CWA Convention Coverage
The CWA Convention TV control room looks relaxed but it's all business. My labor union, NABET-CWA, provides closed circuit live TV coverage of the annual convention of the parent union, CWA. All the workers are full time, part time and retired employees of various local and network TV stations around the country. Having provided this service for the last 11 years it has long since become a "labor of love" for all of us. I have all the pictures from the 2004 convention in my OFOTO account. Get in touch if you want to look them over. wbryan8835@insightbb.com The CWA convention is a two-day affair extending to three days every third year, for officer elections.
The closed circuit set-up begins the Thursday or Friday before the Monday start. A complete studio setup is done with equipment including (but not limited to) 1 fixed long-lens camera, two portable cameras, complete editing facilities (digital the last few years), a 'complete' studio type switcher, chyron-type unit, still-store equipment, video playback and recording facilities, audio, and one or two field camera for those outside, extra coverage needs, and lots of other things too numerous to mention. The entire setup would rival that of many of the small to medium size stations.
The complete crew is usually about 20 people, most of whom are volunteers using their vacation time to man the show.
Preparation for the convention coverage begins just before the completion of the current years coverage with various shoots geared towards the following convention. Shooting and editing is done throughout the year. New equipment is studied and arrangements made for all the needed "stuff" to be brought to the next site. Some of the equipment contracts are multi-year and are signed well in advance of the actual convention.
Truck loads of equipment arrive during the week prior to the convention. Setup takes a day or two while the teardown is usually completed three to four hours following the end of the convention.
Then it off to a well deserved dinner, a good nights sleep and off to the airport for the trip home. Some head back to work immediately while others take a few days off to rest up. Soon, a new letter arrives with details for the next convention. Vacations are planned and it all begins again.
No one complains because it's "what we do".
NABET-CWA (National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians) a sector of the Communications Workers of America.
WE MAKE TV HAPPEN!! 
posted by Bill Bryan @ 11:52 AM
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