HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-09-18-CAC-min Town of Lexington
Communications Advisory Committee
Agenda for Thursday, September 18, 2014
6:30 p.m., Parker Room (G-15), Town Office Building
Recording Secretary—Maria Kieslich
Attendees: Maria Kieslich, Dave Becker, Linda Roemer, Ken Pogran, Dorinda Goodman, Steven
Iverson, Smita Desai, Dave Buczkowski
Call to order 6:36.
1. Review and VOTE to approve minutes, June 19 meeting—Frank Cai
a. Smita offered to make grammatical and other minor edits. The minutes were approved
unanimously, subject to the edits.
2. Carrier reports (if any)
a. RCN. A new piece of gear installed to make the HD operation again. Tom Steele
updated us with an email that details bill in congress about la carte programming that the
American Cable Association supports (RCN is part of this organization). Tom believes it
may take time to happen and smaller carriers are in favor of it. He suggested the CAC
may want to inform Sen. Markey, who is on the cable committee, our sentiment. The
committee may discuss this at a later meeting, when Tom Steele next attends,probably in
October.
3. Chairman's report—Ken Pogran
a. Committee reappointments.
i. Dorinda, Steve and Nick were reappointed. Geoffrey Xiao resigned due to
business commitments.
ii. Ken mentioned that we now have an opening on the committee and he will send
emails to the Lexington list and yahoo groups to garner interested parties.
b. Review of 2014-2015 meeting schedule
i. This room is reserved for all meetings through June, for the 3rd Thursday. There
may be changes due to the Cary Hall renovations that the Town will let us know
in advance.
c. Revision to Recording Secretary and Complaints assignments
i. Complaint Assignments. Ken is taking October due to the departure of Geoffrey.
Steve is now November. December is Nick and then the order will roll as it
currently is.
ii. Recording secretary. Maria in September and Nick will take October. Ken will
send around the complete list to the committee for through March.
d. 2014-2015 working groups & assignments
i. The Committee discussed the possibility of designating the Negotiation Sub
Committee to become a working group. The advantage is that the group could
work quicker and not have to wait until the announcement of official meeting.
Linda is going to research this possibility in the Town documentation on
Committees.
ii. Smita will join the LexMedia working group.
iii. Steven has been appointed to the Wireless working group.
e. Other :
i. Ken reminded the committee of the reception for Deb Mauger, former chair of the
Board of Selectmen. Ken will be attending.
ii. Photo for the annual report will be taken at the meeting in October.
4. Review and VOTE to approve 2014 Town Report contribution
a. Ken will change this document to reflect that the Wireless Subcommittee is actually a
working group.
b. Ken took suggestions and edits from the Committee and will send to the Town by the end
of the month. The Committee approved the Report, subject to approved edits.
5. LexMedia update—LexMedia did not attend. An email update was provided.
a. General update—no update
b. Broadband connection to backup server—no update
c. RCN HD channel repair status. Florence sent an email confirming that this equipment is
working.
6. LexMedia oversight update—Linda Roemer, Maria Kieslich
a. The Town and CAC Received the Q42014 review from LexMedia. The working group
noted that we should have received also an annual report, due at the end of August 31st
Linda also noted that the complaints documents is not on the website.
b. Ken will send LexMedia an email to remind them that the Annual Report is overdue and
inquire about the status of the complaints He will also remind them to attend the next
meeting since that is when the Committee will approve the Q4 review.
c. Linda will do the review for the Q4 with Maria doing the response for Q12015.
d. An email from the public was sent to the Committee in regards to LexMedia's contract,
and its its availability to the public. They want to comment about LexMedia as part of the
contract renegotiation. They are unhappy with not having a suggested program picked up
by LexMedia. The Committee is going to forward the contract to the townsperson and
invite them to speak at the next committee for five minutes.
e. The Committee noted that the addendum to the current contract still needs to put on the
Town website, and Ken will inquire.
7. Review of Comcast license renewal negotiations and outcome—Dave Buczkowski, Dave Becker,
Nick Lauriat
a. The contract as presented to the Selectmen was approved in August. It is a 10 year
license, without major changes from the previous contract.
8. Cable TV drops in public buildings —Dave Becker
a. Dave will put together a"problem statement"for the CAC to review at the next meeting.
The impetus behind this is a conversation Dave had with the Town Manager about
making sure that Town Hall's needs are met. The current recommendation from the
Town was submitted a year ago by Facilities through Pat Goddard for giving buildings up
to 3 converter boxes to each building.
9. Town IT updates —Dorinda Goodman
a. Infrastructure redundant fiber project status
i. The redundant fiber was not run via the planned cable due to one area not being
clear. Dorinda is working to bypass this part of the conduit with a free pass
conduit across the street. The multi-loop redundant plan will be an upcoming
discussion, and may be designated as a construction project and therefore delays
may occur, and a subsequent engineering and design study. It could take further
year.
b. WiFi in Town buildings
i. Still none in this room and building. Just sayin' O
ii. The test phase ran well. The next step is an RFQ and timing would be hopefully
by end of this calendar year for this building.
10. Committee goals and objectives for 2014-2015 —Ken Pogran.
a. This item was deferred to the next meeting. Members were asked to provide suggestions
to Ken. Ken will solicit input from the Town members. Linda has suggested the
technology issues related to the Cary Hall renovation. She will write up a policy
statement. Ken will also look at any remaining items from the 2013- 2014 list.
11. Wireless report—Frank Cai None.
12. Complaints —Dave Becker(June),Frank Cai (July),Maria Kieslich (August), Linda Roemer
(September). None. Ken is responsible for sending Spreadsheet to Dave and Dave will forward it
on. Upcoming: Ken Pogran (October), TBD (November)
13. 8:11 p.m. Adjourn
Respectfully submitted,
Maria Kieslich