From the Foxboro Reporter, April 3, 2008 Edition
Reprinted with permission

By Frank Mortimer

Concerts, plays, dance recitals, and civic and other events staged in the Foxboro High School auditorium can now be covered by one of the most sophisticated television systems found in any public school in the country.

“After three years of working and configuring, it’s now a fully functioning control center,” Foxboro Cable Access executive director Mike Webber said Tuesday.

Weekend warriors
Working mostly on weekends, FCA volunteers, led by Paul Beck, technical advisor and chairman of the FCA board, have installed a complete television system featuring nine permanent cameras in the auditorium and a control room.

They pulled cable, built camera racks, and installed -- and repaired -- equipment.
Beck and Webber announced the completion of the project during Monday’s School
Committee meeting.

They obtained board permission to name the facility the FCA TV Center at Foxboro High School, and to hold a ribbon cutting at the control room at a date to be announced.

“Because its a permanently installed facility, it makes the set up time for music and other events much easier,” Webber said.

Previously, he said, a team of volunteers, using the FCA mobile unit, would spend four to five hours setting up cameras and other equipment for an event at the high school.

“It eliminates the whole setup process,” reducing preparation time to an hour to two hours, he said.

Foxboro students will be trained to use the equipment to cover performances and other student activities, including through courses already offered in the English and Art Departments.

In 2005, FCA approached the school administration, including facilities director Mike O’Leary, for permission to build the broadcast center.

The former Yearbook Room, on the second floor adjacent to the auditorium, was turned into the control room.

The television equipment, in used but good condition, was donated over time by Beck.

“It’s a very unique situation,” Webber said. “I think few people in the country would have access to that amount of equipment and be able to donate it like that. I don’t think any other high school (auditorium) has nine cameras installed.”

Beck, a Foxboro resident, has more than 40 years’ experience in broadcast television, and works at Emerson College in Boston as an engineer and manager, Webber said.

He said the cameras, when new, were worth about $40,000 each.

“They’re worth pennies on the dollar now, but they serve our needs well,” Webber said. “It’s not NBC quality, but that’s not our goal, either.”

None of the cameras is robotic, and major events will still require 6 or 7 camera operators and four technicians in the control room.

The January 31 Winterfest Concert was the first event to be taped using the nine cameras and the new control room. The Feb. 12 special selectmen’s meeting on the dog park was the first live broadcast.

The center is unrelated to FCA’s separate potential plan to relocate its cablecast facility from East Belcher Road to a building that may be constructed on the high school campus.

School board chairman Larry Harrington voiced the board’s appreciation for the FCA volunteers’ efforts throughout the years. Harrington listed some of the Foxboro sports, music, arts and academic events, notably graduations, that are broadcast to the community.