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BLTV
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| We speak to the Shane
Callan who's running Belfast Local Television (BLTV)
a new local cable network broadcaster based in North
Belfast (Northern Ireland). The station, which serves
a population of approximately 15,000 people has
been broadcasting a regular schedule since early
2005. The company has spent a year developing state
of the art facilities which include a multi purpose
television studio and production and post production
facilities. The company ethos is to promote understanding
between communities and to develop employment opportunities
for young people who wish to begin a career in television.
Their aim is to produce high quality programmes
which will not only be of interest to a local audience
but will also be attractive to national and international
audiences. |
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Hello Shane, can you tell
us exactly what your role is at BLTV?
Since Christmas 2004 I have
effectively been running BLTV. As station manager
I have to coordinate our team of full-time staff
and volunteers, produce content for the local
television channel.
Can you tell us a bit about
BLTV? How many people make up the BLTV team ?
We have three full time staff
[Shane Callan, Mark Cowden and Nicola Quinn],
all of which multi-task in editing, camera and
producing. We also have a volunteer scheme, with
about 5 volunteers working with us each week.
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When did you first hear about
the Video Toaster?
Video Toaster was recommended
to us by a company in London (Trimedia
Broadcast, a reseller of Imago
Ltd). We needed a quick, reliable and cost
effective system that incorporated studio switching.
What in the Video Toaster
convinced you to integrate it into your production
pipeline?
It has excellent studio switching
integration and it is affordable.
What is you personal history
with Video ?
In college I studied the use
of Avid and After effects. After College I used
Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro to edit a number
of short films and documentaries.
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What equipment did you work
on at BLTV before using Video Toaster ?
From the beginning, BLTV has
always relied on Video Toaster for editing and
studio switching requirements. We were looking
for a complete solution and found it with Video
Toaster.
You use the Video Toaster
to produce most of your TV programmes, I'd like
to know a bit more.
Video toaster along with the
SX-8 board allows us to shoot 3 camera studio
discussions with title overlays and DDR playback
of clips, all live. In post we use LightWave and
Aura on many of our intros and for some links.
VT-Edit gives us high speed
editing results, giving us a quick turnover of
programmes.
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| What
subjects do you cover?
We make local orientated content,
which is usually informative and aimed at stirring
up debate. We liaise with local groups such as
the Health centre, the housing association, focus
groups, art galleries, the local schools and youth
groups.
So we cover subjects such as education, health,
the environment, local news.
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BLTV |
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