Carter County Commission upgrading audio equipment

ELIZABETHTON — The Carter County government swore in the new courthouse office holders and county commissioners for the new term on Monday afternoon. There was no social media streaming of the event, but the next county commission meeting on Sept. 21 should have good video and sound of the reorganizational event. Two men are hard at work in the main courtroom of the Carter County Courthouse to make sure the video and audio of future county meetings are of good quality. Adrian Watkins and Jason Simerly from Telecommunications Service are doing the installations. The company was started and remains in Carter County, with their office at 193 Echo Drive. Watkins said the company was started by his father, John Watkins. Adrian went to work for him in 1983 and eventually purchased the company from his. The two men have 50 years experience between them in installing such systems. He said they have primarily worked on business telephone systems. The have done business with a lot of local companies over the years and with the county government and school system. Watkins said the company has just installed 600 video cameras in the schools. It also has installed a new facial recognition system. They have also upgraded all phone systems with the local government. Telecommunications also recently got the contract to install new audio and video equipment in the main courtroom. He said the county had some problems with the system it has been using over the past few years and the audio system is no longer working. He said the company that installed the system was from outside the region and was requiring an upfront payment for the company just to travel to Carter County to see what was the problem. Watkins said that was not the case with Telecommunications Service, since they were already located in the county. "We are both also Carter Countians, so we want to make sure the county gets the right equipment and a good deal. Watkins said that just to make sure it was a good deal, his company was also donating a key piece of control valued at $800. "We are taxpayers, too," Watkins said. Some of the equipment to be installed are new video encoders, video decoders, an audio interface, a 2-channel audio amplifier, a 16-port network switch, 4-port router. The video camera is a Alfatron 4k camera with a zoom up to 25 times. In the past, Watkins said a man had to be assigned to operate the system on a laptop computer. With the new setup, it is just a matter of pushing one button on the donated control to get the right setup for the event. That is important. In addition streaming county commission and other important events from the courtroom, the audio system is also used to provide the official documentation of sessions of Carter County Chancery Court. The cost of the new equipment and installation is $24,745. That was one of the last expenditures approved by the old county commission.