Brown Specialty Vehicles builds HDTV trailer for Kiowa County
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Sept. 1, 2010 - A high definition television (HDTV) production trailer, built by Brown Specialty Vehicles in Lawrence for Kiowa County and Greensburg, will be on display Sept. 10 to 19 at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.
The 22-foot mobile television studio with WiMAX, offering wireless broadband access, represents one of the latest technological improvements to Kiowa County and its county seat since a tornado destroyed nearly 95 percent of Greensburg in 2007.
Carrying the latest technologies available for HDTV cameras, power systems and digital recordings, the production trailer was built by Brown to serve Kiowa County through its Media Center in Greensburg. It models new community communications for rural America.
"Brown is pleased to have built this first-class unit and contributed to the rebuilding of Greensburg. This trailer will open up technology frontiers to students and others in Kiowa County and beyond," says Dane Jennison, president of Brown Specialty Vehicles.
The broadcast trailer will be part of the Kiowa County Media Center, currently under construction at 320 South Main in Greensburg. The center's Internet-based television studio, radio studio, robust Web portal and editing stations will allow citizen-produced journalism.
"Nothing like this existed in Greensburg or Kiowa County prior to the storm," says Janet West, president of the Media Center Board. "The broadcast trailer will allow us to stream live or archived high school sports, the county fair and rodeo, city council meetings, hospital training sessions and business open houses, for example."
The board has plans to include college students to host talk shows. Professional videographers will be invited to lead eco-video workshops on how to create documentaries about green building and living.
The vehicle by Brown includes the newest version of NewTek's TriCaster live high definition 22-channel production switcher, the TCXD850. It has the capability to simultaneously produce, broadcast, live stream, project and record network-quality HD video.
MUTEC Germany, manufacturer of professional digital audio and video equipment, made the vehicle's recording equipment.
"We are especially grateful to Brown Specialty Vehicles and to our other major donors," West says. "We also appreciate the work of Brandon Utech, technology director, and Dr. Bert R. Biles, associate director of the National Institute for Land Management and Training at Kansas State University, for working in conjunction with Brown on designing the trailer and also installing the media equipment."
Besides Brown Specialty Vehicles, contributors to the trailer's construction were Kiowa County Commission, South Central Community Foundation, and Rotary International. Donors of media equipment and related systems included NewTek, Sony, Adobe, the Vitek Group, Clear-Com, Will-Burt, Kramer Electronics, Middle Atlantic Products, Avitech International, Smartsound, Clark Wire and Cable, Cables-To-Go, Verizoom, Hubble Wiring, Blue Sea Systems, and Checkers Industrial Safety Products.