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BCTV Cable Channel 2
Belfast -- Searsport

Belfast Community TV’s mission is to reflect and strengthen the unique spirit and character of Belfast, Maine in order to enrich the lives of residents and visitors in the Midcoast region by fostering communication, free speech, artistic expression as well as creating opportunities through television and other electronic media.

BCTV Program director’s Report
December 28, 2006

Equipment and Facilities: We have been troubleshooting some minor problems with our new server. It seems to be working now that we discovered that some of the downloaded videos were “corrupt”. It was simple to find those corrupt files and delete them, so now the server seems to be working well. We used the server on Christmas day to play two movies. “Santa Claus conquers the Martians” and a 1934 version of “Scrooge”. They played well. I do find that there are some audio level problems on the channel. I think when we have the money we will need to buy a compressor/limiter. Such a device costs a couple hundred dollars, but as of now is probably our best solution.
I am currently running audio and video lines to the downstairs part of the boathouse, so that we will be able to originate live on New Years Eve.
We have also diverted a ventilation/heat duct to feed our upstairs space. The duct had been venting into the unheated attic space, so we feel we are not affecting the heating bill of the boathouse, while improving the comfort of our own office space.

Programming: We have had a good meeting with the director of “New Years by the Bay” and we have developed a plan to go live while also encouraging home viewers to attend the events. A nice article was published in this week’s Village Soup Citizen promoting our coverage. We have borrowed some equipment from the High School station, and Diane Mende will be using the government access equipment to cover remote events for us to replay. Our plan is to go live from 2-11:30PM on New Years eve. We certainly could use some additional production help but will be able to do it with a limited crew.
We have had some non-local program submissions and so far the channel has been operating relatively smoothly, however I hope we will be able to get more folks to provide us with local programs.

Respectfully submitted by Ned Lightner