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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-AOC-2019-09-03 1 City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, September 3, 2019 at 5 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Community Media Center 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, Common Council liaison Rob Gearhart, vice chair Wies van Leuken, Gossa Tsegaye; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli; members of the public Tom Stern, Josh Brokaw. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo, 5:07. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: 05a, Equipment/Battery Purchase was moved to 06e. 03. Public Comments: City resident Tom Stern asks that the AOC provide assistance to producers with raising funds for their video productions. AOC responds: AOC’s mandate does not include fund raising. But AOC could write a letter of support for a producer's grant application. Tsegaye: AOC is a firewall, a buffer between TV production and the corporate world. Stefanelli: AOC's PR committee was interested in outreach to the Community Arts Partnership; suggests that Stern could work with her on that. Gearhart also suggests the Community Foundation which has donor-advised grants. Brokaw asks if producers could use the other side of the 612 W. Green St. building for office space or e.g. for music groups. Stefanelli: at present we don't have access to it. DePaolo: we could reasonably ask Charter about this. 04. Approval of Minutes of the June 4, 2019 Meeting: approved 4-0 with 1 abstention. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached) b. Semi-Annual Usage Fees Report: for next meeting. c. Maintenance and Repair Report: see attachment. d. Broadcast Pix Software. Nexus, PEGASYS’ 2009 playback system, crashed twice recently, once due to a power outage, the other time without an apparent reason. It is time to evaluate replacement options. The present NEXUS was discontinued by Leightronix in 2016. The new version does not include a switcher, which must be bought separately at considerable expense. To fully replace the system as it is now, 1 Nexus HD Server/Recorder and 1 Nexus HD Server/Player are needed. Gearhart: It would be especially attractive if we could do multitrack recording. Tsegaye is interested in contacting the engineer if possible. Van Leuken asks what formats the new device would accept. Stefane lli: several formats, both SD (standard definition) and HD (high definition). Van Leuken: are there competing products? Stefanelli: Yes. Tsegaye would like for the AOC to get engineering advice so that AOC can better assess its needs. He will report to AOC at the next meeting. e. 2019 Budget purchases. Stefanelli: Charter will not process the 2019 Budget request until the Nexus replacement is finalized. 2 DePaolo will contact Mike Montesano to let him know that the 2019 budget was approved by the participating municipalities and therefore the equipment purchases should go ahead. 06. Member Reports a. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from City, Town and Village: DePaolo, Gearhart and van Leuken will request 2nd quarter (Q2) reports from their municipalities. b. 2020 Budget Approvals: the Town of Ithaca approved AOC's budget proposal in June. c. Access Rules: Van Leuken will bring a draft of the updated Manual to the next meeting. d. Outreach: Sciencenter visit - report. Browne and Stefanelli will make an appointment with the Sciencenter. e. Equipment/battery purchase: for next meeting 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo will again reach out to the City Attorney. 08. New Business: Tsegaye watches PEG programs because of his historical relationship with it (he was the first studio manager). He finds that Common Council proceedings are not clearly audible. Council members need to speak close to microphones. Gearhart suggests: come and mention this during the Public Comme nt period at a Council meeting. 09. Next meeting: 5 pm Monday, September 30 [note unusual date]. 10. Adjournment 6:50. ================ Authority: City of Ithaca code Chapter 18, "Cable Access Oversight Committee". Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca 11-5-2003 by Ord. No. 2003-17. Available at https://ecode360.com/8386207. Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Rob Gearhart, Common Council liaison 2019- <rgearhart@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: member Gossa Tsegaye <gossavision@twcny.rr.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 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> 3 September 2019 Access Studio Coordinator Report  Producers The Ithaca Drug Users Alliance have completed 5 episodes of their new series, and remain very enthusiastic about it. They have committed to doing a new show every 2 weeks. In their last episode, they interviewed a local social worker. We have another new live weekly talk series started by a local person who self - identifies as someone who survived mental illness and institutionalization. He is on episode 6. With staff assistance, The History Center in Tompkins County started a monthly series, completing its first episode in August. This episode featured Sachem Sam George, the leader of the Cayuga Nation. The new Acting Ithaca Police Chief appeared on “YMCA Connections” last week and expressed interest in using our facilities for some programming by police officers. Organizations whose events were covered or who made guest appearances on channel 13 shows in July-August include: Ithaca Children’s Garden, Running to Places Theatre, Love Living at Home, The History Center in Tompkins Cou nty, Tompkins/Cortland Habitat for Humanity, Free Science Workshop, Tompkins County Human Rights Commission, Fall Creek Garden Club, Senior Medicare Patrol, Ithaca Festival, Kitchen Theatre.  Equipment Issues A JVC camcorder has been sent out for evaluation by our engineers after malfunctioning in the field. We had a second instance of NEXUS crashing and rebooting with no access to its hard drive in July. It again was able to be restarted manually, and has worked fine since then, but these 2 crashes have led our engineering staff to start evaluating replacement options for our NEXUS playback system [bought in 2009]. Like the UltraNEXUS-SDI system at City Hall, our NEXUS was discontinued by Leightronix in 2016.