If you missed that big debate at the Town Council meeting, or the Planning Board hearing where a developer explained what he is going to do in your neighborhood, you can now watch those meetings and more online.

While residents can always attend a Town Council, committee or School Board meetings at BCTV – in addition to channels 16 and 22, which Comcast cable subscribers in Bedford can watch from their homes – the town now offers a video ondemand service at BCTV’s Web site, www.bedfordtv.com.

The service took about a year to plan and implement, said station manager Bill Jennings.

“What we wanted to do was expand our broadcast capability so that we could provide our service through the Internet,” Jennings said.

Channel 22 carries all of the local government meetings in town. All other programming, including school athletic games, can be seen on Channel 16. In addition to video on-demand for both channels, the live broadcast of Channel 22 will also be available simultaneously online. That service will make those meetings accessible to a broader population, Jennings said.

The live streaming will be especially useful to board or committee members who are away on business meetings. Town councilors and board members who are out of town may participate and vote at a meeting as long as they do so by a conference call, and may also watch the proceedings in real time online, if they choose to do so, said Town Manager Russ Marcoux. In addition, other people in town who spend part of the year at vacation homes, or even a few Bedford expatriates who have moved away but want to stay tuned into what’s happening, can keep in touch with what’s happening.

Both services will also benefit town employees, especially department heads, who do not live in Bedford but are affected by decisions made at evening meetings.

“I know they love it and this is a great way for them to stay in touch with the community,” Jennings said.

BCTV is funded through franchise fees charged to Comcast customers in Bedford. Its budget does not affect the tax rate, according to Jennings.

Jennings estimates that it costs about $10,000 to acquire the video on-demand and live streaming. Those new capabilities were provided through Tightrope Media Systems, a vendor that Bedford community television has been using for about five years.

The town has spent $40,000 to $50,000 installing and upgrading Tightrope systems during that period, Jennings said. Before the town could switch over to video on-demand and live streaming, Jennings said it had to get a high speed fiber optic line with a wider bandwidth. That would ensure that the BCTV Web site could handle multiple viewers.

The online viewing capability now means that the 16 percent of Bedford households who do not subscribe to Comcast – meaning they do not get community cable channels 16 and 22 – will now be able to follow meetings, if they are unable to attend them in person, Jennings added.

Even some of Comcast subscribers might be more comfortable checking out a meeting from the convenience of their computer.

“Sometimes, television has to come to us,” Jennings said.

To see the archived videos, visit www.bedfordtv.com. On the left-hand menu, select “Program Schedule.” At the top of the page that appears will be a link for Channel 16 and another for Channel 22. On the menus which appear for both, online surfers can select which videos to view. In addition, an item at the top of the page for Channel 22 gives online viewers the option to “Watch Live.” Clicking on that will bring up live streaming video from that channel.

Jennings said some other community television stations in the area, such as those in Manchester and Derry, have video on-demand. But, he said, he is unaware of any others that offer live video streaming of their television broadcasts.

“We decided to go outside of the traditional television format and become part of the Internet craze,” Jennings said.