Town may soon televise more open meetings
Frequent viewers of public access Channel 22 may soon notice some new programming: Southold Town Board work sessions.
The town began testing out a new method of video recording that would allow more of Southold’s open meetings to be broadcast on the station.
Historically, only the Town Board’s regular sessions, which are held every other Tuesday night, have been recorded by an outside company and aired at a later date.
Using a town-owned camera, mini-server and desktop computer, Southold Town network and systems administrator Lloyd Reisenberg recorded this Tuesday’s work session for the first time.
Mr. Reisenberg emphasized that the initiative is in an experimental phase and he is still checking to see if the digital recording shot at work session can be converted into video suitable for television. Assuming it is, and the quality of the footage is up to the Town Board’s standard, using in-house equipment could pave the way for broadcasting other meetings — such as the Town Trustees, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals — without hiring an outside company.
“Who knows if we are going to go with this?” Mr. Reisenberg said. “This is a cost-efficient way to see if we can make it work ourselves.”
The equipment is temporarily mounted to a rolling cart, but would be permanently installed in the meeting room should the board decide to continue additional recordings.
