Cable Telecommunications Advisory Committee Meeting September 23, 2008 at 7:30 pm. Minutes

Transcription

1 Cable Telecommunications Advisory Committee Meeting September 23, 2008 at 7:30 pm Minutes 1. Call to Order and Introductions. The meeting was called to order at 7:35 PM. In attendance - Chairman Abe Abramovich, Stan Rose, John Gladwell and Jim Williams. Tom Ervin represented Lawrence Township Public Schools. Kathy Farinaccio represented Comcast. 2. Approval of Agenda. The agenda was approved by voice vote. 3. Appointment of Secretary for this Meeting. Jim Williams was appointed secretary for this meeting. 4. Review and Approval of Minutes of the June 10, 2008 Meeting. Minutes of the 10 June, 2008, meeting were approved. 5. Follow up plan to the Committee s recommendations for implementing Verizon Community Channel 36, per sent on August 17, (Trey Keymoore) A. Parts order has been initiated B. Mr. Keymoore will use Power Point to display programming content. C. The committee requested information about the go-live date D. The committee requested information about how remote programming (for alerts) will be done. 6. Communications. A. Comcast a : Announcement of additional channel realignments b : Correction to above announcement c : More correction to the 8-22 announcement d : Announcement of channel relocations Tom Ervin, Media Technician for LTPS, recounted a request and communications with Comcast to replace 38 analog cable converters with 38 digital cable converters. This is required for the time that Comcast discontinues transmission of analog channels. Mr. Ervin documented this request and subsequent follow up in the appendix to this document. B. Verizon non received 7. Public Comments. a. from Rich Krawsczun on behalf of Jane Cannon. Ms. Cannon inquired about Verizon s plan to complete FiOS installation in Lawrence Township. She was particularly interested in the Society Hill installation schedule. Ms. Cannon s inquiry was forwarded to Anna Lustenberg, Verizon s representative to the committee. Ms. Lustenberg did not attend this meeting, nor was a written response received. Page 1 of 5

2 b. from Rich Krawsczun on behalf of Nancy Edwards. Ms. Edwards complains that there are exposed Comcast coax cable at the intersection of Eagles Chase Drive and American Eagle Court. She could not get a commitment from Comcast to address her concerns. The was forwarded to Kathy Farinaccio. The issue was promptly resolved by Comcast. The committee appreciates the Ms. Farinaccio s responsiveness to this matter. 8. Implementation of FAQ page on Township Website a. Near final FAQ for review and approval The FAQ text for display on the Township s website was approved. b. Verizon s response to their specific questions As of the meeting date, Verizon has not responded with answers to questions pertaining to Verizon. c. Go-live date on Township website A request will be made of Mr. Trey Keymoore to post the FAQ pages and a link on the main page on the Township s website. 9. Old Business Relating to Comcast. A. Status of plans to add additional channels. a. NJN Digital and HDTV. b. WYBE HDTV. c. New York HDTV Channels. No progress on any of the items above. 10. Old Business Relating to Verizon. A. Update from Tom Ervin and Verizon regarding the request for free TV and Broadband service to schools, police and fire stations, Town Hall and other municipal locations. Mr. Ervin was requested to follow up with a written update pertaining to the status of the above item. The update is as follows from Mr. Ervin s of September 25, 2008: The Verizon PEG Channel originating at LHS is complete, operational, and in use. Verizon has successfully installed 1 Fios Tuner at LHS, which is tied in to our Media Distribution System. Verizon has also completed the computer drop to LHS, which is also in use. To the best of my knowledge none of our other six schools have been completed. Several aborted attempts have been made at Eldridge Park School, but the installation is not complete. On each of these occasions a Verizon installer arrived unannounced. We have spoken with Anna Lustenberg requesting that installers or their dispatcher contact me so that I can coordinate location with them. At this point we are waiting for 1 FiOS Video drop and Tuner, and 1 Computer drop at each of the following buildings: Ben Franklin Elementary School, Eldridge Park School Lawrenceville Elementary School Page 2 of 5

3 Slackwood School Lawrence Intermediate School Lawrence Middle School 11. New Business. Request from LTPS, via Tom Ervin, for Comcast to provide 38 replacement digital converter boxes to replace the analog ones currently in use. 12. Date of Next Meeting. The next Cable and Telecommunications Advisory Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 7:30 PM 13. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM. Page 3 of 5

4 Appendix 1 Abe, As requested, I am sending the back-story on our request for Comcast to replace 38 Analog cable converters with 38 Digital cable converters. You will also find attached the to Ken Cooper from April 16, On April 15th Michael Dean and I met with Ken Cooper at Comcast of Trenton. Among the items discussed was the impending (2009) cutoff of analog broadcasts, and what would be necessary to ensure uninterrupted service to Lawrence Township Public Schools. Ken indicated that I should give him a count of how many Digital Tuners would be necessary to complete the switch from Analog to Digital service. He indicated that he would initiate a request on our behalf. Attached is the I sent to Ken the next day. Following the June 10, 2008 meeting of the Lawrence Township Cable Telecommunications Advisory Committee, I spoke with Kathy Farinaccio about our concerns. Kathy indicated that our Media Distribution System should help by limiting the number of Digital Tuners necessary, and that she would follow up on our request. At last night's meeting of the Lawrence Township Cable Telecommunications Advisory Committee, Kathy informed us that Comcast has not yet made a decision on the matter, and that they must consider the rest of the state when making the decision. She also indicated that Digital Tuners should eventually be commercially available, but that they are not yet on the market. She also indicated that Comcast would continue to provide Analog service for 3 years past the 2009 shut-off. Analog service would include "Broadcast" channels, and Kathy was unsure at this time what other channels would continue on the Analog service. LTPS is concerned that we are losing service. Comcast is already moving all of the NY channels to the digital tier. News channels, sports channels,etc. may soon follow. We would like to simply be able to maintain the level of service that Comcast has always provided in the past. Tom Ervin District Media Technician Lawrence Township Public Schools , ext Page 4 of 5

5 Appendix 2 From: tervin April 16, :09:50 AM Subject: Lawrence Township Public Schools - Digital Converters To: kenneth_cooper@cable.comcast.com Cc: mdean Ken, Thanks for taking the time to meet with Michael Dean and myself yesterday. One of the items we discussed was the upcoming switch to Digital TV. You asked me for a count of Digital Tuners that would be necessary to convert the school district from analog to digital. By my count we could convert the entire school district to digital with 38 digital receivers. In order for the receivers to work with our system, they would have to have the following features: -IR Controllable -AV Outputs (including operating menu - I've already seen one that only runs OSD on the digital outputs) -If the digital tier provided to the schools has channels with objectionable content (nudity, etc.) we need to be able to block those channels If I understand correctly, the Digital Converts you are currently deploying to homes already meet all of these criteria. We appreciate your assistance in the conversion process. Tom Ervin District Media Technician Lawrence Township Public Schools 2525 Princeton Pike Lawrenceville, NJ (609) , ext Page 5 of 5