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Home My WebLink AboutMN-AOC-2025-10-07 Minutes, Access Oversight Committee (AOC) meeting Tuesday, October 7, 2025 at 5 PM As approved November 11, 2025. Town of Ithaca Hall (Aurora Conference Room) 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, vice chair Wies van Leuken, member Paul Smith; by Zoom: Sean Ryan (Supervisor of Public Access, Charter Communications), Glenn Foster (studio manager), Hanna Walier (Director, Government Affairs). Absent: City of Ithaca Common Council liaison Margherita Fabrizio. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo 5:04. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Comments by AOC members: none. 05. Approval of the Minutes of the August 5, 2025 and September 2, 2025 Meetings. DePaolo moved and van Leuken seconded the August 5 minutes. Van Leuken: attach a photograph of the curtain. Approved without further changes 4-0-0. DePaolo moved and van Leuken seconded the September 2 minutes. Van Leuken: these should be reformatted to match the numbered items in the agenda. Approved without further changes 4-0-0. 06. Access Studio Coordinator Report. For "August" read "September." 07. Member Reports a. AOC Sales Tax Exemption and Letterhead - Report. DePaolo: We have permission to make a City of Ithaca letterhead for AOC. Van Leuken, re payment for trophies (last month): should they have been tax exempt? A complicated question for the City. b. Common Council meetings on Government Channel 15 - Report. No report from DePaolo; he will speak to Alan Karasin–City Clerk/Department of Public Information and Technology. Smith has spoken with former studio manager A. Wiers, and may be able to fill in some gaps. The video signal now going from City Hall Council meetings to the internet is HD (high definition) and can't be fed to the iNet for broadcasting by PEG; if we get equipment to make the signal compatible with iNet, the picture will be SD and "look like a blob" on TV screens. Ryan: When we tried out the signal from City Hall, we got color bars and a video. DePaolo: Can we get an HD-to-SD converter? Is it needed? Will look into it. c. Communications with City Attorney - Report. DePaolo: no report. d. Tompkins County's Cablecasting Problems - Report. Van Leuken: the county on channel 15 has low audio volume, while Ithaca College has high volume on channel 16. DePaolo: will look into it after Election Day. e. Publicity of PEGASYS. Van Leuken: present producers are of older generations. Few others know that PEG exists and what it offers: high-quality cameras... Smith: training on many kinds of equipment and techniques; producers can make programs that can be used on other platforms (YouTube etc.), entries for film festivals, even audio podcasts. Van Leuken: they can use the studio. DePaolo: hopes to use the studio for music (recording or broadcast). Smith: would love to use the studio for live TV shows in prime time. DePaolo: You could have an 8-9 PM time slot; it's otherwise not in use. Smith would co-produce a live music show; can bring his own mobile recording studio with him. At present there is only a monophonic signal in the PEG studio, no stereo. DePaolo asks Charter why PEG is not in stereo (audio doesn't take much bandwidth). Foster to DePaolo re training: we usually give at least 3 sessions of 2 hours each. Smith: Many prospective producers can learn best from explicit teaching. Van Leuken: in past years we had an "activity report" with a list of equipment and listing the total number of shows produced; that's something that I could show to the public. DePaolo: suggests an online report or YouTube sample production; total numbers might be less useful. Van Leuken held up half-page handouts about PEG resources that the studio used to give out. Smith: my revision of the PEG website has the goal of improving the marketing of PEG; van Leuken and I have ideas for a pamphlet to be color-printed and handed out. DePaolo suggests a contest for new users to make a program: a fee and a deadline to submit an entry. f. Disposition of surplus equipment - Report. Van Leuken: Ted Crane is interested in 1 item: the NAD stereo tuner. Resolution Access Oversight Committee (AOC) October 7, 2025 Disposition of Surplus PEGASYS Equipment WHEREAS the Charter Communications ("Charter") has identified equipment that is no longer needed for the PEGASYS Community Media Center (“PEGASYS”); and WHEREAS, Section 15.3 - 2 of the Franchise Agreement states that the Access Oversight Committee (AOC) shall approve the use of Public, Educational and Governmental (“PEG”) access equipment; and WHEREAS, the AOC reviewed the list of surplus equipment and made recommendations, which are part of this resolution; now therefore be it RESOLVED that the Access Oversight Committee (AOC) approves the disposition of the surplus equipment to be carried out pursuant to the attached list; and be it further RESOLVED that the AOC directs the studio coordinator and Charter to keep the equipment identified on the list as "keep for PEGASYS"; and be it further RESOLVED that the AOC directs and authorizes the studio coordinator and Charter to dispose of the equipment identified as "recycle" by donating it to the Reuse Center; and be it further RESOLVED that the AOC directs that equipment identified as "donate" should be donated to PEGASYS producers, after the results of the AOC's solicitation of current producers. PEGASYS cast-off equipment “LIST 2”, 2025-09-02 item model quantity category condition comments recommendation Compix LCGn 1 studio poor CG generator recycle - from 2024 Fostex 3070 1 playback fair compressor/Limiter Keep for PEGASYS APC Back-ups 1500 1 studio poor uninterruptable power recycle AT&T N/A 1 studio poor speakerphone recycle GE N/A 1 studio poor speakerphone recycle Logitech S-0152A1 1 edit poor computer speakers recycle NAD 4300 1 studio fair stereo tuner donate Tripp Lite SMART 1500LCDT 1 studio poor uninterruptable power recycle Moved by van Leuken, seconded by DePaolo. Passed 4-0-0. g. Website. Smith: now has a job managing content for a YouTube channel, but can give AOC links to 2 pages of his version of PEG site and PEG library. h. Annual Review Usage Fees. Consensus: leave them as they are ($20 per half year for individuals, $50 for organizations). i. Contact Information on other PEG Studios in New York State. Van Leuken has a list from the Alliance for Community Media, but would like a list of Charter-run studios in New York State. 08. Old Business a. Streaming Channel 13. For next meeting. 09. New Business: none. 10. Next meeting: Nov. 11. (Charter will be present, although it's a holiday.) 11. Adjournment 6:05. -=-=-=-=- 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-OversightCommittee Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Common Council liaison 2024- Margaret (Margherita) Fabrizio, mfabrizio@cityofithaca.org. City of Ithaca: Paul Smith <smithcommapaul@hotmail.com>. Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <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: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York mailing address: 519 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850