Minutes_Cable TV Commission 12 5 12MINUTES OF CABLE TV COMMISSION MEETING
December 5, 2012
CITY HALL ANNEX — 1st FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM #1
MEMBERS PRESENT:
MEMBERS ABSENT:
OTHERS PRESENT:
Alan Vincent (chair), Jennifer Tigges (vice- chair), Pauline Maloney,
Kevin Stevens, Sr. Carol Hoverman, Kathy McMullen, Ron Tigges.
None.
Craig Nowack, City of Dubuque
Craig Schaefer, Dubuque Community Schools
Dale Lass, Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School
Laura Stanner, Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School
Mike Willis, University of Dubuque
Nathan Ripperberger, University of Dubuque
Jim Barefoot, Mediacom
Vincent called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
Acceptance of the Agenda
Upon a motion by Hoverman, seconded by Stevens, the agenda was accepted 7 - 0.
Approval of the Minutes of November 7, 2012
Upon a motion by Maloney, seconded by McMullen, the Minutes were approved 7 - 0.
Public Notice
There was no public input.
Access Equipment & Facilities
Nowack presented a request on behalf of the local access community to procure a spare Cablecast
server to have on hand to temporarily replace one of the four existing Cablecast servers On use at
each access channel origination site in the city) that might need to go back to Tightrope for service.
As part of the grant request, Mediacom would get a brand new SX4 server and Carousel computer
both with gold assurance, the School District would get a RAID - enabled SX2 server with gold
assurance, and each channel origination site would get a spare, hot - swappable drive to have in house
in case of a drive failure. The current School District server, new this summer, would become the
spare server. With a spare server, the extended channel down time recently experienced at the
School District and Mediacom should be greatly reduced, if not eliminated.
Hoverman moved to approve up to $50,000 to purchase the requested equipment. The motion was
seconded by Maloney and approved 7 — 0.
PEG Grant Agreements
Nowack informed the Commission that the letters asking for programming results from PEG grant
recipients went out after the last meeting and the Commission has the responses. RTigges and
Vincent remarked that it's not the Commission's role to dictate what the recipients' content is, just that
the equipment is being utilized as agreed to produce programming air on the PEG channels.
Mr. Willis and Mr. Ripperberger thanked the Commission on behalf of the University of Dubuque for
providing the HD camera and computer editing equipment. They provided a list of some of the UD
events that they recorded and which have aired on the shared educational channel.
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Mr. Lass and Ms. Stanner showed a DVD of some of the events and student productions at Roosevelt
Middle School. To the best of their knowledge, none of these programs aired on the School District
channel. He stressed the need for a public school to be public, and the value of the learning
experience the students go through with hands -on production experience. Ms. Stanner discussed the
projects she works on with the students and the deteriorating condition of some of the equipment. At
the request of JTigges, she explained R -TV, Roosevelt's morning video announcements.
Vincent said he appreciated the two groups that came in today and would like to learn from some of
the other grant recipients what their programming plans are. He suggested that they be invited to
future meetings. Hoverman noted that the head of Holy Family Catholic Schools is new to the job,
and if she lives outside the city and doesn't have cable, she may not know about our access
community.
A discussion followed about how Dubuque Community Schools selects material to appear on its
channel. Vincent was worried that the Commission would fund equipment for projects the district has
no interest in airing. McMullen suggested the Commission look into the District's policy for getting
material on the channel. RTigges moved that the Commission find out what the Dubuque Community
Schools' policy is for deciding what school - generated programming goes on the air. The motion was
seconded by McMullen and approved 7 — 0. Nowack said he would try to get Mike Cyze and perhaps
Craig Schaefer to come discuss this at the January 2 meeting.
PEG Channel Re- Location
Due to no new information from Mediacom, this item was tabled to a future meeting.
Disposing of Old Equipment
This item was tabled until a future meeting per the request of Barefoot.
Mediacom Cable Report
Barefoot reported one additional problem with his playback server since the last meeting, but it has
since been resolved. He also said that Maloney had some in and produced the first HD show in the
Mediacom studio.
Cable TV Report
Nowack updated the Commission on programming in production. He reminded the Commission that
they are invited to attend the Cable TV budget hearing before the City Council which will be on
February 27, 2013, the last night of hearings.
Adjournment
Upon a motion by JTigges, seconded by Hoverman, the meeting was adjourned at 5:23 p.m.
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