HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2012-04-10City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes
Apr. 10, 2012 (as approved May 8, 2012)
The PEGASYS Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:35 pm on Tuesday,
Apr. 10, 2012, in the PEGASYS studio, 612 W. Green St., Ithaca, NY.
Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, Mike Brutvan, Cynthia Brock, 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) Agenda Additions and /or Deletions: none.
3) Minutes of the Mar. 13, 2012 meeting: approved without changes.
4) Public Comment: none.
5) Access Studio Coordinator Report. Attached (p. 3 -4 below).
a. Recommendations for 2013 Capital Budget.
It now appears that the County Legislature will move from the Courthouse to the
Old Jail building by Jan. 1, 2013 (and will want to broadcast its meetings from there).
Re the 2013 Budget Draft: we are considering 2 all- weather cameras at $300 each
and some microphone stands. The 5 new tripods have to be bought at the same time as
the 5 new cameras so as to fit them.
The present new generation of cameras takes pictures at the aspect ratio used by HD
(High Definition) TV, namely 16: 9. (The older Standard D was 4: 3, or 720 pixels by
480 pixels, so not as wide.) The new cameras can "down- convert" the pictures but not
entirely satisfactorily. We expect "dual- definition" cameras to be available in 2013.
6) PEGASYS Capital Budget 2013.
a. Review /Approval of requests by Educational and Government Institutions: no
requests were received.
b. Review Draft Budget: We decided to move the purchase of cameras to 2013, by
which time more - usable tapeless models should be available. A modified version of the
2012 budget and a proposed 2013 budget are attached below (p. 4). AOC will need to
pass this budget by May, so that three municipalities (City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca,
Village of Cayuga Heights) can pass it by June and then TWC (Time Warner Cable) can
set it up by July. The City Administration Committee meets the 4th week of May, and
should take up the budget at that time and send it on to Common Council in time for the
latter's June meeting. We (AOC) decided to vote on the budget at our May 8 meeting.
7) Member Reports.
a. Use of staff time for Production and Transmission services. R. DePaolo has met
with City Attorney Aaron O. Levine, and will update him on this issue.
2
b. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from Town: DePaolo will send latest info to
AOC.
c. Loss of Channels 13, 15 and 16 by some digital subscribers: no further
developments.
d. Report on Concept Planning Meeting with Ithaca City School District: On
Friday, Mar. 23, L. Stefanelli and several members of AOC (DePaolo, Van Leuken,
Browne) met with Superintendent Luvelle Brown and teacher Fe Nunn in the
Superintendent's office. Dr. Brown and Mr. Nunn are highly interested in broadcasting on
the educational channel, and will get in touch re concrete programming. It was suggested
that Nunn also contact Ithaca College TV about sharing channel 16, the educational
channel. Since that meeting, Brown has taken on Joe Scaglione as consultant and
Scaglione has written several a -mails to Stefanelli. [Two episodes of ICSD TV and
several other items are now available on YouTube: see
http:// www. youtube.com/watch ?v= 0xrH8rEJObk and also hit the tab "26 videos. "]
8) Review effect of Change in Studio Schedule (1 to 5 Wednesday afternoon
instead of Wed. evening): AOC agreed (1 abstention) to continue Wed. afternoon hours
for the May to August period. Scheduling will be reviewed at the July AOC meeting.
9) New Business:
a. Course Enrollment and New Programs: Stefanelli will report at the May meeting.
(To Brutvan:) More and more producers are interested in putting their programs on
YouTube or Vimeo; this includes almost all the recently - arrived producers. Brutvan is
requested to carry out a survey.
b. Publicity for PEGASYS programming: discussion next month. AOC members
may do well to meet the publisher of the Ithaca Journal at one of his monthly Monday
lunchtime meetings.
c. Programming produced by schools that have received PEGASYS equipment.
None from Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS) except for their yearly Mid
East debates. DePaolo will invite an LACS representative to the May or June AOC
meeting.
10) Next Meeting: Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 4:30 p.m.
11) Adjourned 6:03.
Contact information for AOC members:
Cynthia Brock, Common Council liaison <cbrock @cityofithaca.org>
Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2 @comell.edu>
Rich DePaolo, chair <rd @richdepaolo.com>
Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4 @cornell.edu>
Michael Brutvan <mbrutvan @me.com>
Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules:
http:// pegasys.webstarts.com/index.httnl
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>
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To: AOC April 2012
Access Studio Coordinator Report
- Volunteer News
The PEGASYS Awards ceremony was held on on March 16th, in a live
cablecast on channel 13. Awards were given in 11 categories. 4 overall winners
were sent on at Time Warner's expense to the national Hometown Video Festival
competition. The event was written up in the March 26 edition of the Tompkins
Weekly, including a complete winners' list and color photo.
- PEGASYS Facility
The PEGASYS control room has had a reorganization of its media racks.
Several no- longer- supported media formats were removed [Hi8, UMatic], and
several new media formats were added [Digital Media Players, hard drive
recorder]. Two additional larger color preview monitors were added, to facilitate
seeing the menus of these digital devices. Everything was re- arranged and re-
labeled according to our plan; all media has been re- cabled with newly -made
cables. Extra inputs were maintained in the studio and control room for producers
bringing in their own devices [laptops, iPods, camcorders].
Our front entrance is now nice and bright at night, thanks to the recent
rewiring of the 2 light fixtures.
The studio air conditioner failed at the first sign of warm weather in March.
The compressor has just been replaced, bringing the A/C back on line there.
- Equipment Repair
Our new digital card camcorder that was sent out for repair last month has
returned. Although it was an instance of negligent damage by a producer, the
manufacturer covered the repair fully under warranty. Yeah!
Our new laptop, which stopped powering up a month after it arrived, has also
been repaired while under warranty and is now back in service.
One of our [$1000] channel on -air monitors died. It was replaced without cost
by one taken out of service in another area.
Our studio preview monitor seemed to be dying. After investigating, our
engineer is convinced that the problem is the modulator feeding it. He will be
replacing this modulator with a spare shortly, which should resolve this problem.
- Educational and Governmental Access News
Along with several members of the AOC, I met with ICSD superintendent
Brown and Fe Nunn on March 23. They are interested in doing more
programming on channel 16, a proposal we all welcomed warmly. I have been
contacted by their video consultant, who promises to bring in some programming
in the near future.
LACS did their annual Mid -East debates, using the PEGASYS video
equipment in their new auditorium. They promise to deliver a 5 -hour program of
this event soon.
I have been contacted by reps from Tompkins County about advising them
on upgrading their video facilities to coordinate with their move to a new building.
No other institutions have contacted me about equipment, or funding for
equipment, for PEG programming.
2012 PEGASYS Capital Budget Draft (modified)
Tompkins County fiber link end equipment $7,000
Shelving for new portable training / storage room
4 units, 2' deep, 4' wide, 6' high @$220 $880
Peg board with hooks for cables $50
Installation, including moving some existing built -ins $250
Adobe Premiere Upgrade of all units to CS5.5
2 Upgrades from Premiere CS3 @299 $598
1 Upgrade from Production Premium CS3 $399
1 Upgrade from Premiere 5.0 $179
Windows Upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows XP
3 Upgrades from Windows XP @199 $597
Ram upgrades [3] @100 $300
Contingency $4,747
Total $15,000.00
2013 PEGASYS Capital Budget Draft
New fleet tapeless camcorders [5 units] $15,000
Camcorder accessories [batteries, cases, etc] $3,000
New tripods [5 units] $3,000
Replacement contingencies $5,000
Assistance to institutions to provide PEG Programming $5,000
Total $31,000.00