Minneapolis Telecommunications Network, Inc. 125 Southeast Main Street | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
PHONE (612)331-8575 | FAX (612)331-8578 | Webmaster | EEO-AAE
The New System
Playback is perhaps the least familiar part of MTN to the average access member, but also perhaps the most important. Those of you who were active at MTN a few years ago will remember the studio, once MTN's only studio, in the rear of the Paragon Cable building on Plymouth Avenue North. At the back of that studio was a door leading to a long narrow room, which until July was the site of MTNšs playback.
Playback is where the tapes from MTN's producers and sponsors are played and shown through the city's cable system. The playback system is made out of video decks to actually play the tapes for MTN's three channels as well as the City Cable and School Board channels, time base correctors to steady and adjust the signal coming from those tapes, A C.G. (Character Generation) system to fill the gaps between shows and during the day when programs do not play, audio equipment to adjust the level of sound coming from tapes, Extended Play decks that will play back our first five hours of playback in the middle of the night and the next day, switches to allow the change from one deck to another, cables to connect the playback system with the city's cable system, and more - as well as the most important feature of playback: an operator to run the show.
This summer the mission at playback was to move that system from the long narrow room at the back of the studio into the space that once was MTN's studio. After two month's work, the mission is accomplished, and MTN's Engineer Jim Derks is beaming, but also a little sad that the work is all done. "When I started it," he said, "I thought it would go on forever - it was a long project. But it went quite fast."
Playback is now in the space that used to be MTN's studio at the Paragon Cable building. While the old playback was lined up along one wall of its former room, the new system wraps itself around the operator, and makes it possible to monitor the video from all the channels MTN operates from one point. The placement of all the equipment and concentration of lights and monitors makes it feel a little like the cockpit of a plane
In this Issue:
Page One: Playback
Page Two: Playback - Cont'd. by John Akre
Page Three: MTN Profile
Page Four: Programming Notes
Page Five: E-mail from Mark
Page Six: Netscape: MTN Features / Benton Update
Page Seven: MTN Appeciation Night