Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew M. Rivard | Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Caleb Cooper changes out a movie in...... read more read more
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ATLANTIC OCEAN – Sailors aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp spent their first underway period in almost a month enjoying new upgrades to the Shipboard Information Training and Entertainment television station.
One of the most significant upgrades includes the addition of four new DVD players that offer a higher viewing quality and a wider variety of viewing options. Prior to the addition of the DVD players, the SITE TV system offered only two Hi-8 videotape players to play movies.
Now, in addition to the two Hi-8 players, which air on channels 6 and 7, the DVD players bring four dedicated movie channels to the SITE TV lineup: Channels 8, 9, 10 & 11.
“It’s an early Christmas for us and the crew,” said Chief Mass Communications Specialist (SW) Jerry Sekerak, Wasp's Public Affairs Officer. “The increased programming offerings are certain to have a positive impact on crew morale – one of the main purposes of the SITE TV system; hence the inclusion of the word 'entertainment' in 'Shipboard Information Training and Entertainment TV.'”
But according to Sekerak, the good news doesn’t stop there.
Along with the DVD upgrade, Wasp’s Interior Communications Electricians received the necessary parts required to repair two of the ship’s direct-to-sailor antennas, allowing the ship to receive and broadcast three American Forces Network TV stations. The repair now makes it possible to view those three channels underway with both live and prerecorded broadcast feeds, including live NFL games and other high in demand sports and entertainment programs on SITE TV.
“We’ve been without working antennas for more than a year,” said IC3(SEL) Steve Felipe. “We finally received the parts necessary to make repairs on the antennas and get them back in working order just before getting underway.”
In addition to six movie channels and three AFN channels, the SITE TV system also offers the ability to play official Navy training DVDs and informational PowerPoint slides on Channel 2 using a built-in computer and commercial DVD player.
SITE TV requires a separate DVD player for training videos because the new Naval Motion Picture Service DVD players will only accept specially encrypted NMPS DVD movies that will not play in any other DVD player.
“It’s all about copyright infringement,” said Chief Sekerak. “The Navy obtains our great selection of movies at either low cost or no cost through a special agreement with the movie industry. As a result, we must adhere to strict guidelines when storing and playing our movies.”
Sekerak said there are approximately 1,000 movies to choose from at any given time, with about a dozen titles rotated in and out on a monthly basis.
“Although we don’t have enough room to store a Blockbuster store's worth of movies onboard, the collection that we maintain stays fresh because of the rotation.”
Sekerak also reminded Wasp’s crew of a seldom-taken-advantage-of option available to them, that of submitting movie requests via J-Dial at 7273 or 7242, or via email to pao@lhd1.navy.mil.
“That one email address goes to all of us here in the PA Shop,” said Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Justin Thomas, Wasp’s Asst. PAO and VI Division LPO. “If you let us know what you want to see, we’ll almost always be able to fit it in if we have it in stock.”
Wasp crew members can find a link to the listing of movies in Wasp’s SITE TV inventory and the underway movie schedule in the upper right corner of the Stinger home page. Each week’s movie schedule is also posted at various locations throughout the ship during underway periods.
“With all these channels and the option to actually submit requests and have them played is just amazing,” said Electronics Technician 3rd Class Leroy Smith.
“Having these new DVDs and players will make our jobs just a little bit simpler,” said Sekerak. “It should be much easier to store and organize the DVDs over our old Hi-8 tapes, not to mention they never need to be returned due to the fact that they automatically stop working at their programmed expiration date.”
| Date Taken: | 11.30.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.01.2011 23:07 |
| Story ID: | 80796 |
| Location: | ATLANTIC OCEAN, USAFRICOM, AT SEA |
| Web Views: | 160 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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