5584-R1_NewGloucester_2017AnnualReport_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 3/121.2. Committee members, as individuals, produced public access programming of nongovernmental events and provided DVDs for purchase at a nominal fee. Two significant changes were made to the Committee and operations. Its chairman of ten years, Bob MacGregor, retired from the Committee and all video operations, leaving only two remaining members of the Committee. He will be missed. The staffing of video operators for meeting coverage changed from solely volunteer to part time employee with hours based on need, backed by a volunteer who also maintains the video server recording and playback. The change was necessary due to the unavailability of new volunteers despite years of announcement of the need on the bulletin board. Meeting recording operations were without significant equipment incident. The restoration of video-on-demand files mysteriously lost from the VOD server was completed. 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 providing the public address system and recording the sessions for broadcast, video-on-demand and archiving. Volunteer production of public access programming continued, including candidate forums for Maine Senate and House of Representatives and four Historical Society presentations. These productions and older NGHS presentations were telecast on weekends (Fri.-Sun.) starting 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 are trimmed and published at http://newgloucester.viebit.com. DVDs are retained at the Town Office. The library copies of the meeting DVDs were terminated because they have not been requested by library patrons. The meetings are more easily accessible online. 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. Respectfully Submitted, Cable TV Committee

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