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HomeMy Public PortalAboutCable Television Advisory -- 2008-05-07 Minutes (4)Minutes of the meeting of the Brewster Cable TV Advisory Committee scheduled for 7:00 pm on Wednesday 7 May 2008. The meeting is called to order at 7:02 pm on Wednesday 7 May 2008 by Larry Greeley. Members present at this time are: Larry Greeley Norman Adams Larry Bugden Janet Husband Walter Powers James Tvrdik Tonight as the meeting opens there is a person in the audience area -Jane Friedman of Brewster. Norman Adams distributes copies of the draft minutes of the meeting of Tuesday 1 April 2008, as well as copies of the approved and subsequently filed minutes of the meeting of Wednesday 5 March 2008. A motion is made by Walter Powers and seconded by Jim Tvrdik to accept the minutes of the meeting of Tuesday 1 Apri12008 as presented. The vote to accept is unanimous. Larry Greeley calls on Larry Bugden for a report on his search for a lawyer to be considered for the eventual negotiations with Comcast. Larry presents his search approach and its results. It is an interesting and informative presentation. After considerable discussion by the committee members of various aspects of the presentation, Norman Adams moves that: this committee authorizes Larry Greeley to take Larry Bugden to present to the Town Administrator the information concerning the search for a lawyer to be considered for the eventual negotiations with Comcast. The motion is seconded by Larry Bugden. The motion is approved unanimously. Larry reports that he has discussed the issue of the perhaps unnecessarily high cost of the "basic tier" cable service with Charlie Sumner. There are some state regulations concerning the cost of the "basic tier" cable service. In the BrCTVAC meeting of January 8, 2008 Michael Mael of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable provided what he described as a useful contact in regard to the state regulation of the "basic tier": John.Molloy@state.ma.us. The comments of this person will be sought. Larry Greeley reports that the Brewster government channel started operation on Apri128, but that its operation was later suspended by momentary power fluctuations, and that the operation of the channel is currently suspended. Why there was a susceptibility to interruption of the channel by momentary power fluctuations is not clear inasmuch as there is an uninterruptible power supply ("UPS") in place. Larry says that he will be using the Orleans staff member attached to the operation of the Orleans government channel (Sara Freeman) as an informal consultant on the purchase list for additional equipment for the Brewster government channel. Larry reports on the Nauset Regional High School (NRHS) as a possible location for the studio and related facilities for the public access channels to replace the Orleans studio which Comcast wishes to close. The spaces which are deemed available do indeed appear suitable, and various interested parties -members of several of the towns who are potential future users, the principal of the NRHS, the superintendent of the Nauset Regional School District, and members of the Nauset Regional School Board -are so far expressing positive opinions about the possibility. Further more detailed investigations are under way. Larry comments that he would like to see this committee's website (which is part of the Brewster Town Government website) to be current, in effect live, including posting the minutes of this committee. The committee visits the equipment area where the Brewster government channel equipment is located. It is behind a panel across the width of the north end of the large room at the bottom level of the town office building. The space available is perhaps 6 feet deep which is adequate for equipment racks but not large enough for much else except storage. The question is: why did the government channel fail to survive momentary power glitches? After detailed examination by Jim Tvrdik and others the answer is obvious: not everything needed for the operation of the government channel is plugged into the existing UPS. The committee returns to our meeting room and there is some discussion of the equipment that has been delivered for operation of the Brewster government channel. Some revisions of the power arrangements for the individual equipment elements which are used to operate the government channel are clearly required. [t may be that an additional UPS or a larger UPS is required. In regard to our next meeting, the regular meeting time and date (to wit at 7:00 pm on the first Tuesday of the next month) meets with general acceptance. The meeting seems to be out of other business to be taken up tonight. A motion to adjourn is made by Larry Bugden and seconded by Walter Powers. The motion is passed unanimously. The meeting is adjourned at 8:11 pm. Submitted by Norman Adams, Clerk, Brewster CTVAC ~ ~: ~ d Lz gnu go.