Community media is important to our country because democracy arises from the people, not from the currency. Regarding community media as mainstream could have prevented useless wars and won important struggles.
Commentary
Public access cable television stations serving moderate to large communities should have closed captioning software available for their local producers because it isn't really public access unless the whole public has access. Closed captioning software costs about $2,000 and up but because of limited use, it doesn't need to be installed on every editing station. If a station installed one copy then found it used heavily, it might be worth installing it on more stations.
History of PEG
When private for-profit businesses decided to sell cable television, they had to install their cables under and over public rights-of-way such as roads. In order to use these rights-of-way which were owned by the public, the cable companies had to negotiate agreements with each community which generally required the cable companies to pay something back for the use of publicly-owned property. One of the most important elements in these contracts was agreements that provided public access, educational, and government (PEG) channels as well as funding to provide content for those channels.
In the beginning, cable television was limited to 12 analog channels (channels 2-13). Before long, improvements in bandwidth, set top tuner boxes, and other technological improvements allowed more channels which were sold for higher prices as a separate tier.
By digitizing television signals, the number of possible channels could be multiplied several fold but digital signals required digital televisions. New televisions were made that were capable of receiving digital television signals while special set top boxes were again used to allow analog televisions to be able to receive digital signals.
Complementary Programming
Public access channels have always been vital parts of the PEG group. Programming has been provided by volunteers and often cover topics not presented anywhere else. As cable channel competition has drawn resources from local broadcast stations, they've been forced to reduce local programming and public access channels have helped to fill that vacuum.
The growth in popularity of public access allowed persons from different communities to share programming that would be of interest in multiple communities. In some cases, small television networks formed.Staffed only by volunteers and independent of for-profit funding, they were able to spread information that the for-profit stations and networks would not have been allowed by their sponsors to air instituting a more democratic television medium consisting of people communicating with other people.
Analog/Digital vs. Analog/Digital Tiers
Analog and digital technology should not be confused with analog and digital tiers. Tiers are levels of service in which the cable provider can charge more for the higher tiers because they usually have more channels and may have premium channels. Digital television can technically be transmitted over any tier as long as the cable company has the necessary equipment in place and the receiver is capable of receiving a digital signal.
High Definition Television
High definition television is simply television with more detail in the picture than regular television. It's a technology made practical by digital technology since high definition television requires more bandwidth than regular television. What this means is that while one analog channel might be able to carry six regular digital channels, it may be able to carry only one or two high defnition channels.
High definition television could technically be carried over any tier of service as long as the cable company is willing to provide the equipment to supply digital signals and sufficient bandwidth. Because this equipment costs money and reduces the number of channels possible, cable companies generally want to be paid more to provide high definition television.
Digital Quality for PEG
Digital quality pictures can be better than analog quality but when the original image is captured on inexpensive cameras or submitted for broadcast on analog VHS tapes, there's not much difference. To entice PEG viewers and producers to move PEG channels to digital, often at extra cost to the viewers, the cable companies will announce that the quality of their favorite PEG show will be dramatically improved. Don't count on it.
Open/Closed Captioning
Open and closed captioning, when provided, offers a text version of the audio for persons with hearing impairments or persons who have the sound muted and would rather read than listen.
In open captioning, the text is always on the screen. In closed captioning, the text is not directly embedded in the picture but instead carried on a hidden frame. The viewer can then turn the captioning on or off.
Closed captioning can technically be transmitted over cable at any tier of service whether analog or digital, as long as closed captioned material is provided.
Closded captioning is added to a program in post production after all editing has been done. Public access channels can buy the software to add closed captioning manually for about $2,000 or so per editing station. Because closed captioning is a very time consuming process and most production work is done by volunteers and because many public access stations don't have the software, closed captioning is seldom available on putlic access stations.
Another possibility is the use of automated on-the-fly equipment that uses voice recognition to add closed captioning as the signal goes out the door. This process is not dependent on tier level or whether the signal is analog or digital. It's dependent on the resources of the access station and if the station can afford it.
Now that the cable companies are trying to convince those involved to move from analog to digital, often making the channel available only to higher tier subscribers, cable company executives are claiming the by moving to digital they'll be able to use this feature. They imply that the feature is technically not possible on analog, but it doesn't matter whether the signal is analog or digital.
COMMENT: In my opinion, public access stations should have at least one editing station with closed captioning software to make the station accessible to persons with hearing impairments. If in place, it might be used to train students in schools for persons with hearing impairments to be able to add closed captioning from written transcripts, or the software might be used to provide one or more programs of special interest to those with hearing impairments. If it isn't accessible to the whole public, can it really be called public access?
SAP
SAP or "second audio program" allows program producers to offer audio dubbed in a second language. It's carried separate from the regular audio so viewer can select regular audio or audio in another language. SAP is technically possible on any tief of service whether analog or digital. Public access producers seldom have the resources to produce their programs with a second audio channel.
This second channel has other possible uses besides offering a second language. PBS uses it for DVS or Descriptive Video Service to provide audio descriptions of the video for people with visual impairments. SAP can also be used for weather broadcasts or to transmit the audio from a community radio station if not in use for another purpose.
Bandwidth
Coming.
Links
- Free Speech TV (FSTV)
- Democracy Now! — producer of The War & Peace Report
- Pepperspray Productions — producer of Indymedia Presents
- Access Tucson — Public access cable television in Tucson/Pima County, Arizona (realtime streaming)
- KXCI — Community Radio in Tucson, Arizona (realtime streaming)
- Alliance for Community Media (ACM)
- freepress— "Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications."