I went to a two-hour presentation Saturday regarding Raleigh’s community television studio, also known as Raleigh Television Network. Cable administrator Michael Williams was introduced, as well as Carlos Bastilla, the studio engineer. The meeting was very informative and exciting.

Raleigh’s $1.8 million studio is by far the most advanced community television studio out there. As Williams put it, “we’re not just on the cutting edge here, we’re on the bleeding edge” (no pun intended in reference to my previous finger-cutting post). Raleigh is so out front, its driving the software developemt at Crispin, the software devlopers of the ingress/egress suite.

Steps were outlined for how a citizen can put programs on the air. Course dates have yet to be announced, but some will be starting next month. I could conceivably put content on the air as early as today if I wanted, though it would have to be content I either edited myself or got somewhere else. No one gets to play with the new equipment until they get trained: no exceptions.

One of the most exciting things I heard is the addition of a mobile studio, with a full suite of studio equipment in the back. It is for use of staff only at this point, but it may be possible in the future to farm it out to community producers (with staff accompanying).

I look forward to having some fun with this high-tech digital studio.