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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2014-10-13 1 Access Oversight Committee (AOC) minutes Monday, October 13, 2014, 4:30 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY As approved November 3, 2014 Present: chair Rich DePaolo, AOC members Wayles Browne, vice-chair Wies van Leuken, Michael Brutvan; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. Absent: Liaison from Common Council (City of Ithaca) J.R. Clairborne. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo 4:45. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none 03. Public Comments: none 04. Approval Minutes of the September 15, 2014 Meeting: approved 4 to 0 with slight changes. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report: attached. a. Recommendations for 2015 Budget: for the November meeting. Studio manager Stefanelli will draft budget recommendations that include equipment and services to archive programs, internet connection and facility improvements (painting), improvements to the teaching space and a projector, audio equipment for recording. She will check with her colleagues about removing the unused analog editing equipment. b. PEGASYS Operations during September & October, 2014. The AOC agreed that Mike provided excellent services when he substituted for Stefanelli while she was out of the office. There is concern that his hourly fee has remained the same during the years that he filled in during absences. c. Recommendations for Facility Improvements. Stefanelli will provide recommendations at the next meeting. AOC noted that PEG has monophonic sound, whereas it should transmit in stereo. Stefanelli will ask the Time Warner Cable (TWC) Engineering Department how to change to stereo. d. Complete Usage Report. Stefanelli provided a detailed Usage Fee Report, attached below, that shows a balance of $54.20 for substitute staff. 06. Member Reports a. Annual Review Business Hours, Usage Fees, Staffing Levels. AOC lacks sufficient information from TWC to make recommendations on hours of operations and staffing levels. We would need revenue and payroll information, as described in the present Franchise Agreement,Sections 15.4 & 15.12, and City Ordinance 18.4C and 18.4F. Rich will request this information. The AOC decided to keep to keep the Usage Fees at present levels. b. Meeting with TWC’s Director of Government Relations: Follow-Up. DePaolo has followed up on his previous Email to D.G.R. David Whalen summarizing the items discussed during the conference call with him (during the July 14, 2014 meeting). No reply yet. c. Report 9/3/14 Common Council Meeting RE TWC-Comcast Merger: tabled for next month. d. Publicity: TWC's PEG supervisor Gary Black 2 and his boss Montesano (they visited on Aug. 7) are trying to get the schedules of Ithaca PEG channels onto the Channel Guide. 2 Stefanelli will ask them again. (David Whalen had said during the 7/14/14 conference call that that should be no additional financial burden for TWC) e. PEG’s place in the community. Radio station WRFI has now employed a (part-time) manager, Felix Teitelbaum. The AOC wants to ask him about possible collaboration and has sent him an invitation via Facebook to come to the next meeting. f. Public Comment Session at 3/3/14 Meeting: Follow-Up. Van Leuken presented comments that Tony Ingraham made, namely that some viewers can't watch PEG after the switch from channels 13, 15, 16 to channels 97-3, -4, -5. g. Quality of PEG Cablecasts: Follow-Up. Stefanelli: I haven't yet been able to get information about how signal quality can be measured. AOC suspects there are multiple layers of conversion of signal formats before the signal finally goes out on the cable. It would be useful to have Engineering examine the layers and see what is lost at each one. Stefanelli will inquire to get this information. DePaolo: the current franchise agreement says merely "quality not less than FCC requires." The proposed new franchise language asks for quality control. h. Comments on PEGASYS' Policies and Procedures Manual. Van Leuken reviewed Stefanelli's comments on the 6/2014 Manual. Many of the comments improve the document but she is concerned about the introduction of the word 'programmer' to cover both between 'producer' and 'provider' (of pre-recorded programs) thus removing the distinction. AOC members suggested that the 2 terms could still be used in the manual while replaced by “programmer” in the Manual’s forms (and explained in a footnote). TWC uses these standard forms throughout the NE Region. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo: I will have information at the next meeting. b. Migration PEG channels: no further separate reports. This was included in the conference call with Mr. Whalen, see Item 6b. c. Repairs to PEGASYS’ entrance are underway: see attached Access Studio Coordinator Report. 08. New Business: W. Browne visited the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. Park School technician Peter Earle is willing to show other AOC members around too. The school has very large and impressive TV and other media facilities. IC students have a community service requirement--perhaps they could be interns, or help the public, or help or teach skills to PEG producers. DePaolo will talk to Chris Wheatley about this possibility. 09. Next meeting: 4:30 PM, Monday, November 3. 10. Adjournment: 7:05. 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 2014 <jclairbo@cityofithaca.org> Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com> 3 Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4@cornell.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> 4 PEGASYS Usage Fees Expenditures v. Collections Report 2014 Starting Balance January 2014 - $10.60 Total Usage Fee Collections to date $380.00 Still due for 2014 $180.00 Total Funds Available for 2014 [to date] $560.00 Total Expenditures for temp staff 2014 [pay rate $12; bill rate $14.05] 9/18 [Thu] 4 hrs $56.20 Week 0f 9/22-25 [Mon/Thu] 8 hrs $112.40 Week of 9/29-10/2 [Mon/Tue/Thu] 12 hrs $168.60 Week of 10/6-9 [Mon/Tue/Wed] 12 hrs $168.60 Total expenditures $505.80 Total remaining for 2015: $54.20 October 2014 Access Studio Coordinator Report - Educational and Governmental Access News Ithaca High School has produced 2 football games, with multiple cameras and sports commentators. They look terrific and may open a new era in high school programming. - Public Access Producer News Several new producers completed first shows last month. A producer covered a veterans motorcycle ride honoring Vietnam War Vets. Another new producer completed a show on the local arts scene. A local documentary producer, Rachel Ferro, shared her wonderful documentary, “Tell Me the Day Backwards.” A new series produced outside the area but with a local sponsor is called “Girls Talk TV,” featuring African American women’s issues. On the drawing board: Ithaca Times reporters are considering doing a reporters’ roundtable discussion to go over the week’s local news. - Equipment and Facility Maintenance and Repair Entranceway improvement: work has started on the conversion of our entranceway to a new configuration that addresses safety concerns. PEGASYS Operations During Staff Vacation Mike Cederstrom acted as substitute staff during my vacation with no problems reported.