Broadcasters are making do with artist’s sketches for pictures of the scene inside the Paul Bernardo murder trial, but the extensive telecommunications network set up on the grounds outside the Toronto courtroom is guaranteeing an organized gathering of anything that happens outside the doors of 361 University Avenue.

The lay of the land is a scale model of the O.J. Simpson trial, orchestrated by Toronto film commissioner David Plant, with the co-operation of Canadian broadcasters including the cbc, Radio-Canada, the CTV Television Network, Baton Broadcasting System, Citytv, and Dome Productions, a Toronto production house which is making footage available to foreign broadcasters.

The broadcasters and Dome shared the cost of building the apparatus, which included $1,500 each for just the three to five kilometers of fiber-optic cabling each mobile unit requires and the necessary 16 new signal transmitters that go with it.

Other equipment includes two new transformers to channel the electricity being pumped out from a neighboring building, more than 60-by-60 feet of scaffolding, at least 11 multiservice trailers complete with mobile editing facilities, and a microphone, permanently set up at the courthouse, so that lawyers and witnesses can avoid being crushed by the scrum.

There has been unprecedented co-operation between the media to put this together, says Plant, who came on the scene at the end of March after the media, the police, the Attorney General’s Office, and several city departments had nothing worked out after two months of discussions.

Nobody had a clear understanding of the scale of this thing, and just back from visiting the Simpson scene, Plant had a sense of what it could look like.

It’s a little different than setting up for a film project, says Plant. ‘In film, you have some way of anticipating the way things will proceed. Media coverage is much more mercurial and we tried to set up so as to bring a sense of calm to the process.’

To make things as simple as possible, each media outlet applied for a local film permit through the tfc. Pictures were the basic requirement for the broadcasters, preferably not pictures of the media covering the event, which tends to happen when print and radio journalists swarm the subject.

To solve the problem, all parking was removed from Armoury Street and a temporary scaffolding was constructed with each broadcaster allowed to build a 10-foot-by-10-foot platform. The broadcasters rotate weekly as ‘pool producers,’ the group in charge of the camera at the uni-mic which sends out a pool feed accessible by every mobile unit, most with editing facilities. (A small number compared to the 75-odd support vehicles surrounding the Simpson trial.)

Courtroom sketches from artist John Mantha will be scanned in through the pool camera. Bell Canada has put a mini-switcher in the system that will allow each individual trailer to punch up audio and/or video and a mechanism that lets the pool producer announce what’s coming up.

Last week, Metro councilor Kyle Rae raised a motion at the city council level to tear down the media facilities on the premise that there was too much equipment at the site and that it was an insensitive treatment of the trial. After a month of work, it was a relief to see the motion voted down 15 to two, says Plant.