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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2006-12-19Cable Access Oversight Committee Minutes The Committee [AOC] met at Ithaca Town Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006 [rescheduled from Nov. 14], 4 -5:30 pm. Present: AOC Members Elizabeth Field (Bauchner), Wayles Browne, Will Burbank [chair], Shane Seger, Wies van Leuken, studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. 1. Notetaker: W. Browne. 2. Minutes of Oct. 3 meeting: accepted with small amendments. 3. Public comment: none. 4. Member reports. Burbank and Stefanelli met with Lisa Titi and Dan Walker of the Town of Ithaca concerning the feasibility, costs, and issues involved in cablecasting Town Board meetings. One program has already been shown; video quality was mediocre. 5. Kathy Hovis and Melina Carnicelli of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) come in: The School Board is excited about the prospect of telecasting its meetings. They have done a sound test with PZM table microphones. Results are good unless several people talk at once. The Board now wants to buy and install cameras. They would like to use channel 15 for broadcasting meetings, because Ithaca College uses channel 16 most of the time. The School Board meets "opposite" Tuesdays from Ithaca Common Council, so there would be no conflict with Council meeting broadcasts. AOC has approved a purchase of 2 Sony cameras with wall mounts and cables. (The purchase may be waiting until after Jan. 1.) Wireless mikes will be a new item. Seger: no progress in using remaining "old" (pre -2003) franchise money for purposes like ICSD's wireless mikes. Common Council would indeed like to see ICSD get mikes to telecast Board meetings. Seger is continuing to press for $20,000 of "old" money to be made available for these mikes. M. Carnicelli: Is there any other pot of money we could tap in the interim? Seger: Only current viewer fee money. The City doesn't have wireless mikes either, and we'd like to get them for ICSD and the City at the same time. Stefanelli: One vendor quoted $12,800 for 14 mikes plus a transmitter and receiver for the City to use. Unclear to me how to tap the old franchise money for this. The ICSD would need the same amount plus $1000 for a mixer and $200 for cables, thus: $14,000, in addition to 2 cameras already budgeted. ICSD might want more cameras and a fancier camera control (for later). K. Hovis: We'd like to get the cameras sooner so as to start broadcasting with the PZM mikes. Stefanelli: Ordering for TWC is now done in Syracuse. Syracuse TWC has the info and collects bids, then Accounting will issue a purchase order. I've asked for a meeting next week to find out when. Vendors say these are off - the -shelf items. Hope to have an estimated date for you at the Jan. meeting. Tom Doheny has already put a place - holder - -the capacity to spend an extra $20,000 into the TWC 2007 budget for ICSD mikes, in anticipation of getting the old- franchise money problem solved. Tom said to tell AOC he'd reject any request for wireless mikes for the City, because the City's room already has mikes in it. Field (Bauchner): what happens if a School Board meeting is too full? Hovis: We move it into York Auditorium. (But there wouldn't be mikes and cameras there, nor an I -net connection there, correct ?) Seger: ICSD should write a proposal asking the City (via the Mayor, or Seger) for leftover capital to be used for wireless mikes. Stefanelli: Doheny recommended that AOC should fund the ICSD project out of current funds. 6. Guests Bernie Fetterly, Rebecca Elgie, Jean Senegas, and Merry Jo Bauer come to speak about the broadcast of the Democracy Now! news program: Democracy Now! is sent out over several satellite TV systems. At present Mary Loehr tapes the program from satellite TV at 8 AM every weekday morning, and volunteer couriers take the videotapes to TWC, where they are played 3 times a day. It would be less burdensome if the program could be fed from the satellite dish on the BOCES building to TWC. Why is there a requirement for individuals to bring tapes in to TWC rather than switching to a satellite dish)? Stefanelli: The manager of TWC feels it's not appropriate to use material that's fed automatically. Using a tape assures that there is a local person [Mary Loehr] taking responsibility for the show. There are satellite feeds of one -time events. We already have rules giving priority to local productions versus outside ( "syndicated ") ones. At present there is room for both kinds. Rules: 1) Nobody can request over 2 satellite programs a year. 2) There is a fixed C -band dish on BOCES; we already get a feed of Access Education for New York from a different digital dish at BOCES for channel 16. For feeding from a C -band dish we'd need a separate modulator [different from the Dish Network dish - -we can't use Dish Network because it's a competitor to TWC], even for a dish on the TWC building itself. We could open up space on channel 13 for Democracy Now! on a four - month basis, since we set the schedule of broadcasts every four months. Seger: if AOC changes present policy, Stefanelli would administer the new policy unless it was vetoed by TWC's manager. Stefanelli: When the C -band dish at BOCES was first bought, there was an Educational Access Committee that wrote the policy for it. But that committee no longer exists. I will e -mail the old policy to AOC. Van Leuken: Have we ever had not enough time to fit all shows in? Stefanelli: No. There is a set of priorities in place: local before syndicated, etc. Burbank: We'll put this on our agenda for our next meeting and let you [the guests] know about it. 6. Elections for 2007 officers. Burbank proposes: Seger chair, Burbank vice chair, Browne secretary, Field vice secretary. Moved by van Leuken, seconded by Seger. Discussion: Seger and Field want to hold meetings 5 to 6:30. Slate unanimously elected. 7. Next meeting; Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 5 pm. at Ithaca Town Hall. 8. Studio Manager's report: the fees from producers living outside the participating municipalities amounted to $520 in 2006. Members: this might support a temporary worker for a week replacing Stefanelli when she was away. She will submit notices of orientations to Ithaca Community News. (and written reports ?) Re broadcasting of material submitted by schools: the schools need to be re- evaluated. Boynton is not producing programs. Dryden High School gave us 15 programs in each of the last 2 semesters. Van Leuken: We have an additional $20,000 for 2008, making a total of $40,000, correct? Stefanelli: Yes, that's one possibility that AOC can decide on. 9. Meeting adjourned about 6. Appendix: Access Coordinator Report to AOC December 19, 2006 PEGASYS Center • Playback Issues: After having its software updated, NEXUS was left unattended for 10 days while I was on vacation. It worked perfectly, without freezes or crashing, a big improvement. • Training: The January Portable Production class has 10 people enrolled, a full group. The next PEGASYS Orientation is scheduled for Jan. 31. • Schedule: Spring 2007 [January - April] series renewal is underway. Demand has remained steady. Institutional Access • College: Cornell's 11/28 live cablecast of Shimon Perez was excellent. Cornell Wrestling coaches inquired about televising their wrestling matches. Cornell is planning to create a mini TV studio for student use in Willard Straight Hall. This is great news for PEGASYS, as it will extend the amount of studio space available to PEG access producers, studio availability being our tightest resource. The Cornell group that produced "Campus Insights" at PEGASYS for years has been invited to provide input in outfitting this space for their needs, and they have invited us to help. ICTV fall television season ended on Dec. 14. TC3's 7- episode series, "High School Challenge," is running this week. • School Administration: met with Kathy Hovis of the ICSD school board. With our engineer, we did an INET system test, as well as a test of wired PZM mics. Kathy has been doing further testing of the mics during actual board meetings, to determine whether they will be suitable for the board's use. The meetings may be able to be shown live on the governmental access channel, as its meetings are held on alternate weeks from the TC Legislature. • High Schools: met with Principal Joe Greenberg and teacher Chris Sperry of Lehman Alternative Community School to discuss the future of their video program, which has been in hiatus since the retirement of Karl Madeo last spring. LACS will offer a video course in the spring, and hope that we will continue to provide equipment support for their program. They discussed ideas to create a video -wired room to allow classes or events to be videotaped more effectively. They have received a grant which may be used for such a project, and are interested in partnering with Time Warner for equipment. • Governments: The Town of Ithaca videotaped / cablecast its second Town Board meeting and is interested in continuing to pursue live coverage of Town meetings.