HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2010-07-13Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes July 13, 2010 (as approved Sept. 14, 20 10)
The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:50 pm on Tuesday, July 13,
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 June 8, 2010 meeting were approved without change.
3) Comments from members of the public: none.
4) Member reports.
a. Budget resolutions to be passed by the three participating municipalities.
Van Leuken: The budget resolution was passed at the Village of Cayuga Heights meeting
June 15 [previously passed by City of Ithaca and Town of Ithaca]. She inquires: are the
municipalities supposed to notify Time Warner Cable (TWC) directly that they have
passed budget resolutions? (The franchise agreement states in sec. 15.12 and 15.3.2 that
municipalities should act by June 30 and inform the franchisee; if not, the AOC's budget
is valid.)
L. Stefanelli: The AOC minutes show that they have passed them, and TWC gets the
minutes.
The committee agreed that this would be sufficient as a procedure.
b. Policy on rerunning shows. Van Leuken proposed a resolution and DePaolo seconded
it. Following lengthy discussion, consideration was postponed till the September meeting.
Brutvan will suggest a precise text.
c. Brutvan's feedback from producers re unmet needs: no additional information this
month.
d. Collection of subscriber fees ( "PEG fee "): Chair's Report. DePaolo has heard from
TWC manager Tom Doheny that Doheny is waiting to hear from accounting before
giving AOC a report. Concerning the Internet connection desired by producers: Doheny
wonders what it would be for. Could it qualify for the equipment fund? ( Brutvan: could
we get a piece of wireless equipment instead of a wired connection? Brutvan and
DePaolo will look into the technical possibilities.) Doheny states that TWC is willing to
set up a separate account on TWC's books for AOC; the Committee greeted this news
warmly.
5) Studio Manager's report (written report attached):
- Mike Cederstrom successfully substituted for Stefanelli for 1 week before July 4. His 24
hours were contracted from Kelly Services temp agency at $403. We project a total of
2
$1200 from user fees for the year 2010, so this could cover 2 more weeks (last week of
Aug., first week of Sept.) when Stefanelli plans to be away.
- We did a seminar in June introducing the ministudio; 2 producers have already used it
and there are further expressions of interest.
- The TWC manager in Syracuse is now putting the 2010 capital budget together, so we
can expect new equipment soon.
- Stefanelli distributed spreadsheets "2009 PEGASYS Equipment from Operating
Budget" and "PEG Access Equipment Spending vs. Fund Accrual During Current
Franchise Period [2004- 2013]: Report for 2004 - 2009" (both attached below).
6) Old business:
- The meeting with Ithaca College to discuss their use of the educational access channel
is still pending; we hope to arrange it in September.
7) New business:
- Van Leuken: Some cable centers offer PEG access only to the extent of broadcasting
tapes that the public brings in. If Mike Cederstrom had been at such a center, TWC
wouldn't have charged for playback. She believes that the federal law requires the cable
company to operate a PEG channel but says nothing further. TWC needs to distinguish
between production services and transmission services; the studio in fact provides
transmission services for the entire county, i.e. without requiring any user fees.
DePaolo: Let's leave this point for discussion at the Sept. meeting.
- Proposals for equipment from Educational and Government Access producers.
Stefanelli has been considering who can best use the switcher that has been reclaimed
from City Hall: a school or the ministudio? She will ask for formal proposals for E and G
equipment needs before the Sept. meeting.
8) Next meeting: Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010, 4:30. Place: PEGASYS studio.
9) Meeting adjourned 6:30.
Contact information for AOC members:
Svante Myrick, Common Council liaison <smyrick @cityofithaca.org>
Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2gcornell.edu>
Rich DePaolo, chair <rd @richdepaolo.com>
Wies van Leuken <pmv4(2cornell.edu> and <WIESVLgcityofithaca.org>
Michael Brutvan, vicechair <noidea @lightlink.com >, <mbrutvan @mac.com>
Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules: http: / /www.pegasysaccesLgigi
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
July 2010 Access Studio Coordinator Report
New Services
The Mini - studio "open house" / demonstration on June 21 was a success. Conor Bolton, weekly
producer of "Across the Cineverse," assisted in the presentation. We now have a second new
weekly series cablecasting live from the mini - studio from one of the attendees. Tony Ingraham's
series is entitled "Cayuga Lake Heritage." He is presenting news and events of the natural area of
the finger lakes.
As per our plan, our engineer just installed the intercom and phone line in the Mini - Studio this
week. This will help coordinate live programs with master control and will enable live shows to
have call -in capability.
- Capital
Attached is a final version of the second 2009 equipment report, representing expenses made
with operating funds. This, together with the 2009 capital spending report already submitted,
completes the equipment spending report for 2009.
Attached is also an updated Capital Summary Report, showing all equipment fund expenses to
date during this franchise compared with funds collected. Time Warner is working on checking
the collections reported for 2009, as per the ADC's request. If any corrections are made to the
collections report, I will present an updated version of this Capital Summary Report at the next
meeting.
- User Fees
As per the resolution of the AOC, we are using collected User Fees to pay for a staff substitute
during my absences. Mike Cederstrom, a long -time PEGASYS producer, who has a video
production degree from Ithaca College, is our substitute staffer. He covered for me on the week of
June 28`h. He will cover for me again the last week of August/first week of September. This
should exhaust our user fee account.
Institutional Access
We have inventoried the equipment that returned from City Hall after the recent upgrade. One
monitor was able to be used in the PEGASYS center to replace one that failed. We may use the
video switcher for the mini - studio in place of the one we started with as it allows 4 sources and
chroma key. This is still to be determined. The three institutions that expressed interest in the
equipment will be asked to submit letters of interest for the September AOC meeting.
Building Repair and Maintenance Report
We had a electrical storm damage that resulted in the loss of both hard drives for our NEXUS
server, causing a problem for playback services. Fortunately, it turned out that the storm
damaged only the power supplies for the drives, not the drives themselves. We have replaced the
power supplies and playback is back to normal.
We lost our air conditioning system during the several days when the temperatures rose to over
100 degrees. Playback was interrupted for several hours when temperatures rose to over 90
degrees in the building. A repair service got the system working the next day.
0
2009 PEGASYS Equipment from Operating Budget
Item # Description
I Building Water Fountain Replacement [ RKG Plumbing and Heating]
2 Coby 2.1 Channel DVD
3 Pyro AN Link w/o Elements Model # API - 558 -EFS
4 Samson XLR -M to XLR -F Cables 18' 3 -pak
5 SVHS Cable M -M 25' Model # SV4- SV4 -25
6 SVHS Cable M -F 25' Model # SV4- SV4F -25
7 Bescor KLK -623DK On Camera Light Kit
8 Logitech Elite 825B Stereo Headphones
9 Sony NP -QM91D Info- Lithium Battery Pack
Educational Access: LACS
25 Logitech Elite 825B Stereo Headphones
26 Firewire cable 6pin 4 pin, 14 feet,
27 Firewire cable 6pin S 4 pin, 6 feet,
28 MonsterO MusicShare MINI -Y ST -2F Audio Splitter
29 Western Digital 500 GB My Book External Hard Drive
30 LaCie 20x d2 DVD±RW with LightScribe FireWire, Double Layer and Toast 8
31 WD External Hard Drive 400 GB
32 SanDisc USB 2.0 Flash Drive 8 GB
Subtotal
10% Tax / Freight
Total
Unit Price
Quantity
Total Price
$800.00
$24.50
2
$49.00
$127.80
2
$255.60
$17.74
3
$53.22
$7.50
5
$37.50
$7.50
5
$37.50
$71.18
6
$427.08
$11.26
10
$112.60
$94.89
4
$379.56
$11.26 6
$8.41 1
$3.75 2
$6.70 5
$89.00 1
$114.99 1
$80.00 6
$23.95 1
PEG Access Equipment Spending vs. Fund Accrual During Current Franchise Period [2004 - 2013]
Report for 2004 - 2009
PEG Access Collections ($.15)
2005
PEG Access Collections ($.15)
2006
PEG Access Collections ($.15)
2007
PEG Access Collections ($.15)
2008
PEG Access Collections ($.15)
$22,768.04 PEG Access Equipment Spending
$20,144.93 PEG Access Equipment Spending
$67.56
$8.41
$7.50
$33.50
$89.00
$114.99
$480.00
$23.95
$2,976.97
$171.16
$3,148.13
$19,372.15
$14,814.73
2006
$19,616.00 PEG Access Equipment Spending $0.00
2007
$20,609.90 PEG Access Equipment Spending $19,338.81
2008
$25,724.78 PEG Access Equipment Spending $11,749.14
2009 2009
PEG Access Collections ($.15) $14,805.59 PEG Access Equipment Spending $17,954.00
PEG Access Equipment Spending $3,148.13
JromMperatingSudget
Total $123,669.24 $86,376.96
Note: Peg Access collections repr. $.15 /mo. from the City, Town of Ithaca, Cayuga Heights