Multi-Media Services

Introduction. This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. Background. The National Institution of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) was deeded the South Campus location on June 26, 1967, by the Research Triangle Foundation. The NIEHS has only a proprietary interest in this land. This in effect means that although the Federal Government (NIEHS) has acquired title to this area in North Carolina, it has not obtained any measure of the State's authority over the area. This finding mandates that all contractors operating on all NIEHS property, leased or owned, in Durham County must adhere to all state and local requirements (i.e. building permits, etc.). The NIEHS is one of the National Institute of Health (NIH), principal federal agency for biomedical research on the health effects of environmental agents. The NIEHS, located in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina, is one of 27 research institutes and centers that comprise the NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The NIEHS traces its roots to 1966, when the U.S. Surgeon General announced the establishment of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences with the NIH. In 1969, the division was elevated to full NIH institute status. Since then, the NIEHS has evolved to its present status as a world leader in environmental health sciences. Today the NIEHS is expanding and accelerating its contributions to scientific knowledge of human health and the environment, and to the health and well-being of people everywhere. The mission of the NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and disability by understanding how the environment influences the development and progression of human disease. The NIEHS achieves its mission through; (1) Extramural research and training, funded by grants and contracts, to scientists, environmental health professionals, and other groups worldwide; (2) Intramural research conducted by scientist at the NIEHS facility and in partnership with scientists at universities and hospitals; (3) Toxicological testing and test validation by the National Toxicology Program (NTP); and (4) Outreach and communications programs that provide reliable health information to the public and scientific resources to researchers. The Office of Communications & Public Liaison (OCPL) is the first source of news and information about the NIEHS, and the institute's important biomedical research and funding programs. The communications team handles media requests, inquiries from the scientific community, as well as internal communication activities. A critical component of an effective NIEHS research effort hinges on an in-depth understanding and demonstrated ability, by the multi-media contractor, for producing products that successfully communicate highly technical science and public health programs to both scientific and lay public audiences. Purpose and Objectives. The NIEHS, Office of Communications and Liaison (OCPL) is in need of support of graphic arts, desktop publishing, photography, and videography needs of the institute. The NIEHS is exploring alternatives to providing graphic arts, desktop publishing, photography, and videography needs to the institute. The purpose of this acquisition is for the contractor to provide personnel, equipment, materials, and professional expertise to plan, analyze, and create visual and audio accurate representations of highly scientific subject matters. The overall objective and/or task of the Contractor will be communicating biomedical research methods, processes, and results in print, electronic, and video media, using a variety of methods from simple line art illustration to the most current digital techniques using 2-D and 3-D computer software programs. Additionally, the contractor must supply personnel to staff a customer support window within the main campus of the NIEHS from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., each operating day. The above mentioned services must be performed within a 50-mile radius of the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area of North Carolina. If the contractor is currently outside the 50 mile radius, they must establish a local presence within 60 days of contract award. Project Requirements. The Contractor shall provide the NIEHS with the following mandatory multi-media services for a science-based organization, including, but not limited, to the following items: A. Graphics/Desktop Publishing Services 1. Production of graphic design and desktop publishing products, on an as-needed and often last-minute basis, with many tasks having same-day deadlines. Products must be usable across multiple platforms (PC and Mac) and be 508 compliant. 2. High quality digital anatomical, surgical, scientific, and conceptual illustrations for scientific journal publication, books, and presentations, in both 2-D and 3-D. 3. Superior quality graphic design of scientific posters, event posters, fact sheets, brochures, flyers, meeting booklets, trade show graphics and banners, Web page graphics, name tags for meetings, and various other graphic materials that might be required by a scientific institute. 4. Efficient desktop publishing of large, text-heavy technical documents and reports, which contain multiple figures and large multipage tables. 5. Staffing of a customer support window, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, 52 weeks per year, excluding federal holidays. 6. Printing (at vendor location or local print house) and delivery of products to NIEHS staff on a daily and often short-turnaround basis, in both small and large quantities, as well as varying sizes, including such products as name tags in holders, tent cards, letter and legal sized prints on regular paper and cover stock, 24x30" posters on thick backing board, small and large bound documents, softbound books, fact sheets and brochures, scientific posters up to 4 feet x 8 feet, and other similar products. 7. Establishing and maintaining an electronic filing system with a standardized file naming system, for easy retrieval of past and current jobs by all contractor staff. B. Photography 1. Photography services, on an as-needed and often last minute basis, including photographing events at the NIEHS and local venues, NIEHS employees and groups, scientific experiments, and all other photography requests from the NIEHS staff. 2. Touchup of photos, as needed. 3. Uploading of photos to the NIEHS websites. 4. Use and maintenance of NIEHS electronic database for organizing and archiving past and current photos for quick retrieval. C. Videography 1. Videography services, on an as needed and often last minute basis, both at NIEHS and at local events. 2. Staging, recording, and production of superior quality, high data rate video segments, in various formats, such as QuickTime and Windows Media, for posting on Web pages and social media sites, both onsite at the NIEHS and at local venues. 3. Quick turnaround on production of videos, often within a day or week, viewable across platforms (PC and Mac) and 508 compliant. Production includes captioning of videos and compression for posting to a QuickTime streaming server. May be multiple videos, requiring quick turnaround, at one time. 4. Delivery of finished videos to the NIEHS staff (DVD, FTP site, etc.) and Web group, in the requested format. 5. Establishing and maintaining an electronic filing system, with a standardized file naming system, for quick retrieval of videos, both raw and finished, for possible future use. D. Audio/Visual Audio visual support for NIEHS meetings, both onsite and at local venues, including, but not limited to: 1. Equipment setup prior to meeting; 2. Audio recording and editing; 3. Assistance with running PowerPoint presentations; 4. Setting up internet connectivity; 5. Coordinating with webcast personnel; 6. Working with local venues for offsite meetings; and 7. All other audio visual needs not provided by NIEHS staff or others. E. Government Furnished Equipment / Property (GFE/P). Not provided. All contractor supplied equipment must meet Government requirements. F. Deliverables. 1. The contractor shall supply NIEHS staff with services as needed and by deadlines specified. 2. The contractor shall maintain a workload tracking database and reporting system accessible by the NIEHS designated Contracting Officer Technical Representative(s) (COTR(s)), to aid in workload management. Anticipated period of performance is July 1, 2013 thru June 30, 2014 for the base year with the inclusion of four 12 month option periods/years as follows. Option Year 1 1 July 2014 thru 30 June 2015 Option Year 2 1 July 2015 thru 30 June 2016 Option Year 3 1 July 2016 thru 30 June 2017 Option Year 4 1 July 2017 thru 30 June 2018 Other Important Considerations. The NAICS Code is 541430 with a size standard of $7.0M. The contractor must be capable of managing fluctuating workloads while continuing to provide a consistently high-quality product that meets the client's requirements. All work under the resultant contract shall be monitored by the NIEHS designated COTR(s) whose position will be defined in the resultant contract. Services shall primarily be performed at the contractor's own premises. Other work will take place within and around various NIEHS laboratories, offices, lobbies, conference rooms or at local venues within a 50-mile radius of NIEHS. Occasionally, services will be required for venues outside the 50-mile radius. When services are required outside the 50-mile radius, travel shall be in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR), as prescribed by the General Services Administration (GSA) and Joint Travel Regulations (JTR). The contractor shall comply with all the physical and data security policies in effect at NIEHS. The Government reserves the right to perform or supplement performance of contractor functions with government personnel or other acquisition arrangements as determined to be in the best interest of the government to meet unique government needs. Capability Statement/Information Sought. Respondents must provide, as part of their response, a capability statement and information pertaining to the following: A. Opinions about the difficulty and/or feasibility of the potential requirement, possible solutions and approaches that may currently exist in the marketplace, and information regarding innovative ideas or concepts; B. Information regarding respondents': (i) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (ii) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (iii) prior completed projects of similar nature; (iv) corporate experience and management capability; and (v) examples of prior completed government contracts, references, and other related information; C. Respondents' DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code; D. Any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisition requirements; E. Capability statements are limited to 10 pages plus work samples, and must be submitted electronically. Telephone and facsimile responses are not accepted unless otherwise directed by the contracting officer; F. Respondents' information should be outlined and the material should be organized (e.g., cover page, title, index of topics addressed, executive summary, etc.); G. Respondents' technical and administrative points of contact information are required (i.e., names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses); H. Written capability statements should be submitted to Laura McGrew, Contract Specialist/Contracting Officer via email at [email protected] by 4 p.m. local time, 11 Jan 2013. Please note the title and reference number of the announcement on all related correspondence. All questions must be directed in writing, via email to Laura McGrew. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a presolicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).