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MINUTES OF CABLE COMMUNITY TELEPROGRAMMING COMMISSION MEETING
June 12, 2007
CITY HALL ANNEX CONFERENCE ROOM II
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Sr. Carol Hoverman, George Herrig, Pauline Maloney, Burton
Everist.
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Jennifer Tigges. Two seats remain vacant on the Commission.
OTHERS PRESENT:
Jim Barefoot, Mediacom
Craig Schaefer, Loras College
Gary Olsen, Dubuque Community Schools
Craig Nowack, City of Dubuque Cable TV Coordinator
Mr. Everist called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m.
1. Acceptance of the 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 May 1, 2007, Meeting
Upon a motion of Ms. Maloney, seconded by Mr. Herrig, the Minutes of the May 1,
2007, Commission meeting were approved unanimously.
3. Public Comment
No one from the public was present.
4. Access Equipment Expenditures
Mr. Nowack reported that the City received Mediacom’s pre-payment of $194,354
for Fiscal Year 2008 yesterday. He suggested Mr. Schaefer’s request for funding
be considered first since his request had been tabled at the previous meeting and
he has to travel to Washington, DC, this evening.
Mr. Schaefer thanked the Commission for considering his request. He clarified a
few points:
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For 13 years his students have actively been providing access programming
to the Dubuque community.
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His students try to provide high quality programming that serves the
community, something that has been validated by awards from various
entities around the state.
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Student newscasts focus on the community at large, not just campus issues
and events.
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With the help of this grant, he hopes to put together the state’s first Hispanic
newscast.
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Ms. Maloney commented that the scope of Loras programming is quite astonishing.
After a discussion of the cost of shipping the various items Mr. Schaefer is
requesting, she moved to approve a grant of $39,000.00 for Loras College. The
motion was seconded by Sr. Hoverman and approved unanimously.
Next, Mr. Olsen presented a request for $14,500.00 for Dubuque Community
Schools Channel 19 for an automation system, file server, and routing switcher. By
way of background, he noted that since its inception in February 2006, Channel 19
has been using an audience.tv system as a complete channel playback system.
Because this both plays back programming and provides a graphics system as
well, it has been overtaxed. As a result, the audio is never in sync with the video
when his award-winning programming plays back. He would like to install a
Cablecast automation system like the City has for CityChannel 8 in which a file
server dedicated exclusively to the playback of programming is combined with the
audience.tv system for graphics, with an 8x8 routing switcher to switch between the
two. This will solve the sync issues and allow better quality playback of his
programming. In addition, he will be able to schedule programs to play at an
appointed time rather than have them start randomly whenever they come to air in
one large playlist.
He chose the Cablecast system at Mr. Nowack’s suggestion, noting that it is an
easy system to use and he can rely on technical support from the City, which has
been using the system for about a year.
Sr. Hoverman moved to approve this request for $14,500.00. It was seconded by
Mr. Herrig and approved unanimously. Sr. Hoverman commented that the
cooperation and mutual support of the local access community is wonderful.
Mr. Nowack presented two requests in an effort to upgrade the production facilities
at two of the venues where CityChannel televises meetings, and gave a brief
history of previous upgrades. The Library Council chambers, destined to close in
September, received a new audio system in early 2005 and new cameras in late
2005. The original plan was to move the Library cameras to the Federal Building
and add two more for a total of five cameras there. But with the Supervisors
chambers desperately needing new cameras, and with a tight construction
schedule for the Federal Building, he thought it made more sense to buy five new
cameras for the Federal Building and move the Library cameras to the County
Courthouse instead. And to improve the Supervisors telecasts, a fourth camera
would be necessary.
So Mr. Nowack requested $20,000.00 for three new cameras and a controller for
the Federal Building (the other two new cameras are being paid for out of the City
budget for that project), and $8,000.00 for one new camera and installation of the
Library cameras at the County Courthouse. The County project, he noted, was
contingent upon approval by the County Supervisors.
Mr. Herrig moved to accept both proposals for a total of $28,000.00, seconded by
Ms. Maloney. The motion was accepted unanimously.
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5. Access Programming and Promotion
Mr. Barefoot reported that he is seeing a lot of programming from Wahlert High
School, and from other teachers there in addition to Becky Specht. An art teacher,
Mr. Powers, is doing a lot of computer graphics and art. The Tschiggfries are just
starting a third program in their Steamboat series, shooting footage in New Orleans
a few weeks ago. He stated that he is encoding every day, and that the access
situation is night and day different than when he started 13 yeas ago.
Mr. Everist asked in general terms where the Commission is on promoting access
generally in the community. Mr. Barefoot responded by saying that before he can
revisit that issue, he needs to finish some infrastructure upgrades at the access
studio. Because he handles so much of the training, he needs to complete some
projects to make his life easier and make it so access users don’t have issues
when using the facilities. By the fall he would like to have an open house. Dustin,
his assistant, has produced a couple of graphic spots to try to get more people
involved in public access television. Mr. Everist stated that promotion is not just
Mr. Barefoot’s responsibility, and asked what materials exist that could be sent out
to various organizations. He asked if the Commission should be developing
promotional materials to spread the word. This fall Mr. Barefoot hopes to contact
the University of Dubuque to get some community programming. Mr. Herrig stated
that he knows someone there who says that UD has never built up much of a
multimedia facility with which to produce programming.
Mr. Everist also wondered if there might need to be promotion of the channels
themselves in addition to promoting the production of programming.
6. Mediacom Cable Report
As of yesterday, Mr. Barefoot reported, everything he needs to remodel the
encoding station has come in. He is waiting for the availability of an engineer to
begin all the wiring. The monitors and the slow-motion machine have come in, so
he now has everything for the truck. When Craig Schaefer returns next week, they
will begin working on that.
Mr. Barefoot is going to offer some of his older, unused equipment to Loras. This
complements gear they already have and might fill some needs. He also has some
large camera cables at Five Flags which might be of use to someone.
Now that the I-Net is functional, Mr. Barefoot discussed the need for transport gear
to move audio & video from location to location. Certain places, such as the
access studio, Loras, and City Hall Annex, have the gear installed already and
those signals are getting to the Mediacom head-end via fiber. Other places will
need that gear in order to use the I-Net. He mentioned the possibility of procuring
some portable gear that can be used in various locations depending upon specific
needs. He has had discussions with Craig Schaefer about the possibility of doing
newscasts live over the cable system which Mr. Barefoot could capture on his
server for later playback.
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Mr. Everist led a discussion of the desirability and feasibility of routing audio and
video over the I-Net in order to provide occasional live telecasts. He noted that
Wartburg Seminary had occasion to do that in the past. Mr. Nowack reminded the
Commission that the City has money budgeted for a company to come in and
assess users needs with regards to the I-Net and that these live telecasts and the
routing necessary to enable them will come up then.
Mr. Barefoot explained that soon he hopes to have the necessary routing
mechanisms in place in order to put the access studio on live. He reported that the
Final Cut Pro editing system is working well, as is the chroma key software.
7. Cable TV Division Report
Mr. Nowack stated that the statewide cable franchise bill, SF 554, will be law on
July 1. He reported that there was an article in the paper the other day in which
Qwest said it was examining the situation in an attempt to decide if they would
begin offering video. He hopes that this bill will make the franchise fee lawsuit go
away, although he is still preparing affidavits on that.
He discussed a meeting he attended yesterday in which Mediacom representatives
met with local law enforcement and emergency responders regarding the
Emergency Alert System’s (EAS) audio override feature. That system was tested
feverishly last Thursday when the high winds were predicted. During that meeting
the use of the Fire Training Facility on Seippel Road as an Emergency Operations
Center was discussed, along with the possibility of using I-Net fiber to be able to
cablecast live from there during an emergency. This will be something to bring
before the I-Net management company the City will be hiring in FY08.
Mr. Nowack remarked how all the money from the PEG fund has transformed the
local access community with an infusion of new equipment. For the City’s part, the
TV Control Room has been transformed into a more aesthetically pleasing
workspace as older, bulky equipment has given way to out-of-sight computers.
The storage server has been a big help in managing the digital files as archival ¾”
and SVHS tapes are digitized. If he can find enough old programs, he is thinking of
starting a showcase entitled “From The Archives.” Mr. Everist wondered if the
public access studio might have a collection of older shows that might be re-
broadcast as well. He was thinking particularly of the old DCAT (Dubuque
Community Access Television) group who were pioneers.
8. Video On Demand
Mr. Barefoot reported that he has talked with Mediacom technicians about the
transport gear to enable a fiber connection and real-time transfer of Dubuque PEG
programming to the server in Des Moines. That equipment has been ordered. Mr.
Everist wondered if VOD might be a good thing to promote in order to spread the
word about access programming.
9. Future Agenda Items
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Mr. Everist would like to see a subset of Access Programming & Promotion for
promoting access to City Council and other community leaders. Mr. Barefoot
concurred, saying that community leaders should be aware of the process of
getting an access program on the air, or requesting funding from the Capital Grant
for Access Equipment and Facilities.
Mr. Everist continued by suggesting that a second subset of that agenda item
might be a way to enrich groups of programmers, or programming interest groups,
in the community.
10. Adjournment
Upon a motion by Sr. Hoverman, seconded by Mr. Herrig, the meeting was
adjourned at 5:25 p.m.
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