An Eye opener

The action in Wisconsin’s Capitol is ready to go live with the help of the WisconsinEye project. Photo by Chris Thompson

Wisconsin’s Legislature is about to become the next new thing in reality television.

Cameras stationed throughout the legislative chambers and hearing rooms of the state Capitol will capture the actions of Wisconsin’s policy-setters with moment-by-moment completeness.

The C-Span-styled coverage will begin in May with broadcasts through Time Warner and Charter cable and on the Internet, said Christopher Long, president of WisconsinEye Public Affairs Network Inc., Madison.

The nonprofit group is installing the cameras with the help of J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc., Janesville; H&H Electric Co. Inc., Madison; and Isthmus Architecture Inc., Madison. That team also had a hand in the Capitol’s renovation and restoration, which was important in helping calm concerns that the camera job could compromise the historic nature of the building.

The $650,000 project involves behind-the-wall cabling and upgraded wall fixtures to enable coverage of the Senate and Assembly chambers, committee hearing rooms, the rotunda, the governor’s conference room, the attorney general’s conference room and the state Supreme Court hearing room.

“It’s very rigorous, the standard of preservation for the state Capitol,” Long said, explaining that the entire network of cameras had to be installed without putting any new holes in the walls. It took a year to get the necessary approvals for the project.

The end result should have a minimal impact on the appearance of the building, Long said. Small robotic cameras will be mounted to rails or other features, sending feed across the street to a production team. Coverage will be constant when the Legislature is in session and will provide almost no analysis of the broadcast, he said.

“The whole concept is to let people see what is happening, and they can decide how they feel about it,” he said.

The legislative chambers will be the first to go live, with other areas of the Capitol becoming televised in the future, Long said.

The project is entirely funded by a bipartisan donor community of individuals, foundations, organizations and corporations, but future benefits could arise through cable subscription fees and program underwriting, he said.

- Jennifer Pfaff

The American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison is nearing completion. The hospital will hold its grand opening in July. Rendering courtesy of UW Hospital and Clinics

Hospital catches cow funds

Building the first phase of a state-of-the-art children’s hospital takes some serious moo-la — $78 million to be exact.

So when the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board decided to auction off the Fiberglas cows that grazed Madison’s streets for five months, it steered the majority of its CowParade Wisconsin 2006 proceeds toward the Friends of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. The sale of the artistically bedecked cows — and even a few calves — brought in $550,000, most of which is helping pay for the construction of the new American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison.

The 61-bed hospital will replace the existing UW Children’s Hospital, said Michael Felber, spokesman for the UW Hospital and Clinics.

“The way children are cared for today is much more family focused than it was 30 to 35 years ago when the original hospital was built,” he said.

Each patient room in the new 252,000-square-foot, six-story facility will have a bed for a parent, and the kids will now have larger play and entertainment areas.

- Jennifer Pfaff