Cable Television Advisory Board

CABLE TELEVISION ADVISORY BOARD MARCH 13, 2015 MINUTES A meeting of the Cable Television Advisory Board was held Friday, March 13, 2015 at 8:30 a.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Members of Committee present: Larry Artz, Citizen Representative Jeffrey Burke Andrew Cernota Bruce Codagnone, IT Sally Hyland Paul Johnson, Citizen Representative Ed Lecius Jennifer McCormack (arrived late) Alderman Dan Moriarty Members of the Committee absent: Justin Kates Dorothy Clarke, Esquire Rick Farrenkopf Brian Geraghty Brian Morrissey, Fire Chief Alderman Lori Wilshire Also present: Jeff Poehnert Pete Johnson Steve Candellera PUBLIC COMMENTS OR OTHERS - None ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE THE FEBRUARY 13, 2015 MEETING MINUTES MOTION CARRIED COMMUNICATIONS Jeff Poehnert I want to read the memo. “We respectfully request authorization for the Nashua Community Television Advisory Board to employ Access AV of Concord, New Hampshire, to relocate all video equipment now installed in the conference room at 9 Riverside Street to the second floor directly above the inside wall of the room in the amount not to exceed $7,000. This will also include the addition of a third wireless microphone to the system. The reasons for the move are as follows: on many occasions the room is full during a meeting and the space the videographer now takes can be better utilized for the attending public. Also this configuration will bring Riverside in line with Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 2 most other locations by isolating the control room from the meeting. One case would be for an easier setup should the meeting go into a nonpublic session.” Right now sometimes when they go in nonpublic session our guy’s got to shut everything down and it takes a few minutes and theywant to just go into their session. So this way he could just do it upstairs. “Over the several months, the upgraded system has been operational, it has been apparent that the audio setup will require additional microphones.” The two microphones we have work great but we definitely need a third one in there to pick up everything. They’re sensitive but a third one would definitely improve it. “The relocation will require extensive extended wiring and labor to accomplish. As Access AV originally installed the equipment last year and this will basically be an extension of that work, we request that they be the sole source for this project. Therefore, the IT Division respectfully requests authorization from the Nashua Community Television Advisory Board to have them switch the equipment. The expenditure not to exceed $7,000 would be drawn from funds for this purpose under the Account 22.2505 Government and Education Channels under the Capital Improvements 81100 Account.” Andrew Cernota I guess we’ll go directly in your… MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE THE COMMUNICATION AND TAKE IT UP UNDER NEW BUSINESS MOTION CARRIED PEG MANAGER'S REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Jeff Poehnert The current balance of the operating Account 2505 is $262,662.29. Expenses for February 2015 including salaries and facility operations totaled $17,544.19. We have financial requests today and the first one is the moving of the equipment that I just spoke about in the Memo over at Riverside. Second, we request the authorization to take advantage of the early bird registration rates for this year’s Jersey Access Group Conference in New Jersey and subsequent expenses not to exceed $2,000. We also are requesting to purchase the new tech talk show “Skype TX System” in the amount not to exceed $4,500. Dick Gagnon will be here. He’s on his way now and he’ll explain what that system in. We had 976 cable casts total in February of 2015. Of this live events there was 28 and of this 15 were Education and 13 were Government. We also had 948 playbacks. Of this the Public 96 was 477, Education 99 was 294, and Government 16 was 177. COMMITTEE REPORTS  Education Channel 99 Pete Johnson Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 3 Some of the things we did on the Education Channel Nashua ETV Channel 99 during the month of February, we did live coverage of the Joint Special School Building Committee’s Construction Subcommittee and that was live at the Sunset Heights Elementary School. The 5th we recorded a segment on school budget for Eye on Education. Also on the 5th we did the Nashua North and South Unified Basketball game. The 6th we did the live coverage of Nashua North and South both the girls and boys basketball games were played at South that evening. On the 12th, we recorded Nashua Public Library program entitled “Troubadours and Trouble Makers”. The 17th we were at the Central and Bishop Guertin girls’ hockey game. Also on the 17th we did Bishop Guertin at the Nashua North boys’ basketball. On the 20th, we did Nashua at Central South boys’ basketball and on the 28th, we finished the month with Nashua North and South hockey at Conway Arena. Just a note, the Bishop Guertin hockey team has made it to the State final and that’s tomorrow at 4:30. We’ll be there to record that and under rules for the NHIA, we can’t play that for 72 hours but that will start airing next week sometime. People can look forward to that. Also next Wednesday evening at 7 o’clock, the Board of Education Budget Committee is hosting a public hearing on the school budget. That’s done annually and this is going to be held at Nashua High School North Auditorium and anyone that wants to go and have public comment on the budget, that’s the time to do so and we’ll be providing again live coverage of that meeting on Channel 99. MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND PEG MANAGER’S REPORT MOTION CARRIED Andrew Cernota Mr. Poehnert since I see that Mr. Candellera and Mr. Gagnon are not here, would you like to read their report. Oh here he is now.  Access Nashua Mr. Gagnon I’m still a little bit late and I apologize for that. Access Nashua, we’re completing our fourth year at the end of June. One of the things that shows how active we’ve been is our video on demand page on our web site which has over 1,050 original content locally produced shows only. So that will give you a good idea of and the diversity as well. We’ve made several purchases during the first couple of months of 2015 - several sets of headphones, a new tripod for HD cameras, additional rechargeable batteries and charger, several cases to store our HD video cameras and accessories, as well as a green screen curtain and lights to be used out in the field. This upgrade on our basic equipment lists for on location shoots was necessary to maintain the production equipment and keep production values at a high value. One of the things about equipment is that per our contract, we provide field equipment. Anything Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 4 that is internal for the studio comes out of the – I don’t know if it’s the CTAB budget… Pete Johnson Our operating funds for the studio. Mr. Gagnon …for the studio and we’ll talk about that after. We began two productions of two series on February which was I’ll say surprising with the weather we had in February. There were more days closed than I would have liked due to the weather and due to cancellations from guests and producers. However we still started up two new series. One is called “The Bogus Hour” which is only a half hour long hosted by Greg Bogus and “The Sharing Room” hosted by Lisa Law. Greg Bogus’ series centers on comedians and musicians in a talk show format in the studio as well as field footage that he gets himself as well. Lisa Law is taping on location and is dealing with lifestyles, wellness, and positive affirmations. We actually go out to her house. She has a nice old I’ll say Victorian house and we record her shows in a couple of her rooms. It really makes for a nice variety of look. One of our producers, Denise McIntosh, of Fairytale Access recent returned from a trip to Egypt. We had loaned her a video camera and look forward to future episodes centered on landmarks, the sites, and people from the Middle East. She actually was funded to go to Egypt for about just under 10 days and recorded some segments of her Fairytale Access shows with kids in Egypt centering around reading and so forth. The company that funded her is actually going to be doing the editing of all the footage and sending it back to us so that we can air it on Access Nashua and distributed to other public access stations. We hosted the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains for a Women in Media Workshop. We gave an overview of television production and gave them access to the studio. They created three 5-minute segments using the cameras, microphones, and control room. They served as host and talent, camera operators, technical director, floor manager, writers, and producers. The video production team has also been at GM Roth kitchen showroom working on cooking segments. A couple of our cooking shows had gone into hiatus and we’ve gotten them back going again. It’s Vibrant Living with Dr. Lisa and she’s doing a cooking segment for her show. So she’s done four of them so far since we’ve gotten going again. We look forward to seeing finish shows in April. Send an e-mail to accessnashua@gmail.com if there’s anybody out there who’s interested in being a part of a crew like this where we go out into the field. We’re always looking for camera people and assistance to help set up and tear down which is a lot of the work when you’re going out in the field. We are still looking for nonprofits based in Nashua to appear as guests on NH Cares. It’s a great place to launch your initiatives to the public and to create awareness about upcoming events and fundraisers. Again e-mail us or call us at 589-3141 or drop in at the Access Nashua studio at 11 Riverside Street right behind the Nashua Transit. The NH Cares show is a restart of our Nashua nonprofits. We have a new host coming on board Joy Barrett who’s extremely familiar with Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 5 nonprofits. She’s going to be the new host of it and we’re calling it “NH Cares”. That’s all I have for that report. MOTION BY UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE THE ACCESS NASHUA REPORT Andrew Cernota I do want to note for the record before we do that that Jennifer McCormack has joined the meeting. MOTION CARRIED COMMITTEE REPORTS  Education Channel 99 Ed Lecius The E Channel Committee met this past week. Even though it’s only March, planning for year- end programming and coverage of graduation is under way. The School Department has set Father’s Day, June 14th, as the graduation for both Nashua North and South at the Verizon Center. I believe North will be going first at 11 a.m. and South will be around 3 p.m. So we’ll be making arrangement to cover that. Also planning for future segments of existing programs and as Mr. Johnson reported, the wrap of the winter tournaments Bishop Guertin is still in it and I believe Nashua North basketball is still in it. They upset Manchester Central the defending champions the other night. They’ll be playing in the quarters going forward. Stacey Hynes is still looking for representation from some of the other schools public and private here in Nashua. Invitations have been extended to them and we’re hoping that we can add to the committee. That’s my report. MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE THE EDUCATION CHANNEL 99 REPORT ON THE QUESTION Pete Johnson I’ll add one more thing to that that I sort forgot earlier. We have a lot of games that we’ve done in the last week and a half and some that we’re getting in today from out of town, including that Nashua North Central game. We’ll have a copy of that available for this weekend. So I’m going to play a lot of sports replays on Sunday so that back, to back, to back all day. If people want to check out the schedule on the city web page, the schedule will be up tomorrow on what’s going to play on Sunday. MOTION CARRIED Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 6 OLD BUSINESS  franchise agreement update Bruce Codagnone I regret to say that there is really no new updates due to the inclement weather. We have had a challenge of getting the team to regroup. Hopefully we will have an update soon. NEW BUSINESS  Riverside Equipment Relocation Request MOTION BY ED LECIUS THAT WE APPROVE THE REQUEST FOR THE RELOCATION OF EQUIPMENT AT RIVERSIDE AT THE PUBLIC WORKS OFFICE AND AWARD THAT TO ACCESS AV OF CONCORD IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $7,000 ON THE QUESTION Unidentified Male Speaker I have a question in regards to where the equipment is being located. Is this the final install location? Jeff Poehnert Yes. This will be the final installment. It will be in the upstairs of the Division of Public Works in a room that they can’t use for anything because of the way the building is built. I’ve gone to our Code office here and we’re fine to put equipment there since it’s only a temporary – we won’t be up there only for the meetings. That’s fine with them. As long as it’s in the part of that room that is of proper height – so that’s where it will live from this point on. MOTION CARRIED  May Conference Request – Jersey Access Group Conference Jeff Poehnert It’s the Jersey Access Group Conference in May that both Pete and I would like to attend. We’ve attended before but it would require your approval of it because of the amount of money. We figured out what our mileage is going to cost, the cost of the conference, and our hotel rooms. That’s why. Andrew Cernota And the request was not to exceed $2,000? Jeff Poehnert Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 7 Right not to exceed $2,000. MOTION BY JENNIFER MCCORMACK TO APPROVE THE REQUEST FOR JEFF POEHNERT AND PETE JOHNSON TO ATTENDTHE JERSEY ACCESS GROUP CONFERENCE IN MAY IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $2,000 MOTION CARRIED  Skype Purchase Request MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO APPROVE THE REQUEST FOR THE SKYPE PURCHASE PENDING FURTHER COMMENT BY MR. GAGNON ON THE QUESTION Mr. Gagnon Okay the reason we’re putting in the request for a broadcast quality skype unit that is integrated with our control panel which is a Tricaster is that in the past we’ve done skype shows and it’s been very convoluted the way we’ve had to set it up as well as the quality has been really not up to broadcast quality for the majority of the times we were doing it. There’s a unit that came out and it uses Microsoft’s technology Skype TX which is just for broadcast time quality and it uses the internet to bring it into your controller as well as to send it out. What that also means is that it allows you to use your cameras instead of having to have a webcam, or we have a Skype unit that you’d have at home. We have one of those. So instead of using that, it uses your camera inputs and then also sends it out. One of the big advantages for me is that if your signal is weak from the other end or there happens to be a lot of traffic in the city’s internet connection and you were to lose the connection, most of the time – I’ll say 99 percent of the time it’s the video connection that you lose. The audio still comes through. This unit has a feature where when you’re setting up you can get a still shot of the individual that’s Skyping in and it determines that if the feed is not of a good enough quality, it puts up that still image so that you don’t have that distorted picture, and going in and out of video, and everything. Again, it makes it nice and clean. Another feature that is nice to us and may not sound that big to you however is the Skype units that you get for home, the Skype software puts a lower shot of yourself in with the picture of the person calling in. So in the studio we’ve had to adjust and crop every time somebody calls in so that we can eliminate that picture. What you end up seeing is the host sitting in front of a green wall. This unit eliminates that and it just gives you a clear feed of the person coming in and out. It also gives you better sound through the IP connection. It has talk back capabilities which doesn’t mean what you might be thinking. Talk back – it allows us to talk to the person calling in without being on air so that we can be working with them while the host is opening the show, asking them now just move your camera a little left because you have a window right behind you there or whatever. So we can be working with them and then when it’s ready to go live, we just hit the button and they’re now on the air. It has color correction automatically. It’s going to take care of the video coming in. It has a built-in preview monitor on the unit itself as well as through the software you can have preview monitors. Record and reuse. It also allows you to record just Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 8 the Skype feed. In the event that we mess up in the recording of the show, we could grab that clip and do something with it to cover our mistakes. We do have a lot of our producers are definitely interested in and honestly have been hounding us for 3 or 4 months now to get our Skype rehooked up and everything. I say rehooked up because of the new system we’ve had to create new sets for the Skype and everything. So shows like the People’s View, Speak Up, Vibrant Living with Dr. Lisa, the Bogus Hour, Discovering Possibilities, Heart of Politics, Fairy Tale Access, New Age Aging and other. I also believe that once people start seeing us producing the shows again with Skype and then how good it looks, again, Skype opens the door for a host to interview anybody anywhere in the world. We do ask – the reason I’m mentioning this and proposing it is that we use the studio the most for shows – talk shows and everything. So we’re really in support of it and we hope you are as well. Andrew Cernota I guess I have a question and I’m not sure who would be best to answer this. The money that would be used to pay for this would be coming out of the special revenue account which is dedicated to education and government functions. Other things that we’ve purchased they’ve had dual uses. The education, government channels uses them but so does Access Nashua. In this one, I’m not certain I see the education or government channel use. Perhaps Mr. Poehnert you could… Jeff Poehnert I think in here is also on the other side anything in the studio that we’re going to have would be basically us would be Pete and my responsibility to put in there. Now it is a way to broadcast between two people so we could use it. Certainly the education there are some applications there for… Pete Johnson I can see where the education and student class from South could come over and utilize that if they wanted to talk to another school district. It’s not a service that they provide over there at their studio currently. The studio is always built looking forward to having public access there and those funds in creating the studio were there so that it could benefit all three channels. I still see that there could be a benefit especially to the educational side and depending on what happens in the future on the government channel, there may be additional uses there in speaking to people in Concord or something if the government channel gets a little wider. Jeff Poehnert It also opens a certain door for emergencies that we could use it for that. That’s something that Justin and I have talked about. We’ll have use for it but it definitely would be part of the studio which would be our responsibility. That’s why we’re going at it from this angle out of our capital improvement funds. Jennifer McCormack Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 9 If I could just comment just to advocate for their position. I see a use for this. There are many authors that are available for a Skype interview. So I see from the library’s point of view and from the school’s point of views. We promote summer reading programs, or particular titles, or our friends group does an author’s visit every fall. It’s frequently much easier to get an author on Skype. It’s certainly cheaper and they will do book discussions or readings. I think we would have a use for that. Jeff Poehnert That’s a perfect application. Sally Hyland I can see where it would be very useful to the schools. I know my high school has access to Skype and especially the language classes are able to open the world to all of their students by allowing interchange from this school to schools in other countries. I think it’s a good idea. Pete Johnson I believe too that the Skype TX is a specialized service for broadcasters. So you get a higher quality. We went over actually and looked. Hudson installed one a little over a month ago and they’re using it over in their access studio and have been really pleased with the quality they’re getting out of it. It’s not something new to New Hampshire yet. We already have some studios that are experiencing it. Andrew Cernota My question was specifically dealing with our particular contractual limitations on how we spend that money. I believe that’s been answered. Any other questions? Unidentified Male Speaker I do have one question. Is there any annual licensing fees every year? Pete Johnson That is taken care of in the initial cost of the box. That’s one of the reasons why it’s a $4,000 box to begin with but that Skype TX transaction is taken care of with that initial purchase. Bruce Codagnone Is this the only vendor that sells this product? Are there others? Have we looked into… Pete Johnson Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 10 The vendors we have – we have 3 quotes here. This is the only unit of its type that’s out there on the market though. It’s just been introduced I believe it was in January or December of this year. Mr. Gagnon It’s actually introduced by the company that manufactures our control board – NewTech. So the integration is seamless. Pete Johnson It’s a seamless integration into our existing switcher technology. Unidentified Male Speaker You mentioned that it integrates into the studio. Is this something that if we had a need to integrate into say the chamber for Board of Aldermen meetings or committee meetings for people that are remote. Usually they dial in by You mentioned that it integrates into the studio. Is this something that if we had a need to integrate into say the chamber for Board of Aldermen meetings or committee meetings for people that are remote? Usually they dial in by phone. Is this something that would be possible for a remote alderman to be tied in by Skype? Pete Johnson Not in this sense because this is going to be tied to the studio in a rack over there. You can get a unit here and put it in the rack system for that purpose if you wanted to in the future. It’s not a great expense at $4,500. Jeff Poehnert That might be something to look into. MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO AMEND TO APPROVE THE REQUEST FOR THE PURCHASE OF THE NEWTECH TALK SHOW SKYPE TX SYSTEM IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $4,500 ON THE QUESTION Pete Johnson Do you need a vendor at this point? We have all three here. I could go over that if you’d like and you could put that with the vendor’s name if you’d like. Andrew Cernota Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 11 I don’t know that we necessarily need that. I imagine the city will probably. Pete Johnson When I put in the purchase request, it has to be there anyway. MOTION CARRIED COMMENTS BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC - NONE REMARKS BY MEMBERS Ed Lecius Alderman Moriarty is here. At our last meeting we talked very briefly about the legislation that’s been introduced that would drastically reshape the CTAB board as we know it. As you and I have talked Mr. Chairman, several of us were kind of caught by surprise not having any forewarning that legislation was going to be introduced. I wonder if Alderman Moriarty could address that and what was the genesis behind it. Alderman Moriarty Certainly. It’s the Mayor’s legislation. I was under the impression that the information had been circulated. I apologize that it hadn’t. It hasn’t gone to committee yet. If it has, I will bring it back. So there was nothing nefarious certainly. The goal is to make is so that we’re able to get a quorum together better. There’s a similar problem with the Joint Special School Building Committee. The size of that was almost cut in half because it was so difficult – we spent more time waiting around to get people to show up for a quorum than the actual meetings themselves lasted. I have it in my hand right now the legislation we’re talking about. This is O-15-38 – Amending the composition of the Cable Television Advisory Board. Currently it consists of 15 members and we have 8 voting member here currently. So we have a quorum today. It went down to 10. Now whatever those 10 are – 10, 11 it doesn’t matter. I think it makes sense that people like yourself Mr. Lecius you’re here all the time. It would increase the likelihood of there being a quorum if the people that are on the composition are the people who tend to show up anyway. Absolutely you’d be the type of person we’d like to have. What I need to do is contact the people that are not on here that were marked stricken out and ask if they’d like to remain on and then that’s what it was. The goal was to increase the number of times that we have a quorum by selecting people that represent the CTAB as people who would generally show up. The Mayor’s opinion was that there are several people on here that were redundant as far as representing the Mayor’s office. Essentially since the Mayor’s office sees all the legislation anyway, puts together the budget, there’s no reason to have like 4 people on here that are representing the Mayor’s office. So she eliminated a lot of them. We’ll probably leave those off. What I’ll do as far as an action, I see one other person on here – D. the Chief of the Fire Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 12 Department and his or her designee. There’s one other person on here I need to talk to and then we can correct it. Ed Lecius It’s my understanding it’s going to the Personnel Committee on Monday. Alderman Moriarty Personnel Administrative Affairs on Monday. Yes. So then that just means that at Personnel Administrative Affairs I’d make the motion to amend O-15-38 so that we don’t eliminate items D – certainly don’t eliminate item E and we’ll check on item D. Ed Lecius Thank you. Alderman Moriarty So then that would end up making it a 12 member board which would require 6 for a quorum or 7? Andrew Cernota It would be 50 percent plus one. Alderman Moriarty It has to be more than 50 percent. Okay so it would be great if we could keep it to 11 just to make it easier but if we have 12, that’s fine. We’ll work on that. Sally Hyland I just wondered why all of the eliminated positions were from city departments. That’s because – why? Alderman Moriarty The Mayor’s the way she explained it to me because the Mayor’s office is already represented by virtue of her being the Mayor and by the IT Director. It seemed redundant to have so many of the Mayor’s office members be on here. The fact that the Fire Department and Police Department was removed may have just been in haste because that’s not the Mayor’s office. For instance the Director of Public Works, the Mayor and designee, the Emergency Management Director, IT Director, Corporation Counsel. How many people is that representing the Mayor’s office? That’s quite a lot. So she’s like that’s not necessary. All we need is one guy. Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 13 Are you representing the Superintendent of School Department and is there a designee as a Board of Ed member? Sally Hyland Public Works. Alderman Moriarty So we’ll talk off line then. So I, again, I repeat there is certainly no intention on my part to cut people cut, nothing nefarious. It was just a matter strictly to increase the probability of having a quorum. Andrew Cernota All right. Thank you. Any other remarks or comments? Unidentified Male Speaker In addition to that the last time I saw this, it didn’t have any of the Mayor’s designees that were directed – it didn’t go through the Board of Aldermen. I do see that that’s stricken now which is my position. I’ve been here for every meeting that I’ve been appointed to. I don’t know why that is. Unidentified Male Speaker Under the Ordinance 15-38 item K the Mayor or his or her designee, which is me. I didn’t go through the Board of Aldermen. It is removed by I’ve been to every meeting since this I’ve been appointed to the Board. Alderman Moriarty It doesn’t go through the Board of Aldermen. I don’t understand what you mean by that. Andrew Cernota He’s a personal designee of the Mayor as opposed to those of us that are citizen members or the business community representative who get voted on by the Board of Aldermen through the appointment process. He was just designated as the Mayor’s representative. Alderman Moriarty Hey that’s legalities. Look at you, you didn’t have to get interviewed. Unidentified Male Speaker Did you say that’s one of the ones that’s currently on the list for removal? Cable Television Advisory Board – 3/13/15 Page 14 Alderman Moriarty Yeah. So probably what will happen is you would end up happening to get reappointed as one of the four members as Nashua residents. That’s what would make sense. Andrew Cernota We have a vacancy for the business community which is a Mayoral appointment. Alderman Moriarty Ok let’s see here. Without having to bring 9 people to the Personnel Administrative Affairs, we don’t have to bog down the meeting but it is worth identifying – let’s talk off line – identifying how it should be. You’re welcome to go around the horn and suggest what you think it should say. MOTION BY ED LECIUS TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was adjourned at 9:23 a.m. Committee Clerk