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Town Crier Dave Hardesty explains the need to make improvements on the city of Tracy's public-access cable outlet.
Thirteen years ago, Wes Huffman and I embarked on a mission to expand the use of cable public-access Channel 21, now Comcast cable Channel 26.
Originally, the feed was in Clover Middle School and was primarily used by Fred Medina, who taught there.
Without funding, the channel was underutilized and waned in public support. Thus, it only filled the need for providing information for people who had students attending Clover.
The problem was exacerbated because the equipment used was consumer-quality, not commercial-quality.
Desiring to provide timely and accurate information to the residents of Tracy, Huffman and I formulated a plan whereby the city of Tracy could position itself to take advantage of emerging video technologies with adequate funding.
First, we relocated the cable feed from Clover to a closet in Tracy Community Center. This facilitated better access to the channel and eliminated its exclusive use by the school, which shut down during summer vacations.
Eventually, using personal consumer-quality video equipment provided by enthusiasts Bob Miller and Thomas Cunningham, we managed to put together a public-access channel more closely fitting the definition of what such a channel should be.
Through time, and a lot of patience from the City Council, we managed a tape-delay rebroadcast of a council meeting. After a considerable amount of tweaking, tinkering and purchase of additional equipment, we managed to put together a system where live broadcasts of City Council meetings could be made and rebroadcasts of those meetings could take place throughout the weeks until the next live broadcast.
Initially, these broadcasts were of poor quality, and we received a considerable number of complaints from the public, despite the lack of adequate funding to create and sustain such an undertaking.
Still cramped for space, the council allowed us to relocate to a small area in the Parks and Community Services building, formerly the Tracy Police Department jail.
There, the station limped along without much funding until the time for the renegotiation of the Cable Franchise Agreement between the city and the cable service provider, Comcast.
As a part of that agreement, the revenue stream necessary to operate, manage and enhance the channel was created. Reclassified as a public education and government channel, or PEG channel, the city could finally embark on a mission to seriously improve the quality of its broadcasts.
Instead of using consumer-grade equipment, new professional-grade equipment was purchased, and the quality of the station’s product improved dramatically.
Today, the modulation equipment at the channel head is old and incapable of reproducing commercial-quality video for distribution over the cable system.
The cable company has been upgrading its system, however, and shortly a digital fiber-optic feed will be available, thus correcting a long-standing problem encountered with the existing equipment.
With new professional cameras, a new small video production sound stage, new professional video-editing equipment and a new video system for the recording of public meetings in the new City Hall, the city’s next logical step is to expand the distribution of the its video product using the Internet.
To accomplish this, I recommend engaging a service provider that deals with live and indexed on-demand video services, such as can be seen by viewing http://elkgrove.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3, Elk Grove’s city Web page; or http://stockton.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=4, the Web page for the city of Stockton.
With an initial investment of about $20,000 and a re-occurring expense of roughly $10,000 per year, money already available via the funding from the Cable Franchise Agreement and defrayed costs incurred by having city-paid employees do the job, the city of will be positioned to join cities like San Francisco, San Carlos, Palo Alto, Brentwood and Sacramento, offering residents live and on-demand streaming Internet video.
Some of the funding generated by the Cable Franchise Agreement might be misused. Under the agreement, the city money derived from it is to be used to support PEG programming and not to obtain video equipment for use by others, subsidize duplication costs of city-originated video for citizen use or the production costs for video not aired on the channel.
I recommend the creation of a city video services department to encompass not only the PEG program and broadcast requirements of Channel 26, but also to facilitate the management and capture of funds from other departmental budgets set aside for the creation of their non-public video products.
• Dave Hardesty, a satellite communications engineer, is among a select group of local residents rotating their columns in the Sunday Tracy Press.
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Tracy City Council and Tracy Parks Commission
Special Meeting Minutes 11 May 1, 2003
"Commissioner Hardesty moved to recommend that the City Council proceed with negotiations with the Department of the Interior to secure the Schulte Road property for the development of this facility. Commissioner Crandall seconded the motion. Voice vote found all in favor; passed and so ordered.
Mayor Pro Tem Ives motioned to authorize staff to submit an application to the Department of the Interior to acquire surplus property for a public park and recreational use and designate the City Manager as the person authorized to apply for the property on behalf of the City, and to authorize staff to proceed to move this project forward as discussed tonight. Council Member Tolbert seconded the motion. Voice vote found all in favor; passed and so ordered."
This is who and how we got here.
Dave and Brent - please explain NATURAL GAS PIPELINE EXPLOSIONS to the kids.