Tech Corner 2.0

    Hello again, gentle readers! I trust you all made it safely through cyberspace and are ready to hear the latest news about BATV’s upcoming technical upgrades and events as promised. Without further ado, here are a few of the exciting enhancements and a special event I’m pleased to announce…
    First up: Community Room Upgrades! As you probably know, BATV is now located at the newly renovated Howe School.  After being open for a full two years plus, we’ve noticed there are indeed some areas where we could improve our beloved new home for the better.  One of the areas in need is in The Howe Community Room.  The Community Room has been utilized immensely in the time it has been open to the Billerica Community and with great success.  Most of its use has come in the form of a gathering/meeting space and to a lesser extent, as a live performance space. As a part of our mission, BATV staff and board members are consistently looking for news ways to build new pathways of media access and connectivity for our members and the overall Billerica community.  We have determined there is a need to step up the live event production ability of the Community Room to provide new and exciting ways to bring the Billerica community media and community events.  In this sense, we are trying to take the next logical step in the evolution of the Community Room and feel with a few new bells and whistles we can make it even more functional, especially where live music or other types of performances are concerned.
    With this in mind, yours truly has really been surfin’ and scrollin’ the furthest depths of the inter webs to find the right mix of form, function, budget and brains when it comes to a mix of new equipment and refurbishments in order to enhance live events in the Community Room space.  Moreover, some of these upgrades will most likely be modular and able to be used in other ares of the Howe building as well as in other parts of the Billerica community, adding additional “bang for the buck”, as they say.
    Although not completely ready to announce every specific change coming as of this writing, I can reveal what we are looking to accomplish. In order to make the Community Room more functional as a performance space we will be acquiring a new Public Address (PA) System, audio mixer and wireless performance microphones. In addition, we are looking into adding a modular stage, along with moveable lighting trusses with both wired and wireless performance lighting fixture options.  In regards to the moveable truss (or grid), we will also be looking forward to using that in the kitchen production space as well. We are looking into acquiring an overhead camera and hanging it directly over the cooking area for even better cooking productions.  I am also currently researching other options for more permanent, built in options in both spaces as well. All of this is in the hope to offer more flexibility and function in order to bring more professional live venue production events like live bands/music, open mic nights, comedy nights, poetry readings, karaoke and more. Stay tuned for more updates on these new improvements in the weeks and months to come!
    Lastly, I’d like to take a quick moment to announce that Jon Waterman will be bringing another installment of his Live Music and History series to us on the evening of June 18th.  This time Jon will be sharing his "History and Legends through Song” program with us. If you didn’t catch Jon’s last program “ Popular Music and Veterans” last May, here’s a link to see what a truly wonderful musical experience he provides for free with the help of grants from the Mass Cultural Council and the Billerica Cultural Council: https://bit.ly/PopMusicandVets
    Welp, that will do it for this first digital installment of Technical Corner 2.0.  I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I had sharing my musings and updates. As always, if you have any questions about anything I mentioned here, whether out of genuine interest, complete disdain or anything in between- feel free to “hit me up” at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to discuss it all with you, gentle reader, here in The Technical Corner.
- Paul Abrego
Production &​ facilities coordinator