PEG Capital Expenditure Request_Access Origination SitesMasterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: PEG Capital Expenditure Request
DATE: January 14, 2013
Dubuque
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All- America City
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2012
Cable TV Coordinator Craig Nowack is recommending approval of the Cable TV
Commission recommendations for funding from the Public, Educational, and
Government (PEG) Capital Grant for up to $50,000 on behalf of the local access
community to insure the on -air playback operations at our four local access origination
sites, should one of their servers need to be repaired. The request was submitted in two
parts:
1. To replace the Cablecast and Carousel servers, both due to be replaced, at the
Mediacom public access studio (up to $37,000); and
2. To provide for a spare video playback server that can be used at any of the four
access origination sites should a playback server malfunction and need to be
taken off -line and shipped away for repairs (up to $13,000).
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
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Michael C. Van Milligen
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Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Craig Nowack, Cable TV Coordinator
THE CITY OF
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Craig Nowack, Cable TV Coordinator
DATE: January 9, 2013
SUBJECT: PEG Capital Expenditure Request
Dubuque
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All-America City
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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memorandum is to forward a recommendation from the Cable TV Commission for funding from the
Capital Grant for Access Equipment and Facilities.
BACKGROUND
The Capital Grant for Access Equipment and Facilities created by the cable franchise agreement that went into effect on
June 5, 2005, currently has a balance to be awarded of $302 )818.
There are currently four access origination sites in the city: 1) City Hall Annex for government access channel CityChannel
Dubuque; 2) The Forum for Dubuque Community Schools' educational access channel; 3) Loras College for the shared
educational access channel; and 4) Mediacom for the two public access channels. All four sites utilize a Cablecast server
from Tightrope Media Systems to play recorded programming; all sites except City Hall Annex also utilize a Tightrope
Carousel server for their on -air graphics bulletin boards.
These on -air servers are in operation 24 hours a day seven days a week. The CityChannel Dubuque video server plays back
10 - 11 hours of programming on a typical day. During budget season, there can be as much as 17 hours of programming
per day. Although servers covered by a gold assurance (warranty) package are repaired at no cost (except for one -way
shipping), they must be sent back to the manufacturer to be repaired. This means the access channel or channels powered
by these servers are unable to play back recorded programming for 7 -10 days. Such was the case in late summer of 2012
when the Cablecast server at Mediacom malfunctioned and needed repairs.
In order to avoid a 7 -10 day loss of play back programming at any of the four origination sites, I submitted a two -part request
for up to $50,000 on behalf of the local access community to insure the on -air playback operations at our four local access
origination sites, should one of their servers need to be repaired. The request was submitted in two parts:
1) To replace the Cablecast and Carousel servers, both due to be replaced, at the Mediacom public access studio (up to
$37,000); and
2) To provide for a spare video playback server that can be used at any of the four access origination sites should a playback
server malfunction and need to be taken off -line and shipped away for repairs (up to $13,000).
DISCUSSION
The Mediacom replacement portion of the request calls for up to $37 ,000 for a new SX4 RAID Cablecast server and a new
Carousel graphics server. The request includes installation, Tightrope tech support, and four -year gold assurance service
packages for both servers.
The replacement/back-up server portion of the request calls for up to $13 ,000 to upgrade the Cablecast server at The Forum
to an SX2 RAID server. The request also upgrades the gold assurance plan for the SX2 server and allows for installation and
configuration. The existing server at The Forum (new in August 2012), not protected with RAID redundancy, will become the
city -wide "backup" server and be housed at City Hall Annex. This portion of the request also provides a spare drive for the
servers at Mediacom, The Forum, and Loras College.
The Cablecast server for CityChannel Dubuque at City Hall Annex was replaced in January 2012 and is protected by a gold
assurance service package. The Cablecast server at Loras College was new as of 2010 and is also covered by gold
assurance.
At its meeting on December 5, 2012, the Cable TV Commission unanimously approved this request for funding.
RECOMMENDATION
I respectfully request that the Commission's recommendation for this request be forwarded to the City Council to receive, file,
and approve. Thank you.
cc:
Randy Gehl, Public Information Officer
Kevin S. Firnstahl, City Clerk
From: "support @civicplus.com" <support @civicplus.com>
To: <cnowack @cityofdubuque.org>
Date: 11/01/2012 10:16 AM
Subject: Online Form Submittal: PEG Fund Grant Application
The following form was submitted via your website: PEG Fund Grant Application
Organization Name:: Dubuque Access Community
Address:: 1300 Main Street
City:: Dubuque
State:: IA
Zip Code:: 52001
Organization Contact:: Craig Nowack
Email Address:: cnowack @cityofdubuque.org
Telephone Number:: 563.589.4181
Fax Number::
Total Amount Requested:: 48,000.00
Provide a general description of what you are requesting and why:: This proposal ensures that the four
PEG origination points in Dubuque (City Hall Annex, The Forum, Loras College, and Mediacom) all have
RAID - protected playback servers and relatively new graphic bulletin board computers all of which are
covered by an assurance program. Furthermore, it enables there to be a spare server in town that can be
installed in an emergency if one of the four origination site servers goes down. Each site will also have a
spare drive for its server.
Describe how the community will benefit from your request:: The community will benefit from this by
continued PEG programming and a minimum of down time should a playback server need repair.
Item #1:: Installation of new servers and removal of old
Price:: 650.00
Item #2:: New Carousel computer for Mediacom public access site
Price:: 3937.50
Item #3:: 3 Spare Drives
Price:: 1125.00
Item #4:: Cablecast SX2 RAID Server (for DCSD/The Forum)
Price:: 9400.00
Item #5:: Cablecast SX4 RAID Server (for Mediacom public access)
Price:: 22362.50
Item #6:: Cablecast Gold Assurance for Carousel
Price:: 1275.00
Item #7:: Cablecast Gold Assurance upgrade to SX2
Price:: 956.25
Item #8:: Two hours of Tightrope phone installation support
Price:: 900.00
Item #9:: Cablecast Gold Assurance for SX4 Server
Price:: 6226.25
Item #10::
Price::
Additional Items /Comments:: Thank you.
Please attach all applicable quotations:: No file was uploaded
Additional Information:
Form submitted on: 11/1/2012 10:15:51 AM
Submitted from IP Address: 64.22.202.189
Referrer Page: http: / /www.cityofdubuque .org /index.aspx ?NID =319
Form Address: http: / /www.cityofdubuque .org /Forms.aspx ?FID =46