Webcasts bring local cable to the world

Newburyport residents can watch political candidates in the city debating the issues or see their high school football team in action, even if they are thousands of miles from home.

Last month, the Newburyport Community Media Center, the new nonprofit organization that took over operation of the city's cable-access station this year, began placing videos of some of its programming on its website, portmedia.org.

"It's important that, as we are providing content for our channels, we also evolve with the new media," said Keri Stokstad, the center's executive director.

Through its new "video on demand" feature, anyone with a computer and access to the World Wide Web can watch a Newburyport access program by going to the center's website and clicking on one of the video offerings. By next January, the station hopes to begin streaming cable programs to the site live.

The Newburyport center is not alone in using the Internet to expand the reach of its programs. Across the country, an increasing number of local access sta tions have initiated or are exploring the posting of taped or live programs on their websites, said Stokstad, who was involved in such Web postings in her previous job as executive director of a cable-access corporation in Washington's Puget Sound region.

"There are a lot of people who are relying on the Internet to get relevant news and information about their community," Stokstad said, "and it just makes sense to be able to provide content out on the Web for those residents."

She said that providing Web access to programs is "a great way to keep people who have moved away from the community involved in it."

There is growing use of the Web as a programming medium in Massachusetts, said Terry Duenas, chairman of the Massachusetts chapter of the Alliance for Community Media, a national organization of community access centers.

"That's the direction we feel we need to go, that integration of cable-access programming and Web delivery," said Duenas, who is also executive director of the Cape Cod Community Media Center. "Many access centers are starting to do streaming of their channels, and many . . . are doing video on demand, to some degree."

Salem Access Television is currently offering some limited on-demand programming on its website, said its executive director, Sal Russo.

The organization plans to expand that feature next year, when it has completed computerizing its cablecast playback operation, and to eventually offer Web streaming, he said.

"The initial reason to do it is to make your programming more available to your community members who cannot watch it when it's on the channels," because of their schedules, Russo said. "But the ultimate benefit is that anyone can see it once it's available on the Web, which is a good thing."

Wakefield Cable Access Television tentatively plans to offer both live streaming and video on demand on its website by the first of the year, said station spokesman Doug Wood-Boyle.

"We are always interested in expanding our services," he said, adding that Wakefield Cable Access programs are often aired on other cable-access stations.

"We feel we provide informative programming that would be of interest to other people and want to reach as wide an audience as possible," Wood-Boyle said.

By posting programs on the Web, he said, the station can enable its programming to be seen by people who do not have cable, including those with satellite dishes.

In Newburyport, Stokstad said her center is able to place on its website any programs it produces or which were produced by others who have given permission for the posting. The center is currently operating from a room in City Hall while it converts space in a Graf Street commercial building to use as a studio.

Programs available for viewing on the site this past week included the debate by City Council candidates Tuesday, two of last month's high school football games, a debate by candidates for mayor held prior to last month's preliminary election, and several events from this summer's Yankee Homecoming celebration.

"It's relatively easy to do," Stockstad said of offering on-demand video. "You just need to convert the video into something that is available to the Web, and you put it on your website. It's similar to people using products like YouTube."

She said the Newburyport center is using blip.tv, a free service similar to YouTube.com, to post its videos.

Web streaming will require an investment in equipment as well as paying a company to host the service, which is necessary because of the technical demands of providing a webcast to a potentially large number of viewers.

Stockstad said the live streaming of City Council meetings might be done over the city's own website.

Mark Kavanagh, Newburyport's information technology director, said the city fully supports the center's efforts to bring its programs to the Web.

He said that in addition to the possible streaming of council meetings on its own website, the city would welcome the chance to have some of the video posted on the center's site to also be posted on the city's site.

"It's just an extension of the technological resources of the city to tap into that kind of information and present it."