Brookline Access Television

Studio’s new home a boon to school

josh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:38:02 +0000

By Brock Parker Globe Correspondent / March 11, 2010

After a big game, Brookline High School’s varsity basketball team used to gather around small television screens to watch video of how they played to break down what they did right or wrong.

But after the Warriors staged a comeback to beat Natick High School 61-60 last month in the playoffs, the varsity squad eased back into seats in the new Brookline Access Television theater to break down the game film.

“We’re finding a lot of mistakes,’’ said Dave Ford, assistant coach for the team. “This is a nice way to prepare for games. It’s a nice advantage, especially on a big screen.’’

The basketball players have become some of the first students to benefit from Brookline Access Television’s new digs in Brookline High School’s Unified Arts Building. The access station moved into the high-tech, $1.9 million facility in January, ending years of searching for a permanent home after Comcast kicked the nonprofit organization out of its Amory Street studios in 2003.

To celebrate the new facility and show it off to the community, Brookline Access will hold a grand opening Sunday, March 28 from 3-6 p.m., with entertainment by Improv Boston, live music, and tours.

“This is really a treasure in Brookline and people need to start using it,’’ said Peter Zawadzki, executive director of Brookline Access Television. “Communities don’t have resources like this.’’

Unlike the cramped space at its old locations on Amory Street and then the Old Lincoln School, the new facility has two large filming studios, computer labs, editing rooms, and the theater space. It’s decorated with large flat-screen televisions, a welcome desk with a scrolling, lighted sign, and will soon have gallery space for the Museum of Bad Art and Brookline Open Studios, which features local artists.

“It’s gorgeous,’’ said Will Slotnick, president of the Brookline Access board. “It’s beyond our wildest dreams.’’

But the biggest addition to Brookline Access may be the infusion of talent from students at the high school, who are already using the computer labs and filming studios, Zawadzki said. When the basketball team isn’t breaking down big games, teachers have been bringing classes into the theater to view films, and the extra traffic keeps the Access staff jumping.

“It energizes the entire facility,’’ Zawadzki said.

Slotnick said adding an educational component to Brookline Access was one of the primary goals when the decision was made to move to the high school.

The Brookline Access Television board began considering the move after Comcast launched its CN8 channel in April 2003 and kicked Brookline Access out of the Amory Street studio.

Town officials tangled with Comcast over the move because studio space for Brookline Access was included in the cable provider’s license. To end the dispute, Comcast agreed to pay about $600,000 in a settlement, and Slotnick said Brookline Access used that plus money from cable contracts with RCN and Comcast to pay for the new studios at the high school.

Brookline Access recruited Zawadzki to help with the move because he had led a similar effort to open Watertown Community Access Center in Watertown High School.

Superintendent of Schools Bill Lupini also played an important role in bringing Brookline Access into the high school, Slotnick said, because Lupini had overseen a similar effort at Beverly High School.

Lupini said he jumped on the idea in Brookline because teaming with Brookline Access enables the high school to provide courses and experience that it otherwise could not offer.

High school headmaster Bob Weintraub said the hands-on experience with television production and animation equipment will help students tap into their own creativity.

“The skills that are learned [in the studios] are incredibly transferable to the work world,’’ Weintraub said.

While the Brookline Access studio that is used by students has been completed, Zawadzki said work continues on the second studio that will be used primarily by Access producers. That will be completed before the grand opening, and Zawadzki said he is hoping the new digs will attract more people to produce local shows.

As the grand opening nears, Slotnick said the collaboration with the high school is reaching the goals that Brookline Access had in mind.

“It’s already becoming the community media center that we’d envisioned,’’ he said.

Original Story

Brookline Access Television to get a new home - Jsons.org

josh — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:30:50 +0000

By: Tom Layman

2/19/09

After looking for nearly five years, Brookline Access Television (BATV) has found a new home.

The cable access station will be moving to Brookline High School in June as part of a brand new $1.9 million project.

The funding for the project comes from Comcast, RCN and money put aside by the station ,said Peter Zawadzki, executive director of BATV. No tax dollars from Brookline residents will be involved.

"We don't feel that realistically the town's money should be in the mix in an access center," said Zawadzki.

BATV has been operating out of the old Lincoln School on Boylston Street in Brookline, and Zawadzki said the temporary spot did not allow the station to operate correctly.

"This space is inconvenient. It's not a proper studio," said Zawadzki. "It's just not at all conducive to an access center."

The new facility will include two separate studios, two control rooms, a 25-seat viewing room and two large classrooms that can hold up to 15 people for various editing and graphic design projects.

After building similar studios in Watertown and Natick, Zawadzki was brought on board to find a permanent place for Brookline Access Television. He said he hopes the new facility will allow BATV to be a measuring stick for other access centers.

"I think Brookline has the capabilities of being one of the top-tier public access centers in the entire country," said Zawadzki.

Selectman Betsy DeWitt shared in the excitement over the new project. "This is a win for Brookline Access Television, Brookline High School and the Brookline community," she said.

Students will have access to their own separate wing during the school day, and two new television production classes are being added to the curriculum.

Peter Rowe, deputy superintendent for administration and finance of Brookline High School, said the new facility would be a plus for the students. "It allows us to expand our programs, and our students will have the opportunity to work alongside a professional staff," said Rowe.

While residents of Brookline do not have to pay for the project, Zawadzki said he wants the community to feel as if it would be getting its money's worth in the new facility by offering assistance with all media and technology, not just television.

"We are all about foot-traffic," Zawadzki said. "We want to bring people in to use the facility. If you're going to use it as a TV station that's great, but if you're going to use it in any other way that's great as well. The goal of this facility is to have it open to the public for everything."

BATV will be offering workshops where anyone from the community can learn nearly 1,000 different computer programs. It will be expanding the adult and continuing education courses and will allow anyone to come in and learn how to use all of the equipment.

The private bidding for the project will begin in April and Zawadzki hopes all major construction will be finished over the summer.

Access TV chief planning a rerun - Boston.com

josh — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:15:33 +0000

By Andreae Downs

Globe Correspondent / January 25, 2009

Schools Superintendent Bill Lupini did it elsewhere, as did Peter Zawadzki, director of Brookline Access Television. Now the ink is dry on the contract, the architects are working full throttle, and the two are key players as Brookline attempts to follow suit this fall.

That, at least according to the plan, is when the town's community television station should move its operations into bigger digs at Brookline High School, with construction starting in June. The vision is scheduled to be presented Tuesday to the Board of Selectmen (and to anyone with a Brookline cable connection or Internet access, at www.batv.org).

Zawadzki sees the move as an opportunity to capitalize on the enthusiasm, energy, and availability of Brookline's youth - vital human capital in the nonprofit TV world. Lupini sees it as a way to get the latest in high-tech equipment and video training for the high school, free. Both have done this before - Lupini in Beverly and Zawadzki in Watertown.

"I saw advantages for the school system in this partnership," Lupini said. "There are natural advantages for Access and for students."

Will Slotnick, president of the station's board, agreed.

"These are our future producers," he said of high school video students. "I have a feeling they'll quickly want to produce their own content - and they'll show us what's next."

In Beverly, Lupini said, students went on to become staff at the access station, and several moved into television careers.

"We are on the way to something very special for our students," he said.

By the fall, Brookline Access should be moving boxes into 10,000 square feet on the third floor of the Unified Arts Building, which sits around the corner from the main high school and houses the school's arts and vocational education programs.

Beginning in September, students should be able to take courses on television production, and eventually video production for the Web. Adult training for volunteers interested in making television shows will begin later in the fall.

"The overarching goal is for the new facilities to be open and available to the community as much as possible," said Zawadzki. Students will have daytime access to two classrooms and a studio, and adults will be able to use the classrooms and both that studio and another during the evenings and some weekends. The classrooms will have up-to-date computer equipment that will allow classes in graphic design, video editing, animation, digital photography, and more.

"We will add on as we get going," Zawadzki said.

Already a staff person has been hired to coordinate the educational expansion, Slotnick said.

"We're hoping to start developing the programming piece well before we move in," he said.

Negotiations with the School Department started shortly after Zawadzki was hired, Slotnick said.

"The whole process has been a real collaboration," he said. Zawadzki, Lupini, principal Bob Weintraub, and the art department heads hammered out details starting in the summer of 2007. "We think everybody benefits from this."

The move represents the culmination of the Access board's efforts to expand the station into education - part of its mission that was not as well realized as the political-municipal coverage side, Slotnick said. By early 2006, the board was talking with the School Department about how schools could be more involved in programming and how the station could be providing more services to students. According to Slotnick, the station's former director wasn't interested in the direction the discussions were taking, and tendered his resignation.

While touring local access stations for other reasons, Slotnick noticed the work Zawadzki, a Chicopee native, was doing in Watertown, where he had moved the station into Watertown High School. Soon Lupini, who oversaw a similar effort at Beverly High, and the rest of the Access board were touring the Watertown High School/Access studios, and by the spring of 2007 Zawadzki was director of the Brookline station.

"We looked for an executive director who had this kind of experience," Slotnick said.

Another reason Access is interested in the Unified Arts building is the lack of space in its current digs - a "temporary" studio space in the old Lincoln School on Boylston Street that has been the station's home since it was kicked out of Amory Street space by Comcast in 2004. The blowback from that eviction gave the station most of the funds - roughly $1.8 million - to pay to renovate the new space, Slotnick said.

Those funds, plus money from subsequent cable contracts town officials and selectmen negotiated, can only be used on capital costs for the access station, Slotnick said. By locating in the high school, students get the benefit of the latest computer and video technology on the station's capital tab, plus the expertise in maintenance and operation.

Originally, the high school offered the station some basement space formerly used for auto repair classes. The third floor, which now houses art studios, is much more attractive, Slotnick said, and moving the art studios to the second floor will mean that all art classes, including ceramics and sculpture, will be on the same floor.

On a personal note, Slotnick is hoping his fifth-grade daughter will arrive at a fully-equipped Brookline High School and discover an interest in video production.

"In some ways, I wear two hats. On the one hand, I'm president of the Access board. On the other, I'm a parent and huge school supporter."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/25/access_tv_chief_planning_a_rerun/?page=2

New Community Information Channel

Peter — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:12:52 +0000

Brookline Access Television is proud to announce the new Community Information Comcast channel 23 and RCN channel 14. The new Information Channel is the one stop place in Brookline to get all the important information your looking for, from school closings to street closings.

All the information you need is posted immediately from the DPW, School Department, Police and Fire Departments. If you are part of a non-profit organization in town and would like to have the ability to post your civic events directly please contact Peter Zawadzki at Brookline Access.

Welcome to BATV.org

Peter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:53:42 +0000

The Brookline Access Television website is currently undergoing development and will be fully up and running very shortly. The BATV website will allow users to have the ability to post announcements, become members, request coverage of events, view our program schedules, download all BATV forms and much, much more! Along with the ability to stay informed with all BATV events and Brookline happenings.

The new BATV website will also allow residents the ability to view our programming even if you're away from a TV. So please stay tuned as we hope to make this transition as smooth as possible. In the meantime please feel free to reach one of our staff members at BATV at 617-731-8566 to answer any questions you may have or email peter@batv.org.

Peter Zawadzki
Executive Director