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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-11-21-CAC-min , r . mu.nkcatkns A ry C mm . f tee Minutes of the Meeting of November 21, 2013 Ken Pogran Frank Cai Dave Buczkowski Dave Becker Nick Lauriat Dorinda Goodman Maria Kieslich Smita Desai (joined late) Linda Roemer (joined late) Joe Pato David Illsley(joined late) Meeting was called to order at 6 33 PM Approval of the minutes was postponed until next month, due to the late arrival of the minutes. Selectmen's liaison report—no report from the selectmen's liaison The committee asked Joe about the WiFi issue Joe said he would ask Deb to put it on the agenda for the next available slot. Joe would want Ken or Dave Becker there to present at that time. Carrier reports— Ken said he heard from Tom Steele and Mary Lou Frere Tom requested a timeslot on next month's agenda to discuss upcoming billing changes. Mary Lou Frere reported to Ken she was leaving Verizon She is being replaced by Jill Reddish According to Ken,this is Mary Lou's last week. Chairman's report—appointments—Ken said he spoke to Geoffrey about his interests. Geoffrey expressed a particular interest in LexMedia, and so Ken suggested he join the LexMedia working group Ken appointed Geoffrey to the LexMedia working group Ken said he had not yet posted the committee opening to the Lexington list. He said he was working on recruiting someone he knows who he believes would be a good addition to the committee. Dave Becker asked if there was still a regular posting of committee openings in the Minuteman The committee thought there was, and that it was not likely in conflict with our own posting to the Lexington list. The committee discussed whether there was still a file maintained by Lynn regarding citizens who had expressed an interest in committees. Ken made a note to ask Lynn Negotiating subcommittee—we reviewed the draft minutes from the October meeting with Comcast. Dave Buczkowski said the big issue was the change in calculation of in lieu of I-Net funds from a straight figure to a percentage of revenue. David Becker gave some history of the calculation, and pointed out that Comcast revenues have been decreasing each year since 2006—and if this payment was tied to the gross revenues, it would have been decreasing. Maria pointed out that this cost isn't tied to revenue they raise from the subscribers. The committee agreed that, if anything, the cost to maintain the I-net should be increasing, not decreasing. The consensus of the committee was that it was too early to take a position on this, and the further discussion would be required Dave Becker gave a bit of history on cable TV signal distribution within the schools and other town buildings. Dave Becker said he spoke to Dorinda about the alternative approach of re-distributing the signal within the buildings (especially within the schools) over the Ethernet, and described a solution to the committee that would allow the signal to be re-distributed Ken,Joe and myself expressed concern that designing this solution was beyond the scope of the committee in the context of a license renewal As long as the renewed license is compatible with either distribution model within town buildings (especially schools), the committee's role is done Dorinda said they had a television in this building that stopped working when the basic service got encrypted She said she called Ms. Lyman, and said it was a hassle to get an additional cable box from Comcast. She said they did eventually get the box, but Ms. Lyman thought that (1)the town should be paying for additional boxes, and (2) the town should be ensuring it places an equal burden on other providers as well LexMedia—David Illsley described a company called Savant to do video distribution within a house, controlled by Apple devices. Mr Pato said he was aware of a non-Apple alternative David Illsley described the current status of the broadband connection to backup server They're looking in to use a pair of the existing fiber in to the building, but are awaiting a final answer from RCN — possibly as early as tomorrow Dave Becker complimented the new App David Illsley said they had their annual meeting this week, and the App got a lot of attention Ken asked about an on-going outage of the RCN HD channel David I said that he believed the QAM for the HD channel failed They're working with the technicians. David I said that he's ready for Ken to nudge Tom Steele from RCN since they've been down two weeks. Ken promised to do that. Ken also encouraged David I to put a notice on the LexMedia web page David I clarified that this was a device purchased by RCN using LexMedia's money, and this was a warranty replacement issue David I said that Harry Forsdick complained about the audio level on the HD channel Others noted uneven audio on all LexMedia channels. They're looking at replacing the audio distribution box ("Limiter Expander"?) It's in the upcoming capital budget, since the existing box is out of date Dorinda gave an update on the fiber redundancy project. Got final quotations in that were higher than expected "An interesting broad range of quotes." The one they're selecting is $35k-$37k. There was one quote that was$297k! They recently had a copper break between police and fire Getting an estimate to put a replacement copper in, and plan on putting in fiber at the same time! Dorinda said this was an important first step in completing a redundant fiber loop throughout the town Dorinda said that she followed-up with Ms. Lyman about the letter the town received about free bandwidth for schools. When Ms. Lyman clarified the schools currently covered (Cotting School and Minuteman Tech), Dorinda said "that's nice, but those aren't those schools!" Ms. Lyman clarified that the Lexington schools likely were in fact eligible for the "Education Connection" program which offers "16 up and 3 down " Ms. Lyman was concerned, however,that the town would be using this bandwidth for other uses, when it was meant to be used exclusively by the individual schools. Dorinda reassured Ms. Lyman that this was for emergency failover for the school Dave Becker suggested that we ask Comcast to pool the bandwidth in to a single link. The committee agreed that that was both not likely acceptable to Comcast, and may have lower value to the Lexington schools, who would benefit from a diversity of connections. Dorinda said she did the research,got the approval, and handed it off to the schools. Joe asked if Ken had shared the WiFi policy with Carl Ken said he had not, but that he would send it to Carl, with Joe on the cc line Dave Becker said that he got Verizon to commit to refreshing the town, including the town manager, fire chief and police chief on emergency contact information prior to any storms. Wireless report—no new applications. No complaints in October beyond the Verizon wire complaints to be discussed separately Maria said that she had a complaint in November from someone who wanted a senior citizen or veteran discount from Verizon She had not yet passed that complaint along to Verizon The committee noted that there have been similar complaints in the past, and the carriers often had little to offer Frank described the situation with the wire replacement—Verizon wants to get in to a customer's house to remove the copper wire and replace it with fiber Verizon has escalated from phone calls to placing flyers on the doors of customers who have copper telephone lines. Ken described his concerns—the flyer isn't clear that the fiber won't be eligible for leasing to other carriers (unlike the copper), and that the flyer isn't clear on whether this is required or just suggested Dorinda said the condition of the copper plant in Lexington is in really poor She said this is becoming an issue for the town, since they depend on copper wires for alarms, communications circuits, etc. Committee members noted that the battery backup estimates for the fiber solution were likely optimistic, and based on brand new batteries. Members suggested that batteries a couple of years old were not likely to offer telephone service for more than two hours, instead of the promised eight hours, or indefinitely, in the case of copper telephone lines power from the central office Ken said that we have a new standing agenda topic for the committee, and offered to invite the new Verizon representative to discuss further Ken clarified that her legal responsibility to the committee ends with cable television Ken encouraged the committee to continue to think about this. Maria suggested eventually informing the population—"but as long as it fact based " Linda updated the committee on the LexMedia contract negotiation Linda asked Ken to talk to Rob Adelson about the "half year" issue Ken asked Linda to provide "talking points" for that discussion Linda said she attended the LexMedia annual meeting on Monday night. The committee received the first quarter report from LexMedia. The response has been hastily drafted, and the committee has not yet reviewed it. Ken asked if we can delay the approval of the response to the next meeting. The committee agreed The committee noted they may be asked for a response by the Town Manager, since the report has already been filed with the Town Manager David I said that there have been a lot of problems with the upgrade performed at the library("lights hung in front of cameras!") LexMedia was not involved, it was run by the town facilities department, and there have been numerous problems that they're currently paying to remediate Linda reviewed the Cary Hall renovation plans which are suddenly moving very quickly Linda said that LexMedia was going to be expected to pay for cameras out of their own budget. And that it would have to be the 2015 capital budget. The committee was concerned that the wiring for the cameras should not be taken directly out of LexMedia budget, and that LexMedia should be consulted to ensure wiring is compatible with the cameras LexMedia intends to purchase The committee generally discussed supplementing the LexMedia budget if it turns out LexMedia is responsible for the wiring. David I said that if they're paying for anything out of their budget,they're going to demand a say in what equipment is installed Linda said the renovation committee may not meet again, and that the project was now in the hands of facilities (Pat Goddard) Dorinda updated the committee on the major outage at Bowman School due to a failure of networking equipment in the IT core They lost all phone and all network. Dorinda was able to provide a Verizon Wireless hot spot to get essential Internet service temporarily restored Dorinda said the companion issue is that with poor cellular coverage,they were particularly vulnerable Dorinda said she thought there was a mandatory FCC reporting requirement for dropped calls, but that there's no visibility in to those results. The committee thought that advocating for better coverage may be a valuable topic for future discussions, but that it may conflict with the committee's role in reviewing antenna applications. Linda said that LexMedia had poor statistics for measuring community impact. Linda and Maria said they had very little information about how many people watching, or which demographics were being represented (or not) The committee thought that it was a future direction for the committee, and an area where additional work was required next year The next committee meeting is scheduled for December 19th Frank moved to adjourn, Maria seconded The committee adjourned at 8 23 PM Respectfully submitted, Nick Lauriat