8331_NewGloucester_2021-2022_AnnualReport_Web

ANNUAL REPORT Cable Television Committee

The Committee continued its basic mission to record, stream and broadcast public Meetinghouse meetings as well as events held there, making such recordings available as video-on-demand on the Internet in addition to “cablecasting” on Channels 3 and 1302. Committee members, as individuals, recorded public access programming of a nongovernmental event and offered DVDs for purchase at a nominal fee. The Committee’s major accomplishments were the drafting and issuing of a request for proposal for replacing the meeting house video and audio equipment with digital and high definition technology, followed by evaluating and selecting a vendor. In a technical improvement to eliminate sound interference from cell phones and laptop computers, the meeting house dais microphones were replaced by radio frequency (RF) protected versions that will be retained in the upgraded audio system. Staffing of video operators for Meeting House 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. Weekend (Fri.-Sun.) “public access” programming consisted of recorded meetings and forums broadcast soon after their occurrence, starting at 7:00am and 7:00pm. In support of the Capital Improvement Plan and Budgeting processes, those meetings were rebroadcast on weekends at 2:00pm soon after they occurred. All recorded Meeting House meetings were sent to the Town’s video-on demand service, then trimmed and published at http://newgloucester.viebit.com for access via Internet. Meeting House meetings were also streamed at https://townhallstreams.com/towns/newgloucesterme. DVDs of the Meeting House meetings are retained at the Town Office. Zoom meetings from the Covid-19 period are retained as MP4 files for access by computers. 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 streaming and video-on demand web sites. Respectfully submitted,

Richard Erwin, Chair Cable TV Committee

46