Town to Tape Meetings for Broadcast on TV, Web

The Aug. 3 Huntington Town Board meeting will mark an important communications milestone – it will be the first to be recorded for broadcast on the Cablevision and Verizon government access channels and for viewing on the Town of Huntington's website.

"This is an important next step in better communicating with our residents," Supervisor Frank P. Petrone said. "These broadcasts will help us bring government closer to the people, increase transparency and make it possible for people to see directly what happens at our board meetings without having to rearrange their schedules to attend in person."

Equipment recently installed in the Town Board meeting room will capture a digital video and audio record of the proceedings, which will be broadcast beginning Thursday on Channel 38 for Verizon FIOS customers. Cablevision will determine air times on its system on the government access Channel 18. At the same time, those seeking to view the meeting online will find a link on the home page of the Town's website. Planning Board and Board of Zoning Appeals meetings will also be recorded and aired in a similar fashion.

"The televising of our public meetings has been a long time in the making and I am thrilled that together with the supervisor, I was able to bring this initiative to fruition," said Councilwoman Susan Berland, who sponsored the Town Board resolution authorizing the purchase and installation of TV broadcast technology. "I believe televising public meetings increases transparency, as it brings the issues facing our town to the homes of our residents. I am looking forward to the airing on the governmental access channels of our Town Board meetings and those of the Zoning Board and Planning Board."

The cost of the new TV and audio equipment including computer interface and hard drive to store the digital signals was $68,000. The equipment was paid for from cable access grants from Cablevision Systems Inc. and Verizon New York Inc. negotiated as part of their respective franchise agreements with the Town of Huntington.

The Town of Huntington is developing a schedule for broadcasting the town meetings and other related programming on Verizon Channel 38. The town will assume full control over programming on Cablevision Channel 18 in October, until which time Cablevision will remain responsible for scheduling Huntington's programming.

"I've always thought it was very important to televise the meetings," Berland said. "We wanted to do it the right way with the right equipment, the right technology and the right wiring of the board room. We wanted to have the proper equipment to be able to televise it and show a quality product to the residents of the town."