Rockville, Md.’s TV Station Upgraded by PPI


Professional Products, Inc. (PPI), a technology-driven, media-integration company located in Gaithersburg, Md., has completed a three-year project to upgrade the headquarters of Rockville 11, the official government channel of the City of Rockville, Md.

Bridget Broullire, Rockville 11’s station manager said, “With our new upgrade, we have taken a huge step forward in terms of television technology and workflow. We now feel as though we can compete with any commercial station in terms of the look and feel of Rockville 11 which, in the end, only provides a better service to the local residents of our town.”

What the station wanted was a broadcast quality operation that could be used by a limited number of people in a very confined space, according to PPI. What it did not want was to be constrained or affected by low-end equipment because of budget concerns. PPI was able to leverage their extensive broadcast experience to design and build an operation and workflow system, utilizing broadcast quality equipment that fit this local access station's budget.

Jim Hatcher, PPI's chief technical officer, said. “PPI has been involved with the progression of this facility over the past 12 years.” PPI has helped Rockville 11 migrate from analog to standard digital and recently into the high-definition (HD) universe. “Because we know each others capabilities so well, and have a solid working knowledge of what the city wanted to achieve, we were able to deliver an elegant solution of tremendous value,” Hatcher said.

"The Rockville 11 team was impressed with the professionalism and expertise of Professional Products, Inc. from day one,” Broullire said. Upgrading the station “was a job three years in the making and everyone we dealt with at PPI, from our thorough and patient sales representative to our precise project managers, to the excellent design and integration team, they all went above and beyond in terms of customer service and the skill they provided to the City of Rockville.

Bruce Kaufmann, PPI’s CEO, said "We love working with business-smart and progressive clients, but the icing on the cake is when that client is a neighbor” (Rockville is immediately south of Gaithersburg). “We strive to make our client’s workflow and experience easier and smoother and to get to see the results of your work everyday...well, it makes you feel like you’ve improved your neighborhood,” he said.

-- Television Broadcast