Television coverage of the Harvard Festival of the Arts began last night with a live broadcast of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra concert over the University's cable television network.

Over the next two weeks Festival organizers plan to televise up to ten hours a day of live and taped events from transmitter installations at the Loeb and at Carpenter Center. The University has installed receiving monitors and a sound system at the Information Center in Forbes Plaza.

Among the programs scheduled for transmission from the Loeb are three experimental plays, one mainstage production, several chamber music concerts, and the Afro-American Dance Theater. Tom Weber '72, one of the directors at the Loeb, said his group might also use the receiving station in Harvard Hall 104 to accommodate overflow crowds at Loeb productions.

The Public Eye

The Carpenter Center group, directed by Wilson Chao, teaching fellow in Light and Communications, plans to open up its TV camera to the public for at least one day. A program of live scenes from cameras stationed around the Harvard Square area is also under consideration.

"We'll be televising events, while the Carpenter Center people are more interested in experimenting with the nature of television," Weber said yesterday.

Weber said his group hopes to transmit student-made video tapes today.

"I've never directed for television before and my cameramen haven't worked with this medium, either, so we don't expect commercial television quality," he said. "The primary purpose is to acquaint people with the cable's existence and teach them how to use it."

The University installed the cable system in 1967, but few professors or students have used it since. Weber said that the Festival programs mark the first time the system has been used for more than four hours at a time.

Consider Expansion

An informal Working Group on Telecommunications, created by the President's office last November is now considering further expansion of the system into the Houses.