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Home My WebLink About2013-04-09-CAC-min TOWN OF LEXINGTON COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE DRAFT MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF APRIL 9, 2013 Call to order. CAC Chair Jim Goell called the meeting to order at 6 31 PM in the Selectmen's Meeting Room of the Town Office Building Present: CAC Members Jim Goell, Chair, David Becker, David Buczkowski, Frank Cai, Smita Desai, Maria Kieslich, Nick Launat, Kenneth Pogran, Linda Roemer Others Tom Steel, RCN, Florence DelSanto, LexMedia, Melanie Blower and Geoffrey Xiao, Committee Applicants 1. Approval of previous meeting minutes. The minutes of the meeting of February 21, 2013 were approved, with one change made 2. Selectmen's liaison report. Mr Goell reported that a new Board of Selectmen liaison to the Committee has not yet been appointed 3 Carrier reports (Mr Steel, RCN) Mr Steel reported that RCN gained customers, year-over-year, for the first time since 2007, gaining subscribers in all five of the Massachusetts communities where RCN competes head-to-head with Comcast In communities where RCN competes with Verizon as well as Comcast, RCN lost customers at a slower rate than did Comcast Mr Steel passed out a handout from the American Cable Association, a trade association of smaller cable companies Mr Steel explained that there is "a lot of pressure on rates" because of sports programming In addition, broadcasters now want payment from cable companies to carry their local channels This trend is continuing The ACA has met with members of Congress, etc regarding the issue, which is a long term problem As of April 10, RCN's system will be fully encrypted to prevent theft of service Subscribers with HDTVs with QAM tuners will no longer be able to receive local broadcast stations without an RCN cable box or Cab1eCARD Mr Steel reported that RCN has decided that it can provide the Town with one High Definition channel to carry LexMedia programming (PEG), if the Town will pay for a modest equipment requirement The new channel can be Channel 613, which is right in the main series of HD channels that subscribers channel-surf, and also corresponds to standard definition Channel 13, which is a LexMedia PEG channel RCN will provide public relations resources to work with LexMedia on a press release to promote the new HD PEG channel, and is willing to include a notice of the new channel in subscriber bills in Lexington Mr Steel reported that this will be RCN's Communications Advisory Committee Minutes of April 9, 2013 Town of Lexington Page 2 first HD PEG channel Recently, other towns, including Framingham, Newton, and Stoneham have made similar inquiries to RCN Ms DelSanto of LexMedia commented that this is unprecedented in the PEG community She said she is aware of just one town in Texas that has an HD PEG channel, while Shrewsbury, Massachusetts has three HD PEG channels but runs its own municipal cable system Mr Goell and Mr Pogran expressed the Committee's thanks to RCN for the decision, and to Mr Steel for championing this within RCN Mr Becker noted that RCN has always been responsive to requests from the Town 4. Chairman's Report (Mr Goell) a Talk to be given to Town staff Mr Goell noted that he has been invited to give a talk to a subset of Town staff about the purpose of the Committee and how it functions b Town building video requirements Ray Drapeau has passed the issue of video requirements of Town buildings to Dorinda Goodman Schools have an issue that with service providers going to all-digital, TVs in classrooms can't receive programming without a converter box, and each school has dust a few Mr Becker pointed out that we would be in a better position to help if we could speak with someone from the schools who understands what the needs actually are Mr Goell agreed to contact Mananne McKenna c Subcommitte appointments Linda Roemer has asked to be relieved of her assignment on the Negotiation Subcommittee Nick Launat will take her place d Next meeting The next Committee meeting will be on Thursday, May 16, in the Selectmen's Meeting Room of the town office building 5 LexMedia update (Ms DelSanto) a Status and plans regarding live video for Patriots Day Fiber has been set up at the Cary Library to take a live feed back to LexMedia LexMedia will originate programming from the Library side of the street Microphone setup should be OK, with no feedback Currently no audio is being receive from that feed, but LexMedia is working with RCN and the Town Facilities Department to resolve the issue b Closed captioning update David Ilsley has reported that LexMedia hasn't found any affordable automated closed captioning services Mr Becker reported that very early on (before LexMedia), Town Meeting was closed-captioned "in real time" by a person working for a flat fee for all Town Meeting sessions Mr Becker recalled a fee of approximately $4000 being paid c Backup server location suitability Agreement has been reached regarding location of the server A broadband connection needs to be provided in the server room Ms DelSanto will look into procuring this commercially Mr Buczkowski suggested that Ms DelSanto contact Mr Steel at RCN Communications Advisory Committee Minutes of April 9, 2013 Town of Lexington Page 3 d 4th channel qualification,per contracts LexMedia's programming hours have passed the threshold where our cable provider licenses entitle the Town to a fourth PEG channel Following discussion, it was the consensus of the Committee that the Committee should approach each of our three providers with a request for a fourth channel, if LexMedia believes they can supply appropriate programming e Status of additional set-top box requests This issue has been resolved, with Comcast acting quickly following the previous Committee meeting In a side discussion, the issue was raised of providers other than Comcast providing cable TV service to schools Mr Goell asked Mr Becker to draft a note to inquire whether schools are using other services 6. LexMedia HD broadcasting. RCN has agreed to provide the Town with an HD channel for LexMedia See discussion under item 3, Carrier Reports, above 7 Use of CAC funds for technical initiatives Mr Becker suggested that we consider using "in lieu of iNet" funds from Comcast and Verizon to enable the Town and schools to purchase additional (commercial)Internet bandwidth to meet Town and School needs Mr Goell suggested that he and Mr Becker speak with Ms Goodman to learn her views regarding the Town's needs 8. Contacting Rules concerning prompt removal of downed communication lines. Mr Becker suggested we should take steps to learn whether there are any rules pertaining to prompt removal of downed communication lines This is an issue that has surfaced in the past following storms Mr Pogran suggested the Committee contact the Commonwealth's Department of Telecommunications and Cable in this regard Mr Pogran and Mr Becker will discuss this further 9. Contacts with communications advisory committees in other towns. (deferred) 10 Cary Memorial Building communications issues, including WiFi Ms Roemer reported that Town Meeting passed the article funding design and costing work for the Cary memorial building She asked if the Committee should take a position at this time regarding the inclusion of WiFi Ms Roemer will contact Pat Goddard to determine what the current status is 11. Liberty Mutual Building issues. Mr Becker moved that the Committee direct Mr Goell send to the Board of Selectmen the letter drafted and circulated earlier regarding issues associated with the Town's equipment in the Liberty Mutual Building on Bedford Street Mr Lauriat seconded the motion, which was passed unanimously 12. Promotion of the CAC position on Town WiFi. The CAC report on WiFi in Lexington advocated that the Town implement WiFi in Town buildings The Committee agreed that we should learn from Ms Goodman what the Town's current plans are in that regard Communications Advisory Committee Minutes of April 9, 2013 Town of Lexington Page 4 13. Comcast negotiations update. The next negotiation meeting with Comcast is set for May 7 at 6 30 PM 14. Wireless report.No activity was reported 15. Complaints. Mr Buczkowski reported that a Muzzey condominiums resident has complained about Comcast's rates and bad signal, and asked if there was another option Comcast has an"exclusive" agreement with the building management Mr Buczkowsi has asked Jane Lyman to contact the subscriber Mr Becker reported that he received one complaint, but to date had not been able to reach the complainant 16 Committee candidates Committee applicants Geoffrey Xiao and Melanie Blower introduced themselves and responded to questions from the Committee The Committee then discussed the applicants It was moved and seconded that Mr Goell should approach Mr Xiao to confirm that he would like to be appointed to the Committee and that, if he would, that Mr Goell recommend his appointment to the Board of Selectmen The motion passed unanimously 17. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 8 33 PM Respectfully submitted, Kenneth T Pogran