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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2016-02-01 1 Access Oversight Committee (AOC) minutes Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, 4:30 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY As approved Mar. 14, 2016. Present: chair Rich DePaolo, AOC members Wayles Browne, vice-chair Wies van Leuken, Common Council liaison Ducson Nguyen; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo at 4:40. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval Minutes of the December 14, 2015 Meeting: approved with several changes, 4 to 0. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report: in writing (attached). a. Usage Fees Report for 2015 showing receipts, uses and final balance: for next meeting. b. Subscriber Fee Report ($0.15/subscriber/month revenues) from Time Warner Cable: not yet available. Stefanelli will submit them next month. c. TWC's Maintenance and Repair Report. See attached report. d. Annual Equipment Purchase Report from 2014-15 moneys: not final yet. Still waiting for the sign for the outside of the building. To be submitted next month. e. 2016 Budget: the 2016 moneys have not been used yet. f. Recommendations for 2017 Budget: for next meeting. 06. Member Reports a. Election of Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Secretary: Rich DePaolo was elected as Chair, Wies van Leuken as Vice Chair, Wayles Browne as Secretary, by 4 to 0. b. Adoption of Meeting Schedule for 2016: the first Monday of each month. c. Vacancies and Term Expirations: Ducson Nguyen is the new liaison from City of Ihtaca Common Council. We need another person to represent the City; Stefanelli will check, and notify producers from the City of Ithaca. d. Notice of Funding to Educational Institutions: for next meeting. e. Publicity. Van Leuken: we printed 100 sheets (= 200 half sheets) with info about access that can be distributed and posted. Can we have a presence on social media? How could programs be archived for download? (Maybe $200 a year for server space, or use YouTube.) f. PEGASYS' Access Rules: for next meeting. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. Negotiations are ongoing. DePaolo has heard from TWC Government Relations manager David Whalen about setting studio hours; Whalen is willing to discuss it with him on a phone call. 2 08. New Business a. Charter/TWC/Brighthouse Network merger: NYS Public Service Commission has approved the merger. 09. Next meeting: Monday, March 14 (not the first Monday = March 7), 2016, 4:30, PEGASYS Access Center. 10. Adjournment: 6:05. Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary. ===== Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Ducson Nguyen, Common Council liaison 2016 <dnguyen@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: member TBA. 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> 3 January 2016 Access Studio Coordinator Report - Building Improvements  The interior renovation project is now complete: painting, carpeting, wall outlets and coverings, and mounting of the large, flat-screen TV. Producers in the mini-studio now can use the reversible backdrop, as a mounting system has been installed. The main studio has its new carpet, which has no lumps or tears.  A contractor just replaced the electrical sockets in the hallway fluorescent lights. They had been strobing wildly for a few months, despite frequent changing of bulbs. Better now. - WiFi  Free WiFi is now available in the PEGASYS Center. - Playback  Rich DePaolo purchased a NEXUS-compatible Tascam DVD player for us from EBay, which has been working flawlessly for 2 months. Although they are no longer available new, B&H has offered the compatible Tascam DVD players occasionally as refurbished units. Our department has committed to buy them for the several TWC PEG playback systems using NEXUS [including us] as they become available. - Equipment and Facility Maintenance and Repair  Our studio camera 1 repair, unfortunately, did not last. As the A/V Corp. engineers predicted [and the reason why they did not charge us], it eventually failed. We have been sent an identical camera from another Time Warner system. It did not work when we tried it. However, it was reported tested and working before being sent to us, so we plan to do more testing on it. They also have 2 more identical cameras available to us, so there is still a chance of getting back to 3 studio cqameras.  Our ladies room toilet failed and was closed for several weeks in January. When we got it repaired, the contractor replaced all the internal mechanisms for both ladies and mens’ room toilets, to avoid such problems in the future. - Equipment Fund Update  All items on our equipment fund have been purchased and received, except for the building sign. The purchase order for the sign went out to Sign-a-Rama 2 months ago, so I hope to report this is complete at the next meeting.  For our equipment project for 2016, my feeling is that this looks like the year to convert to digital HD in our studio. Our field cameras are new [2014], our editors have been upgraded to HD-speed [2015], our office area looks much more professional [2015]. It is our studio cameras/control room system that is woefully behind. I am looking into having a consultant advise us on this over the next month or 2. - PEGASYS Awards  Our 2016 PEGASYS Awards are underway, with a deadline at the end of this week. We have 3 independent judges who will review the entries, and our awards ceremony is set for Friday March 11.