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Home My WebLink AboutMN-AOC-2020-02-04 1 City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 4, 2020 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; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli; producer Tom Stern. Excused: Gossa Tsegaye. 01. Call to Order 5:02 by DePaolo. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the December 3, 2019 Meeting: Approved 4-0 as distributed. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached) a. Charter’s Annual Subscriber Fees Report: to be submitted at next meeting. b. Semi-Annual Usage Fees report. The Usage Fee fund balance is $495. See attached report for details. c. Playback system replacement - update: no new developments. d. Maintenance and Repair report: see attached report. 06. Member Reports a. Term renewals: Gearhart has been reappointed as Common Council liaison (City of Ithaca). He will ask the Mayor and Council to reappoint Browne and Tsegaye. b. Election of Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Secretary: DePaolo was reelected as Chair, Van Leuken as Vice Chair, and Browne as Secretary, all by a vote of 4-0. c. Adoption of meeting time: the first Tuesday of each month at 5 pm. d. Peggy awards (for the best PEG TV programs of 2019): Given that Charter is not financing the Peggy awards ceremony this year, the AOC adopted the following resolution Resolution to fund the Peggy awards WHEREAS the PEGASYS Community Media Center holds an annual awards ceremony to celebrate the best of PEG programs of the previous year (“the Peggy Awards”); and WHEREAS this event lost its traditional funding from Charter Communications; NOW BE IT RESOLVED that the AOC authorizes the PEGASYS Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli to use up to $250.00 from the Usage Fee Fund for trophies, certificates and Peggy Awards related expenses. 2 Approved 4-0. Charter stopped paying for Stefanelli's membership in the Alliance for Community Media, and as a result PEGASYS will not be able to submit winners of Peggy awards entries to the nationwide Hometown Awards as it previously has. Ithaca College students can enter the Hometown competition at student rates, but AOC could not reasonably pay for our other winners to enter it. Stefanelli will look into the costs of sending one best entrant. e. Review of educational institutions’ equipment use and needs. In recent years we have been sending equipment and offers of equipment and assistance to local schools; however, they have not used the equipment to make programs for the educational channel. f. Publicity and Outreach: Stefanelli notes that the Tompkins County Library has a "Maker Space" program that includes computers and software as well as high-tech tools, 3-D printers and an embroidery machine. She has offered training to Library staff on the use of video editing software. The Library also has equipment that converts old audiovisual media to digital format—free! PEGASYS can thus partner with the Library for mutual benefit, and this will help to publicize the availability of the PEG studio. Stefanelli will invite library staff to be on the PEGASYS Presents program. She further plans continued cooperation with the Sciencenter, e.g. when it changes exhibits (three times a year). g. PEGASYS Access Rules. AOC discussed and offered further comments on the edits and simplifications suggested by Van Leuken. She will forward the final draft before the next meeting. DePaolo will draft a resolution for the next meeting that will clarify the required verification of PEGASYS users’ addresses. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo: no new developments. b. Producer’s letter of support. AOC made some edits in a letter stating our support for producer Tom Stern's documentary video project. DePaolo will make a final draft for consideration at the next meeting. Stern meanwhile is creating 4 promotional shorts for next month's meeting. 08. New Business: none. 09. Next meeting: Tuesday, March 3, 5:00 pm. 10. Adjournment 6:45. ================ 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>. 3 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> February 2020 Access Studio Coordinator Report Equipment Issues The last of our [mostly non-working] Hi8, VHS and mini-DV cameras have been disposed of, along with CRT monitors, SVHS and various other accessories. 2019 PEGASYS Channel Usage Report .Attachment #1 shows the program levels for channel 13 for 2019 and 2018, including number of new programs. 1143 new programs were shown last year, which compares favorably with 1092 new programs in 2018. 2019 PEGASYS Facility Usage Report .Attachment #2 shows equipment usage levels for 2019 and 2018. Notable is the sizeable increase of studio usage, primarily due to the increased usage of the mini- studio. 4 new series, of which 2 are still active, tried out the mini-studio as a production tool in 2019. Also notable is the reduction in editing usage. More producers are using their own equipment for editing, or Cornell libraries, which offer Premiere, or avoid editing by having NEXUS record their shows from the studios. Field camera use in 2018 included sizable numbers from a single producer using our old Sony PDX-10 mini-DV cameras to shoot 2 weekly series. These cameras were disposed of in 2019. However, this producer continues to shoot and produce in this format, using his own equipment. Our regular camera fleet has shown modest increased usage over 2018. 2019 Usage Fees Report .Attachment #3 shows the balance of the PEGASYS Usage Fee fund, from non- participating municipality users and equipment rentals by producers for non-access productions, at $495. PEGASYS Awards I would like to do the PEGASYS Awards again this year. As our usage fee account is fairly substantial, I recommend using the usage fee fund to pay for trophies and certificates for this event. The cost will be about $250. If this is approved, I will go ahead with planning this event. 4 Attachment #1 Channel 13 PEGASYS Programming Summary 2019 For comparison, here is the channel 13 program summary for 2018 5 Attachment #2: PEGASYS Equipment Use Summary 2019 For comparison, here is the PEGASYS Equipment Use Summary for 2018 6 Attachment #3