I.     CALL TO ORDER 6:00 pm

   II.     REVIEW OF MINUTES –  May 17, 2010

 III.     PUBLIC FORUM This is an opportunity for persons wishing to address the committee on items not otherwise on the agenda.  Due to the requirements of the Brown Act, the committee cannot take action on these items, except to calendar for a future meeting or refer to Staff.

 IV.     ANNOUNCEMENTS BY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

   V.     STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS

 VI.     KALB BUDGET REPORT

VII.     REVIEW & DISCCUSSION OF CMAC GOALS

VIII.     COMMENTS FROM THE COMMITTEE

 IX.     Next Meeting: Monday September 20, 6 - 7:00pm

   X.     ADJOURNMENT 7:00 pm

Minutes of the Community Media Access Committee’s Meeting

Monday, May 17, 2010

City Hall Conference Room

6:00 p.m.  - 7:00 p.m.

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I.            CALL TO ORDER

Vice Chair Larson called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m.

Members Present: Clay Larson, Naomi Lucks Sigal, Ellen Toomey, Jackie Hermes Fletcher

Members Absent: Jack Kenny

Staff Present: Jeremy Allen, Anthony Marchitello

II.            REVIEW OF MINUTES - The minutes of the April 19, 2010 meeting were approved by unanimous vote.

III.            PUBLIC FORUM - None

IV.            ANNOUNCEMENTS BY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chair Larson noted that the last P&Z Commission meeting was shot with a single fixed camera.  Anthony explained that he had injured his hand and no one else was available, so the broadcast was made without a camera operator.  Clay asked if the City had a plan to backup Anthony when he’s unavailable.  Jeremy noted that he would normally be the immediate backup, but he was also unavailable.  He said that would work with Recreation Dept. staff to make sure additional people are trained.

V.            STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS
 
Jeremy passed out a budget narrative and asked members to comment on this, especially the list of accomplishments and challenges.  Clay suggested including web-streamed content.  Jeremy agreed and noted that he had just added a pod casting service to the Albany (Granicus) website.  Both mp3 audio and mp4 video files can now be downloaded and one can subscribe to RSS feeds of notifications of content.  Jeremy demonstrated the new pod casting features on the Albany Rewind site.  He commented that the mp4 downloads can be edited, so someone could conceivably alter the content.  Jeremy added that in the future, he might start recording audio content of meetings that are not currently broadcast and make this content available on the web site.  Jeremy emphasized that the pod casting service was a three-month experiment and that the City wants to determine whether it is worth the cost ($150/mo).

Jeremy noted that he has been asked to look into possibility of having the City host streaming content.  He believes that basic streaming would be doable, but he has not seen any easy, convenient way to time stamp the broadcasts.  Jeremy also noted that he is working on a technique that would allow City staff to imbed video on web pages using a YouTube type video player.  Jackie Fletcher asked how long the streamed content on the web is archived.  Jeremy responded that the contract with Granicus provides for 2 year’s worth of archives, but currently there's nearly three years of meeting videos available.  Ellen Toomey asked if the City had statistics showing the number of people watching the streamed content.  Jeremy was able to look up the number of viewers of archived videos, which showed that several school board meeting videos had more than 100 hits.  Finally, Jeremy noted that there’s a sync issue on KALB meeting broadcasts that is evident on close-ups of the speaker.  The City has acquired a frame sync delay device that will correct this problem.

Clay noted that KABL schedules rebroadcasts of Tuesday night P&Z Meetings on Wednesday afternoons.  He wondered if this gives Anthony enough time to upload and trim the video for the rebroadcast.  Anthony said that he could normally do this, although there was problem last week when he was out sick. 

VI.            KALB BUDGET REPORT

            Clay explained that he had put this item on the agenda with the expectation that the committee would take a look at the Cable Fund 832 Activity Report including the final bottom line cost of the Council chambers upgrades.  Jeremy explained that this financial report was not available in time for the meeting and instead he had provided a summary of payments received from Comcast payments, i.e., the DIVCA franchise fees and the PEG access fees.  The PEG fees appear to be approximately $25,000/yr.  Jeremy also provided the KALB budget for the next two years, which staff will be submitting to the Council in the near future.  Jeremy went over some of the budget details.  Budgeted expenditures include $2250 for general materials and supplies (paper, printer cartridges toner, blank DVD’s) and $3000 for professional services (Grancus, Dish Network, and TMS, which will be cancelled).  The budget also includes $1000 to install a fiber connection between Memorial Park and the Community Center headend.  This would allow broadcasts from the park (e.g., concerts), Veteran's Building, and even the sports fields. The communications budget Includes $250 for staff to attend the NAB show.  The Equipment budget, which would be paid for with PEG funds, includes possible expenditures of $2400 for portable cameras, digital media storage (desktop or camera mounted), computer upgrades, and $2500 for the memorial park installation.  Jeremy said that he was also considering a possible upgrade of the Anycast portable audio-video switcher to HD at a cost of $7,000. The system could be used with the HD Council cameras and a portable camera to do HD shoot of concerts in the park.  The budget also includes $20,000 for upgrades to EOC room (a.k.a. cable studio) at Community Center. 

            Clay noted that the decision regarding expenditures of public PEG monies is exactly what the committee was created to consider.  Accordingly, the committee should approve such expenditures.  Clay didn’t think that the Anycast HD upgrade was a good idea now since neither the COMCAST broadcasts nor Internet streaming support HD resolution.  The HD equipment is expensive now, but will get cheaper later.  Clay also noted that many of the expenditures in the proposed budget support Governmental access, the “G” in PEG, he thought the committee would also be interested in expenditures that more directly supported public access.  The committee discussed cameras and training.  Jeremy explained that the PEG capital funds couldn’t be spent on training.  Naomi Sigal noted that she was no longer enthusiastic about trying to provide training and that classes are already available from other sources.  She pointed out that programs like Final Cut Pro are difficult to use and offering training is valuable only if you have ready access to the hardware/software.  She thought that building out the studio at the Community Center still is the best way to support public access.  Jeremy noted that Apple offers free classes and suggested that perhaps the City could post a list of training resources on the KALB website.  Ellen Toomey agreed that listing resources is a good starting point, but she also suggested visiting cities that do public access well to see how they do it.  Jackie Fletcher noted that the San Francisco public access television is an example of a successful operation, which includes training opportunities.  She would still like to see training offered to Albany residents.  Jeremy asked members to email him suggestions for the proposed two-year budget. 

            Clay commented that the Committee should still take a look at the Finance Department’s Cable Fund activity report, which includes all expenditures against the fund and the fund’s current balance.  He noted that the Committee had gotten these reports before and he found them helpful. 

VII.            LEGAL ISSUES RELATED TO AIRING COMMUNITY VIDEOS

The committee discussed Ellen Toomey’s previous email concerning legal issues related to airing community videos.  Ellen noted that the City attorney had explained that the two issues here are copyright issues and individual privacy/permission issues?  Clay noted that there are variety opinions espoused on the Internet on the issue of privacy that run the gamut of the absolute need to obtain signed releases from anyone filmed to the complete absence of any need for this.  The committee discussed the value of broadcasting Albany High graduation exercises and the possibility of getting some revenue from this.  The committee also discussed the issue of broadcasting copyrighted performing arts.  Jeremy noted that typically the copyright proprietor would charge a higher royalty fee for the right to broadcast the performance.  He thought that the committee could ask for an opinion from the City Attorney, but the question would need to be carefully prepared.  No conclusions were reached.

VIII.            REVIEW & DISCCUSSION OF CMAC GOALS

Clay passed out a copy of the Council resolution that created the committee and also a 2008 report on the status of the committee in meeting the specific charges given to it by the Council.  Clay also proposed that the committee should probably add two more goals to the list: reestablishing a relationship with Albany High School video production and broadcasting classes and providing Berkeley PEG content on Albany’s Comcast lineup.  However, the committee elected to postpone the discussion of its goals until the next meeting. 

IX.              ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM.