Local Access TV Coming to Dennis?

DENNNISVILLE – Comcast representatives made an untelevised appearance before Dennis Township Committee Aug. 5 to discuss bringing local access television to the township. The proposal, to be included as part of Comcast’s renegotiation with the township for local franchise renewal, would not require a significant financial outlay by Dennis taxpayers, a point brought out by Committeeman Frank Germanio. He asked how much it would cost?
Channel capacity would be included in an agreement reached between the company and the township with the only costs to the township arising from initial hardware installation.
A PowerPoint demonstration was presented by Denise Rolfe, director of Community Broadcast Sales for TelVue Corporation which would set up the proposed system. The Mount Laurel-based company has been providing similar media services to municipalities for over 25 years. According to Rolfe, the company lists more than 1,500 public entities as clients.
The PowerPoint discussed the company’s WEBUS Community Message Board.
According to TelVue’s website, the WEBUS bulletin board service helps communities “better manage workflow by eliminating mundane tasks of program scheduling and issuing urgent communications, such as emergency alerts and school closings. This efficient workflow process allows your township personnel to perform more creative and value-added functions. Authorized users can schedule messages on intervals, such as “on the 5s,” as well as start and end dates with time sensitive material; with the goal of making certain that your channels’ information is always fresh and current.”
Local municipalities already using the service include Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon, and Stone Harbor. The system proposed for Dennis Township would be a shared service with neighboring Woodbine, which is also involved in negotiations with Comcast.
“Could our school kids use it to create and submit pages for school projects?” Germanio asked.
Rolfe replied that TelVue would provide templates allowing local users, which could include township departments, schools, or fire districts to create public service announcements or urgent messages, web pages as well as press releases which can be formatted using “cut and paste” technology, according to Rolfe. However, the technology is not limited to such messaging.
Users will be able to link to the channel via their televisions or through Internet. Along with service partner Woodbine, Dennis Township would have content control with TelVue providing “24/7 tech support,” according to Rolfe.
Touting the technology as the “future of education and local government access,” Rolfe told the committee that WEBUS provides an effective way to communicate with the community.
Who knows, maybe the recreation center can televise local sports and spare residents the ordeal of summer nights out among mosquitoes.