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Home My WebLink AboutMN-AOC-2022-07-06 1 MINUTES Access Oversight Committee (AOC) (as approved July 5, 2022). Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 5 PM The AOC held its meeting by ZOOM conferencing. Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, vice chair Wies van Leuken, City of Ithaca Common Council liaison Jorge DeFendini; Lauren Kelly (Director of Government Affairs - Finger Lakes Region, Charter Communications), Michael Montesano (Sr. Manager, Programming, Charter Communications); members of the public Paul Smith, Patrick Pinney, Tony Ingraham. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo 5:03. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments. Ingraham: As I told Tim Irving [temporary replacement access coordinator], my show didn't run Saturday though records show that it did. Embarrassing. Pinney: updates on simulcasting Channel 13. Now that Jim Blizzard has retired, his successor (County Media Production Assistant Rob Henry) hasn't gotten back to me. Is AOC interested in running a project internally to do streaming? DePaolo: will consider it. I will contact Henry as a first step and let you know. Blizzard had broadcasted County meetings; DePaolo has asked the County Clerk who is doing that now. 04. Comments by AOC members. Browne: observed several Channel 13 shows running as scheduled today. Van Leuken asks about Ingraham's concerns. Montesano: has asked Irving to offer reruns of Ingraham's show that didn't run. 05. Approval of Minutes of the May 3, 2022 Meeting. Moved by van Leuken, seconded by DePaolo, approved without change 4-0. 06. Access Studio Coordinator Report, submitted by Montesano. a. Vacancy. Montesano: we're still receiving résumés for the access coordinator position. I hope to give an update by the next meeting. The studio is still open the same hours as before. Van Leuken asks where the vacancy is posted. Montesano: on the Spectrum website, other locations, I've also reached out to Ithaca College and TC3. b. New Email Address for the studio: In response to questions at the last meeting, the Ithaca PEG studio now has its own Email address: PEG.NYIthaca@charter.com. Montesano has informed all the studio users whose e-mail addresses he had. [See attached e-mail of May 20, received by producers and committee members.] c. Discussion. Montesano: due to security concerns, beginning today, the parking lots at the studio are locked 24/7. Anybody (drivers and walkers) who wants to come in must come from W. State St. and punch a 4-digit code. I'll use it for the first time tomorrow. DePaolo: who has the best list of producers to distribute the code to? Montesano: I do not want to give this code out in a general Email. Producers should just reach out to the access coordinator by phone to get it. I will inform current producers of this procedure by tomorrow. 07. Member Reports 2 a. Streaming Channel 13: see item 3, "Public Comments". b. 2023 Budget – Follow-Up. DePaolo: the Town of Ithaca approved it May 9. DeFendini: the City of Ithaca voted on it; the vote will soon be final (will check with the City Clerk). Van Leuken: the Village of Cayuga Heights accepted our recommendations on May 18. c. Contact person for Channel 15 and 16 Bulletin Board. DePaolo will follow up to see who the contact persons are for these Bulletin Boards. d. AOC Vacancy. DeFendini will ask the City Clerk. Paul Smith: I have applied; I am a city resident; I have not heard back from the City Clerk. Van Leuken: I know that at least one other person, Tom Stern, applied for the vacancy many months ago and he has not heard back either. e. Disposition of broken JVC Camera. DePaolo will sign paperwork electronically. f. Covid Guidelines. DePaolo: AOC and Charter agree so far, but we'll keep the item on the agenda. g. PEGASYS’ Operations, Bulletin Board, TBA programs, use of archive. Van Leuken asks Montesano about downloading programs from designated websites. At one time, the access coordinator could download programs directly from their respective websites and then upload it to the PEG Server. These procedures took mere minutes. It takes me 4 hours of computer time every weekday to download Democracy Now and upload it to the PEG Server. Montesano: Charter can't download programs for security reasons. Montesano: you could see if your location has particularly slow internet service. One of the very high channels on the cable box [1999, plus a couple of presses on the "select" button] has a video with instructions on testing your internet speed. Van Leuken asks if a way could be found for the access coordinator to download programs with a computer that is not connected to the Charter network. Van Leuken: Occasionally the PG server stops in mid-upload. Montesano: It's a connection issue; the server is working fine. (To DePaolo:) Different computers at the studio are on different Charter networks, always at risk for hacking. DePaolo: Are the websites that could supply programs blocked on Charter's system? Montesano: Yes. DePaolo: some internet providers download faster and upload slower. Try using a laptop to download from the DN website, then we'll return to the topic. Van Leuken re the Bulletin Board: suggests letting the access coordinator format the slides without additional Charter staff editing them. They shouldn't all look the same. Also suggests: let the access coordinator fill empty slots in the schedule on the day before; and change the disclaimer to an earlier version. DePaolo wonders: what is the negative effect if all slides look similar? Van Leuken: There used to be more variety which made it more interesting to watch the Bulletin Board. Montesano: We're not editing the content. We include each organization's logos. We just want to improve the looks of the channel. We hear from many organizations and always include their announcements if they are nonprofits. Re the disclaimer: DePaolo: Can we choose language that both Charter and producers can be happy with? Lauren Kelly: Send me something by e-mail that I can show the Legal Department. Van Leuken: will send DePaolo Charter's and the former Time Warner Cable's disclaimers. The notice on some programs seems overdone. Re TBA programs: Van Leuken: Producers could ask for a show to run whenever there might be an empty slot. Montesano: We can air a program as a "special." We have archive blocks available every day, and we rotate through older programs, alternating with the bulletin board. If an older program is still in the system, we can run it on request. Or the producer could upload it once again (by 7 pm the day before). 3 Stefanelli used to have solid programs from 6 AM through midnight, but we want some time for the bulletin board too. Van Leuken: concerned that the bulletin board is running for more time now than previously. h. Website. DePaolo: It's clear that AOC would need some source of funds before starting a new site. Let's leave it off the agenda for now. 08. Old Business. Van Leuken: is Tim Irving using Facil? Montesano: the Facil program was on Stefanelli's computer, so we don't have it. We have some archive information, though. Van Leuken to DePaolo: Facil is a data management system especially designed for PEG access TV. It was used to keep track of everything that took place at PEGASYS. The annual reports that the AOC got were produced with that program. It is a huge loss not to have those data anymore. Montesano: we have other means to keep the info needed for the franchise. None of the programming was lost, and Stefanelli shared a lot of info about the studio with us too. 09. New Business. Montesano suggests removing the name "Lauren Stefanelli" from the Manual. Van Leuken will check. 10. Next meeting. Tuesday, July 5. It may have to be in person, depending on regulations in effect at the time. DeFendini: City meetings will now be in person. DePaolo: So it will be in the Aurora Room in Town Hall, in person for committee members, hybrid for members of the public. 11. Adjournment 6:22. ================ Authority: City of Ithaca code Chapter 18, "Cable Access Oversight Committee". Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca 11-5-2003 by Ord. No. 2003-17. Available at https://ecode360.com/8386207. Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Common Council liaison 2022- Jorge (George) DeFendini <gdefendini@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: (vacancy) Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com>, <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>. Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4@cornell.edu>. Web site for the PEGASYS Community Media Center studio, with program schedules: https://pegasys.webstarts.com/index.html studio location, mailing address: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York 14850 phone (607) 272-7272 fax (607) 277-5404 e-mail PEG.NYIthaca@charter.com PEGASYS staff: interim replacements for studio manager. 4 5 From: PEG.NYIthaca <PEG.NYIthaca@charter.com> Subject: PEG.NYIthaca Email Notice Date: May 20, 2022 at 11:41:38 AM EDT To: PEG.NYIthaca <PEG.NYIthaca@charter.com> Hello, Starting immediately, please use the following email address for all requests and correspondence with the Ithaca Public Access coordinator: PEG.NYIthaca@charter.com. They can also be reached via telephone at 607-272-7272. Thank you! The contents of this e-mail message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. 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