>Watching Village meetings online at last
After years of waiting, the Village website is undergoing an overhaul. One benefit is that it is finally possible to watch certain Village proceedings, such as tonight’s Valley Hospital hearings (right now!), from home or wherever internet access is available, without Cablevision.
Go to the Village website, www.ridgewoodnj.net. Click on PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL, the fifth gray tab from the left across the top of the screen under the band containing the name of the Village. You will reach USTREAM.
Considering the large number of advertisements and extraneous material that this must be a free service. Even in the middle of the live program, advertisements, with sound, suddenly fill the screen. The program being watched then disappears until the commercial is over.
Currently, only a limited number of people can watch at the time time. As word gets out, more and more people may wish to watch at once. If paying something, or paying more, would enable more people to watch, that would be good, although the site itself is so unacceptably distracting and “commercial” that it would be better to replace the current service with a less commercial one.
With any luck, the town will be able to pay soon for a less disruptive, less commercial service that is available to more people at once.
However, this is an important first step.
