MIT STUDENT CABLE TELEVISION CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEEDS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE September, 1989 Breakout box for use with JVC camera $ 75.00 This will allow us to use our camera without tying up the tape deck we purchased with it. Right now, we need to borrow members' consumer-model VCR's for our more complex broadcasts. Battery charger 425.00 We have been unable to use rechargeable batteries with our JVC camera/deck since our charger is broken. This has limited our program sites to locations with electricity. Rechargeable batteries 147.00 Ni-Cad batteries need to be charged and discharged often in order to be useful. Ours have stayed discharged for over a year now. They are five years old this year, and four years is the expected life span of Ni-Cad batteries anyway. Audio monitor 20.00 We currently have no way of monitoring audio while editing. An audio monitor is just a speaker with an input jack and an amplifier. We could also buy a color monitor that includes an audio input, but the cost may be an extra $20, anyway. Color video monitor 300.00 We only have one color monitor. The only way we can adjust color on our cameras is to put them on the program output while we adjust them. Cart with cabinet 136.00 A cart would make it easier to set up for remote shoots. Right now, we borrow a rickety cart not designed for transporting fragile equipment. The wear and tear on our decks and cameras is already starting to show. Intercom system 300.00 This allows the director and camera operators to communicate with each other during the broadcast. We hope to find a consumer-model wireless one for this price. Professional wired intercoms cost 2.5 to 3 times as much. Microphone stand 36.60 Passive switchers (2) 198.00 These will allow us to reconfigure our special effects generator without time consuming re-wiring. Audio tape recorder 200.00 The theme music from our programs must be played on a VCR or on a member's Walkman. It would also help in recording voiceovers. Color TV monitor with audio monitor 320.00 Yes, a second video/audio monitor combination would be put to immediate use. Broadcast audio mixer 435.00 This would give us complete control over our program audio. We need a heavy-duty model that can operate 24 hours a day. Repeating VHS VCR 500.00 The VCR we now use to repeat programming on weekends is over a year old, and was originally purchased for $150. It is a miracle that it still works, although it does damage the tapes we play on it. This VCR would record, so that it could be used as a backup. *Character Generator 4,500.00 This would allow us to create attrative graphics easily. *Lighting kit 600.00 This kit would be compatible with our old one, and includes 3 lights (without lamps), tripods, and a carrying case. *Waveform monitor 1,195.00 Like an oscilloscope customized for video, it would allow us to adjust our equipment more precisely than we can visually. *Vectorscope 1,325.00 Another testing device that would allow us to make all of the adjustments we can't make with just a waveform monitor. __________ GRAND TOTAL $10,712.60 ___________ Items marked with an asterisk (*) were not requested from FinBoard. In addition, we will eventually require an editing system. A VHS-based cuts-only editing system could cost $6,000, while a full-blown (A/B Roll) 3/4" system could cost about $29,000. We could also consider upgrading to S-VHS; a cuts-only S-VHS system runs around $9,000. S-VHS could either catch on or become quickly obsolete. VHS technology is poor; 3/4" is proven, and used a lot around MIT.