February 2012 Serving Metamora & Germantown Hills Magazine Finalist George Schlink Winter at Lake Sante Fe Finalist Lily Dale Old Fence on Fandel Road Finalist Marcia Straub Saturday Evening Downtown Community Photo Contest Finalists Finalist Elyse Nicholson Veterans Day 2011 MTCO Communications 220 N. Menard Street Metamora, IL 61548 Finalist Abby Barrow Metamora Court House GRAND PRIZE Winner Displayed In February Calendar A Community Publication Provided By MTCO Communications
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words The old adage basically says that a complicated idea can be conveyed into the still shot of one picture. Some of the best memories of your life are caught in a picture and give you endless reminiscing of that moment forever. Metamora and Germantown Hills area was a choice most of us made to live and to raise families. Taking pictures along this journey helps us to capture the life we lead, and to share it with family and friends. Our Community Photo Contest was an event geared at drawing out some of that local hometown flavor through pictures taken in the area. The judging staff at MTCO Communications enjoyed going through all of the photos, but found it difficult to choose their favorites. The randomness of this photo contest made the photo entries very diverse and interesting to judge, but we finally decided on the finalist and overall winner. We thank everybody for their participation and congratulate our Grand Prize Winner in the photo contest. The winner is Stephanie Gehrig from Germantown Hills, and she entered the photo titled, Memories. Her prize includes $100 worth of gift certificates to local businesses, and her picture is displayed in this February calendar issue. The finalists on the cover of this magazine are displayed at our website www. mtco.com. Look for the link to the Photo Contest in the News Section. Look out for future photo contest we will be having later on this year. If you didn t notice during the month of January, digimax broadcasted the Metamora High School boys basketball games in HD. The games are commentated by Scott Kerker along with Dave Best. They will continue thru the season as another great benefit from having TV service with digimax provided by MTCO. Also, coming in the very near future on digimax is our very own Metamora Local Weather channel. This will provide you with current weather statistics along with future weather forecast and radar information. For many years we have always provided Time & Temperature information at (309) 367-2222, where a simple phone call will give you the current time and temp along with a forecast of the weather. We encourage you to get Connected with MTCO and enjoy these benefits only a local company can provide for you! On The Cover: Our First Photo Contest came to an end on January 5, 2012 with the five finalists displayed on the cover. These pictures can also be seen online at our website www.mtco.com. For more information about our services, please visit www.mtco.com or scan this QR code with your smart phone. President & CEO Glenn Rauh MTCO Communications 220 N. Menard Street Metamora, Illinois 61548 309-367-4197 Wireless Operations Manager Editor - Connected Magazine Bob Becraft Marketing Manager Editor - Connected Magazine Kip DuBois Vice President & CFO Ann Dickerson Connected Magazine is published monthly by MTCO Communications with corporate office located at 220 North Menard Street, Metamora, Illinois, 61548. The publication is intended for use of the residents of Metamora and Germantown Hills. No article in this issue or any part of this publication may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the Publisher. For more information about this magazine, or for additional copies, contact Bob Becraft or Kip DuBois at 309-367-4197 or connected@ mtco.com. If you have questions or concerns regarding your services, please contact our Customer Service Representatives at (309)367-4197 or 800-859-6826. Copyright 2012 MTCO Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. MTCO s Eco-Friendly Billing Options 24/7 online access to your account No monthly checks to write. Receive monthly bills via e-mail Set up automatic credit card or bank account payments. View and pay your bill online at your convenience or set up automatic payments. Visit www.mtco.com with your bill in hand and click on view/pay my bill to get started. Questions/Need Assistance? Call 800-859-6826 or e-mail billing@mtco.com
Entertainment & Technology Quiz Yourself on Phishing You have probably heard the scheme called phishing where identity thieves trick people into providing bits of personal information by claiming to be a business or organization they are not. For example, a phishing scam proliferated several years ago where people received e-mails supposedly from ebay claiming that the user s account was about to be suspended unless they clicked on the provided link and updated credit card information that the genuine ebay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a website look like a legitimate organization s site, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by ebay. A few tips to keep in mind to protect yourself is to never click on links within e-mails that ask for your personal information. As mentioned, fraudsters use these links to lure people to phony websites. Additionally, phishers will sometimes direct you to a real company s website but then an unauthorized popup screen created by the scammer will appear asking you to provide your personal information. If you fill it in, your information will go directly to the phisher. Ever wonder how good you are at telling the difference between a legitimate website and one that is a phishing attempt? Visit this OpenDNS link to test yourself and after completing learn useful tips to look for that can help you determine when you may be a target of a phishing attempt (it s defiintley worth the 10-15 minutes to complete and review): http://www. opendns.com/phishing-quiz/ IPTV: From the Sky to Your Home Part Two of a Four Part Series Part One of this series ended with TV content being piped from MTCO s dish farm into the head-end. What is a head-end? Simply, it is a master facility that contains all the equipment to process and send out the television content and make it all work. Within the head-end, many receivers individually pick up a multitude of TV channels from the dish farm and then output these channels as Ethernet frames to an encryption server. This device re-encrypts the channel with MTCO s unique encryption key and streams them back out into the head-end router (explained below). Encryption is the method of scrambling a signal so if the content is viewed with anything other than the approved device (i.e.: an MTCO set top box), it will be unwatchable. Many other devices and servers sit within the head-end that facilitate and maintain the IPTV network. One is the middleware server that communicates with each set top box associated with each TV in a customer s home. This communication validates what channels and features each customer is subscribed to, and provides the data for the onscreen channel guide. All of these devices connect to the master head-end Ethernet router. This router is a greatly advanced version of what you may use for a computer network in your home. The main job of this router is to bring all the channels to one place and keep track of what channels are being watched. Only the channels that are being watched are sent out. This delivery mechanism is commonly referred to as switched digital video, and provides great efficiency for the network that delivers the video to the home. For example, this router will periodically ask each set top box in every customer s home is anyone watching NBC? If none of the set top boxes respond saying yes, then it will stop sending out that channel to improve network utilization. Next month we will look into how this data gets from the head-end to our customer s homes. Keep up with Entertainment and Technology news. Add MTCO to your Facebook and Twitter groups and visit www.mtco.com and click on MTCO News on the right section of the webpage.
29 30 31 1 2 3 4 Metamora High School JazzFest 2012 MTHS Auditorium at 7pm 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 St. Mary of Lourdes Pancake & Sausage Breakfast 7am-noon Knights of Columbus Valentine s Steak Dinner 4pm Snyder Village Metamora Village Board Meeting 7pm Germantown Hills Village Board Meeting 6pm 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Germantown Hills Chamber of Commerce Meeting at 12pm 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Germantown Hills Planning Commission Meeting 7pm Metamora Area Business Association Meeting 11:30am Woodford County Historical Society Meeting 7pm Germantown Hills PTO Chili Supper/Winter Carnival 4pm-8pm Metamora High School All Day Concert Band Festival MTHS Auditorium Metamora Woman s Club Meeting at Christian Union Church 7pm Metamora Village Board Meeting 7pm Germantown Hills Village Board Meeting 6pm 26 27 28 29 1 2 3 Metamora High School Winter Band Concert MTHS Auditorium at 2:30pm Community Photo Contest Winner CONGRATULATIONS to Stephanie Gehrig! She entered the contest with the above picture titled Memories. The picture is of old corn cribs on the Fandel Farm on Lourdes Road. We presented her with the $100 Grand Prize which contained four gift certificates to local businesses in our community.
LOCAL SERVICE. LOCAL SUPPORT. BETTER PRODUCT. SELECT package has 35 more channels than cable s family package! Over 70 HD Channels Non-promotional rates, extensive sports lineup, & more! SELECT SELECT SELECT Triple Play Safety Triple Play Double Play starting at starting at starting at $117/mo* 112 TV channels Internet Voice (500 Free LongDistance Minutes, Calling Feature Package, E911) $109/mo* 112 TV channels Internet Voice Safety Line (E911 & Inbound Calls Only) Upgrade to EXPANDED package for $10/mo. more for 32 more channels + 41 DMX music channels. $99/mo* 112 TV channels Internet TERM PLTV DVR SET TOP BOXES / HD CALL TODAY! Packages inclde: FREE Install up to 4TV s & 1 computer* FREE Wireless Gateway FREE CallerID on your TV E911 that works when you need it Add UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE for only $5/mo! FREE HD Set Top Box to first TV!* 2 nd & each additional TV: Digital $5/mo HD $10/mo DVR Service to one TV $9/mo Pause live TV, playback & record Whole-Home DVR Service $14/mo Record in 1 room & watch in others with 1 DVR FREE Equipment with DVR & Pause Live TV Service Pause Live TV $3/mo (Pause, rewind, fast-forward Live TV. Cost is per TV.) 1-yr. Agreement SELECT A&E Network* ABC Family* ABC News Now AMC Animal Planet* BBC America BBC World BET Big Ten Network* Biography Channel* Bravo* Cartoon Network* Chiller Cloo CMT CNBC* CNBC World CNN* CNN Headline News (HLN)* Comcast SportsNet Chicago* Comcast SportsNet Chicago+* Comedy Central Crime & Investigation* C-Span C-Span2 C-Span3 Discovery Channel* Discovery Fit & Health Disney* BET Gospel BET J (Centric) Bloomberg Boomerang CMT Pure Country CNNI Cooking Channel DIY DMX 41 Music Channels Disney XD (Toon Disney)* E!* ESPN* ESPN Classic ESPN U* ESPN2* ESPNNEWS* EWTN-Catholic Channel Food Network* Fox Movie Fox News Channel Fox Sports Midwest* Fuel TV FX G4* Golf Channel* Hallmark Channel HGTV* History Channel* H2 (History International)* HSN Hub Inspiration Investigation Discovery* Lifetime Movie Network* Lifetime Real Women Lifetime Television* Military Channel Military History EXPANDED (includes all channels in SELECT) MSNBC* MTCO Local Channel* MTV MTV2 Mun2 National Geo Wild National Geographic* NBC Sports Network* NFL Network* Nickelodeon Noggin (Nick Jr.) OWN Oxygen* Planet Green* QVC Science Channel* ShopNBC soapnet Speed* Spike TV Style* Syfy* TBN TBN Church Channel TBN Enlace USA TBN JCTV (Music Videos) TBN Smile of a Child TBS* TLC* *Upgrade 55 channels to HD with HD Set Top Box! Fox Business Fox College Sports Atlantic Fox College Sports Central Fox College Sports Pacific Fox Soccer Channel Great American Country Hallmark Movie IFC LOGO MTV Hits MTV Jams MTV Tr3s MTV U Nick 2 Nicktoons Network Outdoor Channel* PBS Kids Sprout RFD HD Pack ($3/mo.): MGM Smithsonian Universal (HD Set Top Box required for HD Pack) TNT* Travel Channel TruTV* Turner Classic Movies* TV Land USA Network* VH1 WAOE 59 MNT MyN WAOE Antenna TV WCPX ION Life WCPX ION Peoria WCPX ION Qubo Weather Channel WEEK 25 NBC* WEEK 25-Weather WGN America WHOI 19-ABC* WHOI-ABC The CW WMBD 31 CBS* WTVP 47-PBS* WTVP PBS Create WTVP PBS World WYZZ 43 FOX* WYZZ FOX Cool TV WYZZ FOX TCN Available only in HD: Palladia MTV* HD Theater (Discovery)* Tennis Channel* Sportsman Channel The N (Teen Flick) VH1 Classic VH1 Soul Wealth TV *Available in HD PREMIUM PACKAGES HBO $16/mo. HBO* HBO 2* HBO Comedy* HBO Family HBO Latino HBO Signature HBO Zone* Showtime $13/mo. FLIX ShoNext Sho2* (east/ west) Showtime* (east/west) Showtime Beyond Showtime Extreme Showtime Family (east/west) Showtime Showcase* Showtime Women Movie Channel* (east/west) TMC Extra Starz/Encore $13/mo. Starz* (east/west) Starz Cinema Starz Comedy* Starz Edge* Starz in Black Starz Kids & Family* Encore(east/west) Encore WAM Encore Action Encore Westerns Encore Drama Indieplex Encore Love Retroplex Encore Mystery Movieplex Cinemax $13/mo. @MAX 5StarMAX ActionMAX Cinemax* MoreMAX* OuterMAX ThrillerMAX* WMAX *Channels available in HD Packages include 41 DMX Music Channels! 2Pak Your choice of 2: Showtime, Starz/Encore or Cinemax for $23 HBO+1 HBO + your choice of either Showtime, Starz/Encore or Cinemax for $26 3Pak Showtime, Starz/Encore and Cinemax for $33 HBO+2 HBO + choose two from Showtime, Starz/Encore or Cinemax for $36 Everything Pak HBO, Showtime, Starz/Encore and Cinemax for $46
In our Community Pancake & Sausage Breakfast The St. Mary of Lourdes Men s Club will hold a Pancake and Sausage Breakfast on Sunday, February 12, 2012 from 7:00am - noon at the St. Mary of Lourdes Parish Center on 424 Lourdes Church Road. If you are interested is pre-ordering bulk or link sausage at $2.50 per pound please contact Bill Kessling at 309-645-7795. Last day to pre-order sausage is February 5th. Sausage orders must be picked up on Sunday, February 12th from 7:00am - noon. Butterbraids & Cookie Dough Back by popular demand! The St. Mary s 8th Grade class is selling premium butterbraids for $12 each (cherry, cinnamon, apple and more) and select varieties of cookie dough such as oatmeal raisin, white chocolate macadamia nut and M&M s. Cookie dough sells for $15 to $16 for a 2.7lb box of 48 preportioned cookies. Please contact any St. Mary s 8th Grader, or contact Karen Datzman at 383-2564 or via e-mail at datzfam@mtco.com. Delivery will be in March in time for Easter. New Idea for a Valentine s Dinner! The Knights of Columbus invites the community to a unique way to treat your loved one to a Steak Dinner on Sunday, February 12, 2012, starting at 4:00pm. A freshly grilled ribeye steak will be served with a salad, baked potato, roll and a beverage choice of coffee, iced tea or water. To top the dinner off will be a slice of fresh baked pie! Cost is $15 per person and reservations will only be taken in advance so hurry to place your reservation before Friday, February 10th. To purchase advance tickets stop by St. Mary s School, St. Mary s Church or contact any member of the Metamora Knights of Columbus. Please contact Peter Foley with any questions at 383-4289 or 210-4470. For reservations call Roger Alig at 367-2473. Germantown Hills School District #69 Chili Supper and Winter Carnival The Germantown Hills School District #69 Parent Teacher Organization is hosting its annual Chili Supper/Winter Carnival on Saturday, February 11, 2012, under the theme of Go for the Gold in honor of the 2012 Olympics. The event will run from 4:00pm until 8:00pm with games along with live and silent auctions to be held. Menu items are chili, sub sandwiches and chicken fingers. This serves as the school district s biggest fundraiser. All monies raised go directly to our schools and teachers to assist in enriching our children s educational experiences. Watch Metamora Redbird Basketball in HD on digimax channel 410 / 400 SD After broadcasting the Metamora High School Holiday Concert over the holidays, Redbird Replay is back with coverage of the MTHS boys varsity basketball games. The thrilling Metamora vs. Morton game on January 6th was the first game to be broadcast with the remaining regular season and post-season games scheduled to air on digimax. Please visit http://www.mtco. com/television/channels/local.php for a schedule (please check back periodically for updates). Special thanks to Mark and Daniel Goodyear, Scott Kerker and Dave Best for their enthusiatic commitment to our community, providing excellent videotaping, interviews and play-by-play at these events!
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