The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2010-12-15Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes Dec. 15, 2010 (as approved Jan. 12, 2011) The Cable Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:40 pm on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010, in the PEGASYS studio, 612 W. Green St, Ithaca, NY. Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, Svante Myrick, Mike Brutvan, Wies van Leuken, chair Rich DePaolo; 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 Nov. 10, 2010 meeting were approved with small changes. 3) Public comment: None. 4) Member Reports. a. Reports on quarterly franchise fee payments to City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, and Village of Cayuga Heights: Svante Myrick has received reports for all but one quarter from City Comptroller Steve Thayer; Wies van Leuken will tabulate the data. R. DePaolo says a new Town finance director is about to come in; hopes to get a year -end report while the old director is still there. Village: van Leuken will meet with the Cayuga Heights mayor. b. Chair report on Correction of TWC's Subscriber Fee Statement ( "PEG Fees "). DePaolo: the Town has received a letter from Time Warner Cable (TWC) confirming that fees weren't subtracted and that therefore some money will need to go back to TWC. Presumably the City and Village have received similar letters. AOC will need to think ahead about the future (post -2013) franchise. AOC itself will not negotiate this, but can provide information useful for negotiators. Myrick will try to set up a meeting with Comptroller Thayer and van Leuken to discuss the lack of separate accounting in TWC for PEGASYS operations, as well as plans for the future franchise. c. Use of staff time for Production, as distinguished from Transmission, Services. Transmission services should be provided free of charge by TWC under the law. Production services for programming should be covered by the 0.5% deduction from the Franchise Fee, which we estimate to be approx. 4 extra hours of staff time per week. This could result in the studio being open to the public one more day per week. Van Leuken will draft a letter to TWC asking it to cover 4 hours /week transmission services. d. Internet access for producers to use. Mike Brutvan has got one quote so far, from Finger Lakes Technologies, of $100 /month for 10 megabits /sec of data. Discussion to be continued at next meeting; we will then present a proposal to Thomas Doheny, TWC manager. 5) Studio Manager L. Stefanelli's report: presented in writing (appended). Discussion of the report: the equipment being installed was received in October; engineer Paul Cullings hopes to install the new audio board by the end of December. Since ICSD has not yet picked up the controller offered to it back in October, AOC requested Stefanelli to contact Joe Scaglione of ICSD and give him the opportunity to get it before Jan. 15. Otherwise, Chris Sperry of LACS can use it. Stefanelli: The City of Ithaca's internet (low- resolution) mpg file of video from city meetings is scrollable with a scroll bar on browser screens, and different parts of it an be keyed to the individual agenda items from the meeting. Resolution of thanks to TWC engineer Paul Cullings: the AOC decided to express its gratitude for Mr. Cullings's work. W. Browne drafted the following resolution. It was moved by van Leuken, seconded by Myrick, and adopted unanimously (5 -0). It will be signed by AOC members at the January meeting and presented to the honoree. "Whereas, engineer Paul Cullings has installed, repaired, and maintained PEG equipment for many years, Whereas, his selfless behind - the - scenes work has not always drawn public attention, Now Therefore, the Access Oversight Committee publicly expresses its heartfelt thanks to Mr. Cullings and wishes him many more successful years. Leuken Rich DePaolo, chair, Michael Brutvan, vice chair, Svante Myrick, Wayles Browne, Wies van Ithaca, January 12, 2011." 6) Old Business Meeting date to discuss Ithaca College's use of public access channel: we decided we should invite Ithaca College TV's Carol Jennings to ADC's next meeting, January 12. Annual Review of studio procedures, staffing, hours of operation and usage fees: discussion. The usage fees (paid by producers from outside the three participating municipalities, i.e. outside the City and Town of Ithaca and the Village of Cayuga Heights) from the year 2010, plus the backlog collected in previous years, were all spent on hiring Michael Cederstrom to replace L. Stefanelli during her scheduled vacations. Should AOC increase the fees? For now, no; not many producers actually come from outside the three municipalities, so the increase in income would not be large. M. Brutvan will poll producers on the topic of increasing the fees, making voluntary contributions, or having the studio remain closed when Stefanelli is absent. Implementation of Resolution on Encore Programs (passed Nov. 10, 2010): the text will be put in a letter to all producers. 7) New Business: TWC needs to renew the domain name for the PEGASYS web site! Will be discussed in January. Also for next meeting: elections. 8) Next meeting: Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, 4:30. Place: PEGASYS studio. 9) Meeting adjourned 6:20. To: AOC December 2010 Access Studio Coordinator Report - Capital We have continued to install equipment received under the 2010 budget. The new character generator has been installed in our control room, running alongside the old Inscriber computer so that people can make a gradual transition before the old system is removed. The new audio board should be installed by the end of this month. The new surge protector has been installed to better protect our playback equipment. - Institutional Access LACS and ICSD have been informed that they would each be receiving parts of the old City Hall equipment package. I have met with Chris Sperry of LACS and consulted a bit on their setup in the new auditorium and their remaining equipment needs. They have received the old cameras, some monitors and a video switcher. ICSD has not yet picked up its controller. The City of Ithaca has contracted with Leightronix, maker of their new U1traNEXUS playback system, to host files of city meetings for use on their website. When our videographer cablecasts a live city meeting, he now makes 2 mpg files — a hi -res one for playback on channel 15 and a to -res one for Internet use. - Building Repair and Maintenance Report We had a problem with a camcorder returned from service, which turned out to be still broken. It was sent back and since returned again, this time really fixed. A loose AC cord on a distribution amplifier cut audio from the studio, shutting down 1 live program. Our engineer found the problem the next business day. The live show was re- scheduled and cablecast the following week. - PR Tony Ingraham wrote a wonderful article about his experience producing public access programs for an on -line magazine for naturalists. Here's the link: http: / /onlinelegacy. org /2010/ 11 /tell - your - story -on- public- access/ 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&cornell.edu> Michael Brutvan, vice chair <noidea @lightlink.com >, <mbrutvan @mac,com> Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules: http://www.pegasysaccess.or 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.stefanelliktwcable.com