By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
Move over "Wayne's World", Levan Town is going to have
its own cable access channel to be run through the town's
cable TV system.
Justin Wright and Zach Thomson, representatives of
Cooperative Production and Distribution Network (CPDN) out
of Park City, gave a PowerPoint presentation to the Levan
Town Council last Wednesday, sketching out what a cable
channel can do for a community, and what CPDN's part is in
the scheme of things.
Wright started off by illustrating what a cable
channel can do for the community. He said it will provide
clean, quality family entertainment; help cities communicate
with and involve its citizens; provide a venue for local
students, filmmakers, artists, and musicians; and highlight
community activities such as the July 24th carnival, rodeo,
Little League games, etc.
Wright went on to point out the things that prevent
cities from having a channel such as the high cost of
software and licensing and purchasing of filler content. He
said that CPDN takes care of these issues by providing
custom station scheduler software, an Automated Station
Manager, and they produce and provide the filler
content.
What kind of filler content? Well, classic movies,
family-friendly cartoons, public service announcements, and
advertisements. The rest of the content would be made up of
whatever Levan Town deems worthy to be on the air. That
might consist of council meetings, hunting videos, sports
events, and other activities that would be of interest to
the local community.
Thomson showed a demonstration of what types of shows
could be shown. They included an old John Wayne and Lucille
Ball western, Popeye and Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons,
fishing home movies, and part of the Juab-Kanab state
basketball game, highlighting Trent Stowell, a Levan
resident. As part of the co-op, the Town could air shows
from other cities as well.
And what does all this cost to the town of Levan?
According to CPDN, zero. They provide all the software and
hardware to run the channel, and provide tech support. They
would make their money from advertisers, whom they will seek
out and provide to the town. Even local merchants would be
able to advertise on the channel. The only monies that would
have to be spent would be on the cameras, roughly $800
apiece. There would be a camera set up in council chambers
to record meetings, and another camera to be used at local
events. The material could then be put into a computer,
edited, and burned to a DVD which would then air on the
channel.
The council's biggest concern was over content to be
viewed on the channel. CPDN assured the council that Levan
would have full control over what was aired. Levan could set
up some guidelines for residents to follow when submitting
content. It would have to be of good viewing quality (no
shaky recording; clear picture), be of general interest, and
meet any other criteria the council finds necessary. A
playlist of shows and times could be put right onto the
channel.
CPDN said they could have the channel up and running
two weeks after the council voted on the issue. The council
voted to go ahead with the channel. The channel would start
off with a 6-12 hour loop of content which can be added to
via the computer. Council member Brady Taylor will oversee
the scheduling and content of the channel as well as working
with CPDN on any technical matters that might come up.
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