HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2018-11-06 1
City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes)
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 5 PM
Meeting Room, PEGASYS Community Media Center
612 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY
Present: Chair Rich DePaolo, vice-chair Wies van Leuken, secretary Wayles Browne,
Common Council liaison Ducson Nguyen; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli;
excused: member Sue Perlgut.
01. Call to Order 5:17 by DePaolo.
02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none.
03. Public Comments: producer Tom Stern. He plans to repeat the Jeoparody program
at 6 pm Dec. 17 (tentative), and asks AOC for feedback. He hopes for more discussion
of topics. The program will be taped and edited. Stefanelli: the first "Jeoparody" ["Ithaca
in Jeoparody", April 2, 2018] was a fine example of cooperation between producers
from Ithaca College, Tompkins County Community College and PEGASYS producers
and how to publicize a PEG event on social media at no expense. AOC: we encourage
the repeat.
04. Approval of Minutes of the September 11, 2018 Meeting. Moved by DePaolo,
seconded by Nguyen. Approved 4:0 with no changes.
05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached)
a. Maintenance and Repair Report: see attached. AOC decided that there was no
need for the extended warranty offered by Broadcast Pix for the BP studio switcher.
b. Producer’s use of PEGASYS Logo - update. Stefanelli: the logo can be copied
from the website. Also, I can add it to the text files for studio shows. Placing it in FileZilla
is still in progress.
c. Podcasts - update. AOC would like to offer a demo for producers on how to
create podcasts. NEXUS can play .mp2 audio files (with a video slide) for broadcast on
PEG. DePaolo suggests: PEG should get high-quality microphones for producers to
sign out; he will borrow one existing mike and test it out.
d. Archiving public access shows – update. Stefanelli: Megan at the Public Library
got permission to keep PEG programs; I hope to discuss the process with her.
e. Substitute staffing (for when the Access Studio Coordinator is away): see
attached. AOC is pleased with the way the substitute staff ran the Studio in Stefanelli’s
absence.
06. Member Reports
a. Term expiration of Board Members: see City of Ithaca website
https://www.cityofithaca.org/369/Cable-Access-Oversight-Committee. As of now it says:
Rich DePaolo, Town of Ithaca, Chair. Term expires: December 31, 2017 • Wies van Leuken,
Village of Cayuga Heights, Vice-Chair. Term expires: December 31, 2018 • Wayles Browne,
City of Ithaca, Secretary. Term expires: December 31, 2019 • Sue Perlgut, City of Ithaca. Term
expires December 31, 2019 • Ducson Nguyen, City of Ithaca, Common Council. Term expires:
December 31, 2019. Even after terms expire, members serve until replaced.
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b. Usage Fees - Annual review of impact, collection, levels and use. Usage fees
for producers outside the three participating municipalities [City, Town of Ithaca, Village
of Cayuga Heights] are now $40 for 6 months; for groups, $100 for 6 months. AOC
observed that this amount is a barrier for some. Van Leuken will draft a resolution for
the next meeting, reducing the amounts to $20 and $50.
c. Business Hours - Annual review and recommendations: see d.
d. Staffing Levels - Annual review and recommendations. AOC cannot discuss
Business Hours and Staffing Levels due to lack of financial information, and cannot
recommend any changes.
e. PEGASYS' Access Rules - Annual review and recommendations. The AOC
learned that Spectrum is not proposing changes to PEGASYS access rules. It was
proposed to use the Access Rules drafted by Stefanelli.
f. Equipment purchases. Stefanelli will buy a new battery for the older cameras
still in use.
g. Publicity & Outreach. The committee is on hiatus till next year.
h. Charter Communications’ Franchise. DePaolo: A press report Nov. 2 says the
two sides are still hashing the question out. The deadline is temporarily extended.
i. FCC’s Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making on Cable Franchising. Nguyen:
the Federal Communications Commission would like to allow cable companies to
deduct the value of channels and of "in-kind services" from franchise fees that normally
go to communities. DePaolo: we can ask to rule out such deductions as a negotiating
point in the proposed new franchise.
07. Old Business.
a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo: no news on negotiations. The last meeting with
Charter was in March. There may be more news next month.
08. New Business. The Cortland PEG channel is now in the hands of Jonathon Stamp
(mentioned favorably in the Access Studio Coordinator Report). Perhaps this is an
opportunity for Ithaca/Cortland cooperation.
09. Next meeting: 5 pm, Tuesday, December 4, 2018.
10. Adjournment 6:45.
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Contact information for AOC members:
City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>.
City of Ithaca: Ducson Nguyen, Common Council liaison <dnguyen@cityofithaca.org>.
City of Ithaca: member [vacancy]
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 Community Media Center 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>
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November 2018
Access Studio Coordinator Report
PEGASYS Equipment Maintenance and Repair
Our laptop [#4] with power issues was sent for evaluation in September. No word on its
status yet.
We had an audio problem with the mini-studio: audio dropped out occasionally during
live shows. We found and corrected the problem - a loose connection to an audio DA.
Broadcast Pix offered us an extended warranty for our BP studio switcher. Attachment
1. Is it possible to purchase this with PEG funds?
Personnel
I received a number of verbal compliments from producers about Charter access
staffers Jonathon Stamp and Jim Hofecker, who staffed PEGASYS and recorded city
meetings while I was on vacation.
Attachment 1