EMS Expo Session: Las Vegas Fire & Rescue on Video Production

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Las Vegas Fire & Rescue is one of those forward thinking departments in executing their mission. At the EMS Expo and Firehouse Las Vegas 2006 conference this week, one of the most active Public Information Officers in the country, Tim Szymanski, and his video services provider Tim Willett presented their ideas on using video in the fire-rescue service.

Filming and then watching videos of department training sessions, and of fires being fought by the department, are the concepts that come to mind when video cameras are pulled out. But in Las Vegas it goes much farther than that, for not a whole lot of money.

Their lesson was to think in terms of documentation; personnel activities, incident activities and asset management. Think about public education coming direct from the mouths of local rescue workers. Produce content for cable public access channels for public information. Become the resource for those who need to make a statement with your department as a background.

According to Szymanski, "Video is the way to go" when it comes to a management tool. When those in control, such as government agencies with funding, see a video request about what you do, what you need, and what you can provide, it becomes much clearer to them than listening to a department spokesperson drone on in council chambers. "It is now even easier to remember things when you see them like this," Szymanski said. And it snowballs. "When they see what you can provide, they want more."

Where you begin may not matter Willett said, because when you begin the appetite will increase. But the ability to get going in video is not that expensive. Cameras and computers are becoming easy to use and not that expensive.

"We are using the same stuff that all the big production houses are using," Willett said. An investment of $5000 to $10,000 will get you a long way down the road to video production. And any department going this direction should look into the local resources such as college video departments and other production companies for training and expertise.

"It is extremely inexpensive to get into, and you can't afford not to do it," Szymanski said. "This stuff only happens once and you need to get that video record."

Check out video from EMS Expo:Emsresponder.com Videocenter