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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2006-09-12Cable Access Oversight Committee Minutes. The Committee [AOC] met at Ithaca Town Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006, 4 -5:30 pm. Present: AOC Members Wayles Browne, Wies van Leuken, Will Burbank [chair], Shane Seger. 1. Notetaker: W. Browne. 2. Minutes of June 13 meeting: accepted with small amendments. 3. No public comment. 4. Committee Member Reports. Seger: City Clerk Julie Holcomb is working directly with Lauren Stefanelli on getting wireless microphones for City Council chambers. The Ithaca City School District (ICSD) has asked Lauren for some additional capital purchases in connection with telecasting School Board meetings. The City Council is discussing using its "old" fee money (remaining from the pre -2003 franchise agreement) for purchasing equipment for ICSD's use. Tom Doheny (Time Warner Cable = TWC) has requested a meeting with the City Attorney about who pays for replacing the Access Studio carpet. Seger has also been invited. The AOC asks him to represent its views. Van Leuken: The Village of Cayuga Heights has provided her with copies of records of franchise -fee payments; she has given them to AOC. Problem with closing dates of PEGASYS studio: the announced closing date for vacation was Aug. 25, but in fact the studio was closed Aug. 24 also. 5. We began discussing a formal procedure to handle complaints from producers; e.g., a show fails to air, or a tripod lets the camera down, or editing systems aren't compatible with a camcorder unless little - known settings are used, or a tape deck "eats" the tape. Studio manager Lauren Stefanelli arrived. Van Leuken suggests a paper form for producers who wish to make a formal complaint, and a binder with information about equipment not working or being repaired. Stefanelli informed us that Time Warner has one competent engineer who can make repairs, but his time is scheduled by others. She will install a repairs logbook and design a complaint form. She will take complaints from producers, also from viewers if any (there have been no viewers' complaints for a long time) and forward them to AOC if complainants wish. AOC can also check the log. But some complaints about equipment are not caused by equipment failures, and can be taken care of on the spot. AOC member Elizabeth Bauchner arrived. 6. Financial reports: none. 7. Report from studio manager Lauren Stefanelli: - has met with personnel at Ithaca High School re broadcasting meetings. - the City of Ithaca has gotten a quote on wireless mikes from a vendor; she encouraged ICSD to talk to the City Clerk about possibly using the same vendor. The ICSD now wants to wait till January and have wireless mikes and built -in cameras in place when they begin broadcasting meetings. If this equipment were to be bought with access capital funds (derived from the previous or the present franchise), the equipment would be owned by TWC; the City might not wish that, but it is in the agreements. The existing audio equipment in City Hall does belong to the City. The previous franchise said: equipment belongs to TWC and TWC has to maintain it. TWC has budgeted an extra $20,000 in its yearly capital budget in case the use of the "old" funds should be approved. The City and TWC need to agree on how to spend the "old" funds. The AOC, as of now, doesn't have jurisdiction over them (unless the City wishes to cede its power to AOC). - NEXUS playback system: she will try to find out about errors in playback. - problems with the computer running the SCALA character generator on channels 13, 15, 16 (showing schedules, announcements etc. in between the programs) are a separate issue: they don't stop NEXUS from putting its programmed shows on the air. TWC's engineer can restart SCALA if he notices a difficulty. Van Leuken: are there schedules for periodic maintenance of equipment? We should get a report describing these. Stefanelli: can provide one at the next meeting. 8. Money collected from Usage Fees, and their impact on producers. Stefanelli: The total is about $300 (will provide the precise figure). She has sent renewal notices for July renewals (varying dates - -6 months after each producer's first payment). She sends information to TWC's Syracuse office, which should bill the producers. The total might be $500 -600 by the end of the year. Van Leuken: AOC would like a quarterly printout of the separate account from TWC Syracuse, as per our resolution. 9. Burbank: Years ago a commercial - quality satellite receiving dish was bought and installed on the BOCES building, 555 Warren Rd. It is not currently used. Last year we asked TWC to use it to receive a program available for gratis rebroadcast -- Democracy Now. But T. Doheny had many objections. He insisted that a principle of public access states that programs to be broadcast must be hand - delivered. Stefanelli: A real worry would be that somebody might request that a channel be rebroadcast 24/7. So PEGASYS decided 1) to ask for proof of copyright permission for anything fed fed from a dish; 2) to limit the amount of programming a person can request. PEGASYS has a satellite request form which needs to be filled out 2 weeks in advance - -can be submitted by anyone in the service area. At present the C -band dish is unused. PEGASYS still gets a signal from BOCES but it is not from that dish. It is the NY Network (educational), which has changed to digital and uses a different dish. It would be technically possible to use the signal from the C -band dish in addition to the NY Network. Twice a year Ithaca Mormons ask PEGASYS to run the 7 -hour Latter Day Saints Church Semiannual General Conference live from Salt Lake City on channel 13, and PEGASYS gets it from a different dish (no longer the BOCES dish). Burbank asks Stefanelli to let AOC have copies of the satellite form and the rules for the next meeting. 10. Burbank: No news on federal legislation telecommunications legislation lately. "Senate Democrats block adding telecom to extended -911 legislation" (website headline). 11. The next meeting will be Tue., Oct. 3 at 4 p.m., Ithaca Town Hall. Agenda items: - reports - items from AOC annual schedule for Sept. and Oct. - TWC's repair report, repair log, complaint form. - quarterly report on usage fee if possible. - satellite dish rules. 12. Meeting adjourned 5:45.