HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2009-03-17Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes (as approved Apr. 14, 2009)
The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at the PEG Studio on Tuesday, Mar.
17, 2009 (postponed from Mar. 10), at 4:50 pm.
Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, Wies van Leuken, Jennifer Dotson, Rich
DePaolo; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli; producer Mike Brutvan.
Wies van Leuken called the meeting to order.
0. Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary.
1. The minutes of the Jan. 13, 2009 meeting were approved without change.
2. Comments from the public. Mike Brutvan has submitted to the City of Ithaca his
application to be an AOC member; still waiting to be confirmed.
3. Member reports.
R. DePaolo has gotten from the Town of Ithaca a 7 -year summary of franchise -fee
receipts; payments arrive in February, April, July, and October. He has given a paper
copy to W. van Leuken, and can e -mail a spreadsheet to her too.
Van Leuken will compile the information from the 3 municipalities (City of Ithaca, Town
of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights) and report to AOC.
M. Brutvan: it would be useful for program production if producers could access the
internet while at the studio.
DePaolo, a member of the Town Board, finds wireless net access very useful during
Town Board meetings.
4. Studio Manager's report: presented in writing (see Appendix).
Manager L. Stefanelli adds: she has started to train a person to cover during her vacations
(Al Abrahams). He has previous experience in scheduling radio programs. She will take
April 20 off as a try -out for him. He is also the backup person for broadcasting City of
Ithaca council meetings.
The listing of fees paid by producers [presented in summary form in the appendix] shows
income of $660 in the year 2008. The total has risen to about $2000 since fees began in
2006; they are only now beginning to be spent for the person to cover during vacations.
A table in the Report shows needed items that couldn't be capitalized (= treated as capital
expenditures). Time Warner Cable manager T. Doheny is working with an accountant to
set up a fund to buy these.
Stefanelli presented a draft of a letter to be sent to representatives of schools. If they are
interested in providing educational programming for showing on Educational Channel
16, they can request TV equipment (by the end of April) and technical assistance (at any
time). The AOC was pleased with the draft and suggested only minor changes.
Van Leuken: requests from city agencies, if any, might be funded from the remaining
money from the old (pre -2003) franchise, rather from the current budget. These could be
handed on to City IT person Duane Twardokus and the City Clerk. But Southside
Community Center is only in part City - funded, so this suggestion might not apply to
Southside.
M. Brutvan suggests adding New Roots, the charter school about to open, to the list of
recipients of the letter. He can furnish an address for it.
Discussion of Draft 2010 Capital Budget, as compiled by L. Stefanelli.
The figure for replacing the 3 Inscriber titling computers is estimated at $8000. Stefanelli
still needs to ask what to replace them with.
The upgraded versions of the Premiere workstations will still be compatible with TC3
(Tompkins - Cortland Community College).
Brutvan: The proposed Internet workstation could well be wireless.
AOC members stressed the importance of producers being able to use TV material that
was recorded in older ( "legacy ") formats.
Van Leuken asks about expanding the available music library for background music and
theme songs. We have some freely - usable, non - copyrighted music. Stefanelli: will look
into ways to pay fees and use copyrighted music.
Van Leuken: Could the studio have a library of visuals? E.g. maps, clips, pictures of
heads of state of various countries, of cities, etc. Stefanelli: Some are purchasable over
the internet from iStock.com for one -time use or on a monthly plan. This could come out
of the newly- established operating budget, as could many other useful items. This budget
will be termed "equipment budget" and will still be subject to approval by AOC.
Van Leuken suggests better tripods.
Brutvan: we could use cameras with more features, such as night vision. Also we need
the ability to record stereo in the studio.
Stefanelli: Nexus can be upgraded to do webcasts, but the information has to be held on a
web server somewhere (at the Nexus company, or even TWC). Will ask other access
centers that do web streaming what their issues are, e.g. possible liability.
DePaolo: Streaming is not the same as archiving. Which would we want?
Brutvan: Archiving is cheaper ( ?) and more useful.
5. Old business.
Dotson: what are the studio hours now?
Stefanelli: they haven't changed in the past year. The studio usage is still about 80 %.
Dotson: I need to resign as chair, or if I stay someone else will need to call meetings.
Chairing of meetings will rotate. Minutes ought to be sent out a week before each
meeting as a reminder. W. van Leuken will then send out an agenda for the meeting.
6. Next meeting Apr. 14 (the second Tuesday as usual).
7. Adjourned 6:05.
Access Coordinator Report to AOC
March 2009
• Volunteers:
The PEGASYS Awards was conducted in January - February, with the Awards
ceremony held on March 6, 2009. It was a well- attended event, with awards given out in
9 categories plus grand prize winners being sent on to the national Hometown Awards.
We inaugurated our new video projector at this event.
6 volunteers recorded Light in Winter's PUSH Physical Theatre in January. They
worked closely with LIW staff. The group is now doing post - production. It has served as
an ideal project for us all to learn to use Adobe Premiere's multi- camera editing mode.
3 new public access series have started up: Grindmode TV [music]; Quiet Asylum
[art entertainment]; Cuba Siempre [Cuba information]
• Reports
2008 Usage Fees report attached.
2008 Capital Report attached.
2010 preliminary draft Capital Plan attached.
• Notable Educational Access News
Peter Johann of ICTV says he is trying to find a way to have IC pick up Democracy
Now directly from satellite.
The ICSD BOE is doing twice the regular number of meetings recently [weekly
instead of bi- weekly], due to the extraordinary public interest in the New Roots school
and budget issues. We are cooperating by loaning extra equipment and doing titling
overlays. The district is also now putting selected video from the meetings on its website.
• Installation
The 2 new DVD players have been installed in the playback rack, relieving the
problems with reliability in DVD playback.
• Outreach
Information about our upcoming training is running regularly on the channel and has
been sent to all the papers.
2008 PEGASYS Capital Budget Semi -Final [need invoices to close]
Report Date March 2009
The following items were purchased and received:
Playback
2 Tascam DV -DOIU DVD Players @$545.99. $1,091.98
3 Hotronic Time Base Correctors [for ch 13, 15, 16] @$929.49 $2,788.47
Misc Mic clips /wind screens $32.98
1 Computer with Windows Office, DVD recorder, USB
Flat- screen Monitor, keyboard /mouse $1,500.00
Engineering installation of Playback Upgrade
32 hrs x $60/hour [includes wiring of Studio II] $1,920.00
Studio
1 Sony VPL -EX50 Video Projector $852.50
1 Replacement Lamp SP- LAMP -034 $409.00
Portable
2 Sony UWP- V6 -U3032 Wireless Lav Mic Kits @$679.95 $1,359.90
2 Sony UWP- V6 -U4244 Wireless Lav Mic Kits @$679.95 $1,359.90
Educational Access: LACS
3 Panasonic PV -GS90 Mini -DV camcorders @$279.95 $839.85
3 SDSDHV 4GB Secure HD Memory Cards @$30.70 $92.10
3 Panasonic CGA -DU21A Lithium -Ion Batteries @$81.99 $245.97
Subtotal $121,492.65
10% Tax / Freight $907.00
Total $13,399.65
There were approximately $5 -6,000 worth of items that were unable to be capitalized and
could not be purchased under our accounting system. We are working to set up an
operating budget account to enable us to purchase these items, as well as items in future
budgets that do not meet capital spending requirements. List of items from 2008 budget
which will be spent with operating funds as soon as the account is available is attached.
2010 PEGASYS Capital Budget First Draft
Replace 3 Inscriber Titling Computers $8,000.00
Inscriber computers provide video titling in our main studio, our prospective studio II,
our linear editor and City Hall studio. These computers are 12 years old and are not
upgradeable. Although currently still in service, they have all been showing intermittent
failures for the past 2 years. They run only on Windows NT platforms, and can not be
made to work with current Windows computers. They are incompatible with current USB
ports, Firewire and DVD player /recorders. They are not compatible with the current
version of Adobe Premiere. In short, they are ready for replacement.
I propose replacing the studio I and II units and the City Hall unit, and allowing a
working unit to continue to operate as legacy equipment in our linear editor for the time
being, with the other 2 as back -ups or made available to E/G institutions.
Upgrade Premiere workstations $1,000.00
Premiere came out with version CS4 a year ago. We are currently running CS3.
Replace Flats and Props
$1,000.00
Main Office Internet workstation $1,500.00
With DVD burner, Firewire and USB connections, Windows Office.
Contingency Fund $2,000.00
Description: We have a great deal of equipment that is 8 -15 years old, and will
need replacement as it fails. In addition, many lower - priced items like cables or
headphones receive hard use and need replacement much more frequently. Which items
will fail is impossible to predict a year in advance.
Governmental /Educational Access: TBD $4,500.00
Description: As per potential requests
Subtotal $18,000.00
10% Tax / Freight $1,800.00
Total $19,800.00
PEGASYS Fees 2008 [summary, without names of producers]
Period 1, 2008
2 producers listed as "moved to City"
2 listed as "now uses own equipment"
1 listed as "not active"
7 paid $20 = 140
5 paid $30 = 150
1 organization paid $50
Total $340
Period 2, 2008
9 producers listed as "not active"
3 listed as "now uses own equipment"
6 paid $20 = 120
5 paid $30 = 150
1 organization paid $50
Total $320
Total fees for year $660
Contact information for AOC members:
Jennifer Dotson, chair, Common Council liaison <jdotson@cityofithaca.org>
Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2 cornell.edu>
"Rich DePaolo" <rd @richdepaolo.com>
Wies van Leuken <pmv4(cr�cornell.edu> and <WIESVL@cityofithaca.org>
Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules:
http://www.pegasysaccess.org/
studio location:
612 West Green Street
Ithaca, New York
mailing address:
519 West State Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
phone (607) 272 -7272
fax (607) 277 -5404
PEGASYS staff:
Lauren Stefanelli
lauren. stefanelli gtwcable. com