Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES Date: Dec 10, 2014, 12:00pm Place: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL Members Present: Peter Folk; Chris Fuller; Dale Sinder; Andrew Wadsworth; Marie Polk Members Absent: Carol Inskeep; Dana Mancuso Staff Present: Jason Liggett; Jake Schumacher; Sanford Hess I. CALL TO ORDER With Chair Folk on the way, Commissioner Sinder called the meeting to order at 12:05pm. II. ROLL CALL Attendance was noted. Carol Inskeep and Dana Mancuso had notified staff they would not be able to make the meeting. There was a quorum. III. MODIFICATIONS TO AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved unanimously without modification. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the September 12, 2014 meeting were unanimously approved as submitted. V. CORRESPONDENCE There was no correspondence to the Commission since the last meeting. VI. STAFF REPORT Jake reported on the annual open house and membership meeting held the previous Saturday. More than two dozen people attended. The Nexus broadcast server has been replaced, several years past its scheduled replacement date, but before there was a catastrophic failure. Jason was able to make the transition quickly and the station was able to resume its regular program schedule within 24 hours. Page 1 of 3  In response to persistent requests over the years, Jake received approval from Sanford for purchase of a small public-address system to be made available for check-out by other City departments for use at City events. Staff members continue to attend internal and external communications and marketing meetings. Natalie KennyMarquez, who chairs those meetings, was able to include UPTV in a Youth Educator Sustainable Agriculture Grant from SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) that will involve Urbana Middle School students. The early morning schedule has been revised to include additional live news-talk programs from the Free Speech TV Network, which will give the station a fresher sound and feel in the mornings. The station is also now airing a number of high-quality science videos being produced by Steve Drake at the Beckman. UPTV aired live coverage of the Climate March in Washington, DC, a special League of Women Voters program on the proposed Champaign School District referendum, and a symposium following up on the Steven Salaita controversy at the University of Illinois. New public access programs include The First Amendment (Historically Speaking), Proverbs 31 Women, The Champaign-Urbana Labor Day Parade, WEFT Fest, CU Bands and Fans, Dyslexia Workshop, WBCP’s ACCESS Live, and an archival broadcast of an Urbana men’s church choir from the early 1990s. Equipment, training and consultation were given Common Ground Food Co-op for a production celebrating their 40th anniversary, which was shown continuously in the store. Staff productions included a weekly Holiday Market Menu, feature pieces on the first Legacy Tree and the America Recycles event, special thank-you spots to veterans that aired on Veterans Day and holiday greeting spots featuring City staff, the co- production with CGTV of the annual Humanitarian Awards, and a long-form feature on Fire Prevention Week. UPTV continues to air Urbana High School sports each Saturday at 6:30pm. A highlights reel from the past quarter was shown. Commissioner Sinder asked about any comments City Councilman Brown had at the Open House; Jake replied that in a brief conversation with him he was very supportive of UPTV’s work. VII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION There was none. Page 2 of 3 VIII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS The first draft of the proposed Policies and Procedures revisions was distributed at the annual meeting on December 6th. The next step will be to post it on the UPTV website for public comment; the membership will be notified by email when it becomes available, and we will run a slide to that effect on the UPTV Bulletin Board. The public can comment by email, phone call or in-person visit. IX. NEW BUSINESS Equipment purchase included: six new tripods for public check- out, and three for in-station use; the Ultra Nexus video server; the Leightronix PEG vault (which will allow next-to-live remote broadcasts); a new hard drive for on-air program storage; and the aforementioned public-address system. Chair Folk asked about any effect the equipment would have on on-demand viewing; it won’t, but it will provide access to some additional program content such as sports and weather. Jason replied to a question from Sanford that the expected life span of the new Nexus is approximately eight years. Jason also talked about the decision to stay with SD as opposed to HD in the upgrade; this allowed us to purchase the PEG vault, and there appears to be no plan to move any of the PEG channels to HD by our cable carriers. We will be able to upgrade the current Nexus to HD in the future should we wish. At Chair Folk’s request, Jason explained how HD and SD fit into the current and future programming infrastructure of UPTV. He further discussed the nature and content of UPTV’s YouTube channel. Commissioner Folk suggested we ask all local program producers if they wish us to place their programs on our YouTube channel. X. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Wadsworth appreciated the experience of the Saturday open house, especially the opportunity to go around the room and hear what each person is up to, and mentioned the number of kudos to the UPTV staff. Commissioner Fuller presented information on the upcoming UMS cooking show, the first episodes of which are about to be recorded. Commissioner Sinder asked about the program capacity of the UPTV schedule; it is still expandable. Jake responded to a question from Chair Folk by detailing some of the outside productions available only on UPTV’s live signal. Chair Folk then outlined the various ways the public can view UPTV programs. XI. SET THE NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT The next regular meeting was announced for March 13 at 12 noon in the Urbana City Council Chambers. The meeting was adjourned at 12:53pm by unanimous vote. Page 3 of 3