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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-AOC-2023-06-06 1 Minutes (as approved August 1, 2023) Access Oversight Committee (AOC) Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 5 PM The AOC held its meeting by ZOOM Conferencing Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, vice chair Wies van Leuken, member Paul Smith; Access Coordinator Alex Wiers, Lauren Kelly (Director of Government Affairs - Finger Lakes Region, Charter Communications); members of the public Jim Garaventa, Tony Ingraham, Tom Stern. Excused: Common Council liaison Jorge DeFendini. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo 5:01. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments. Ingraham asks about the website address [AOC provided it: <pegasys.webstarts.com>; there is also a new address: <https://pegasys.yourwebsitespace.com>]. He asks about lack of availability of channel 13 on the Spectrum app: 'It dampens my desire to make programs'. DePaolo: Charter not making the channel available on the app is a breach of the franchise. We are addressing this in an official capacity. It is easy for Charter to rectify. Stern asks AOC to take on an active role to revitalize PEG. AOC should take on a leadership role to have quality programming on Channel 13. He states that an interesting political summer is coming up in Ithaca and programming on the Channel should reflect that. 04. Comments by AOC members. DePaolo: It is a grey area. The Franchise Agreement doesn't stop AOC members from assisting with program productions. But the AOC cannot be an advocacy group. We could if we were a non-for - profit. Smith: I too think this is outside the AOC's purview. But I have been thinking a lot about revitalizing PEG. I would like to work on shows like the one Stern proposes. I have been talking with van Leuken about reestablishing the Outreach Committee. Van Leuken: will contact Stern and Smith tomorrow and re- start the Outreach Committee this week. Smith: concerned about aspect ratios. He shows a frame from MSNBC filling the entire screen, and a frame from Democracy Now on channel 13 having black bars at top, bottom, left side, right side. The picture ought to go all the way to the edges. The new playback system should fix that. DePaolo asks why 16x9 aspect ratio doesn't fill the screen. Wiers: my understanding is that we have to change from SD to HD to fix that. The new equipment will not do that. DePaolo: asks for an expert from Charter to give a detailed explanation. Wiers: I have to get back to you on that. Rich to Kelly: at the last meeting we raised the question whether the I-net is routed through the studio or not. Kelly: I will follow up. She asks if AOC could share the draft minutes so that Charter staff would be better aware of 2 what they will be asked to address. DePaolo: I can give relevant information in advance of the meeting. 05. Approval of Minutes of the May 2, 2023 Meeting. Moved by van Leuken, seconded by Browne. Adopted without change 4-0-0. Browne asks for items for inclusion in the Minutes to be submitted as .doc or .docx files (rather than pasted- in pictures). 06. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached below). a. Mini-Studio Equipment installation - update. Wiers: the equipment is ordered but none has been delivered. Installation will take 4 days; training will take place afterwards. b. Discussion of Report: none. 07. Member Reports a. 2024 Budget - progress report. Van Leuken: AOC's budget recommendations were approved by the Village of Cayuga Heights on May 17. DePaolo: approved by Town of Ithaca on April 24. Browne: attended City Administration Committee May 24 and spoke briefly about AOC and the budget. The committee approved it and passed it on to Common Council for approval on the Consent Agenda at its June 7 meeting. b. AOC Vacancy - report. Smith reports that he has been sworn in. c. AOC Member's reappointment - report. Van Leuken and Browne are expecting letters from the City Clerk confirming their appointment before going to get sworn in. Van Leuken's appointment by the Village of Cayuga Heights was submitted to the City on April 10, 2023. Smith: I had no letter, but I made an appointment to be sworn in. d. Common Council meetings on the Government Channel 15. Browne: at the City Administration Committee meeting we heard from Acting Director of Public Information & Technology/City Clerk Alan Karasin, who said part of the job of fixing the Council Chambers to enable telecasting had been finished, so they hope to be able to telecast meetings soon. e. PEGASYS Policies and Procedures Manual review. Van Leuken prepared a revised Policies and Procedures Manual (dated June 6, 2023) for the AOC. She thanked Wiers for his input and explanations of the many changes that have taken place at PEGASYS in the last few years. DePaolo screenshared the draft. AOC discussed edits page by page, up to section V.2.a; to be continued at the next meeting. Some items need to be checked, incl. how to contact the the AOC's chair. Smith suggests AOC could have its own permanent City of Ithaca e- mail address. Re access to the building, Wiers explains that one should phone him and he will come out and open the gate with the access code. Asked about vacation closings of the studio, Wiers says Charter will give notice to AOC and producers before a vacation, typically 2 or more weeks. Smith: 2 weeks is reasonable notice. Smith: wants to avoid allowing a producer to submit reruns of the same material year after year. Wiers: can detect this, and would discuss this with the producer. 3 Van Leuken: this might require a sentence in the Manual, that timeslots expire when they are not used. Smith asks: can we broadcast live from the studio? Wiers: yes, but HD (high definition, the output of the camera) gets converted to SD before broadcast. Smith: but can I take home the recording in HD for my own use? Wiers: yes. DePaolo: Charter hasn't given us an HD channel, though it could. Regarding producers submitting promos of their programs: Alex will check on how that can be handled. f. Responsibility for Cablecasts on Channel 15 and 16. The AOC asked Wiers who was responsible for cablecasting on the Educational and Government Channel. It used to be done by PEGAYS staff. Wiers: I will find out. DePaolo: will invite Robert Henry who cablecasts County meetings and Jeremy Menard who is the Manager of TV and Radio Operations at Ithaca College, to the next AOC meeting. g. PEGASYS Website updates. Van Leuken: when the website needs revisions the AOC needs to formally ask Wiers to make them. Smith offers to make files for Wiers to upload; has suggestions. Wiers: wants a document listing the changes desired. To be put on next month's agenda. Smith would like to hold public meetings at the studio but evidently there are security considerations prohibiting that; he regrets the loss of the Facil database containing years' worth of information about programming. 08. Old Business a. Streaming Channel 13. See attached e-mail from Patrick Pinney about how to achieve this. The information was shared with producers on June 2. 09. New Business: none. 10. Next meeting: due to the Fourth of July holiday, we will meet on Thursday, July 6, at 5 pm. 11. Adjournment: 7:16. ================ 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. Page on the City website: https://www.cityofithaca.org/369/Cable-Access-Oversight-Committee 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: Paul Smith <smithcommapaul@hotmail.com>. 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 or https://pegasys.yourwebsitespace.com/ studio location, mailing address: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York 14850 phone (607) 272-7272; fax (607) 277-5404. 4 5 From: Rich DePaolo <richdepaolo.town@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Question re: Channel 13 streaming Date: May 3, 2023 at 9:51:33 AM EDT To: Patrick Pinney <ppinney@ithaca.edu> Patrick- Thanks for your prompt and thorough reply. I hope your endeavors are going well. Best, Rich On May 2, 2023, at 10:40 PM, Patrick Pinney <ppinney@ithaca.edu> wrote: My name is Patrick Pinney and I am a former resident of Ithaca New York who made significant progress in the establishment of a Channel 13 simulcast. If you wish to pick up where we left off, here is how you set it up. 1. You take a Charter Cable box containing a subscription package that includes Channel 13. 2. You take a RF single coaxial cable and attach it to the Cable Box. 3. Take the cable's other end and attach it to a VHS player (or some other device that can act as a coaxial to RCA converter) 4. Take an RCA cable and connect it to the Output holes of the VHS player (or whichever coaxial to RCA converter you choose to use) 5. Attach the RCA cables to an Elgato Game Capture device. Make sure to purchase one with RCA inputs. 6. Plug the Elgato into a computer that you are willing to have constantly hooked up to the Game Capture. We have already gotten permission from Charter Cable to perform this simulcast. DO NOT ASK THEM FOR PERMISSION THEY ALREADY GAVE IT TO US. This worked in practice and the channel streamed for about 1-2 weeks. However while live streaming on YouTube, we were hit with two copyright strikes and decided to take it down before being dinged with a third strike. This means that if you wish to use our setup you will have to stream on a different platform. Perhaps, Twitch or some third-party platform. Here is what you will need. 1. A working internet that can handle 24-hour streaming. 2. A cable package that includes Channel 13. 3. The willingness to check on the stream daily and make sure it is running smoothly. 4. A streaming platform that does not have the same sensitivity to copyright as YouTube.