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Home My WebLink AboutMN-AOC-2020-05-05 1 MINUTES Access Oversight Committee (AOC) (as approved July 7, 2020) Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 5 PM PEGASYS Community Media Center 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY Meeting held by ZOOM Conferencing (thanks to Lisa Carrier-Titti, Town of Ithaca IT Coordinator) Present: chair Rich DePaolo, Gossa Tsegaye, secretary Wayles Browne, Common Council liaison Rob Gearhart, vice chair Wies van Leuken; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo, 5:13 PM. DePaolo: this meeting will be recorded to comply with open meeting requirements. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the March 3, 2020 Meeting: approved without changes 5-0. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached). Stefanelli: I am offering to help producers with editing so that they can cablecast their ZOOM recordings on the PEG channels. Live streaming, like Zoom, generates recordings that I can broadcast. If we hear of events that use Zoom, forward the information/pressreleases to me and I can inform presenters how to record on Zoom for TV cablecast. This was done e.g. by the Civic Ensemble with its ReEntry Theatre play about people formerly incarcerated. G. Tsegaye is concerned that not everyone can access Zoom, e.g. some of his students can't get internet service or lack computers. a. Charter’s recommendations for 2021 Budget. Request for contingency fund of $20,000 for 2021 (see attached report). Voted on under 06a. b. PEGASYS Community Media Center operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stefanelli states that most producers are, for now, keeping the equipment they had checked-out. Producers who want to drop off or pick up equipment do not need to enter the PEGASYS building. They can come into the vestibule of the studio (just inside the outer door) if she unlocks the outer door for them. She can easily wipe DVDs and can allow field equipment to sit for a few days and then clean it. So far this has worked out well for everyone concerned. Tsegaye suggests also asking producers to do a quick clean before returning equipment. c. Maintenance and Repair Report. See attached. d. Peggy Awards - update: see attached. Stefanelli is working with ICTV to do a remote version of the Peggy Awards. She has purchased a Webcam for that purpose from the funds the AOC had made available for the Awards from the Usage Fee Fund, so that she can do ZOOM programming and training. The Webcam can also be signed out by producers to put their programs on channel 13. For the Awards show, Stefanelli will do separate Zoom meetings with each of the winners, and edit these into the final show. 2 e. Playback system replacement – update. PEGASYS has three TV channels, but it is not true that we have to buy three new NEXUS playback systems; we in fact need one NEXUS plus switching equipment. Charter has been planning to have a professional firm come and provide a quote. Once done, AOC will review what part is for transmission services and what part for production services and how to allocate its budget funds. 06. Member Reports a. AOC's Budget recommendations for 2021. It is anticipated that the NEXUS has to be replaced soon. The studio’s model is past its expiration date and no longer serviced by the company. See also 5e above. Van Leuken proposed the following Resolution, which was moved by DePaolo, seconded by Browne, and passed as amended: Resolution Access Oversight Committee (AOC) Tuesday, May 5, 2020 AOC Recommendations for 2021 Budget WHEREAS, Section 15.12 of the Franchise Agreement of January 2003 between the City of Ithaca and the franchisee Time Warner Entertainment-Advance/Newhouse Partnership (TWC), subsequently assigned to Charter Communications, Inc. (d/b/a Spectrum Networks) after Charter's 2016 acquisition of TWC, requires the participating municipalities (City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights) to provide the franchisee with an annual written 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, the AOC has reviewed PEG’s current equipment and anticipates that new or replacement equipment will be needed, and NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the AOC recommends earmarking up to $20,000.00 as contingency to purchase equipment as needed for the functioning of PEG operations, 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 written budget for Public, Educational and Governmental access operations. Approved unanimously, 5-0. 3 b. Van Leuken presented a spreadsheet showing budgeted amounts, actual expenditures, and PEG Fee collections for the period 2004 through 2020. c. Publicity and Outreach: no report. d. 2019/Q4 Franchise Fee Reports from City, Town and Village: Van Leuken received the Q4 report from the Town. AOC still needs the Q3 reports from both the City of Ithaca and the Village of Cayuga Heights. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement: no report. b. Producer's Letter of Support – follow-up. Gearhart: the City Clerk's office is creating a letterhead for AOC to use, rather than AOC using a regular City letterhead. He will follow up with the Clerk. c. Residency Verification – follow-up. Stefanelli communicated the AOC resolution passed on March 3 to Charter management. At their direction she has shredded all residency verification documents that she had to collect. She is no longer keeping copies of producers' identification documents. 08. New Business: Tsegaye invites AOC members to look at ictv.org, which streams excellent news programming at noon Wednesdays and Sundays. We can give him any feedback or opinions; ICTV will appreciate it. Stefanelli is interested in putting this programming on channel 16; Tsegaye will try to help to arrange this. 09. Next meeting: 5 pm Tuesday, July 7, 2020 (skipping the June meeting). 10. Adjournment 6:06 PM. ================ 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 4 May 2020 Access Studio Coordinator Report  Equipment Issues We have had several instances of shows freezing while playing from the NEXUS server onto channel 13. I was finally able to find a correlation between file transfers to the NEXUS hard drive and on-channel freezes. If I stop a file transfer, the freezes stop. I have since become careful to avoid doing file transfers during show playback and the problem seems resolved.  2021 PEGASYS Equipment and Facilities Fund: Request Justification: I request a contingency fund of $20,000 for 2021.  Producer Programming: Zoom A number of programs on PEG channels have shifted to Zoom. City meetings, county meetings, Ithaca School Board meetings are all now on Zoom. I have been downloading, titling and converting them for channels 15 and 16. But other organizations have been “inadvertently” creating programming by doing zoom versions of their events. The Tompkins County Democratic Committee held a 3 hour Zoom candidates forum, which has run on channel 13. Get Your Green Back Tompkins held a 5 hour series of Earth Day presentations, which they are going to run on channel 13 soon. Two channel 13 producers are using Zoom to do their shows. “Ithaca DSA” has done 2 Zoom interview shows. “IDUU” is doing their first.  PEGASYS Awards The PEGASYS Awards ceremony was rescheduled from April 3 to May 8 when we were required to close by the state due to COVID-19. Since the state extended this closure of public facilities, we are now closed with no firm re-open date, I am working with ICTV on doing a remote version of the awards. The AOC had previously approved $250 to use for the PEGASYS awards. This was intended to cover the cost of the trophies. However, since then, ICTV has agreed to cover the cost of the trophies and our studio has become unavailable for holding the awards. Therefore $82.07 from the PEG user fee fund has been used to purchase a webcam for Zoom programming / training purposes as part of this $250 allowance.