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MINUTES Access Oversight Committee (AOC) (as approved Nov. 10, 2020) Tuesday, October 6, 2020 at 5 PM The AOC held its meeting by ZOOM Conferencing (thanks to Paulette Rosa, Town
Clerk, Town of Ithaca) Present: chair Rich DePaolo, Gossa Tsegaye, secretary Wayles Browne, Common Council liaison Rob Gearhart, vice chair Wies van Leuken; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli; employees of Charter: Lauren Kelly, Director of Government Affairs –
Finger Lakes Region, Charter Communications, Mike Montesano, Sr. Manager, Programming, Charter Communications 01. Call to Order by R. DePaolo, 5:06. DePaolo asked everyone to introduce themselves. An additional Charter
representative was scheduled to attend the meeting, but work commitments kept him from attending. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none.
03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the August 18, 2020 Meeting. Moved by DePaolo, seconded by Gearhart. Minutes approved 4-0.
05. Access Studio Coordinator Report. Stefanelli provided an oral report rather than the customary written report submitted prior to the meeting.
a. Purchase of 3 laptops - update. Stefanelli: the new laptops could be uploaded with Premier Elements editing software, if the software we have now proves to not be
compatible with the new laptops. The quotes for the laptops and the software exceed by about $300.00 the amount previously earmarked for this purchase. b. PEGASYS’ operations during the COVID-19 lockdown - update. We are in Phase 1 reopening: only 1 person allowed in each studio at a time (1 in the ministudio, 1 in the control room, 1 inside the studio). The next phase will be Phase 2, with multiple
people allowed. We're still using the entryway as an "airlock" for loaning out and returning equipment. c. Channel 13's absence of programming beginning September 29th — report. There were problems with the installation of the City of Ithaca's playback system and as of Friday [Oct. 2] these had not been resolved, so we can't yet use the City's system as
a workaround. Gearhart: the City's new system is almost all installed, according to Julie Holcomb the City Clerk. The City is not trading in the old NEXUS playback system. Maybe we can use it. Mike Montesano: Stefanelli met with the Audio-Video Corporation's installer. d. The Unitarian Church and the Hangar Theater had started new series on
Channel 13 using Zoom for their cablecast. Tsegaye worries about favoring any one religion. DePaolo: we're not excluding any religions; we're open to all. 06. Member Reports
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a. Playback System - discussion. DePaolo: we need new NEXUS playback equipment so that Channel 13 can function. There seems to be a difference of opinion about paying the costs of this. I've reached out to the Ithaca City School District about their NEXUS, but
have not heard back. In any case, we've been in need of a long-term replacement since
May 2020, and the sum mentioned in the quote we have would wipe out AOC's budget. Charter tells us to pay for all of it in order to keep playback available in Ithaca. AOC feels that some of the equipment falls under the transmission requirements that are Charter’s responsibility. We can't permanently rely on workarounds.
Lauren Kelly, Charter: Our position hasn't changed.
Montesano: nothing to add regarding new equipment. In the short term, we need to consider that even replacement of old equipment would incur expenses to install. We don't have a broadcast engineer in Rochester at the moment. DePaolo: Could the old City NEXUS or the School District's NEXUS be installed?
Stefanelli: The School District paid for its system; I haven't seen it. The City's version is
all digital and would require some conversion. Montesano has the current quote: the only storage item is NEXUS Flex itself with 1 Terabyte internal storage. DePaolo: the NEXUS in the specs is $8000. The next higher NEXUS is $14000 but
offered on eBay for $4000. If we could get a maintenance agreement on that, could we
buy it? Kelly: can you send me anything on that, a maintenance agreement or a warranty? DePaolo: I can see that the corporation might want to buy new equipment, but this could save us a lot.
Montesano: please send the specs of the eBay item so that I can see if it's compatible.
DePaolo will. DePaolo: there would be considerable costs associated with changing playback to a "blade" unit in Rochester. He notes that he has reached out to the New York State Public Service Commission for reactions, and hopes to hear back by the next meeting.
Montesano: there are enough "blades" in Rochester now to cover the playback of
channels for Ithaca. DePaolo: glad to hear that Charter orders them in bulk, but I think it leaves some room for interpretation. Stefanelli: The City Clerk says installers will be back at City Hall in the week of Oct. 12.
Browne asks who installed the first NEXUS. Stefanelli: we had in-house engineers for
the last one. I'm not sure who did the first one. Montesano: there is no broadcast engineer available for this at present. DePaolo is still waiting to hear from City Attorney Ari Lavine on interpretation of the franchise.
Van Leuken wonders how to get Lavine's help. Gearhart: will e-mail him and follow up.
Kelly: will be happy to set up a call between the City Attorney and Spectrum’s lawyers. DePaolo will try to determine if this would be good. Tsegaye wonders if we could do fundraising or get grants. DePaolo, no, we can't do fundraising; we're not a non-profit organization but a municipal entity, but maybe we could
be the beneficiary of someone else's fundraising.
06 b. iNet maintenance—response from City Attorney. AOC has not yet heard back.
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06 c. PEGASYS's operations during September and October 2020. DePaolo: nothing to add. Stefanelli: has let producers know, first that she would be out for a week, second that PEG would be unable to resume operating.
Lauren Kelly leaves the meeting.
06 d. Response from Charter's Mike Montesano Re: requested list of studios with production facilities. Montesano: There are two locations in New York: Cortland and Syracuse. If there are other locations, they belong to towns or cities, not to Charter.
DePaolo: Is there a funding nexus between these operations and Charter? Even when
there's a not-for-profit governmental structure, there's still a funding nexus with Charter. I tried to determine what locations had in-house production partly funded by Charter. Montesano: Ask Lauren Kelly. Government Affairs can speak better about that. Tsegaye: As a long-term vision, let's make a road trip to visit those other sites...Or we
could do it virtually. We can show off each other's facilities on camera.
06 e. Re-opening the PEGASYS building—discussion of possible scenarios. Stefanelli: "Phase 1, 2, 3" is drawn from NY State rules and guidance. We're now in Phase 1. Phase 2 will allow studio use with multiple people in the main studio. Phase 3 will allow more
people to be present.
06 f. 2019/Q3 Franchise Fee Reports from City and Village. Van Leuken: We're still missing the third quarter of last year. Gearhart: will follow up with Comptroller Steve Thayer, but he's been "hammered" recently.
06 g. Publicity and Outreach. DePaolo: we can't have people come in to the studio at present, nor be promoting programming that doesn't exist. Shall we reconstitute a Publicity and Outreach subcommittee? Van Leuken: outreach is still taking place. We worked with a teacher in the school
system to use the educational channel for remote learning. It did not work because the
school system’s staff is too overwhelmed with getting teaching on track to add anything new to their schedule. DePaolo to Montesano: add Channel 13 to the Spectrum app? Montesano: I did ask to get more information, will ask again, but it's not really my department.
DePaolo asks what the app does. Stefanelli: it's live streaming. Montesano: but also
provides programs on demand. Tsegaye: my class of students (4 days a week) follow my workshops even though they're scattered, not inside the studio. Students appreciate this even though they're not there. Students will run the presidential debate broadcast from their different locations.
The upshot of this is that Zoom can be used as a tool to train people to use Public
Access. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo: We're still waiting (after 2 1/2 years) for a draft from
Charter. I have been in touch with Amanda Lanham (Charter's Director of Local
Government Affairs and Franchising).
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08. New Business. Stefanelli: Channel 15 went down yesterday [Oct. 5] and just came up in time for the 5:30 County Legislature meeting. A squirrel had chewed a cable on State Street.
09. Next meeting: 5 pm Tuesday, Nov. 10 (not Nov. 3) by Zoom. 10. Adjournment 6:18.
================ 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>