Rutland Cable Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes – April 9, 2018
Members present: Chairman Paul Mattson, Peter Craine, Christian Santillo.
Members absent: Jim Kelley, Addison Redfield
Guests present: None
Meeting was called to order by chair at 6:05 PM.
Meeting Minutes
Meeting minutes from February 21, 2018 accepted at 6:09 PM. Christian moved; Paul 2nd; vote was unanimous.
Bills and Accounts
Paul presented a Treasurer’s report. Total expenses were $883.69, including salaries, since the January meeting.
The $15.99 reimbursement to Paul was for purchasing batteries.
The $118.97 reimbursement to Paul was for printer supplies (ink and paper).
Financial report was accepted as presented at 6:13 PM. Peter moved; Christian 2nd; vote was unanimous.
Old Business
YouTube Policy
Paul noted that YouTube is beginning to crack down on videos with children. The current exception in our policy was noted.
Christian suggested we find a more generic name. “Internet-hosted on-demand video streaming” is long-winded. Peter will think about this and distribute a new version before the next meeting.
Hopefully complete and ready for a vote next meeting.
Old microphones
Paul is ready to send the old Red microphone to Sennheiser for repair.
Paul is wading through the fine print on the replacement cable to be sure it’s the right cable for our use.
Once these are repaired we will have four complete kits.
Website and Streaming
The committee will be creating our own web site to host committee-specific content. We will not use the Town’s website for this. We have not yet decided on hosting service.
Should the CAC/Town host the live and on-demand streaming? What are the costs to have our partner/service provider host videos for broadcast/playback? Discussion about services offered by Leightronix and Tightrope. Some confusion about who was doing the hosting. We settled on two options:
- The committee’s servers host and stream the content; in this configuration the streaming comes at the expense of Internet bandwidth
- The partner’s servers host and stream the content; our server would host an applet to point to the partner’s servers.
A quick survey of Leightronix and Tightrope web sites tell us that Leightronix charges about $2,400/year and Tightrope charges about $2,200/year. These are for configuration b, above.
Salaries
Punted for another meeting when we hope Jim can attend.
Tightrope Media Systems
The committee was given a demonstration of the current Tightrope product offering since the last meeting. The committee has been sent a quote and proposal for a system.
There was a lengthy discussion about what the quote means.
If we bought everything on the budgetary estimate, without discounts, we would spend $62,015. If we purchase the first year of support when we purchase the equipment we get a discount of $7,720 for the second year of support (two years for the price of one on all Tightrope equipment).
We absolutely require the following equipment:
- A video server (quoted as a Flex-4 with 32TB of disk space)
- At least one Bulletin Board server (quoted as two Carousels)
- A video switch and router (quoted as a Black Magic Design device)
- Two HD-to-SD converters (one for each TV channel broadcast on Charter).
What server do we really need? 32TB of disk space would be *really* nice. We need a server that supports:
- One output channel for Charter channel 191
- One output channel for Charter channel 192
- One output channel for Live Streaming (we think)
- One input channel from a school when live-broadcasting, for example, a Town Meeting
These requirements don’t allow us to select any server less than a Flex-4 (Flex Lite and Flex 2 each support only two channels).
Do we need two Carousel Bulletin Board servers, or can we make do with only one? Peter mentioned it would require twice the work to manage two servers. And it would be twice as much work for all organizations (Public Safety, Library, …) that post notices on the Bulletin boards. It might be easier for us to use a single BB server, if possible. Question is being sent to determine our actual needs.
Optional services on the quote:
- A Video-On-Demand (VOD) server (to replace our YouTube channel)
- 2 Live Streaming servers (one for each Broadcast channel)
Do we need the VOD streamer? We are using YouTube today. Will we change this? It might be a good idea from a control and traceability point-of-view. Because this device has its own hard disk, we can stream stored content even if the Flex-4 has any problems (as long as we have an Internet connection, that is).
We decided we only need to stream one broadcast channel. Our two channels broadcast the same content today; we don’t see that changing any time soon. If, in the future, we wish to broadcast both channels we can purchase another live streamer.
This table shows the cost to purchase the hardware, assuming, we need a VOD server and two Bulletin Board servers. The table also indicates the support cost, per year, for this equipment.
How many? |
Description |
Unit Cost |
Total |
~ |
Support Unit/Yr |
Total |
|
1 |
Flex 4 server |
$28,500.00 |
$28,500.00 |
~ |
$2,850.00 |
$2,850.00 |
|
2 |
Carousel BB Server |
$2,895.00 |
$5,790.00 |
~ |
$280.00 |
$560.00 |
|
1 |
Video Router/Switch |
$1,395.00 |
$1,395.00 |
~ |
~ |
~ |
|
2 |
HD-to-SDI scaling converter |
$445.00 |
$890.00 |
~ |
~ |
~ |
|
1 |
VOD Server |
$10,000.00 |
$10,000.00 |
~ |
$1,000.00 |
$1,000.00 |
|
1 |
Live Streaming Server |
$2,750.00 |
$2,750.00 |
~ |
$280.00 |
$280.00 |
|
|
|
|
$49,325.00 |
Total |
|
$4,690.00 |
Total/Year |
Installation estimate is $5,680. Yearly streaming costs are estimated at $2,200. The following table shows the cash outlay for this system over the first five years of its life, assuming a 5% support and service escalator per year after year 2. Year 1 includes purchase and installation costs. Year 2 is so small because the 2nd year of support is included with the purchase of the first year.
Year |
Cost |
1 |
$61,895.00 |
2 |
$2,200.00 |
3 |
$7,234.50 |
4 |
$7,596.23 |
5 |
$7,976.04 |
Total |
$86,901.76 |
Note that these prices do not include other “incidental” costs. Do we need another electrical circuit? Do we need another rack? We do not have prices for these and other incidentals.
Paul must consider increasing the budget for FY19 to cover the purchase costs. Can be done before Annual Town Meeting or at a Special Town Meeting.
Tightrope Competitors
Christian will work on getting a demo and quote from Leightronix.
Paul will work on getting a demo and quote from TelVue.
New Business:
From the Floor
Next Meeting
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 6:00 PM on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned, unanimously [Motion: Peter; 2nd Christian] at 7:58 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Craine
| 
