MCI student TV station nears Web presence

PITTSFIELD – Jenn Park, a junior from South Korea, needed some extra help from WMCI television station manager K.J. Flewelling.

“How do I slow this down?” she asked, as she attempted to blend segments of a music video she was creating.

Flewelling carefully explained the technique and, putting her headphones back on, Park went to work.

Flewelling is station manager of WMCI, the student-run television station at Maine Central Institute.

He has been a familiar sight around the area at community events, high school sports and academic programs and Town Council meetings.

These days he’s on the verge of bringing a groundbreaking development to MCI.

WMCI is nearly ready to launch Web “streaming” of its programming, an advance that will allow Park’s parents in South Korea to watch her work. Grandparents of students will get to see them play football. Alumni at colleges will be able to see their favorite WMCI productions.

Web streaming is essentially a way of transmitting sound and images by converting them to a digital format. This is “streamed” over an Internet connection, then can be reassembled and played on a home computer.

“The quality of these broadcasts will be incredible,” Flewelling said. “With this new addition, WMCI is connecting Maine Central Institute, its students and families, and the surrounding communities to each other and the world.”

As soon as enough financial sponsorship is found, Flewelling said, WMCI will begin a simulcast digital broadcast of its signal over both the local cable network and the Internet.

In addition to being a powerful recruitment tool for international students, the broadcasts can help people far from the region glimpse what life is like in Pittsfield and its surrounding communities, Flewelling said.

Flewelling said the streaming program is set up and ready to go, but he is looking for financial backing from a company that can provide the connection that streaming would require.

He explained the system of bands carrying WMCI video as similar to pipes carrying water. “You can only get so much through a small copper pipe, but you can get more through a PVC pipe and even more through a drainpipe,” he said. “To provide the quality we want, we need a really big pipe.”

Flewelling said the average broadband cable Internet connection is 768 kilobits per second while he is looking for 3 megabits per second. “We are scrambling to find someone to provide this connection,” he said. Flewelling said he would like to find an Internet service provider that would partner with MCI. “We have our fingers crossed,” he said.

The new technology will allow for individual programs to be archived and made available for download. “It’s so convenient,” Flewelling said. “If you missed a show you wanted to see, you can just download it and watch it anytime on your computer.” Viewers of WMCI also will be able to see the channel on their cell phones and handheld wireless devices.

Two students, Cynthia Pratt and Dan Teran, are creating the station’s Web site. More than 20 other students are recording school and community events, creating music videos or short films or are working on narrating other projects.

WMCI was introduced in the fall of 2003 as a curriculum course of studies in broadcasting and media arts. In WMCI’s first year of broadcasting over Adelphia cable television channel 6, it reached approximately 2,500 people in the Pittsfield area with programming focused on sports, arts, music, ballet and theater along with some student-created work.

In 2004 WMCI went digital and moved to Adelphia cable channel 7, gaining a wider viewing audience, from Unity to East Newport, of about 9,000 viewers.

“This program is really giving them a heads-up in the workplace,” Flewelling said. “There are colleges all over the country that are saying they have never seen such diverse portfolios of work as our students are presenting.”