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MINUTES Access Oversight Committee (AOC) (as approved August 18, 2020) Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 5 PM The AOC held its meeting by ZOOM Conferencing.
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, 5:03. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: Item 6a was changed to “Audio-Video Corp’s Sales Quotation for Playback System – discussion”.
03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the May 5, 2020 Meeting. Moved by Van Leuken, seconded by Gearhart, approved without change 5-0.
05. Access Studio Coordinator Report: attached. a. Semi-Annual Usage Fees Report (January through June, 2020): attached. The balance of the Usage Fee Fund is $404.00. b. PEGASYS’ operations during the COVID-19 lockdown - update: see attached. Stefanelli, answering a question from Browne: recordings made by Zoom are in mp4
format. I change this to mpeg2 for editing and broadcasting. The new equipment that will replace the inoperative NEXUS will be able to accept mp4 and other formats. An advantage of mp4 is that files are smaller for the same audio and video quality. G. Tsegaye has sent several of his older documentaries to Stefanelli for cablecast. He offers links to AOC members so that they can view the documentaries directly.
Stefanelli: The Town of Ithaca and other municipalities are presumably holding their meetings via Zoom. If they wish to have these meetings broadcast on Government channel 15, they merely need to send me Zoom files and permission for cablecasting.
c. Peggy Awards - update: see attached. The awards ceremony will be held virtually on August 7, premiering on both channel 13 and YouTube at 8pm.
06. Member Reports a. Audio-Video Corporation’s Sales Quotation for Playback System - discussion. Leightronix no longer manufacturers the NEXUS model that the PEG studio had been using (till it failed in May). At Charter’s request, Audio-Video Corporation (Albany, NY)
made two site surveys, on 5/15 and on 6/2/2020. Lauren Kelly, Charter's Director of Government Affairs for the Finger Lakes, has sent DePaolo a quote of $29,320.00 from Audio-Video Corporation for the equipment and installation that will be needed to replace the failed NEXUS. The quote is itemized, but DePaolo has asked Kelly for a breakdown of which of the items are "solely related to program production (and thus subject to our
equipment budget), and which are attributable to the statutory transmission ('play back')
requirements of 16 CRR-NY 895.4(c)(7)" of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Once we have that, AOC can review the budget required to purchase the production-services part of the equipment and make its decision.
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In the meantime, Stefanelli has been able to use the NEXUS in City Hall to program Channel 13, but this is not a long-term solution because later this year the City of Ithaca will trade in its NEXUS for other equipment to be provided by Leightronix (no install date
yet). There is some concern that the security staff is not wearing a mask when they check
in Stefanelli and her equipment. Gearhart will inquire at City Hall. There is a Nexus at the High School as well. AOC discussed the iNet (Institutional Network), either a co-axial cable or fiber optic link, between several buildings in the City of Ithaca (City Hall, Board of Education...) and
the PEG Studio. It is the subject of Section 16 of the 2003 Franchise Agreement between
Charter and the City. This network is more than 15 years old. As part of replacing the Nexus, the head end of the iNet will be moved to another building on Charter’s property, not the studio but an adjoining building. The Franchise Agreement specifies which parts of it are the responsibility of the City and which are the responsibility of Charter.
DePaolo: Section 16.12 of the Franchise says the cable company has to maintain the
backbone of the fiber iNet and end equipment. But overall, the language of Section 16 is hard to interpret and he will consult with the City Attorney on what exactly we should expect from Charter. Tsegaye: the Southside Community Center used to be one of the buildings linked by
the iNet. Producing TV programs from Southside was important to connect the Center to
PEGASYS. Van Leuken: it is quite possible that the present leaders at Southside are unaware of the iNet connection. I think it was last used in 2000. Tsegaye plans to devote his retirement to public access, including specifically
getting Southside involved again.
b. Replacement of 3 lap tops - resolution. All but one of the PEG studio's laptops are out of order. Producers need laptops to edit their programs at home, now that the studio building is closed and its editing computers are inaccessible. Van Leuken moved and W. Browne seconded the following
Resolution Access Oversight Committee (AOC) Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Use of AOC’s 2020 Budget Contingency to Replace Laptops
WHEREAS, the AOC’s 2020 Budget included a $10,000.00 contingency to purchase equipment as needed for the functioning of Public, Educational and Governmental access operations (PEG) operations; and
WHEREAS this budget was subsequently approved by the participating municipalities
(City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights); and WHEREAS, most of PEGASYS’s laptops have become broken and cannot be repaired; and
WHEREAS, the one remaining laptop is being used by several producers, who are editing their programs at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
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NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the AOC approves the use of the 2020 Budget Contingency for the purchase of three laptops, in technical consultation with
Access Coordinator and AOC, in an amount not to exceed $5,000.00.
Passed 5-0. DePaolo will forward the resolution to Charter. c. Approval AOC’s 2021 Budget Recommendations by City, Town & Village - report.
The City of Ithaca passed its resolution of approval on June 1, the Town on May 21, and
the Village on May 20. d. 2020/Q1 Franchise Fee Reports from City, Town and Village. Van Leuken: We received all reports for the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. We are still waiting for the Q3 2019 report from the City and Village. Gearhart will follow up with the City.
e. Publicity and Outreach. Stefanelli: many organizations are doing virtual
presentations using ZOOM. In pre-COVID times these organizations might have considered using public access as too cumbersome, but now by way of hitting ZOOM’s record button, they have an easy way to cablecast their events on the PEG channels, with Stephanelli’s assistance with formatting and text. As a consequence, there is more
of a variety of voices on Channel 13 these last months. For example, she got
permission to download an Earth Day celebration of many hours and to divide it in several hour-long segments. She is hoping to do the same with Southside’s full Juneteenth celebration on Zoom, which had many speakers and performers. She is waiting for their permission and is asking Tsegaye to put in a good word. She has also
been in touch with the Ithaca Shakespeare Company about broadcasting its planned
100% virtual productions of Romeo and Juliet and of The Comedy of Errors this month. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement: no report.
b. Producer’s Letter of Support – follow-up: DePaolo has sent the letter to Tom
Stern on AOC’s letterhead provided by the City. The letter can serve as a template for future letters of support. 08. New Business: none.
09. Next meeting: 5 pm Tuesday, Aug. 4 (Zoom). 10. Adjournment 6:14. ================
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
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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 July 2020 Access Studio Coordinator Report
2020 PEGASYS Equipment and Facilities Fund: Request In mid-May, our 15-year-old NEXUS playback server died. The manufacturer determined
that the motherboard is damaged. As they no longer make or service this part, there is no
choice but to replace the NEXUS. A vender was brought in to assess our needs and a quote for a new playback system has been sent to the AOC for approval.
PEGASYS Hours and Services During COVID-19 Shutdown
Since our building closure in mid-March, we have continued to program channel 13. After
the NEXUS failed in mid-May, we received permission to use the NEXUS at City Hall to program channel 13. City meetings have been conducted as Zoom meetings. I have been downloading and converting the meeting files, and they are now being played by the Tompkins County playback system onto channel 15.
Although the studio is closed, field equipment has been going out and in, using the
PEGASYS entryway as a social distancing-safe “airlock.” Producers have been delivering new programming via our FTP server, other file share services, or by dropping off DVDs and flash drives to our “airlock.” Charter is working on creating a timetable and rules for a studio re-opening in the near
future that will include social distancing and mask requirements.
Producer Programming: Zoom Zoom has continued to yield new, original programming from local organizations and individuals. I have offered to producers of virtual events to do file conversion and titling to enable them to run on channel 13/15. Thanks to the Tompkins County Democratic
Committee, we ran 5 candidates forums on Ithaca City Judge, County Attorney and State
Assembly. 2 candidates started their own Zoom interview series. Recent Zoom or Internet-premiered shows include: a forum on Racist Rhetoric and Violence hosted by IC and the TC Human Rights Commission; expert forums discussing 5G technology and other environmental issues; the Wharton Museum’s Silents Roar Film Festival ; Bike Walk
Tompkins’s Zoom Happy Hour; Civic Ensemble’s production made by and about local
formerly incarcerated actors “Streets Like This;” Moreland the Magician’s magic show for kids at the TC Library, and storyteller Regi Carpenter’s “Imagine the World” stories. Kudos particularly to producer Theresa Alt, who has produced her bi-weekly talk show “Ithaca DSA” entirely as Zoom interviews since March.
PEGASYS Awards
The PEGASYS Awards ceremony was finally cancelled as a live event, and will be done as a virtual event on August 7, premiering on both channel 13 and YouTube that evening at 8pm. Winners have been notified and invited to send in acceptance speeches, either made themselves or to do zoom interviews with me.
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