Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2008-09-23Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes (as approved Nov. 11, 2008) The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at the PEG Studio on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008, at 4:45 pm. Present: AOC members Will Burbank (chair), Wayles Browne, Wies van Leuken; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. 0. Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary. 1. The minutes of the Aug. 12, 2008 meeting were approved with no changes. 2. No comments from the public. 3. Member reports. We discussed a letter which W. Burbank will send to TWC manager T. Doheny with respect to using money from Usage Fees paid by those TV producers who live outside the 3 Participating Municipalities (i.e. outside the City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, and Village of Cayuga Heights). The AOC decided by resolution dated June 13, 2006 that this money should be used for hiring persons to keep the PEG studio open during periods when the Studio Manager is on vacation. The money has been accumulating and no vacation replacements have ever been hired by TWC. 4. Studio Manager's report was submitted in writing (see appendix). Members noted with sorrow that NYN (New York State educational programming), which as of Sept. 30 will no longer be provided from Albany to cable systems (till now it has been carried on Channel 16). W. Browne was requested to send a letter -to- the - editor to newspapers regretting the loss of NYN. [Not yet done; he sent a letter on a different matter to the Ithaca Journal, which has a one letter per month policy.] The Studio Manager informed members about the Sept. 17 hearings of the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, which considered public, educational and government access TV channels and heard cable operators and service users. At these hearings, members of congress stood up for continuation of PEG service nationwide, and most of the members of the Subcommittee, including local Congressman M. Hinchey, wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission calling for observance of the Cable Act which requires equal treatment of PEG channels with others. W. Browne subsequently wrote a letter to Mr. Hinchey in the name of the AOC commending his stand (see second Appendix). 5. New Business: Wies van Leuken has drafted a Fact Sheet about the AOC and its work. Members are invited to comment and improve it. We discussed ways to make the public more aware of the availability of community access TV programming. There have already been newspaper features about individual producers. We would like to see listings of PEG TV programs in newspapers, but the papers have shown no interest. Programs could also be listed on the 24 -hour TV channel for Listings. The Studio Manager has sometimes been given to understand that doing so would cost several hundred dollars a month, but this is not certain. She observes that the local sports channel (26) is included in the daily Listings. Members suggest: - put a web counter on the PEG web site http: / /www.pegasysaccess.org to see how many hits it gets. - make a poster "Watch PEGASYS" citing the channels and the web link. - ask the Ithaca Journal once again to include program listings. Studio Manager: I have previously asked producers to go to the Ithaca Journal's "Monday lunch with the Publisher" and ask for this, but none of them have yet gone. At present, the Journal seems not to cover PEGASYS Awards made every February, and only rarely runs announcements of our classes for new producers. Even when an event in the community is to be telecast, the Journal does not mention this in reporting on the event. - Craigs List www.craigslist.com not only offers free classified ads all over the world, but also carries community information; can we place a TV listing on it? - Can we webcast the programs themselves? Studio Manager: That requires a site to host the audio and video files, and, unfortunately, hosting files costs money. The new NEXUS program scheduler is compatible with webcasting. Webcasting normally uses files scaled down in size (.mp4 format) rather than the higher - quality but full -size (i.e. larger) .mp2 files, and NEXUS can use either one. 6. Next meeting: Tues. Nov. 4 at the PEG studio. 7. Adjourned 5:40. Access Coordinator Report to AOC September 2008 • Facility: Our engineer completed a playback reconfiguration and upgrade Sept 1 -9. The last two old Mini -T VCR controllers, which have performed VCR playback for us for over 10 years, were taken off line. The new 16x16 Knox switcher has been installed, the NEXUS playback server has had its software upgraded and programming reconfigured to incorporate the new switcher. What are the benefits to the Knox switcher: More flexibility with fewer VCRs. The new switcher allowed us to reduce the number of VCRs in use from 19 to 8, with equivalent playback capacity. Previously, we programmed, separately, NEXUS to switch to a Mini -T and then the 2 Mini -Ts to program 2 groups of VCRs to start and switch. Now we only need to program NEXUS. This is both less work and more accurate. Increased timing accuracy — everything follows one NEXUS clock, and Mini -T clocks drifting away from NEXUS time constantly is no longer a problem. The former linear edit room has been connected as "Studio B" to NEXUS. Although we have not reconfigured the room yet, getting the cabling to playback is the first step towards creating the mini - studio idea. The remote INET sites have been wired into NEXUS, so that I can preview them easily off -air [instead of doing signal testing on -air, as we did before] and even record them to MPEG while a live meeting is in progress. Our engineer wired WEOS radio as a sound source to accompany the station identification/ program lineup screens. The NEXUS software upgrade has also had some immediate benefits: We can now cablecast onto all three PEG channels from NEXUS. We can now digitize DVDs directly rather than record mpgs during playback. It is possible to make clips from any mpg, give them a name and save them in a "library." This is a big deal for 2 reasons. First, it means that I can scan through an mpg easily, whereas before I could only play it in real time from the beginning. This means I will catch DVD playback or mpg recording errors more easily. Second, it means that I can run PSAs. Previously, it was much too time - consuming to figure out how to program PSA reels on DVD. Now they can be prepared as clips and easily dragged and dropped into the schedule. Our channel is now full of PSAs! There are 2 other areas where the new software offers big opportunities, but I have not learned how to use them yet. It is possible to export the schedule in various forms [website, information teases, press releases], and it is possible to do webcasting. I will report back when I have learned more about these features. • Notable Educational Access News Ithaca College is back on line, including a full season of live football games. Cornell's current episode of East Hill Notes featured the ADC's own Jennifer Dotson promoting Ithaca Carshare. New York Network [NYN] has announced that it will discontinue broadcasting at the end of September. NYN has been the default signal for channel 16 for the past 7 years, a source of taxpayer - funded educational support programming created for educational access channels. We have contacted IC and Cooperative Extension staff asking them their preferences for a new default signal. IC is prepared to run its lakecam with VIC radio. • Notable Public Access Productions At least 4 -5 Grassroots programs have appeared so far from the fleet that went to cover the event. One producer is delivering her program series via a "thumb drive" — no tape, no DVD. • Repair The camcorder with a damaged pinch roller has been repaired and will be returned from Syracuse shortly. One playback DVD player has been sent out for repair after it had a problem playing back parts of the audio tracks of several DVDs. We are having recurring problems with the Firewire connection jacks of most of the camcorders. The mini [4 -pin] Firewire jack seems to be a weak link with every device that has one. We have found an analog to digital conversion box with a full -size [6 -pin] Firewire connector which should help keep some equipment operational. • Outreach 2 feature articles on PEGASYS appeared in local papers this month. One was in Tompkins Weekly [Sept 1]. http: / /www. tompkinsweekly. com/ The other was in the Ithaca Times [8/27/08] http: / /www.zwire.com/ site /news.cfm ?newsid= 20093788 &BRD = 1395 &PAG = 461 &dE t id= 566140 &rfi =6 Both included photos of producers and both reporters promised to consider producer features in the future. One reporter has already delivered: Tompkins Weekly will be having a feature coming out featuring PEGASYS producer Mike Brutvan sometime soon. Light in Winter is interested in having PEGASYS volunteers collaborate on videotaping parts of the event. A sign -up and organizing meeting will be held later this fall. • Capital I met with Mike Levy about his capital needs, which he revised somewhat from earlier in the year. Good news is that the school district has committed to purchase him a fleet of new editing computers to restart his video program. Oct. 12, 2008 Cong. Maurice Hinchey 123 S Cayuga St. Ithaca NY 14850 Dear Congressman Hinchey, We are writing as members of the Access Oversight Committee, the body- - appointed by the City of Ithaca - -that watches over public access TV in Tompkins County. We were delighted to learn about the Sept. 17 hearing of the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, which considered public, educational and government access TV channels. From what we understand, most of the Subcommittee members attended and took part in the hearing, including yourself. We would like to commend you all for calling on PEG system operators, users, and supporters to testify, and for pressing the FCC to recognize their concerns under the provisions of the present law (the Cable Act). We particularly appreciated it that you and the other members wrote to the FCC and called for full observance of this law. A question you asked, as reported to us, showed your awareness of the situation in this region, marked by inadequate funding for PEG TV in Binghamton and elsewhere. We thank you and all your colleagues who participated. We want you to know that the video from the hearing is going to be shown on Tompkins County PEG TV. Yours sincerely, Wayles Browne, secretary for the AOC: Will Burbank, chair; Wayles Browne, Jennifer Dotson, Trish O'Rourke, Wies van Leuken.