room (June 2019). After all improvements are completed, HCN plans to pursue securing HD channels on the systems it’s carried on (Comcast, Armstrong, and Verizon Fios). HDTV is a digital TV format transmitting widescreen pictures with more detail and quality than found in standard analog television.