VFW salutes training solution - Company Business and Marketing

Communications News, Feb, 2001

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) began drawing up a battle plan for training and educating its membership base nationwide. The terrain was vast and the logistics complex. With 1.9 million members located in 9,700 posts around the globe, planning a live group meeting is never a simple mission.

"Our organization"-- a 100-year-old organization of former and active-duty servicemen and women--"was exploring innovative and efficient ways to inform the membership in the U.S. about the various programs available to them," says Benny Bachand, assistant adjutant general at VFW. "We also wanted to cover community service, highlight correct usage of parliamentary procedures and provide leadership training." Many of the posts to be included are located in smaller markets, creating a greater challenge.

The VFW decided to look for guidance from above--literally. It chose to hold a four-hour satellite broadcast beamed to 38 different locations in 30 states. "I knew the technology was there, but we needed to be certain the quality of service was in place. In addition, we weren't certain how the membership would respond," Bachand says.

The VFW selected the National Video Communications Network (NVC) as its broadcast provider. NVC, which is an alliance between HTV and the American Association of Community Colleges, brings cost-effective satellite technology to organizations across the U.S. through 850 community colleges equipped with satellite receiving stations. The organization reached many of the secondary geographic markets targeted by the VFW.

NVC equipped each of the 38 broadcast sites with satellite technology, including BMAC encoders, Neilsen Sigma Encoder, network control center, Compression Labs' Radiance Video Codec and a T-1 connection. The studio site in Louisville, KY, was equipped with the latest in broadcast gear, including 6.1 meter Vertex ku antenna, 300-watt Varian amplifier, 7555 Scientific-Atlanta Exciter, Vertex antenna controller, 7670 Scientific-Atlanta remote control system, Grass Valley Wavelink fiber-optics system and the ATIS System.

"Our audience responded very warmly," says Bachand. In fact, based on its experience with NVC, the VFW reports that it plans to implement an annual satellite broadcast.

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