Norwell to spend $100,000 on cable TV upgrades

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Norwell is upgrading its public access television system with $100,000 of software and equipment, giving the town four channels that will enable officials to communicate better with the residents.

The new system, called Tightrope, will be a web-based system, meaning that it can be updated and changed from anywhere with an Internet connection, said Charles Markhum, who is on Norwell's Board of Assessors.

“It bascially is meant to run on auto-pilot,” he said.

According to Selectman Gregg McBride, who was in charge of finding a new cable system, Norwell has been slow to catch up to this technology.

“All the towns around us are ahead of us,” he said. “When Comcast moved out of the management of the studio and managing the access, we didn't respond … as a town, we didn't move forward with that. So we need to catch up. They are basic things that most community access channels have.”

Most of the money to fund this will come from an initial lump sum payment from Verizon and Comcast when they signed contracts to provide services for the town. In addition, fees collected from both providers over the years, which are both required to pay the town for the contracts with the town's residents, will help fund the project, said McBride.

In addition, money in the PEG (Public, Educational, Government) access account, which can only be used to provide community access television, will be used to pay for the system.

The board is looking forward to eventually building a cable studio at Town Hall to be operated by volunteers from the Cable Committee.

None of the funding for this project will come out of the general budget, McBride said.