Varto Technologies was glad to take part in the 2026 JAG Annual Conference, held May 13 and 14 at the Crowne Plaza in Edison, New Jersey. The Jersey Access Group brings together PEG access professionals, municipal teams, educators, vendors, and integrators for two days focused on community media in New Jersey and beyond.
For us, the value of JAG is the people in the room. We spent the event talking with station managers, producers, engineers, and municipal staff who keep public, educational, and government access running in their communities. Most of them are doing it with small teams, tight budgets, and rising expectations around streaming, hybrid meetings, captioning, and production quality.
Yervant Keshishian, Director of Sales Engineering & Technical Services, took part in the conference’s Technology Forum panel on advances in production technology and the practical use of AI at the PEG level. Our angle was grounded in real work. AI is most useful to a small station after the recording, helping get to a first draft of transcripts, captions, summaries, chapter markers, and web and social copy, with a person still reviewing anything that matters. It does not fix bad fundamentals. Clean audio, reliable recordings, a stable network, and organized files are still what make the rest possible.
Varto Technologies also had a full presence on the floor. Yervant moderated a TriCaster, NDI, and live production user group for current users and new operators, covering how stations are handling meetings, live events, streaming, graphics, replay, and remote contribution. At the booth, Founder and President Varto Keshishian and Yervant ran two live demos. The first focused on LiveU field contribution for PEG and public safety using the LU900Q and LiveU IQ, covering everything from public meetings and press conferences to parades, school events, sports, and emergency communications. The second showed how a station can move past standard meeting coverage and build one flexible production workflow using switching, PTZ cameras, remote guests, graphics, streaming, recording, and control.
The thread through all of it was the same. Systems built around TriCaster, NDI, PTZ cameras, LiveU field contribution, and IP networking let a station grow in steps instead of rebuilding everything at once. Budget-friendly does not mean cheapest. It means a workflow that runs every week with the staff and volunteers a station actually has.
Thanks to Jersey Access Group for putting on another strong event, and to everyone who stopped by to talk shop. These are the conversations that lead to better workflows down the road.
If your station or facility is planning changes to its production setup, we are happy to help you think it through.