A lot has changed in the past few months at Pemi-Baker Community Access Media (pbCAM). Earlier this year the Town of Plymouth received a grant to assist in purchasing our Leightronix NEXUS server. We also purchased a new iMac with iMovie and Final Cut Express, which we are finding to be very popular with our local producers. Now our producers can quickly and easily learn non-linear editing basics on iMovie and advance to Final Cut when they feel ready for more advanced features.

The iMac and NEXUS have really helped to streamline our meeting coverage. We just installed our pan-tilt-zoom cameras permanently in Town Hall. Live meeting coverage can now happen with almost no setup. For on-location meeting coverage outside the live environment, our Government Access Media Operators (GAMOs) are able to take a hard-drive camcorder and field audio kit with them, record the meeting, use the iMac to capture the video in minutes and using iMovie to add titles and credits have a finished meeting ready to go very quickly after the meeting finishes.

We recently also worked with students in Jong-Yoon Kim's graphic design class at Plymouth State University. We now have a set of three great logos (one for pbCAM and one each for our two channels) designed by PSU student Katie Dexter. We are extremely grateful for all of the excellent work all of the students did in designing logo designs, and especially Katie for the final designs. It was really difficult to choose only one set to use!

The Plymouth Board of Selectmen voted to dissolve the pbCAM Advisory Board in early November, with its greatest appreciation for members' respective years of dedication. Since its inception, the Advisory Board helped direct Plymouth's use and development of its community access channels. Individually, each member brought expertise that repeatedly provided the specialized guidance that was needed to bring pbCAM to where it is today. Perhaps most importantly, the Advisory Board helped develop the Executive Director position to the point of readiness to fulfill the role of Department Head alongside other town management staff.