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Lathrop spends $112K for cable TV coverage
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Just how much does it cost to watch the Lathrop City Council on your local public access television?
It’s going to cost just over $112,000 more once the city’s AV system – which was described in a staff report as “outdated, failing and difficult to repair” – gets completely overhauled now that the council has given it’s blessing to the expenditure.
And that means that the broadcast, which is currently sent out to Lathrop homeowners on Comcast Channel 97 on the night of meetings, will soon get an upgrade as well.
According to the City of Lathrop’s IT Director, the software needed to broadcast the analog signal currently viewed by residents relies on both Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista – who operating systems that are no longer being supported by the software giant and therefore leave the city’s servers susceptible to attack. The hardware needed to broadcast the analog signal is also aging, and the new, state-of-the-art digital outfit – which will be installed by Mediastar and will carry a one-year warranty – will ensure that broadcasts will be able to continue with Comcast for the foreseeable future.
According to the report, Comcast is going to require all of its content providers to utilize a digital signal in their transmissions, which would make Lathrop’s existing system obsolete.
The largest component of the overhaul will be the $29,500 that Lathrop has to pay Mediastar for the “master control of the channel” and includes other items like a 70-inch Vizio television, remote management of the system ($3,350), an industrial DVD player ($1,350), a new broadcast caliber camera ($18,600) and the components to make everything work fluidly together. The labor alone for the installation and fine-tuning will cost taxpayers $22,000.