Minutes Cable Teleprogram 6 26 06
MINUTES OF CABLE COMMUNITY TELEPROGRAMMING COMMISSION MEETING
June 26, 2006
CITY HALL ANNEX - 2nd FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM #2
MEMBERS PRESENT: Burton Everist, Pauline Maloney, George Herrig, Jennifer Tigges,
Sr. Carol Hoverman.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Maria Araeipour. One seat remains vacant on the Commission.
OTHERS PRESENT: Jim Barefoot, Mediacom
Gary Olsen, Dubuque Community Schools
Craig Nowack, City of Dubuque Cable TV Coordinator
Ms. Tigges called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m.
1. Acceptance ofthe Agenda.
Upon a motion by Sr. Hoverman, seconded by Mr. Herrig, the agenda was
accepted unanimously as published.
2. Approval of the Minutes of the April 4, 2006 Meeting
Upon a motion of Ms. Maloney, seconded by Mr. Everist, the Minutes of the April 4,
2006 Commission meeting were approved unanimously.
3. Public Comment
Ms. Maloney commented on the quality of the City's live telecast of City Expo back
in April. The host did a wonderful job, and the various guests were relaxed and
seemed genuinely interested in sharing their knowledge about what their
department had to offer the residents of Dubuque. Mr. Nowack expressed his
gratitude for the members of the Commission, especially Ms. Maloney and Mr.
Everist, who participated in the telecast, freeing him up to be producer and line up
a succession of guests. He also thanked Mr. Barefoot, who switched and directed
the show with the Anycast Station. Ms. Tigges was impressed that so many
Commissioners were there, noting that in the past there hadn't been that kind of
support. Mr. Nowack added that the I-Net will enable live telecasts from more
locations around the city.
4. Access Equipment Expenditures
Mr. Olsen began his presentation by thanking the Commission for their support for
Channel 19 and providing some background on himself, the school district channel,
and his philosophy for producing television programming and running a cable
channel. He requested $7,000 for a Steadicam Flyer 24SE which will give him the
ability to shoot more programming at much higher quality.
Sr. Hoverman made a motion to approve up to $7,000 for the Steadicam,
seconded by Mr. Everis!. The motion was approved unanimously.
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Mr. Olsen also mentioned that he is researching a new camera purchase and trying
to decide what will best meet his needs. He wants a lightweight HD camera that
has a sufficient range of outputs to meet any production situation he might
encounter.
Mr. Nowack requested $4,420.00 for two Lite Panels 1 x 1 LED lights. He noted
that he saved approximately $4,500 on his last request for funds by purchasing the
demo unit of the audience.tv system rather than a new one. Mr. Everist moved to
spend $4,420 for the Lite Panels lights, seconded by Ms. Maloney. The motion
was approved unanimously.
Mr. Barefoot made a request for $2,000 for some networking equipment to connect
his studio, servers, and editing suites to facilitate production at the public access
studio. Mr. Herrig moved to allocate $2,000 for this networking equipment,
seconded by Sr. Hoverman. The motion was approved unanimously.
5. Access Programming and Promotion
Mr. Everist urged Mr. Olsen and other members of the access community to submit
locally produced programming for awards. He also requested that commission
members be supplied with some sampler DVDs to illustrate the kind of
programming coming out of Dubuque's access community.
6. Mediacom Cable Report
Mr. Barefoot reported he is now 100% server based in playing back his three
access channels, and that his building now sends those signals to the head end via
fiber optic cable. Signals from The Forum and City Hall Annex are also fiber fed
from Mediacom to the head end. Because of this, the quality of the signals has
increased dramatically.
Sr. Hoverman asked about the quality of the audio coming out of the access studio,
if it's still picking up FM radio stations.. Mr. Barefoot passed along some reasons
he's heard for this, that the ring at the base of the WDBQ tower is disintegrating
and causing this interference; that Mackey is having trouble with its audio boards;
patch panel troubles; cable shielding; and XLR connectors in the wall.
Mr. Barefoot presented a list of possible future equipment purchases:
. Lite Panels lights
. Small mini DV recorder
· Wireless camera cabling
· Upgrades to server hard drives
· Digital decks to replace SVHS deck in control room
. HD monitors
· Additional NLE station
· Upgrade NLE software
· New van for transporting gear
. New microphones
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· DVD duplicator
7. Cable TV Division Report
Mr. Nowack announced that the amendment changing the quorum requirements to
four commissioners was published in Saturday's paper. He thanked Mr. Barefoot
for his help in showing the Cable TV Division how to operate the Anycast Station.
Mr. Nowack stated that the City's TV production is about to get started. Now in the
editing system is a program in progress about the City's Road to Success program,
and he'd shot some footage at America's River Festival. Also in the works is a
program on Universal Design and Street Reconstruction. The City is purchasing a
weather station to provide downtown Dubuque weather data to residents via
CityChannel 8. Mr. Nowack also reported that the City had purchased a Sony
Anycast Station with money left over from the previous franchise agreement's
technology updating fund.
8. Future Agenda Items
No new agenda items were suggested.
9. Adjournment
Upon a motion of Mr. Everist, seconded by Sr. Hoverman, the meeting was
adjourned at 7:23 p.m.
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