Television … take 1

Poised to take its place in the 21st century, Sonoma will soon be on TV, 24 hours a day..
As part of its franchise agreement with Comcast for cable TV service, the city has a channel on the Comcast system to use for government and educational programming. Until now, that channel has been carrying public information from Napa. But at its meeting last week, the Sonoma City Council approved an agreement with the local non-profit CommonBond Foundation to operate the channel on behalf of the city.
Bill Hammett, founder of CommonBond, said, “When we realized there was this great community asset that wasn’t being used, we approached the city about managing the channel. With our successful development of the KSVY 91.3 Sonoma community radio operation, we felt we had in place the know-how to bring TV to the community, as well.”
The process began in 2005 and involved establishing a fiber-optic link to the Comcast head-end in Napa. CommonBond has also installed microwave links to various venues in town, including the temporary city council chambers at the fire station on Second Street West. James Berry, who is helping with the TV launch, said, “Bringing live feeds from lots of different meeting places will ensure that the TV operation can truly bring Sonoma to Sonoma.”
SVTV27, as it’s being called, will run 24 hours a day. “Our commitment to the city,” said Hammett, “is to carry all of the city council meetings live, gavel-to-gavel. As much as we can do beyond that, we will.” That would include the hospital board, the school board, and the planning commission, as well as events from the high school. Peter Hansen, film teacher at the high school, commented, “We’re very excited about our growing partnership with SVTV27, There is so much creative energy going on in the Film and Television program at the high school and we are eager to share it with SVTV27 and the community at large. There is no doubt this will motivate the students towards better and bigger productions and open doors to career opportunities like never before. We can’t wait!”
The channel is due to launch Wednesday, June 6, with the city council meeting as its first live broadcast. For more information, or to submit video material, send e-mail to manager@SVTV27.org.