HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2015-04-07 1
Access Oversight Committee (AOC) minutes
Monday, April 6, 2015, 4:30 PM
Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY
As approved May 4, 2015
Present: chair Rich DePaolo, AOC members Wayles Browne, vice-chair Wies van Leuken,
Michael Brutvan, liaison from Common Council (City of Ithaca) J.R. Clairborne; studio manager
Lauren Stefanelli.
01. Call to Order: 4:42 by DePaolo.
02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none.
03. Public Comments: none.
04. Approval Minutes of the March 2, 2014 Meeting: approved without change, 3-0.
05. Access Studio Coordinator Report.
Maintenance and Repair Report: report attached. A loaner Character Generator may be available
in June to be used in the Studio while the Studio’s Compix GenCG Character Generator is sent
out for repairs.
Stefanelli asked her supervisor if PEG channels could be available on the TWC App (which
enables cable channels to be watched on wireless mobile devices). Her supervisor's boss says it's
being looked at but other networks need to be added first.
a. TWC's Recommendations for 2015/2016 Budget: No recommendations were presented
for the 2016 Budget. For recommendations for the 2015 budget see 06c, for funding for
Educational Institutions and 05e, for Recommendations for Facility Improvements.
b. Annual Subscriber Fee Report ($0.15/Subscriber/Month Revenues): report attached with
yearly totals covering 2004-2014. The report shows an unused balance of $49,371.22, not
including revenues collected in 2015, estimated at around $12,000.
c. Semi-Annual Usage Fees Report showing 2014 receipts & uses (fees paid by producers from
non-participating communities) and a 2014 balance of $43.60: report attached. Note that the "Total
Expenditures for temp staff 2014" tabulation includes time spent to keep the studio open in
Stefanelli's absence, but does not include Mike Cederstrom's work on telecasting City of Ithaca
meetings.
d. Annual Equipment Purchase Report: submitted at the September 2014 meeting.
e. Recommendations for Facility Improvements (2015 Budget): Stefanelli has received 3
quotes for the building work (painting and carpeting), as requested by AOC at the March 2015
meeting. The AOC reviewed the quotes. Preference was given for quotes from local contractors
and for those that had sufficient detail of the work to be done. Leigh C. Marshall General
Contracting met these requirements. Stefanelli mentioned that he had done work at the TWC
facilities and the AOC went over to inspect the work done and found it very satisfactory.
Stefanelli was asked to contact Marshall to ask if he could do most of the work while Stefanelli
is away June 29-July 5 and the building is closed at that time in any case and can the building be
used while he is completing the project?
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Resolution. Resolved, contingent on Leigh C. Marshall General Contracting's ability to do the
work without interruption of PEGASYS hours of operation, and completion of the work within a
month after its start, that AOC accept his quote. Passed, 5-0.
f. PEGASYS' Front Entrance Repairs: No progress since last meeting.
06. Member Reports
a. Election of Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Secretary. Completed at the March 2
meeting.
b. Adoption of Meeting Schedule for 2015: Completed at the March 2 meeting [the first
Monday of each month.]
c. Review and award of funding to Educational Institutions: a request was received from
Steve Cass for Ithaca High School, including catalog data from B&H (see attachment 1), and a
less specific one from Jim Blizzard, county videographer, asking for a character generator. AOC
decides to ask Blizzard and Cass to an upcoming meeting to discuss their requests.
d. AOC's Equipment Purchase Report to City: this was included in the distributed
September 2014 minutes. No purchases have been made yet from the 2015 budget.
e. 2014 Franchise Fee Reports from City, Town and Village. We need data for all of 2014
from the City, and the third and fourth quarters of 2014 from the Town. Data from the Village is
current.
07. Old Business
a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo: In March City Attorney Ari Lavine sent a letter to Time
Warner Cable. TWC responded that it had been passed on to counsel and they will provide a red-
line version of the draft franchise presented to TWC in November.
b. Review conditions of 9/13/14 Common Council Resolution re TWC/Comcast takeover:
no response has been received from either Comcast or TWC.
08. New Business: none.
09. Next meeting: Monday, May 4, 4:30 p.m.
10. Adjournment 6:35.
Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary.
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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 2014-5 <jclairbo@cityofithaca.org>
Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com>
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>
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April 2015
Access Studio Coordinator Report
- PEGASYS Awards
The PEGASYS Awards was held on Friday, March 27, cablecast live on channel 13. You can
see the winners and other information about this event on our website:
http://pegasys.webstarts.com/community_bulletin_board.html
- Special PEG Programming
We cablecast the live General Conference of the Church of Latter-Day Saints on the weekend
of April 4-5. The signal was provided in digital form from Syracuse.
- Equipment and Facility Maintenance and Repair
We had an instance of digital noise blocking our studio signal, halting 2 live shows on March
17. The problem was found to be the Compix GenCG Character Generator. Once it was turned
off-on, the system worked perfectly. This unit has previously had power issues [trouble booting],
and I have discussed with my supervisor the possibility of having it sent out for repair. The
problem occurred again on March 30, and we solved it easily by turning the CG off-on. The
problem with sending out equipment that misbehaves so intermittently is that we could be
without a working studio for a month or more and the repair facility may not be able to duplicate
such an intermittent problem to fix it. It is possible that a few months from now, a loaner CG may
become available that would make sending the GenCG out less burdensome for our facility. So
right now we are documenting the issue and prepared to restart the CG as needed.
- Institutional Access
Our letter to E and G institutions inviting them to submit equipment funding requests for 2016
resulted in 2 replies. Ithaca HS instructor Steve Cass requested $5000 for cameras and tripods
for his students. He has provided a request letter and equipment quotes. [Attachment 1].
The second reply was from Jim Blizzard, who requested funding for a character generator for
the County Legislature video system. But Jim has yet to choose a specific character generator.
As Jim’s request is incomplete and Steve Cass’ request is clouded by the fact that he may be
leaving the district, I cannot recommend either project for inclusion in our budget at this time.
2015 Equipment and Facilities Fund
Building painting/carpeting was approved by the AOC, however I was informed last
month that the one quote I supplied was insufficient, and requested to provide written quotes
from 3 venders to the AOC for them to review. These 3 quotes are from Lee Marshall,
contractor, Construction Design and Management and CK Contracting. [Attachment 2, not
included].
Also attached is the Equipment and Facilities Spending vs. PEG Collections 2004 –
2014. “Collections” refers to the 15 cent/sub collections for our spending fund. [Attachment 3].
Usage Fee Report
Usage Fee collections vs. expenditures for 2014 are in Attachment 4. We are about
even in collections and expenditures.
PEG Channels on TWC TV APP?
TWC reply: “There have been discussions about adding PEG channels to the TWCTV
App in different markets, but currently there is not a date for these additions. There are other
networks that need to get added to the App before they start to add the PEG channels. It is
being looked at but there is no time frame yet for the addition of the PEG channels.”
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Attachment 1
See Steve Cass / I.H.S. quotes on the next page.
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Attachment 3: Equipment and Facilities Spending vs. PEG Collections 2004 - 2014
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Attachment 4: Usage Fee Collections and Expenditures
PEGASYS Usage Fees Expenditures v. Collections Report 2014 Final
Starting Balance January 2014 - $10.60
Total Usage Fee Collections through year end 2014 * $560.00
Total Funds Available $549.40
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/Thu] 12 hrs $168.60
Total expenditures $505.80
Total remainder 2014: $43.60
* Usage Fee Collections 2014
PEGASYS Fees 2014 FINAL Account 3520-31-9900-49101
Name Municipality Jan-June 2014 Status Jul-Dec 2014 Status
Ulysses $40.00PAID $40.00 PAID
Newfield $40.00PAID inactive
Danby $40.00PAID $40.00 PAID
Ulysses $40.00PAID inactive
New Roots School Organization $100.00PAID $100.00 PAID
Dryden $40.00 PAID
Lansing $40.00 PAID
Newfield $40.00 PAID
Subtotal $260.00 $300.00
Total Fees
2014
$560.00