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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2010-10-19Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes Oct. 19, 2010 (as approved Nov. 10, 2010) The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:40 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010, in the PEGASYS studio, 612 W. Green St., Ithaca, NY. Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, chair Rich DePaolo, Wies van Leuken; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli; Chris Sperry. 0) Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary. 1) Rich DePaolo called the meeting to order. 2) Public comment: Presentation by Chris Sperry (Lehman Alternative Community School). The Request: LACS requests 4 remote cameras, a Digital Video Recorder, a DVD burner, four 9" monitors, and related equipment (see list below) from PEGASYS in order to create a permanent facility designed to enable teachers, classes, student organizations and other LACS groups to easily video performances and event that can be aired on Community Access TV. These will include from 2 to 4 LACS Drama productions per year, the annual LACS Middle East Debates, multiple musical performances, student academic performances in English, science, social studies and other disciplines, senior performances and a host of other school wide events and demonstrations. After checking with 1/3 of the LACS staff we quickly generated a list of more than 30 hours of "committed" annual programming as well as many exciting and creative future possibilities (see listing at bottom). And this is just the programming we can easily anticipate with the new facility and equipment. Given our long history with Community Access TV I anticipated there will be additional creative applications of this new facility that we have not yet envisioned. LACS's History with Community Access: The Lehman Alternative Community School has been producing Community Access programming for three decades as part of our commitment to student voice and community involvement. Since the mid eighties LACS has funded the staffing of at least one class period of video production and, in the early nineties, created space for a video editing facility. In the nineteen eighties I worked with ACS high school students to create and broadcast the monthly program, Route 13. The program lasted for a decade, won many Cable Awards, and was an important learning experience for many students. LACS teacher Karl Madeo took over the video program in the nineties and produced hundreds of hours of PEGASYS programming, again inspiring another generation of young people, many of who have gone on to produce media professionally. This work would not have been possible without the equipment and support provided by Cable Access. Karl Madeo's retired in 2006 and we struggled to keep the video program running. We had a temporary position (Mustafa Ali) funded by the ICSD and Ithaca College, and some LACS staff offered video projects, but without a dedicated video production staff member at LACS the program, the facility, and the programming suffered. Then in 2008 Mike Levy, a new LACS English teacher, jumped in to the program with both feet. Mike now teaches the high school video production/English class, facilitates the LACS Media Team committee, supports video production in other classes, and oversees the delivery of programming to PEGASYS. With Mike's leadership we will grow what is now more than 25 years of LACS Community Access programming. The Limitations: Since I began my media production work at ACS in 1978 the school has wanted 2 to regularly video class performances, school events and student presentations. Although there was sincere interest on the part of staff, students, and administration, the infrastructure did not exist to make this a reality. The overcrowding of the school building allowed no place to set up a permanent video production space that teachers and groups could reserve. We had to set up and break down a portable studio for every production. As a result only the most high profile events were taped. Only the video production teachers (one or two of us) were able to deal with the complex equipment set up (and inevitable complications) and were willing to put in the time to negotiate classroom space with other teachers and set up and take down the equipment. Now, for the first time in the history of the school, that can change. New Facilities: Four years ago the community passed a Bond that funded the expansion of the LACS facility. This winter LACS will open its own theatre in our former gym. Based on a suggestion from Lauren Stefanelli we planned to outfit this space with permanent video production capacity using remote control cameras from PEGASYS. I have been working with the LACS Drama program and the architects for the renovation to create a small, secure video, audio and lighting control booth in the theatre. The ICSD has funded and will install the programmable audio and lighting. With this set up, LACS classes, projects and other school groups will be able to sign out the theatre and produce video programming of events relatively easily. One sing[l]e, trained student will be able to facilitate the video production of school events. The majority of LACS teachers that I have spoken to have agreed to video class events one or more times throughout the year for broadcasting on Community Access. Mike Levy will work with his video class and the LACS Media Team to train enough students to met the demand for student producers. The Equipment: In order to make this plan a reality LACS requests the following equipment from Community Access: - 4 remote control cameras (Sony VVI= -D30), AC adaptors, mounts and remotes - sufficient cabling (control and video) to connect cameras to controller - 4 monitors (Panasonic TR990c) - Digital Video Recorder (TBD) and DVD burner (TBD) NOTE: we should be able to use our existing video switcher. Audio and lighting equipment will be provided by the ICSD. We do not see a pressing need for the Crestron Controller that has been requested for other ICSD production needs by Joe Scaglione. The Future: LACS and the ICSD has made the commitment to build and staff a 21 st century video production facility at our school that will allow us to share with the Tompkins County community some of our school's best performances, projects, demonstrations and events. In addition we hope to utilize the facilities for taping components of student graduation portfolios, a key component of LACS's Graduation By Exhibition structure. I am also interested in piloting the taping of classroom examples of new instructional methodologies that can be used for staff development within the ICSD and that could be aired on Access TV. This collaborative vision of an expanded relationship between LACS and Community Access TV is close to being a reality but dependent upon the equipment and ongoing support of PEGASYS and Cable Access. Chris Sperry: LACS Social Studies /English/Media Teacher [presented in writing] From oral presentation: This request is separate from Mike Levy's proposal for equipment for his video class, which was granted for the present year. Levy's requested equipment has arrived during the past month. Some cameras, a switcher, and monitors already exist; there is personnel to install the newly requested equipment. The remote control cameras mentioned by Sperry are those formerly used by the City of Ithaca; the DVD burners, cables, other equipment, as well as the titler (still being discussed with Studio Manager Stefanelli) would be new. W. van Leuken: What is the price for the new equipment? Stefanelli: ICSD [the Ithaca City School District] wants the old remote controller, but there has to be a line of sight from the control room to each camera. LACS should plan on adding a controller for the future (and no longer needing a line of sight). Consider whether cables can be added later on behind walls. R. DePaolo: In order to decide, AOC needs to know how much funding is needed. Stefanelli: I can get a quote from Audio -Video Corp. LACS already has lights and sound equipment in the theater. [Sperry has to leave.] AOC has $3000 already allocated in the budget proposal. The AOC proceeded to consider a list of equipment presently available for redistribution, presented by Studio Manager Stefanelli: a) 4 Sony EVI -D30 Cameras "SN: 141212, 141317, 141209, 141210" with Sony AC -EV2 AC Adapters with remote controls b) 3 Ceiling mounts C) 1 "Crestron Controller System, including:" Crestron ST -1550 Controller Crestron ST -DS base station with AC Adapter Crestron CNMSX -AV Control Processor Crestron Transmitter CNRFGWA d) 1 50' VISCA cable e) 1 15' VISCA cable f) 4 "Panasonic TR990c 9 "" Monitors" "SN: FS9448252, FS9446547, FS9446567, FS9446776" "with AC cord, BNC in /out" g) I Videonics NIX 4 -input video switcher It was decided by a vote of 2 -0 with 1 abstention to let LACS have items a, b, f, and g for its proposed permanent video facility, and by a vote of 3 to 0 to let the school board (ICSD) have items c, d, and e for use in broadcasting its meetings. 3) The minutes of the Sept. 14, 2010 meeting were approved with small changes. 4) Member Reports. - Chair's report on Correction of TWC's Subscriber Fee Statement ( "PEG fees ") and on TWC's correction for not deducting 0.5% for PEGASYS from its Quarterly Franchise Fee payments to the City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, and Village of Cayuga Heights: DePaolo has e- mailed TWC manager Thomas Doheny. El - Quarterly franchise fee payments to City, Town and Village: DePaolo has asked the Town finance administrator for data; still awaiting a reply. He has, further, e- mailed City Common Council Liaison S. Myrick to ask about Myrick's own availability for meetings and about City financial data. - Internet access for producers to use and - Policy on encore programs: to be taken up with M. Brutvan at the next meeting. 5) Studio Manager L. Stefanelli's report: presented in writing. [See Appendix.] - Meeting date to discuss Ithaca College's use of the public access channel: she has not heard back from IC TV, despite lengthy efforts to find the proper person to contact. - There is now a new media arts center in the old Videosound building on Rt 79 East (1458 Slaterville Road), offering courses for children in video and other media. It has the website http: / /www.spvr.com/ithaca- media /index.html. She hopes to contact them and report back at our next meeting about possibilities for cooperation. 6) New business: annual review of studio procedures, staffing, hours of operation and usage fees. Decided: to be left for the next meeting. 7) Next meeting: Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010, 4:30. Place: PEGASYS studio. 8) Meeting adjourned 6:00. 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 <pmv4kcornell.edu> Michael Brutvan, vicechair <noidea @lightlink.com >, <mbrutvan @mac.com> Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules: http: / /www.pegasysaccesLgig/ 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 To: AOC October 2010 Access Studio Coordinator Report - Capital Most 2010 equipment has arrived as per the list below. One PEGASYS project had to be shelved for this year due to technical considerations discovered during ordering: I had intended to update all copies of Adobe Premiere CS3 with the most current version [CS5]. However, this new version works only on Windows 7 operating system, and will not work with Windows XP, which our current computers have, so Windows would have to be upgraded as well. Then it turned out that the computers themselves would need other modifications to run Windows 7, making it most cost - efficient to replace the computers! So this requires a little re- planning. CS3 is operating perfectly on our existing systems so no users will be affected. [However CS5 has increased the range of file formats that it is compatible with.] - New Services Some of the new equipment available to producers: PEGASYS: The Mini - studio has had 3 series using it so far. Based on user input, we added a digital media player that can take flash drives or portable hard drives, and installed a larger video / audio switcher [that was once at city hall] to handle additional sources. We have 2 HD camcorders that record on video cards available for producer use along with new, smaller -size tripods. We have a second laptop with Premiere CS5. We have a portable blue screen for producer sign -out. We have a new DVD recorder and have set up a DVD to SVHS to SVS recorder dub chain for producer use. Awaiting installation are new items for our studio and playback: a new audio board, character generator and camera cable for the studio; a new surge protector and hard drive for playback. Institutions: 4 camcorders and 2 flip cameras, with accessories and hard drives, were provided to LACS for their video class. recording. The City purchased, and we installed, a DVD recorder for city meeting Cooperative Extension received new tripods and a wireless mic for their productions, and shared use of the HD camcorders. - Institutional Access I sent letters to the three institutions that expressed interest in the equipment returned from City Hall. Chris Sperry of LACS should be attending the October meeting to discuss his school's needs. I lent him a camera so he can discuss its installation needs with his building engineers. - Building Repair and Maintenance Report We had a sync problem in the studio, causing horizontal synch bands to float through the studio images. Our engineer found a faulty distribution amplifier and replaced it, correcting the problem.