PEG Volunteer Program Committee will meet Tuesday June 23rd

Join Mendocino TV on Tuesday June 23rd for another meeting of the “PEG Volunteer Program Committee”

Agenda:

• Setting New Goals. Due to unforeseen delays the equipment was finally delivered this Monday. This has jeopardized the July 1st launching date. This has effectively left us 2 weeks to build a television station. Miracles have happened before from out of our studios but we should not raise unrealistic expectations. July 15th or 20th would be a more realistic date.
• Establish a set of priorities for time slots. (ie: Sunday Spiritual Svcs, Local Sports on weekends or live events)
• Develop a Schedule and Calendar of program listings, TV Guide.
• Need to coordinate Press Releases, PSAs with City Hall’s web site and the various media agencies to prevent duplication and be effective.
• Establish a promotional campaign of outreach to the community and policies for announcing current and upcoming events for Not For Profits and Government Agencies
• Underwriting Policies and Procedures.
• Welcome new members

Ist introductory Session of: PEG Volunteer Advisory Committee,Thursday May 7th 2015 at 6pm

Minutes:

The meeting started at 6:00 pm with 3 persons attending: Jane Vartanian, Derek Hoyle & Terrence Vaughn
After initial introductions, we talked about our backgrounds and how we found ourselves together. Derek brought an interesting idea for producing a show which we will discuss in future sessions. Sometimes an idea needs to incubate before it can come to fruition Jane told us about her extensive background volunteering with MCCET and then MCTV where she was also a past board member.
I spent an hour bringing the committee up to date on the unique, hybrid, Public / Private partnership Mendocino TV has entered into with the City of Fort Bragg and the terms and conditions under which we were operating.

We discussed my recent excursion to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. The purpose of the visit was to compare various hardware and software broadcast play-out servers and their cloud based competitors to help the City Council make a decision as to what technology they should purchase for starting the PEG anew.

Derek brought up the idea of using open source software and building the system in LINUX. I agreed about it probably being the cheapest, most stable and effective system to go for. My main reason for choosing the Apple / Mac platform has mainstream support by the manufacturers of the software and hardware, whereas in a Linux system we would have to start from a more basic level of development. The Apple ecosystem for media content creators is very friendly, stable and predictable.

Due to the short time frame to build this system, I explained, I couldn’t do much more research. (I have since investigated the Linux possibility without much luck
The main parameter from the Ad Hoc Committee was, “Bare Bones, minimal cost”, so I came back to the Ad Hoc Committee with 3 choices.

• The Windows Based Cinegy system I had initially specified and which I was performing a trial on currently was going to cost over $14,000 for the minimal software suite to meet the needs of one channel and another $10000 for the Hardware coming in around $24000 for the first channel and $5000 for subsequent channels..
• Hardware appliances starting from $23,000 to over $40,000 for 3 to 16 channels
• Mac based play-out server with hardware costing between $10000 and $12000 and the software $2000.

We discussed the possibility of lighting up different Comcast CATV remote locations.

I gave a brief, “State of the Network” description to the best of my knowledge. “The City of Fort Bragg, Comcast, MCTV board members and employees, Eric Dwyer and the Footlighters have all given contradictory information regarding the functioning of the network” so I was still pretty confused! 15 years had passed since I last worked on the network.
The Committee agreed that there was no rush to address growth while the PEG was still under creation.
The new PEG station, ‘Mendocino Coast Media’, will start out solely Broadcasting!  At this time it has no production equipment and facilities. These were lost in the previous debacle between Footlighters and MCTV.
https://vimeo.com/123596454
We will ingest, encode, schedule and broadcast video content over channel 3, giving priority to as much locally originating content as is delivered by the community of Coastal Mendocino County.
• This will be performed free of charge to Comcast CATV subscribers
• Mendocino TV reserves the right to recover encoding expenses from Non Comcast CATV subscribers when extra encoding is necessary.
• We will keep regular Hours, 2pm to 6pm Monday through Friday
The PEG Volunteer Advisory Committee was our answer to those who would accuse the city of controlling and politicizing the channel. This committee would give the opportunity for local input by involved citizens.
Drop by Mendocino TV’s office between the hours of 2pm and 6pm and we will accewpt any content that conforms to basic PEG guidelines program for broadcast any media on Channel 3 for no extra charge, as long as it’s delivered encoded correctly.
Underwriting will help defray the expense of creating the production, not the Distribution on channel 3. Distribution on channel 3 is free. Underwriting is the only accepted form of recognition for support on Public Access TV.
I narrated the tale of my visit to NAB and we listened to the stories of each other’s journeys that brought us together that evening.
We adjourned at 11pm after we realized 5 hours had passed. The next meeting hadn’t been scheduled yet so I informed the committee I would schedule the next one in June.

Committee Mission Statement

Mendocino TV proposes, in collaboration with the City of Fort Bragg, to initiate and staff a PEG Volunteer Advisory Committee to provide advice and support for PEG operations. In addition to bringing fresh, diverse perspectives and feedback, these volunteers will help build a more informed and engaged community.
Members potentially include:
• 2 City Council members or designees
• 1 County Supervisor or designee
• 3 coastal CATV subscribers
• 2 city resident CATV subscribers
• 2 Youth representatives, still in school, appointed by Fort Bragg and Mendocino High School Principals
• 1 person with commercial interests which may include a business owner, Fort Bragg Promotional Committee, Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce or VMC representative.
Goals may include:
1. Provide overall general counsel, guidance and oversight of PEG operations.
2. Help educate and inform the community about PEG and its opportunities for sharing media.
3. Evaluate and provide feedback on PEG procedures, policies and progress and establish a complaint process.
4. Assist Volunteer Coordinator to recruit, train, manage and evaluate PEG volunteers including the PEG Program Committee, producers, encoders, etc.
5. Encourage, promote & support ancillary broadcast studios, live performance venues & theatres, remote broadcast sites and facilities. Examples include Footlighters, Cotton Auditorium, Mendocino Coast District Hospital, FBPD, Matheson Performing Arts, Caspar Community Center, Timberwolves Stadium, Diederich Center
6. Help identify and generate community resources.
7. Explore options to increase community engagement, feedback and communications.
Meetings: At least quarterly, although probably more initially as the Committee gets trained and organized.