7077-R2_NewGloucester_2019_AnnualReport_Web

ANNUAL REPORT Cable Television Committee

The Committee continued its basic mission to record and broadcast public Meeting House meetings as well as events held there and elsewhere, making such recordings available as video-on-demand on the Internet in addition to “cablecasting” on channel 1302. Committee members, as individuals, produced public access programming of nongovernmental events and offered DVDs for purchase at a nominal fee. Staffing of video operators for meeting coverage was provided by a part time employee with hours based on need, backed by a volunteer who also maintains the video server recording and playback, as well as being responsible for all technical matters. Meeting recording operations were without significant equipment incident. However, one meeting house wireless microphone system, which was damaged, was replaced by an upgraded system instead of being repaired, funded by an equipment grant. As they have for many years, volunteers have supported Town meetings, public hearings and public workshops held at Memorial School or the AMVETS Hall by operating the public address system and recording the sessions for broadcast, video-on-demand and archiving. Volunteer production of public access programming continued, including a Selectman candidate forum, Maine House and Senate candidate forums, a referendum informational meeting, the Independence Day reading of the Declaration of Independence, five Historical Society presentations and the annual library play. These productions and older NGHS presentations were telecast on weekends (Fri.-Sun.), at 7:00 am and pm. In support of the Capital Improvement Plan and Budgeting processes, those meetings were rebroadcast on weekends at 2:00 pm soon after they occurred. All recorded meetings are sent to the Town’s video-on-demand service, then trimmed and published at http://newgloucester.viebit.com for access via Internet. DVDs are retained at the Town Office. The library retains DVDs of annual and special Town Meetings. In addition, all meetings and other content are retained on “hard drives” retired from the video server. The Committee encourages those desiring greater communication within our town to help us expand our utilization of the cable channel and video-on-demand web site. Respectively submitted, Cable TV Committee

Richard Erwin Patti Mikkelsen Cliff Andrews

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