West Bend City to replace core broadcast hardware after camera, battery failures; vendor to spend five days onsite

West Bend City’s Community TV staff told the committee on Feb. 11 that the city will move forward with a planned replacement of its CASTIS back‑end broadcast system after a recent hardware failure disrupted service.

The update came from John Elke, production manager for Community TV, who said the city approved a project quote from KeyCode Media for $42,112 and has ordered the new equipment. “Earlier this month we had a battery go out which caused our stations to go down temporarily,” Elke said. “That was a good wake up call a little bit.”

The quote exceeds the $35,000 line item in this year’s budget, Elke said. To cover the difference, staff delayed purchase of a new video‑editing computer planned for this budget term and reallocated those funds to the CASTIS purchase. “If it does come under budget, great. If not, not a huge deal. We had the funds to do so,” Elke said. He said KeyCode Media will be on site for about five days to audit the system, remove unused equipment, and install and train staff on the new system.

Committee members said the upgrade is timely. Elke noted the in‑chamber cameras are currently “stuck on a wide angle” and staff considered a short‑term repair but chose the full upgrade instead to avoid paying two vendors. He described the new system as an integrated unit that will handle cameras, editing and live streaming in a single platform, similar to the TriCast unit the department used for recent live sports broadcasts.

Staff outlined installation and transition steps: KeyCode Media will clean and label the equipment rack, IT staff will assist during installation to ensure long‑term maintainability, and on‑site training will include the director, production staff and part‑time operators. Elke said some older items may be sold through appropriate municipal channels to recoup funds.

Technical context: staff reported two related failures in recent weeks — the battery outage that briefly knocked stations offline and one archival hard drive that failed and later rebooted. Elke said the drives “popped back on” after troubleshooting but that the vendor had indicated the failed drive was old; the committee recorded the drive age as not specified in the meeting transcript. Elke also said on‑demand videos are uploaded to the city’s VOD website, and the channel maintains separate playback storage for cable channel playout.

Committee members discussed how the new system supports outside broadcasts. The department used a TriCast unit to live‑stream West Bend East/West basketball games and other events to Facebook and YouTube; Elke said the boys’ game reached 2,800 views (5,403 people reached on one platform) and a girls’ game had about 1,700 Facebook views for the second half after a technical hiccup. He added that the department plans two more live basketball broadcasts this season, pending scheduling.

Why it matters: the replacement addresses multiple points of single‑failure risk in the city’s broadcast chain, and will consolidate live production, editing and streaming on a single platform with vendor training. Committee members flagged long‑term funding and the need for maintainable labeling and IT involvement to reduce future service interruptions.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the CASTIS contract amount at the meeting; staff said the purchase was budgeted and ordered and that installation will be scheduled around the meetings calendar.

Ending: Staff said equipment has shipped and the department will schedule the five‑day installation when there are no planned meetings. Elke offered to show committee members the current rack after the meeting and circulate the project quote for review.