HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2010-03-09Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes Mar. 9, 2010 (as approved Apr. 13, 2010)
The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:45 pm on Tuesday, Mar. 9,
2010, in the PEGASYS studio, 612 W. Green St.
Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, Mike Brutvan, Rich DePaolo, Wies van
Leuken; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. Out of town: Svante Myrick.
0) Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary.
1) Rich DePaolo called the meeting to order.
2) The minutes of the Jan. 12, 2010 meeting were approved with no changes.
3) Comments from members of the public: none.
4) Member reports:
a. Quarterly Franchise Fee Reports: not received from the City of Ithaca. The last one
received from the Town of Ithaca was Dec. 21, covering through the 3rd quarter of 2009;
DePaolo will e -mail it to van Leuken. From the Village of Cayuga Heights: none
received.
b. M. Brutvan has received 12 responses (plus 2 or 3 to be added) to his survey of TV-
show producers. It was sent to about 50 addresses.
b1) On studio hours. 11 of 12 want afternoon hours, some even want morning hours.
Studio manager Stefanelli would ask producers: how often would you yourself come at
these hours? Would you want Saturday hours INSTEAD of another day? Therefore the
survey question should be: When would you use PEG? Do current hours prevent you
from doing something you'd like to? What would serve you better?
b2) On the usefulness of having internet access during production of shows. Most desired
were web searches; e -mail was next; there was an even split on the need for internet chat.
Other opinions: it would be useful to be able to download free music; to download
images; to receive tweets or e- mailed questions from viewers during live shows.
The survey didn't ask whether producers would be willing to pay a fee for web access.
Could AOC pay from its budget for web access, e.g. $45 -50 per month?
This could not reasonably come out of user fees.
Shall we try it for a year and log the amount of usage? Providers could be Roadrunner or
Fingerlakes. Fingerlakes appears to be better for uploading if we want to broadcast live
(i.e. streaming).
b3) How important do producers think live streaming would be? Moderately.
Note: at a workshop in Feb., Tony Ingraham showed how to post shows on Blip TV.
L. Stefanelli: City Hall has just gotten a new'Ultra' Nexus that has upload capacity for
TV programs.
b4) What means should be used for communication with other producers? Most favored
was an e -mail list. It would be useful to have a feed from Ithaca College with info about
IC programming.
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b5) Producers were somewhat interested in gaining publicity for PEG programming.
Responses were about equal on the merits of putting PEG schedules in a newspaper
listing vs. on an on- screen guide in order to publicize upcoming programs. L. Stefanelli:
we could try buying coverage on the Preview Guide for a year. Also try surveying
viewers: put the URL for a Survey Monkey survey on screen. We could even offer a
survey for each show!
c. Schedule Rich DePaolo's audio workshop (postponed from January): We suggest 6:00-
7:00 on April 13 (or 14 ?).
5) Studio Manager's report.
- Award competition for best 2009 programs: member S. Myrick was one of the judges.
For the first time Cornell University entered a program (East Hill Notes). The awards
ceremony has been broadcast on PEG. The four highest- scoring entries go on to the
national contest. Journalist Ann Krajewski will run pictures of the awards in Tompkins
Weekly.
- Tony Ingraham held a seminar for do- it- yourselfers on how to post shows on Blip TV.
- Capital Purchase Report (to be provided to Common Council): the equipment for the
one - person studio is still sitting uninstalled. This is delaying the report on the 2009
budget. DePaolo will e -mail Time Warner Cable manager Tom Doheny. [This was done,
and a reply was received.]
- AOC needs to begin considering the 2011 budget.
- Stefanelli reported on payments made to Mike Cederstrom when he was replacing her
during her 2009 vacation.
- Requests for equipment from local schools: teacher Mike Levy of the Alternatives
Community School (LACS) has sent a want list for 2011. (Requests will be considered at
the April AOC meeting.)
- Stefanelli will contact Peter Johanns, video production professor at Ithaca College and
manager of IC television [ http: / /faculty.ithaca.edu /pjohanns /], since we are interested in
discussing IC's use of the educational channel (16). She may attend IC Educational
Technology Day March 25 or make a separate visit to him.
6) New business: Creating on- demand web archive.
DePaolo: can we get a website for archiving? How much would that cost per year?
Stefanelli updates the cablecasting schedule on the PEG website
http: / /www.pegasysaccess.org/ monthly, but can't update other info on the site because
she lacks an interface. Can anybody volunteer to set one up on her office computer?
Brutvan and DePaolo: may be able to. DePaolo will try to download the website's assets
from home, and then Stefanelli would be able to edit and upload the result.
Next orientation for producers: March 10. Next classes: April.
Brutvan will re -do the survey.
7) Next meeting: Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 4:30. Place: PEGASYS studio.
8) Meeting adjourned 6:15.
Contact information for AOC members:
Svante Myrick, Common Council liaison <smyrick @cityofithaca.org>
Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@comell.edu>
Rich DePaolo, chair <rd @richdepaolo.com>
Wies van Leuken <pmv4@cornell.edu> and <WIESVL@cityofithaca.org>
Michael Brutvan, vicechair <noidea @lightlink.com >, <mbrutvan @mac.com>
Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules: http: / /www.pegasysaccesLorg/
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. studio manager Lauren Stefanelli lauren.stefanelli(&twcable.com