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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2018-05-01 1 City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting (as approved June 5, 2018) 5 pm, Tuesday, May 1, 2018 Meeting Room, PEGASYS Community Media Center 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY Present: vice-chair Wies van Leuken, secretary Wayles Browne, member Sue Perlgut; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli. Excused: Chair Rich DePaolo, Common Council liaison Ducson Nguyen. 01. Call to Order by van Leuken, 5:08. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: added was item 5b “PEGASYS Actions” 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the April 3, 2018 Meeting: approved 3:0 as submitted with 2 small changes. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report [attached]: a. Maintenance and Repair Report: no maintenance and repair issues to report. b. PEGASYS Actions. Josh Brokaw contacted Stefanelli and proposed doing a visioning session with producers. The AOC liked the idea and asked Stefanelli to convey this to Brokaw in her discussions with him. It was agreed to put this on the next AOC agenda and to invite Josh Brokaw to that meeting. Also on the next agenda will be the set of Action Steps that Stefanelli listed in her report. Stefanelli noted that there is interest in the community to learn how to make podcasts. This too will be discussed further at the next meeting. The AOC liked her proposals and encouraged her to follow-up as proposed in her report and to share her findings at the next meeting. Stefanelli reported that she will check if Spectrum's PEG server in Syrac use has room for long-term storage of uploaded programs. These programs could then be used as reruns at a later time. In the past such programs were stored on portable hard drives provided by the producer, a practice since discontinued for security reasons. 06. Member Reports a. 2019 Budget – Resolution. The AOC agreed to earmark only a small portion of the available budget for unforeseen expenses and to let the remaining 2018 and 2019 Budget funds accumulate for anticipated big expenses in the future. 2 Resolution Access Oversight Committee (AOC) Tuesday, May 1, 2018 AOC Recommendations for 2019 Budget WHEREAS, Section 15.12 of the Franchise Agreement between the City of Ithaca and Time Warner Entertainment-Advance/Newhouse Partnership (TWC) of January 2003, and since assigned to Spectrum TV (d/b/a Charter Communications) after its 2016 acquisition of TWC, requires the participating municipalities (City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights) to provide it with an annual budget for Public, Educational and Governmental access operations (PEG) by June 30 of each calendar year, and WHEREAS, the City of Ithaca's Ordinance #2003-17, Par 18-4-G, requires the Access Oversight Committee (AOC) to provide the Participating Municipalities with a recommended annual budget by May 31 of each calendar year, and WHEREAS, in 2017 it was resolved not to use the 2018 Budget funds but have them become part of the 2019 Budget, and WHEREAS, the AOC has reviewed PEG’s current equipment and determined that only a limited amount of new equipment is needed, and WHEREAS, the AOC anticipates the replacement of computers and the current playback system in the next few years, and WHEREAS, such purchases would exceed the available funds of one budget year, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the AOC recommends earmarking up to $5,000.00 as contingency to purchase equipment as needed for the functioning of PEG operations, and to let the remaining 2018 and 2019 Budget funds accumulate and become part of the 2020 Budget, and NOW, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AOC forwards its recommendations for approval by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca, the Town of Ithaca Board and the Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees, so that they may meet their obligation to provide Spectrum TV with an annual budget for Public, Educational and Governmental access operations. Moved by Perlgut, seconded by Browne. Approved unanimously. b. Schedule for submitting 2019 Budget Recommendations to Municipalities . For next meeting. c. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from City and Village. For next meeting. d. PEGASYS and the Ithaca Festival Parade. Not discussed. e. Publicity & Outreach Committee: will be put on next meeting's agenda. 3 f. PEGASYS issues. Discussed at 5b. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement: no reports. 08. New Business. a. Spare parts for older equipment. The batteries used for the X10 camera no longer work and need to be replaced. They are no longer sold by Spectrum’s approved vendors. An on-line purchase is possible, however Spectrum’s budget process does not allow on-line purchases. The AOC agreed therefore to use the Usage Fees fund instead and approved the following resolution. RESOLVED, that the AOC approves the purchase of two batteries for the PEGASYS’ X10 camera for an amount not to exceed $50.00. Approved Unanimously. Stefanelli will record the purchase in the Usage Fees log she maintains. 09. Next meeting: June 5, 2018, 5 pm. 10. Adjournment 6:00. ================ Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Ducson Nguyen, continuing Common Council liaison <dnguyen@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: member Sue Perlgut <sperlgut@gmail.com>. Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com>, <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>. 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> 4 May 2018 Access Studio Coordinator Report Reimagining PEGASYS TV Center as a Community Media Center I would like the AOC to help brainstorm ways to revitalize PEGASYS and make it more relevant to current community needs. As you each have different ways of relating to PEG channels and services, your diverse perspectives could help us grow in the right direction! Questions: 1. What should be different about our identity and function as a media center as opposed to a public access TV center? 2. How can we make this center relevant to people to whom cable television is not relevant? 3. How can we learn / copy / partner with organizations who can reinforce our mission? Possible Additions to our Mission / Function: 1. Archiving public access shows. Public access tv shows are part of our area’s local history. We have never made an effort to create an historical archive of PEGASYS programs. From time to time, I get requests about programs that are 10-30 years old. I can only suggest people contact the producers, as we keep no archive here. Right now, many older access shows exist only in the form of 10-30 year old videotapes deteriorating in someone’s closet or basement. If we don’t act now, by the time someone is interested in looking at the history of access television in Ithaca, it will be much too late. Both the Library and the History Center have identified local viewpoints and voices as being an important part of their mission. The library has a Local Voices program that incorporates self-authored works including video and now internet links. It has some access-produced items. The History Center is working on a project of recording oral history from local residents and will have a sophisticated recording space in their new building. Action Step: The Community Media Archives allows public access centers to archive their shows on the internet. I have contacted them to find out how we can participate. As you can see, many access centers are already doing this: Action Step: I have also contacted the Local Voices editor of the TCPL to see if they are open to working with us on an archiving project. 5 2. Training/Providing Equipment for Podcasts. AOC member Ducson decided to do a series of talk shows, which could easily have been a governmental or public access TV series, as a podcast instead, available only on the internet [Ithacast]. He inspired Keith Hannon to do the same for Tburg people profile interviews [T’burg On Air]. Both the Ithaca Voice and 14850.com have regular podcasts. The Ithaca Times seems to be running a feature about a local start-up podcast producer in every issue, while ignoring public access producers. The library will be having a 3-session podcasting workshop at its new Digital Lab starting May 8. Unlike our video production classes, this workshop is filled with a wait-list, demonstrating that there is a lot of public interest in learning to make podcasts. Action Step: We could plan to purchase a ‘podcast kit’ similar to what you see in the photo above that could be signed out, and we could put freeware like Audacity for podcast editing on our edit computers. Podcast producers could be encouraged, as are WRFI talk show producers, to have video versions with a video slide as the video submitted to channel 13. Action Step: Podcast expert Kate Essig is doing an extra June lecture on the basics of podcasting for those who could not get into her May workshop. I have signed up to attend. 3. Hold Regular Events. Both The History Center and the Library augment their missions by holding many events open to the public. Both participate in Gallery Night. Both hold free weekly lectures, volunteer activities and workshops that bring in people who are then familiarized with the organization’s core mission. The library shows commercial movies for free weekly. Circus Culture does the same thing as a social event with free popcorn. Cornell Cinema and Cinemapolis go a step further and have screenings with the filmmaker present. Action Step: Although our staff resources and space are much more limited than the groups above, I think we could do movie or filmmaker screenings on the Wednesday nights when there are no city council meetings, usually the 4th Wednesday of the month. Wed. 5/30, 7/25 and 8/29 are possible. Action Step: I contacted Rochester Community TV to see if they would be interested in the idea of having an exchange of screenings between Ithaca and Rochester. I suggested that a producer from RCTV could come here with a video to present to a live audience, and we would publicize this as an event at our center. Then we could send such a producer to them for a screening.