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MCTV upgrades services before move

MIDDLEBURY — When the Ilsley Public Library shuts down its services at 75 Main St. in Middlebury for 16 months of renovation and expansion work, the local public access channel Middlebury Community Television (MCTV) also will be displaced from its home on the top floor of that building.

MCTV this week announced a number of improvements in preparation for moving to a temporary office at 2337 Route 7 South at the end of this month.

“We are approaching our time out of the library as an opportunity rather than a problem,” said MCTV Executive Director Kurt Broderson.

First and foremost, MCTV intends to maintain and improve the public’s ability to both produce and view media from community members. To this end, both channels (Comcast channels 1071 and 1091) are now being streamed to MCTV’s YouTube channel (see it online at youtube.com/@MCTVVermont).

“Our linear, 24/7 channels are viewable regardless of whether a viewer is a cable customer or not,” Broderson said. “Our channels offer content not just from Middlebury and nearby towns, but also videos from other community media centers in Vermont, such as state government meetings filmed by ORCA in Montpelier, or cultural events from theaters, libraries, and other venues around the state.”

MCTV also continues to livestream meetings of the Middlebury selectboard, Addison Central School District board, and Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center board via its YouTube channel.

Additionally, MCTV has added closed captioning to its cable channels as well as its online offerings.

Other technical improvements aim to also make it easier for the public to find what they’re looking for, such as a particular agenda item during a selectboard meeting. Public meetings are now chaptered, with visual cues embedded in the video to identify the agenda item being discussed, and timecode based links in the video description that allow a viewer to jump directly to the moment in the video they are searching for.

Many of these improvements are due to the recent hire of Drew Darrow as MCTV’s production coordinator. Darrow, a Middlebury resident, previously worked as broadcast engineer at CCTV/Town Meeting Television in Burlington. He is also a graduate of the Video Tech program at the Hannaford Career Center and Community College of Vermont.

“We hope to improve viewers’ experience with our content, and introduce more people to the great content produced here and around the state,” Broderson said. “We will continue to film events like Festival on the Green, and hope to maintain an active role in the community.”

Although MCTV won’t have a studio during the renovation period, the temporary office on Route 7 South will be open to the public by appointment.

For more information, visit middleburycommunitytv.org.

See Middlebury Community Television content online at www.youtube.com/@MCTVVermont..

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