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CABLE ADVISORY COUNCIL

P. O. Box 87

Newtown, Connecticut

~ Minutes ~

Minutes of Public Regular Meeting –

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Newtown, CT

There was a regular meeting of the Cable Advisory Council called to order at 7:02 p.m., Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Chairperson Carmella Amodeo at the Charter Communications facility, Newtown, Connecticut.

ATTENDEES: Carmella Amodeo (Newtown),  Joe Hurley (New Milford), Kate Donahue (Trumbull), Eugene Rosen (Newtown), George Fletcher (New Milford), Carl Braun (Woodbury), George Linkletter (Sherman), Paul Katzmark (Southbury), Ray Juskiewicz (New Fairfield), Bob Bell (New Fairfield), Karen Chance (New Fairfield), Stephanie O’Rourke (Kent), Gregory Davis (Roxbury)

From Charter: Greg Van Antwerp (Community Access), Paula Cecchetelli (Marketing), Tom Horan (Operations), Tom Cohan (Govlt Relations)

Public:  All of New Fairfield:  John Hodge (1^st Selectman), K.Chopman (BOE), Mary Ann Carson (CT State Rep for New Fairfield), Mike McLaughlin (CT State Senator for New Fairfield)

PUBLIC INPUT: New Fairfield First Selectman John Hodge believes they have worked it out – there will be a live feed from both the high school and the community room.  Charter has determined the technical requirements and done a cost estimate.  The New Fairfield Board of Education discussed and approved the plan at their last meeting.  The town/BOE will cover the cost to have dual live feeds.  Chairman Amodeo confirmed that there is no state prohibition of two live feeds.  State rep Mary Ann Carson and State Senator Mike McLaughlin both support the town’s efforts.  In addition, State Rep Carson contacted the CT DPUC and confirmed that there is no requirement that a live feed may ONLY originate from the high school.  They indicated that the educational access rules are fuzzy.  New Fairfield confirmed that the Board of Education will take the lead on all programming decisions and that it is their policy that student videographers be properly supervised.  In addition, the town confirmed that the original intent of the grant that established the channel was to cover town Board of Education AND Board of Selectman meetings.

George Linkletter made a motion that the Advisory Council support the 2^nd point of broadcast origin. Carl Braun seconded. The motion was then withdrawn by Linkletter.

Motion:  by George Linkletter:  The Charter Advisory Council supports any action that helps facilitate the generation of educational and town programming, including the proposed byt New Fairfield for dual live feed capability.  Bob Bell seconded.  Vote:  12-1-0

NEW MEMBERS:

Ray Juskiewicz and Bob Bell have been appointed to the Council by the First Selectman of New Fairfield and Karen Chance has been appointed to the Council by the Board of Education of New Fairfield.

In addition, Gregory Davis was reappointed to 2^nd term on the Council by Roxbury.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Minutes from July 2009 approved with one change. (Braun motion, Linkletter 2^nd, 10-0-3).

TREASURER’S REPORT:

Carl Braun gave report. Motion to accept Braun, 2^nd Linkletter, 10-0-3.

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS REPORT.

Tom Cohan:

· Charter still working through bankruptcy court.  Due to complete this week. Also still working on settlement with investors.  Briefs are due 9/18, comments are due 9/23 and a decision will be rendered on 9/30.

· Federal stimulus funding for broadband mapping.  96% of Connecticut’s residents have access to broadband.  The stimulus money will help map out those individual streets and homes that still don’t have access.

Paula Cecchetelli:

· Will have 52 channel of HD by the end of the year.

· Shop NBC and Jewelry will move to basic with a digital box

· No news on the Red Sox!

Greg Van Antwerp

o Internship –

§ newly expanded program has started

o TR Rowe has been on Channel 21 several times, open to all state reps.

o Planning to get local school administrators on the air

o Looking to cover more local events and truck shoots after several rain outs this summer.

o Unveiling new control room – very exciting. The old equipment will first be made available to other Charter systems then to local schools.

CORRESPONDENCE:

• Newton notified that they had $$ left over from last year’s grant $89.69.  They are sending it back and also sent a report on how they spent this year’s grant money.
• Still experiencing sync issues between the audio and video on low level broadcast channels
• Blanking out on Channels 30 and 31
• There are still freezing issues on the higher On Demand channels – is this an issue of signal strength?
• Frozen picture on Channel 6 Sunday evening for about 4 hours
• Tom Joyner questions
• Clarification of how Charter does it’s audio and video compression –Charter will not reveal the properties of it’s CODEC. They encourage subscribers to call if they have problems.
• Clarification of why Charter moves channels around – between tiers – Charter is trying to group like channels together (or channels that appeal to a certain demographic)
• Clarification of how Charter delivers HD channels (1080i 16:9 vs 720p 4:3) – No programmer is currently broadcasting ALL it’s programming in HD. Charter does not change programming.  Analog channels look worse on a HD television

• .

OLD BUSINESS: 

• Grant Program:  need to clarify that only one grant will be awarded in any school district.

NEW BUSINESS:

• Bylaws:  The Council bylaws were last revised in September, 2004.  Need to be looked at again.  Joe Hurley and Carl Braun offered to review and bring recommendations to the next meeting.  Questions for the members will be handled via email.  We will hold a special meeting (in accordance with our current bylaws) immediately following our regular November meeting to discuss any revisions.
• Bob Bell disclosed that his brother is a television reporter for WJLA in Washington DC.

ADJOURNMENT:

The meeting was unanimously adjourned at: 8:52 PM.  Respectfully submitted by:  Kate
Donahue, Secretary