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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2012-05-08Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes May 8, 2012 (as approved June 12, 2012) The PEGASYS Access Oversight Committee (AOC) met at 4:40 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 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 Apr. 10, 2012 meeting: approved with small changes. 4) Public Comment: none. 5) Programs produced by schools receiving PEGASYS equipment - presentations: none. We hope for some next month. 6) Access Studio Coordinator Report. Attached (p. 3 below). Discussion: Tompkins County reps are considering both fiber INET and Internet as means of transmitting their meeting audio -video to PEG for TV broadcast (channel 15). Re report on 2011 training classes: the newly trained persons created 3 new series, and some of them became new crew members for existing producers. We find that some trained city residents show up at PEG again after several years of inactivity. b. No significant effect from AOC passing its resolution on encore programming. 7) 2013 PEGASYS Capital Budget Recommendations to Participating Municipalities. We approved the version as follows (explanations of items provided by W. van Leuken): 2013 PEGASYS Capital Budget (Approved by the Access Oversight Committee (AOC) May 8, 2012) Replace Camcorder Fleet $15,000.00 Description: Five units @ $3,000.00 each. The current camera fleet is 10 years old and heavily used. New cameras should record to a tapeless medium and include professional audio and video features. Files should interface smoothly with Adobe Premiere. Camcorder accessories $3,000.00 Description: accessories such as batteries, cases, mike stands, cables Tripods $3,000.00 Description: Five units 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. TOTAL $31,000.00 2 Resolution (moved by Brock, seconded by Browne) Access Oversight Committee Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Approval of FY 2013 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 2013 in the amount of $31,000.00 at their regular meeting of May 8, 2012, 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 8) Member Reports. a. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from City, Town, and Village: Van Leuken has received the latest report (first quarter of 2012) from the Village of Cayuga Heights. Reports from the City of Ithaca and Town of Ithaca will be forthcoming. b. Use of staff time for Production and Transmission services. R. DePaolo will again be in touch with the City Attorney on this issue. c. Loss of Channels 13, 15 and 16 by some digital subscribers: DePaolo has written to TWC (Time Warner Cable) manager Thomas Doheny asking for clarification. No further developments. d. Survey of Producers. For next month M. Brutvan will survey producers about their degree of interest in putting their programs on line, and on whether they'd be willing to contribute toward getting an Internet connection. 9) Old Business: Publicity for PEG programming. Van Leuken asked Ithaca Journal publisher Bruce Estes why PEG isn't listed in the Journal's TV lineup. He said 1) we used to get inaccurate info; 2) a company in Texas prepares the lineup now; 3) he'll be happy to publicize items like training classes for producers and particular interesting programs. Scheduled vacations for studio manager Lauren Stefanelli are May 28, July 2 -4, Aug. 23 -30. There is enough money in the fund from producers' fees at present to pay a temporary employee to keep the studio open for one week (could be Aug. 23 -30). 10) New Business: Brutvan sees the need to make the former website redirect to the present one. Stefanelli asks him: can you help do this? 11) Next Meeting: Tuesday June 12, 2012, 4:30 p.m. 12) Adjourned 6:20. 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.html 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> 0 To: AOC May 2012 Access Studio Coordinator Report - Educational and Governmental Access News "ICSD TV" is a new 30 -min series produced by ICSD consultants. 2 episodes played on channel 16 this month. Superintendent Brown and Fe Nunn scheduled another planning meeting with me to discuss ICSD's desire to have a greater presence on channel 16. This meeting will take place on Friday, May 11, 2:15pm at the superintendent's office. AOC members are invited to attend. Tompkins County reps have put out some feelers about having PEGASYS consult / provide equipment funds for their move to the old courthouse building. Presently, they are considering both fiber INET and internet transmission of their meeting signal. Because of this, purchasing fiber INET end equipment [as listed on our 2012 budget plan] at this time is not advisable, as an internet -based solution would not need it. City reps are trying to use their new PEGStream equipment to do webstreaming. They have also asked for PEGASYS assistance in working with the manufacturer to develop a workable process for them. - Equipment Repair A storm on Thursday, April 19, caused a power outage in the west end of Ithaca, which damaged a power supply to part of our playback system. We were down for one night on channel 13 and unable to play BOE meetings on channel 16 for one weekend. Our engineer diagnosed the problem as a bad power supply and found a replacement. By Monday, we were back in full service. No other PEGASYS equipment was out for repair this month. - Report on Course Enrollment vs. Production Activity 2011 In 2011, 32 persons took some portion of training classes. 20 of these persons took both studio and portable training, for a total of 52 persons completing training classes. Of these, 13 participated in or produced an access television program [beyond exercises for the classes]. - Report on Effect of AOC Encore Program Resolution There has been no significant difference in producer program submissions or requests since this resolution.