A HUGE Thanks to HCTV Volunteers
Once again, HCTV provided live coverage of all four days of the Herndon Festival. The weather cooperated for much of the weekend, providing generally comfortable temperatures and humidity, with only a brief passing sprinkle of rain.
It seems that each year we are faced with new challenges, and this year was no exception. As most of you know, our coverage centers around the musical performances, and generally one of three stages is considered the “Main Stage” for entertainment, which is where we normally broadcast from. In most years the main stage has been at the Herndon Municipal Center (HMC), though last year, in honor of the Festival’s 30th anniversary, the main stage performances were presented on the Depot Stage, an area utilized during the early years. This year the festival committee decided to mix it up a bit, so during the daytime, the better bands were at the Depot, but at night, the better groups were at the HMC. So with only one mobile production van that takes time to set up, the chances of getting the better groups from each venue seemed pretty dim. Until the wheels 
started turning in Engineer Dave’s head. Earlier in the year we had purchased two remote-control Sony cameras (like the ones in the Council Chambers) for use in the Town Hall studio. So with the purchase of extra cable, we were able to set up these cameras at the Depot stage, and added an older JVC camera (with camera operator), allowing us to broadcast the Depot stage from the Town Hall basement with as little as two crew members. The van was then set up at the HMC as usual for broadcast from that stage.
Thursday night brought the usual scramble to get ready to go on the air. The shuffling of equipment to permit broadcast from two stages required more time to troubleshoot than originally 
thought, so we didn’t go out live, but did record the performance.
Friday night brought a special honor for HCTV. Delegate Tom Rust, Herndon’s representative to the Virginia General Assembly, presented HCTV with a joint resolution from the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, recognizing HCTV’s 20 years of service to the community.
We had a good crew of volunteers on Friday. The problem of not being able to broadcast live from the HMC remained on Friday, so the decision was made to record there, and go live from the Depot stage, which worked out fine. But we also had another event to record that night, at the request of the Town: a flash mob on Lynn Street in front of the Nachman Building.
(For those of you who don’t know, a flash mob is a group of dancers that seemingly appear out of nowhere to dance in a public place). During the break of the band on the Depot stage, a CD was played over the sound system, and gradually couples started dancing a rehearsed routine, to the delight of the crowd. We had three handheld cameras recording the event. The Town wanted some quick footage of the event to put up on You Tube, so Brian did some quick editing. You can see the result by clicking the link on HCTV’s Facebook page.
Saturday was a marathon day, as we broadcast live continuously from 11 am to 10 pm. Our roving camera crews were out interviewing at the business expo, the children’s art area, and thecraft booths, taping filler footage to use during band breaks. Nancy, Mike H. and Charlie served as on-air talent, while Roger, Mike V. and Walter ran camera. Our daytime coverage originated from the Depot stage. Meanwhile, Dave, Roger and Mike V. traced down and corrected the live broadcast problem at the HMC. So our coverage switched over to the HMC stage for the day’s highlight performance at 7:30, and the fireworks.
Sunday had us back on the air from the Depot stage at noon until 4:30, where we seamlessly switched to the HMC stage for the headline performance of the Festival.
Along with the folks mentioned above, it was good to see returning volunteers JD, Seika, Nik, Nolan, Roscoe, Joel and Dan, as well as new volunteers John Z. , Ryan and Joshua.
Brian added a great deal of expertise in all aspects of our production through his training at the TV Production class at Fairfax Academy.
Engineer Dave worked tirelessly throughout the weekend, mug in hand, as well as putting in many hours of preparation in the weeks preceding. Our coverage simply could not have happened without him.
Special thanks to Nancy and Jan for keeping us stocked with food and drink .
Sorry if I’ve inadvertently left someone out – your contributions are still much appreciated.
I think you would be hard-pressed to find any other community TV station anywhere that could pull off what you guys did this past weekend with the number of volunteers and budget that HCTV has. We never know how many people are watching, but this shows our commitment to Keep the Community Connected. You all should be proud of what you accomplished.
Blake Rose
President
Herndon Community Television