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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2009-08-04Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes August 4, 2009 (as approved Sept. 8, 2009) The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:35 pm on Tuesday, August 4, 2009, in the Aurora Conference Room at Ithaca Town Hall. Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, Mike Brutvan, Rich DePaolo, Wies van Leuken, Jennifer Dotson; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. 0. Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary. 1. R. DePaolo called the meeting to order. 2. The minutes of the July 8, 2009 meeting were approved with minor changes. 3. Comments from members of the public: none. 4. Studio Manager's report: presented in writing. (See Appendix.) Discussion: - AOC welcomed the news of progress on the mini - studio. Stefanelli: a consultant has drawn up a list of needed equipment and a quote; a purchase order has been issued and the first few items are here. TWC in Syracuse will send an installer. A playback connection is already in place. (To Brutvan) The mini - studio will have multiband equalization. - Brutvan: A multi -band equalizer is also needed for the main studio. - Stefanelli (to van Leuken): I asked TWC manager Doheny about repairing power outages that happen on weekends. His reaction was that AOC's budget should pay for it; it's not TWC's responsibility, just as if some outside channel's signal were failing to be supplied to TWC. - To this, AOC reacted that it seemed to be discriminatory and counter to the franchise; assuming TWC got a subscriber complaint on a weekend, would it not restart the broadcast of a PEG channel, though it would restart the broadcast of one of its commercial channels? - Discussion of Stefanelli's June document with proposed rules for access producers will have to be continued at the next meeting, along with her proposed updates in the production facility rules. Stefanelli can send us the facility rules (from 2000) as well as the proposed new text. 5. Resolutions. (1) Recommendation to Time Warner Cable to Draft Contingency Plans for PEGASYS Facility Closures WHEREAS, in the current "FRANCHISE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK AND TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT — ADVANCE /NEWHOUSE PARTNERSHIP," there is no contingency plan for cases of lengthy or permanent closure of the PEGASYS production facility at 519 W. Green Street, Ithaca (see section 15.3. Access Facilities and Equipment, part 1, Studios of the aforementioned agreement), and WHEREAS, PEGASYS recently experienced an unexpected closure that resulted in an 2 indefinite suspension of all cable production activities — activities that Time Warner Cable has agreed to provide only at the existing building, per section 15.3.1, above, and WHEREAS, it would be prudent to plan for the possibility that such a closure will again arise; therefore, BE IT SO RESOLVED, that the Access Oversight Committee (AOC) hereby recommends that Time Warner Cable prepare a draft contingency plan to be submitted for review and approval by the AOC, to address how future closures of the existing PEGASYS facility will be managed, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AOC recommends that Time Warner Cable designate an alternate production facility, to be used during any future closure of the primary PEGASYS facilities, for the duration of any such closure. MOVED: Wies van Leuken SECONDED: Wayles Browne VOTE: Passed, 5 -0 (2) Resolution Requesting Replacement and Scheduling of Hours Lost Due to PEGASYS CIO-,lire WHEREAS, PEGASYS studio facilities were unexpectedly closed from June 1, 2009 to June 18, 2009, in order to perform air quality testing, and WHEREAS, during this closure, Time Warner was unable to provide the public access producers of PEGASYS with the agreed -upon hours of access to cable production facilities, and WHEREAS, the aggregate amount of lost production time is agreed to be 48 hours, and WHEREAS, Time Warner has proposed keeping the PEGASYS facilities open for an additional 48 hours, above and beyond the regularly scheduled hours of operation (Monday- Thursday, 5:30pm- 9:30pm), in order to compensate for the lost hours, and WHEREAS, such additional open hours could be used to explore the renewed viability of weekend hours of access to PEGASYS facilities (as many producers have expressed an interest in being able to use facilities during weekends), therefore, BE IT SO RESOLVED, that the Access Oversight Committee (AOC) hereby recommends that PEGASYS provide the 48 hours of make -up access to facilities in 3 -4 hour blocks, announced in advance, during the Fall Access Season, specific hours to be worked out in conjunction with the Access Coordinator, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the AOC recommends that hours be made available on Saturday afternoons. MOVED: Jennifer Dotson SECONDED: Wayles Browne VOTE: Passed, 5 -0 J. Dotson as Chair will communicate these resolutions to TWC. A further resolution on the importance of having an Internet connection for producers' use was discussed but tabled until the next meeting. 6. Member reports and discussion. M. Brutvan stresses the need for up -to -date maintenance of PEG equipment. Van Leuken: Equipment failures are discouraging to beginning producers. We need a way for producers to communicate among themselves and share experiences. Brutvan: A Facebook group has now been started. 7. Report on 2010 Budget approvals by City, Town and Village boards, continued. W. van Leuken: The Village of Cayuga Heights, the third of the three municipalities that need to pass the budget, did pass it June 15 but didn't immediately forward it to TWC. We'll do better next year. 8. Next meeting: Tuesday Sept. 8, 4:30. Place: PEGASYS studio. Secretary W. Browne will be unavoidably absent, so another minute -taker will be needed. 9. Meeting adjourned 5:40. Contact information for AOC members: Jennifer Dotson, Common Council liaison <jdotson9cityofithaca.org> Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2 @ornell.edu> Rich DePaolo <rd @richdepaolo.com> Wies van Leuken <pmv4 e,cornell.edu> and <WIESVL&cityofithaca.org> Michael Brutvan <noidea @lightlink.com >, <mbrutvan@mac.com> 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&twcable.com Appendix: Access Coordinator Report to A.O.C. August 2009 • Repair and Maintenance On Saturday night, July 11, an electrical storm cut power to the PEGASYS playback system. The outage lasted beyond the 20 minute protection of our UPS [Uninterruptible Power Supply] unit, shutting down the NEXUS controller. When our engineer checked the UPS on Monday, he found the batteries were dead. He replaced the batteries to provide better protection against future power interruptions. We had another electrical outage on August 3. Although the UPS was functional, this power outage lasted over an hour in the morning, exceeding the UPS capacity, and was followed by a second long outage in the afternoon, so playback was down for several hours that day. • AOC Input We are looking forward to the A.O.C.'s input on: 1. approving our updated PEG cablecast rules [submitted June 2009]; 2. advising us on make -up hours for the 48 hours that our production facility was El closed in June; please note that all PEG make -up hours must be between 10 am and 10 pm, Monday - Friday. 3. helping to revise our production facility rules [which date from 2000]. • Capital The 2009 budget, for a second mini - studio in the PEGASYS center, has been approved and the first items have started to arrive.