Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-AOC-2019-12-03City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, December 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. 01. Call to Order by Van Leuken 5:00. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the September 30, 2019 Meeting DePaolo took over chairing the meeting. Minutes of the September 30, 2019 meeting were approved as submitted 5-0. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (see report attached). a. 2019 Budget purchases: the field accessories and video lights that were purchased pursuant to AOC resolution of April 2, 2019, arrived in good order this month and are now being used. Charter’s protocol for processing equipment purchases worked out well. b. Playback system replacement: no reports. c. Maintenance and Repair Report: see attached. There is a process for the repair of broken equipment. One camcorder was repaired another has been sent out for repair. 06. Member Reports a. Term Expiration of Board Members. Gearhart will discuss Browne and Tsegaye’s reappointments with the Mayor and Common Council. b. Usage Fees - Annual Review of impact, collection, levels and use: this report was submitted at the last meeting. c. Business Hours - Annual Review and Recommendations: the AOC lacks sufficient information from Charter for a complete review, however the current hours of operation appear to address producer’s needs and therefore the AOC recommends the continuation of current hours. d. Staffing Levels - Annual Review and Recommendations: the AOC lacks sufficient information from Charter for a complete review, however we observe that current levels meet current studio needs, so we recommend a continuation of current levels. e. Publicity and Outreach: Sciencenter visit – report: see Coordinator's report. f. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from City, Town and Village – 2019 Q3: municipalities should have received franchise payments for 2019 Q3. g. PEGASYS Access Rules: van Leuken distributed a new draft of Sections I – VII of the Policies and Procedures Manual that include the revisions requested at the last meeting. The AOC approved the revisions and continued discussion of Section VIII, the last part of the Manual that includes forms and two contracts used to run PEGASYS. The forms were approved. Stefanelli explained that the Producer Responsibility Contract covers producers’ use of the facilities and equipment and that the Public Access Cablecast Agreement covers producers’ submitted programs. Van Leuken and DePaolo questioned the need for some of the language in the documents, since by law, producers are solely responsible and liable for the content of their programs. The AOC proposed several revisions. Van Leuken will bring a new draft to the next meeting. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement: no new developments. 08. New Business: a. Producer’s Request: producer Tom Stern has asked AOC to write a letter of support for the documentary he is producing. He is filming the demolition and construction of certain houses in Ithaca. He was contacted to provide further particulars of what he needs. b. The AOC expresses gratitude and praise to Jonathan Stamp, who substituted for Stefaneli this last month. He did a great job and moreover solved various problems that arose while she was on vacation. DePaolo mailed Stamp a thank you Email on behalf of the Committee. 09. Next meeting: 5 pm, February 4, 2020 (no January meeting). 10. Adjournment 5:45. ================ 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>, <tsegaye@ithaca.edu>. 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> December 2019 Access Studio Coordinator Report  Producers The visit to the Sciencenter in October with AOC member Wayles Browne resulted in an episode of “PEGASYS Presents” with Adrienne Testa, their Vice President of Museum Experiences, as well as 2 clips shot on location highlighting their new exhibit. Adrienne wrote us afterwards: “Looks great, thank you Lauren! I enjoyed working with you!” The Methodist Church, whose lay associate appeared on “YMCA Connections” in October has got their video/web person in touch with us with a view to getting their weekly church services and a concert, which they record in HD and live-stream, into a format that can also run regularly on channel 13. Ithaca College was able to do something new and exciting: they got the Cortaca Jug on channel 16 live from New Jersey. ICTV director Jeremy Menard wrote in advance of the event: “ICTV will be providing play-by-play coverage of the annual Ithaca / Cortland "Cortaca Jug" Football Game on Saturday, November 16, 2019. Kickoff is set for 1:00 PM from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. While Ithaca's students are not producing the broadcast, the station is being supplied a feed to air on Spectrum 16 and stream at ICTV.org.”  Equipment Issues The JVC camcorder that was sent out for repair is back in service. The equipment package that was approved has arrived. A technical issue caused us to lose some playback updates in November. I will be contacting affected producers to offer them an opportunity to reschedule their programming.  Hours We will be closed on December 24-25 for Christmas and January 1 for New Year’s Day.