HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2010-05-11Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes May 11, 2010 (as approved June 8, 2010)
The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:45 pm on Tuesday, May 11,
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.
0) Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary.
1) Rich DePaolo called the meeting to order.
2) The minutes of the Apr. 13, 2010 meeting were approved without change.
3) Comments from members of the public: Gary Tracy, producer of "Starlight Presents"
and "That Damn Gay Show," submitted a letter and spoke to us on rules for scheduling
repeat broadcasts. "The current rule calls for no more than 24 hours of repeat
programming per year per producer." He had assumed that this was a count of episodes
of shows, so that he could repeat up to 12 weekly half -hour episodes of one show and up
to 12 weekly half -hour episodes of the other. But in fact it refers to each of the multiple
showings of each episode. In view of holiday and snow - emergency closures of the studio,
as well as some health problems causing another set of cancellations, this has brought
him up against the limit for the present year. He asks that AOC amend the rule:
"1) instead of counting the time for each airing of a show in a week, count it as a single
unit. (i.e.: one half hour for the week - not two hours.)
2) For all regularly scheduled local Producers /Providers, they can be allowed to air up to
12 repeats during the year (regardless of length of the series). This is with the intention
that they are to deliver 40 new shows per year. If not, then they are still allowed only 12
repeat broadcasts per year. So, if they deliver 35 shows and the scheduled 12 repeats,
they will have to go dark for the remaining five weeks."
L. Stefanelli: this point was discussed with the City of Ithaca. The channel is a resource
and it's important not to fill it up with reruns. This was in a Memorandum of
Understanding of negotiations between the City Attorney and TWC franchise negotiating
committee in 1992.
W. Browne notes that p. 8 of PEGASYS Policies and Procedures (Revised January 2000)
draws a distinction between "reruns" (programs from the current year) and "encore
programs" (which have premiered in a previous year, and are allowed up to 30 hours per
producer per year).
DePaolo: Let's decide this at the next meeting. DePaolo asked M. Brutvan to solicit input
from producers on the number of repeats that should be permitted (citing P &P page 8).
4) Budget resolution.
Van Leuken: The budget resolution has to be submitted to three municipalities and
approved by them before the end of June.
L. Stefanelli presented a Draft of a 2011 Capital Budget (and made corrections to it).
Chris Sperry of Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS) wishes to create a room
with permanently installed cameras in the new LACS building now under construction.
2
When new equip. was installed in City Hall, various older video equipment was removed
from there; the LACS, Ithaca City School District (ICSD), and Tompkins County
Courthouse are all interested in installing some of this, but we have not received a formal
proposal from any of them.
Van Leuken suggests asking representatives from LACS, ICSD, and the County to come
to our June meeting.
On the Budget Resolution draft: van Leuken asks that we add Internet capacity to the
Contingency Funds item.
L. Stefanelli: We have as yet no estimate on costs for that from Time Warner Cable
(TWC) manager T. Doheny. The existing laptop for producer use has a wireless card in
it; we have another laptop budgeted for purchase. If we get a wireless router on the
premises, producers could sit anywhere in the building and use it. We could put $1000 in
the budget draft, and I will get a more precise quote.
M. Brutvan: Let's say $1500 for Internet access.
Van Leuken: Add that to the $20,000 estimate.
Stefanelli: We have 4 new clip -on wireless mikes that can be used in the field. They are
high audio quality.
Van Leuken: How about tripods?
Stefanelli: We're getting 4 more tripods in the 2010 budget.
Brutvan asks about tabletop tripods ( "facehuggers ").
Stefanelli: We can get them from the Contingency Budget.
DePaolo: Add a sum to Contingency so that it will be $6000.
Stefanelli: For Educational and Governmental access, we need to have something to
cover future requests from the three bodies we mentioned (LACS, ICSD, and the County)
as well as from Cooperative Extension. We can afford to have the total come to more
than $20,000. During the 2nd half of the year we will be able to ask for any needed
changes as part of TWC's "reestimation" budgeting process. Brutvan can ask producers to
let us know what equipment they feel they need.
After this discussion, AOC unanimously approved the budget draft totaling $28,500 with
the following resolution:
Resolution
Access Oversight Committee
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Approval of FY 2011 Budget
WHEREAS, Section 15.12 of the Franchise Agreement between the City of
Ithaca and Time Warner Entertainment - Advance /Newhouse Partnership (TWC)
of January 2003 requires the participating municipalities (City of Ithaca, Town of
Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights) to provide TWC with an annual budget for
public, educational and governmental access operations by June 30 of each
calendar year, and
WHEREAS, the City of Ithaca's Ordinance #2003 -17, Par 18 -4 -G, requires the
Access Oversight Committee (AOC) to provide the participating municipalities
with a recommended annual budget by May 31 of each calendar year, now be it
RESOLVED, that the AOC accepted the attached capital budget for Fiscal Year
2011 in the amount of $28,500.00 at their regular meeting of May 11, 2010, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AOC forwards their recommendations for
approval by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca, the Supervisor of the
Town of Ithaca and the Mayor of Cayuga Heights so that they may meet their
obligation to provide TWC with an annual budget for public, educational and
governmental access operation, which budget is due June 30 of each calendar
year.
Approved unanimously.
5) Studio Manager's report (attached). She further submitted "PEG Access Equipment
Spending vs. Fund Accrual During Current Franchise Period [2004 - 2013]
Report for 2004 - 2009" (attached below) and a month -by -month report of fund accrual
over the 2004 -2009 period; and Capital Purchase Reports for 2009 (attached below) and
previous years.
6) Next meeting: Tuesday, June 8, 2010, 4:30. Place: PEGASYS studio.
7) Meeting adjourned 6:30.
4
2011 PEGASYS Capital Budget
Approved by the Access Oversight Committee (AOC)
May 11, 2010
Replace Studio Special Effects Generator $14,000.00
Replace Ross studio special effects generator with Indigo AV Mixer
Contingency Fund $10,000.00
Description: The PEGASYS studio has 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.
Internet Service
$1,500.00
Add a wireless LAN system available to producers with their own laptops and the
PEGASYS editing laptop computers anywhere within the PEGASYS building.
This would include both equipment hook -up and a monthly service fee that would
be on- going.
Educational /Governmental Access $3,000.00
To be determined based on E/G user requests to the AOC.
Total $28,500.00
To: AOC May 2010 Access Studio Coordinator Report
- News
The Mini - studio is in use weekly for a new series, "Across the Cineverse,"
which is shown live on Thursday nights. A second producer intends to practice
on this system over the summer and transition from the main studio to it in the
fall. There is still some reconfiguring that needs to happen in this room to make it
functional for all, but we hope to have it open for some demonstrations by mid -
June.
On April 13, Rich de Paolo presented a seminar on correction of audio
problems with Premiere audio effects. It was well attended [almost 20 people]
and feedback was very positive.
We served as a judging site for the Hometown Awards. 3 producers
served as a judging panel and viewed tapes in the Magazine Format category.
City Hall's new studio came on line on March 17. Over the next month,
spent quite a lot of time figuring out how to operate the equipment, trained our
operator Jim Bosjolie and created a detailed written operations manual so that he
can operate independently and other city hall videographers will be able to be
trained as well. The quality difference is enormous on both live and reruns
because of the better lighting, better cameras and avoidance of tape recording in
favor of mpg playback.
- Maintenance and Repair Report
1. 2 more tripods were broken due to mishandling by users. They were sent for
service; it was reported that they cannot be repaired. We are now short 1
standard tripod for our camcorder fleet, although we have 2 other model tripods
available, so altogether there are sufficient tripods among the various models.
2. 1 camcorder was sent out for repair due to recording head problems. It was
returned to Syracuse from service and we are expecting it back shortly.
3. 2 headphones were broken due to damage to cords by users.
4. 3 studio lights were sent out for service. All three have been returned and are
awaiting re- installation on the lighting grid.
5. The linear edit system has been kept in operation through using equipment
from the disassembled second linear edit system. So far, we have replaced the
record SVHS deck, the TBC and a monitor. We will install a DVCAM record deck
[also from this other system] to serve as an alternate record deck, based on the
request by Mike Brutvan to do linear editing to DVCAM.
6. A U -Matic VCR was installed in a Premiere workstation at the request of Wies
van Leuken and Mike Brutvan to allow them to transfer archive material to either
DV or computer file. This system will be left in place until the U -Matic deck fails.
No service for these decks is available any longer, as they are over 20 years old
and out of service.
7. One portable light mount was damaged through being dropped by user.
- Annual Capital Purchase Report from TWC [attached]
- Annual Subscriber Fee Report from TWC [attached]
2009 PEGASYS Capital Budget Final
The following items were purchased under the capital account for access for 2009:
X -Press Studio
Description and Justification:
$13,000.00
0
Reconfigure one linear edit suite as a simplified studio for use by 1 person. Individuals
using the studio alone has become a significant part of our studio use. Currently, 4 of our
8 studio blocks per week are used by producers creating shows consisting of 1 person in a
chair talking. Many access centers have extended their studio time by creating a small
space to accommodate such programs, leaving the larger studio available for producers
doing shows that require more space. To do this will require the following new elements
[certain items can be reused, including VCRs, equipment racks, video and audio
monitors, video switcher, character generator computer]:
I BRC Sony 3 CCD Remote - controlled camera
$3,800.00
1 Sony Remote Control Unit
$1,520.00
1 Sony Wall Mount
$85.00
1 Sony 50' Control Cable
$220.00
1 Compix LCG50OR Character Generator /Computer
$4,650.00
1 19" flat screen monitor
$199.00
1 Marshall triple monitor set VR653P
$1,440.00
2 Lowell cool lights
$2,280.00
4 Lowell lamps
$136.00
2 Lowell FLS 120 sensors
$78.00
1 Lowell FLS100 IR Remote
$255.00
3 Sony 14" Professional Monitors
$2,082.00
1 Bretford table
$490.00
1 Chief Swing Wall Mount FWSVB
$85.00
1 Apollo 3 Panel Display system
$350.00
Subtotal $17,670.00
Freight $284.00
Total $17,954.00
7
PEG Access Equipment Spending vs. Fund Accrual During Current Franchise Period
[2004 - 2013]
Report for 2004 - 2009
2004
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $22,768.04
2005
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $20,144.93
2006
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $19,616.00
2007
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $20,609.90
2008
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $25,724.78
2009
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $14,805.59
Total $123,669.24
PEG Access Equipment Spending $19,372.15
PEG Access Equipment Spending $14,814.73
PEG Access Equipment Spending $0.00
PEG Access Equipment Spending $19,338.81
PEG Access Equipment Spending $11,749.14
PEG Access Equipment Spending $17,954.00
83,228.83
Note: Peg Access collections repr. $.15 /mo. from the City, Town of Ithaca, Cayuga Heights.
Contact information for AOC members:
Svante Myrick, Common Council liaison <smyrick @cityofithaca.org>
Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2 cornell.edu>
Rich DePaolo, chair <rd @richdepaolo.com>
Wies van Leuken <pmv4kcornell.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.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. studio manager Lauren Stefanelli lauren.stefanelli@tweable.com