By By ANNA M. LEE Managing Editor
In April of this year, the city of Brewton began taking steps to relocate the operation of Brewton's community government access channel -- Channel 6 -- from the Alabama Technology Network on the campus of Jefferson Davis Community College to the Brewton Municipal Complex.
After delays related to equipment and cable lines, Channel 6 was finally back on the air earlier this week. The city of Brewton recently hired Doug O'Barr, former Alabama Technology Network employee, as an information technology specialist. A big part of O'Barr's job will be the operation of Channel 6.
In the immediate future, Channel 6 will continue to include the popular show "Coffee with the Mayor and Mabry," Brewton City Council coverage, T.R. Miller High School football games and community announcements. The first new episode of "Coffee with the Mayor and Mabry," starring Brewton Mayor Ted Jennings and Mabry Cook, will be filmed early next week and will air later in the week.
O'Barr said Channel 6 will also partner with Brewton City Schools to air tapes of children's plays and other school-related programming.
Operation of Channel 6 is achieved through event scheduling hardware and software that is now located at the city hall. The hardware includes inputs from three VCRs and two DVD players, which O'Barr can program to air a particular program at a particular time in the future.
When an event is filmed for broadcast, it must first be captured in a digital format through a computer, and then it can either be transformed to analog for use through a VCR or left digital for use as a DVD.
Alabama Technology Network decided earlier this year to not continue its operation of Channel 6 due to funding cuts. Instead it donated the $46,000 equipment to the city.