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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2013-08-05Access Oversight Committee (AOC) minutes MONDAY, August 5, 2013, 4:30 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green St., Ithaca, NY (as approved September 16, 2013) Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, chair Rich DePaolo, liaison from Common Council (City of Ithaca) J.R. Clairborne, vice -chair Wies van Leuken; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli; Chris Wheatley, manager, TV and Radio Operations, Ithaca College. O1. Call to Order by R. DePaolo at 4:40. 02. Aizenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval Minutes of the June 3, 2013 meeting. Minutes approved with one change, 4 to 0. 05.2014 Budget reports from municipalities. The City of Ithaca, the Village of Cayuga Heights and the Town of Ithaca have all approved the AOC's recommendations for the 2014 budget as submitted. 06. Access Studio Coordinator Report [attached]. a. Semi - Annual Usage Fees Report (paid by producers from non - participating communities). Total collection through June of this year is $240.00, of which $120 is past due. The Committee asked the Coordinator how this will be remedied. She expects the payments to be made in the future. b. Status of 2013 Budget's purchases. Quotes have been obtained [see attached]. Stefanelli will know when to expect the items only when she is able to get a purchase order. Van Leuken expressed concern about the malfunctioning cameras. Problems do not show up on the camera's viewfinders because they record only what is on its way to the tape, not what is on it. When things go wrong you do not know it until after the shoot. Van Leuken is concerned about the discouraging effect of this on producers, especially new ones. c. AOC approves the changed studio hours on August 12, but is concerned about future city meetings that may require additional changes in schedule. Any changes in the schedule require prior approval of the AOC. 07. Member Reports a. Migration of PEG channels to digital channels. Customers now need a cable box to view the PEG channels on Channel 13, 14 and 16. New TVs receive the PEG channels on Channel 97 -3, 97 -4, 97 -5 without a cable box. The new person in Time Warner Cable (TWC) in charge of government relations is David Whalen, David.Whalen @twcable.com (rather than Thomas Doheny as previously). DePaolo will ask Whalen to have TWC put a slide on channels 13, 15, and 16 explaining to viewers how to receive the digital channels. b. Distribution of AOC's Handout for Producers. Stefanelli hands this out to new producers and at orientations. . P! - - 1 - • I I 1 - ((((((((((((((((((((((((((( �(�(�(�(�(((�(�(�((�(�(((�((�►� f� 1 c. Public Visibility of PEG (update) and PEGASYS PR handout. These flyers advertise PEGASYS and its training possibilities. Stefanelli keeps a supply in the Studio. Van Leuken asked the AOC members to assist with their distribution. d. Tompkins County's Funding Request. End equipment for the County's fiber -optic hookup in its new building has been purchased from the 2013 budget (not $7000 but $5800, because the quote came in lower), and the wiring is done. The AOC is concerned that this purchase was made without a specified request that AOC asked for from the County. The Budget's line for this item was a place holder only. DePaolo will check his correspondence with the County. We will continue discussions on this next month. The County's first broadcast is Aug. 6. e. Publicity for PEG programs. Anne Marie Cummings is willing to write a newspaper story for Tompkins Weekly about PEG; what should she say? Van Leuken will ask her to contact DePaolo. - DePaolo mentions that the draft franchise agreement for the next period asks for the PEG program schedule to be included in the on- screen Channel Guide. f. Current use of equipment and program production. Tabled till next meeting. g. Producer's costs to produce programs. Van Leuken: years ago a producer could make a program without incurring costs, even tapes could be borrowed to tape programs. Is this still possible? Stefanelli: live shows are still free to make. One of the things AOC added to the 2014 budget was additional cards for the new cameras. When I give a class, I let people borrow tapes. But anybody who wants to edit a show over a period of time needs an external hard drive. This might cost $69 for 1 Terabyte. We have some hard drives for lending. Nobody has been turned away. h. Review of PEGASYS's Policies and Procedures. For next meeting. Stefanelli will send the old text from 2000 and the new draft text to all members. [These were sent immediately after the meeting.] 08. Old Business a. Use of staff time for Production and Transmission Services will be removed from future agendas, as it is being dealt with as part of the new franchise. b. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo gave an update on the new Franchise Agreement. The franchise is pretty much ready to be given to TWC. c. Equipment Recipients' reports. This refers to those schools that have PEG equipment: are they providing TV shows for cablecast? DePaolo will talk to the Lehman Alternative Community School in September. LACS has a new principal. Stefanelli: LACS hasn't yet given us this year's Middle East Debate which they traditionally organize and cablecast. 09. New Business. None. 10. Next meeting: 4:30 p.m., Monday, September 16, 2013. C 2 - /� - (II - (� - • 1 - 1 - I (I(((1((1111 "P!! "I'll 1 11. Adjournment at 6:05 p.m. Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary. Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2 @cornell.edu> City of Ithaca: Michael Brutvan <mbrutvan @me.com> City of Ithaca: J. R. Clairborne, Common Council liaison 2013 - <jclairbo @cityofithaca.org> Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd @richdepaolo.com> Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4 @comell.edu> 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> C 3 Cable (Access ® versight (Committee(Meeting(Minute To: AOC July- August 2013 Access Studio Coordinator Report - Reports PEGASYS Usage Fees 2013 [paid and overdue] Name Municipality Jan -June 2013 Michael Angley Ann Krajewski Henry King Anthony Harding Gary Tracy Bev Abplanalp Bryan vanCampen Subtotal Ulysses Caroline Dryden Dryden Newfield Lansing Dryden - PEGASYS Hours $40.00 $40.00 $40.00 $40.00 $40.00 $40.00 $40.00 $280.00 Status PAID PAID DUE DUE PAID DUE am gust(6,(2013C Due to a rescheduled City meeting, PEGASYS will change our regular hours on Monday, August 12 from 5:30- 9:30pm to 1 — 5 pm. All producers will be notified and all affected producers will be rescheduled. - Equipment Repair The X10 camcorder [ #48] has had new recording heads installed and has been returned to service in July. Another X10 camcorder [ #50] was returned with problems reported during the Grassroots Festival. The mic was broken and will be sent out for service. The camcorder was cleaned and repeatedly tested good, and has been returned to service. - PEG Channels on the Cable System As of July 23, PEG channels have been available as digital channels only. Time Warner is providing free digital adapters for those with analog TVs and no cable boxes. Those with digital [QAM] tuners were given the instruction to have their tuners rescan to find the digital channel locations for the PEG channels [97 -3, 4 and 5]. We have had some inquiries from producers and viewers about this, as well as institutional producers, who often have an older TV as an on -air monitor with no cable box. At PEGASYS, we have installed digital adapters or re- programmed QAM as needed, and we have helped inform producers, viewers and institutions about this issue. - Institutional Access Tompkins County Legislature will cablecast its first meeting from its new building on 8/6. PEGASYS Capital Quotes have been obtained for all capital items in the 2013 budget, and the budget has been submitted for purchasing. AOC member Mike Brutvan requested additional items after the June meeting. He needs to meet with me to have them added. C C C 4