Televising board meetings
may prove cost-prohibitive
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — If the Board of Education is going to air its meetings live on EB-TV, it first needs to address a technical issue that could be costly.
While the board is waiting until Sept. 12 to make a decision on the subject, cable television provider Comcast has said that in order to have live broadcasts, a return line would have to be installed at the administration building where the meetings are held. That is "usually fairly expensive," according to Peter Lyden, regional director of government relations at Comcast.
Lyden said he could not give an estimated cost without surveying the area in question.
"To do anything live, you have to have a live hookup, and we don’t have one there," he said.
"There is no way of knowing until we have crews do surveys, so I’m not sure on the price," he said. "It depends on how far they are from the nearest node, and what’s in the way."
The return line would allow Comcast to take a signal from the set location — in this case, the administration building — and send it back to the company’s head end. From there, the signal would be sent out to cable subscribers, Lyden said.
Comcast is the cable provider through which EB-TV is broadcast.
"We provide the real estate under the current ordinance with East Brunswick," he said. "They [EB-TV] send us the signal, and we turn it back to the people in town."
EB-TV is one of a number of local cable access channels provided by Comcast, he said. Many other towns share channels, so East Brunswick is fairly unique in that it has its own dedicated station.
He said part of any survey would include determining how close the administration building is to a node, which is hooked up directly to the company’s head end. In order to connect from the site to the node, the company would have to build a fiber optic link.
"We’d have to put in another type of fiber optic cable that allows the signal to go back to us," he said.
A group of residents asked the school board at its July 25 meeting to vote on televising its meetings. While some board members said they were ready to support the idea, a majority favored waiting until Sept. 12. Michael Baker, board president said there are simply too many questions that need to be answered first. Members said the cost of televising meetings was a concern.
Board member Charles King told the Sentinel the start-up cost would be around $25,000, and then there would also be monthly costs to operate.
District Director of Public Information Jennifer Forbes said the start-up cost would include money for cameras and other equipment. In addition, the district would need at least two people to run the production on the nights of board meetings. The district could use its own employees from its Media Services Department or workers from EB-TV.
"We also don’t know if there would be any additional costs through Comcast," she said. "There may be additional fees because EB-TV pays to broadcast each show."
She said the district has not yet talked to Comcast about wiring costs such as the return line.
"There are other costs that we’re expecting that we don’t really have a handle on at this point," she said.
District officials have spoken to EB-TV, however, and were told that when the Township Council meetings began to be televised about five years ago, it cost about $25,000 in start-up costs. She said the district expects it would cost more now.
Making things easier for the council hookup, though, was the fact that the municipal library was nearby and had already been connected. Comcast just ran a feed off the library’s return line for the council, Lyden said.
The cost issue is particularly important because the district’s budgets are repeatedly defeated in elections, and because of the extent that school taxes have increased recently.
Anthony Riccobono, a former East Brunswick councilman who is running again this fall, was among those publicly urging the board to air its meetings live, but he said he now believes the start-up cost would be too high because of the return line.
"They’re looking at more than $25,000 to start up," he said. "I still support the idea in general, but we need to look at the problems."
He said he spoke to Comcast, and found it would be "cost prohibitive" to air the meetings live this year.
"It’s a lot more complex than we thought," he said, adding there could also be difficulties airing the Thursday night meetings live on EB-TV because that night already has a full slate of programming.
"If it’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, I don’t want it," he said.
A possibility is that it could simply tape its meetings and air them at another time, thus saving on some of the start-up costs. The board could also consider holding meetings at the library, where EB-TV is hooked up.
Baker said the board already airs the public hearing on its budget each year. Those meetings are usually held in the library, though this year’s was held in the council chambers.
"We’re trying to do our due diligence before we make our final judgment," he said of airing meetings.