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Same opportunities, different location for Peters Township Community Television

5 min read
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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Ayden Cote operates one of the three Blackmagic URSA broadcast cameras in PTCT’s Studio A during the production of Peters Township Public Library’s “Book Buzz.”

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Kelsey Sylvester provides guidance in the control room during “Book Buzz.”

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

First-time director Mario Pusateri calls the shots in the control room.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Peters Township Public Library staff members Shannon Pauley, left, and Linda Esposito host “Book Buzz.”

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Tess Phillips controls graphics for “Book Buzz.” She served as the host of “Holiday Showcase,” a PTCT program featuring sprojects created by Peters Township High School broadcasting students.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Julianne May serves as VTR operator for “Book Buzz.”

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

From left in Studio B are Kelsey Sylvester, Ryan Boni, Erin Boni and Robin Hodgin-Frick.

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Makenna Parker serves as Studio A floor director for "Book Buzz."

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Sean Marshall operates a broadcast camera in Studio A.

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Rachel Zeisloft serves as "Book Buzz" technical director.

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Marlee Sisk keeps watch on the monitor of her broadcast camera.

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Eric Hart gets ready to work the sound recording studio for "Book Buzz."

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Robin Hodgin-Frick watches the control room monitors.

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PTCT programming from the 20th century awaits archiving.

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Monitors in the control room show what occurs in various aspects during the production of "Book Buzz."

Inside the Peters Township Community Television control room, high school junior Mario Pusateri is about to make his directorial debut.

“OK, Mario. It’s all you,” media specialist Kelsey Sylvester tells him in a tone that conveys nothing but encouragement.

Following her cues, he starts instructing his classmates.

“Stand by to fade up from black to VTR,” he said in a nod to the past, that stands for Video Tape Recorder, “with music, in five, four, three, two, one.”

Images of two smiling women appear on the control room’s monitors.

“Hello! Welcome to ‘Book Buzz’ by Peters Township Library,” the lady on the left says. “I am Miss Shannon.”

“And I’m Miss Linda,” the woman on the right adds. “And it is time to tell you everything about March.”

As children’s librarian Linda Esposito and head of youth services Shannon Pauley present the latest episode of their PTCT program, Pusateri provides ongoing direction to members of his production crew.

“Cut to Camera One,” he said.

“Tilt down,” he quipped

“Could you bring Linda’s mic up?” he asked. “A little bit more.”

Sylvester continues to guide him, as she has done with media students since joining the PTCT staff in 2014, after majoring in cinema arts at Point Park University.

A few minutes into the show, Robin Hodgin-Frick, the students’ television broadcast and media production teacher, enters the control room. She offers further encouragement to everyone involved.

“Thank you. You all did great,” she said as “Book Buzz” wraps up for the morning. “First day, Mario. Good job!”

Welcome back

They’re not exactly new digs at this point, but the PTCT headquarters may as well be.

Based at Peters Township High School since its early 1980s inception, the TV station made the move along with everything else when the new high school building opened in January 2021.

Of course, that was nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and that meant it was going to take a while for a resumption of business as usual. The station closed to the public in March 2020 and now is in the process of welcoming back members of the community.

What visitors will find is a more accessible location for PTCT compared with the former high school, with just a few turns to be made after checking in at the new building. Inside the suite are features Ryan Boni, public access director since 1998, envisioned with the move.

“They asked us to kind of design it,” he said, and indeed, school district officials requested thorough input. “So we drew it up. They made some changes, asked for some suggestions. But basically the layout was exactly what we asked for.”

High on the list was the inclusion of two studio spaces instead of just one, allowing for more effective scheduling.

“We’ve already seen it in action,” Sylvester said. “We’ll be in here recording a show, and students will be in the other studio doing their own work.”

Both studios tie into the control room, where students are assigned roles to learn various facets of production, from operating teleprompters and VTR equipment to controlling graphics and directing technical aspects.

Next to the control room is a sound recording studio, and a pre-production room is situated down the hall. The PTCT suite also has a repair room – that equipment gets plenty of wear and tear – and an area for archiving.

Because the station has been in operation for so long, a lot of the archiving involves converting content on not-so-modern media to a digital format.

“It’s a project,” Sylvester said, amid boxes of old videotape cartridges, “but they moved with us.”

Looking ahead

A couple of decades into the 21st century, Boni is anticipating the station making optimal use of the technological capabilities at its sort-of-new home.

For example, the high school is equipped with fiber-optic cables throughout the building, allowing for convenient connections to places such as the auditorium, natatorium and gymnasium.

“We can take our cameras with us, go to the gym and plug in, and they’ll feed back through here,” Boni said from the control room, with the corresponding lack of a need to haul equipment every which way. “Our eventual, hopeful goal is that we can shoot a sporting event in the gym, and then at halftime we have a studio show, really kind of making a large production out of it.”

In the meantime, PTCT is ready to resume a high degree of community involvement.

“It’s the same as it always has been,” Boni said. “Any resident of Peters can come in and get trained, and use it.”

He said residents’ interests in the station have changed as technology has evolved.

“A lot of people were more interested in using the equipment, because cameras weren’t available at home. So people wanted to come in and use the cameras and learn how to edit, and that sort of thing,” he said. “Now, we find that the residents are more interested in hosting shows, being the talent, the producers. That works out really well. The kids kind of take care of the technical side of things, and the adults get a program.”

On the educational side, Hodgin-Frick has been teaching at the high school since 1995, and she is joined by media teacher Erin Boni – as in, Mrs. Ryan – who first became a member of the Peters Township faculty in 1997.

“Right now, it’s great, and it’s just going to keep getting better,” Hodgin-Frick said. “I’m blessed to be here.”

For more information, visit www.ptct7.com.

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