The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2016-08-29 1 Access Oversight Committee (AOC) minutes Monday, August 29, 2016 at 4:30 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY (As approved October 25, 2016) Present: Chair Rich DePaolo, Vice-chair Wies van Leuken, AOC members Wayles Browne, Sue Perlgut and Common Council liaison Ducson Nguyen; studio manager Lauren Stefanelli. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo, 4:35. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: Add 02b, Public Comment. 02b. Public Comment. None. 03. Approval Minutes of the July 11, 2016 Meeting: One spelling corrected. Approved 4-0 with one abstention. 04. Access Studio Coordinator Report: attached. a. Studio Upgrade - Bids, Engineer’s Review - report. Resolution WHEREAS, the Access Oversight Committee has received bids for the complete upgrade of the PEGASYS studio from analog to digital high definition from Audio Video Corp. and from Com Tech, Inc.; and WHEREAS the budget for this upgrade could not exceed $50,000.00; and WHEREAS, Studio Manager Lauren Stefanelli and Time Warner Cable’s engineers have reviewed the proposals and the AOC has received their comments; and WHEREAS, Com Tech, Inc.’s proposal offers more equipment, training and technical support that also matches better the technical needs of PEGASYS producers, than the Audio Video Corp proposal; NOW, BE IT RESOLVED, that the AOC accepts the bid from Com Tech, Inc. for $48,999.00 and directs the Studio Manager to take all necessary steps to implement the Studio Upgrade by this Company. Moved by W. Browne, seconded by W. van Leuken, approved 5-0. b. Quality of PEG Channels after transition to All-Digital - update. At present PEG channels suffer in quality, and Time Warner Cable (TWC) treats this as a repair problem for each individual subscriber. Channels 97-1, 97-2, 97-3, and 97-4 are no longer used. We are still waiting to hear back from Chris Mueller, the new Director of Government Relations CNY Division, Northeast (successor to David Whalen), who needs to consult with attorneys before replying. DePaolo will write a letter on behalf of the municipalities, asking for an explanation of why PEG broadcasts look inferior to other channels in picture quality. c. Annual Report on PEGASYS’ Accomplishments – second draft. See attachment. AOC finds this version to be very suitable to distribute to the public. Lauren will ask the City Clerk's office to print ca. 50 copies in color. d. Faulty entrance door and misuse of PEGASYS phone number - update. DePaolo will write a letter about the door problem and mention AOC's previous requests. 2 05. Member Reports a. 2015/16 Budget Resolutions by Participating Municipalities – report. The Village and Town have approved the AOC Budget; it is on the City’s agenda for their September meeting. b. Hours of Operation. Stefanelli had to attend a company function on Wed. Aug. 10, which necessitated a change in hours of operation that week. She notified all producers who were going to use the facility on Wednesday, and opened it Friday afternoon instead. The AOC approved of the way this was handled. c. First & Second Quarter/2016 Franchise Fee Worksheet from City. The City has submitted the report. d. Vacancies and Term Expirations - update. Sue Perlgut has been appointed by the City to serve on AOC until December 2016. e. Publicity, Outreach and Home Page - discussion. For the next meeting, Perlgut will bring some suggestions. 06. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo reported that the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) met. The term sheet that was drafted by a TCCOG subcommittee will go out for comment to Spectrum in a few weeks. b. Spectrum - update. The Studio Manager has a new e-mail address Lauren.Stefanelli@charter.com in addition to lauren.stefanelli@twcable.com. c. PEGASYS' Access Rules manual. Van Leuken wrote a revised version ca. one year ago. DePaolo forwarded the manual’s forms to City Attorney Lavine. Van Leuken asked DePaolo to check with the City Attorney Lavine to see what is holding up his review. 07. New Business: none. 08. Next meeting: Tuesday, October 25, 4:30. 09. Adjournment 6:25. 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 Sue Perlgut <scperl@verizon.net> 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@charter.com> 3 August 2016 Access Studio Coordinator Report Building Improvement The unsightly fence that obstructed the view of our entrance has been removed. In combination with the new entrance sign and filled-in planting bed, our entrance looks much better: Time Warner is also putting new gutters and fascia covering on the building. 2016 Equipment Fund: Studio Upgrade to HD We have 2 bids to consider. Both are turn-key proposals. Both replace the video components only [cameras, camera remote control, character generator, media playback and recording, monitors]. One vender is Com Tech, which proposes an integrated video system based on the Broadcast Pix video switcher. The second vender is A/V Corp, which proposed a component video system based on a Ross video switcher. Action Item: I will give information about both bids at this meeting and request spending authorization to go ahead with the project. Ithaca City Hall Media Booth I have become very concerned about the safety of our video equipment in the City’s media booth in council chambers. There is no AC in this room and no ventilation ducts. The NEXUS server is running 24/7, to run the city bulletin board and meeting reruns. Due to the extreme heat this summer, I have encountered temperatures in the high 80s – much higher than is safe for delicate electronics. During city meetings, I used to open the window in the room to let in cool air from outside. But this summer, evening temperatures were in the 80s and 90s, providing no relief and putting the Broadcast Pix in danger as well as the NEXUS. I have requested AC in this room since its inception and so far the City has responded with --- a box fan. My concern is that should one of these components fail, city meeting coverage will come to an abrupt end. And if failure is caused by excess heat – that is, through City negligence in failing to provide appropriate accommodations for electronic equipment, it hardly seems fair to penalize the PEGASYS access producers to replace the City’s $12,000 NEXUS or $16,000 Broadcast Pix. Action Item: I am requesting that AOC City Rep Nguyen act as liaison with the City in resolving this issue. Personnel As in previous years, I will be going on vacation this fall [9/22-10/14] and our contract temp, Mike Cederstrom, will be replacing me with funds from our usage fees, allowing PEGASYS to stay open at least 2 days per week during my absence. Annual Report / Brochure Below is a second draft of a public report format. Comments welcome. 4 2015 Activity Report PEGASYS, the Public, Educational and Governmental Access System, offers the community a means of producing television programs and sharing them with the community. Free or low-cost video training plus access * to 2 video studios, digital field cameras and editors are available to Tompkins County residents. In 2015, 767 new shows produced by local residents premiered on channel 13. All Ithaca Common Council, Tompkins Legislature and Ithaca School Board meetings were cablecast live and rerun on channel 15. On channel 16, Ithaca College cablecast about 800 hours of new news, sports and entertainment shows from their studios at the Park School of Communication. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick appears on “What Matters at the Round Table.” PEGASYS offers community members a choice of 10 digital field cameras for use in making community programs. 592 camera sign-out days were used by community producers in 2015. PEGASYS also offers 5 editing systems featuring Adobe Premiere editing software. In 2015, community producers used 7,845 hours of editing time on PEGASYS editors. Check out our program schedule for channel 13 and find links to series programs that are archived on the web at: http://pegasys.webstarts.com/. Location: 612 W. Green St., Ithaca, NY Hours: Mon, Tues and Thurs, 5:30-9:30pm; Wed. 1-5pm. * Usage is free for residents of the City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca and Village of Cayuga Heights. Usage is $40 per 6 month membership for other Tompkins County residents.