City of Nashua
Information Technology Department (603) 589-3300
Administrative Services Division Fax (603) 594-3434
229 Main Street - Nashua, NH 03060
To: Mayor Donchess
Finance Committee
Date: December 7, 2021
Re: Access AV — Television Studio Production Switcher
The video production switcher in the TV Studio Control Room on Riverside Drive has been failing and
shutting down in the middle of productions over the last several weeks. There is no rhyme nor
reason as to when and why the unit fails.
The current production switcher was bought as a Demo unit in late 2013. It is unknown when it
actually went into service but could be as early as January 2013 when the product was introduced.
These are high end computers that run on an enterprise version of the Windows operating system.
Although we received software updates as they became available, the manufacturer stopped
supporting the product several years ago and the version of windows it runs on will be unsupported
by Microsoft shortly.
After our playback server, this is the most expensive single piece of equipment needed for our
operation. The manufacturer is willing to take our old unit on trade for their current replacement
product offering — a value of $6,000. Requiring replacement at the same time would be two large
monitors in the control room that are over 10 years old and are required for operation.
The distributor has advised us of a manufacturer price increase January 1, 2022 and can only
guarantee pricing if ordered by the end on this calendar year. If we can order before the end of the
year, we Can save approximately $1,500.
We are looking for approval to replace our production switcher with a Newtek TriCaster 2 Elite with
2 Stripe Control Surface and associated accessories at a price not to exceed $34,000 from Special
Revenue Fund PEG Access Channels Fund, Accounting Unit 22.2505, Account 81100 Capital
Improvements.
Kimberly Kleiner,
Administrative Services Director
Ce: K. Parkinson
