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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007/02/01 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - Regular 1 OFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF February 1, 2007 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce Browning, Rick Dworsky, Dale Hartman, Ken Huiras, Kirk Morrow, Mary Jean Overend, and Rolf Peterson MEMBERS ABSENT: Bob Jacobson STAFF PRESENT: Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator OTHERS PRESENT: Lance Leupold, Comcast 1. Call to Order Chair Huiras called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Browning, Dworsky, Hartman, Huiras, Morrow, Overend and Peterson. 3. Approval of Minutes for December 7, 2007 Chair Huiras noted on page four he was listed as Chair and it should say Commissioner. Commissioner Overend indicated she gave a list of revisions to Mr. Dunlap. Mr. Dunlap reviewed the changes. It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Peterson, to approve the minutes of December 7, 2006, as amended. The motion passed 7-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda The agenda was approved as submitted. 5. Public Comment Ron Bailey, 3111 Plato, expressed a concern about cable costs rising and was unhappy that the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel was removed from the standard cable package. Mr. Leupold said that Comcast is in a transition to all-digital channels, which will be the future of all their services, and that a number of factors affect the channel lineups. Comcast evaluated the channels and AMC and Oxygen were moved to the digital tier. Five or six digital channels can be carried in the bandwidth used by one analog channel. 2 Comcast values the analog service, but eight of ten new customers subscribe to digital cable and there are a number of competitive reasons to move to all-digital channels. Mr. Leupold mentioned that the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) channel is still on the analog tier. Chair Huiras asked how the decision was made to move AMC rather than a different channel? Mr. Leupold said the marketing department looks at a channel’s popularity, if it can be moved contractually and if there was similar programming. Commissioner Browning asked if all channels will only be available as digital channels at some point? Mr. Leupold said that if there were customers that wanted analog, Comcast would try to continue providing it, but that they were moving toward all-digital. He added that analog subscribers were missing many features offered to digital subscribers. 6. New Business A. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule making update Mr. Dunlap reviewed an Email sent to Commissioners prior to the meeting regarding telephone companies lobbying the State Legislature and the FCC for ways to compete with cable companies without having to meet the same requirements that the cable companies provide in their franchises. Telephone companies are effectively trying to gain a competitive advantage. On December 20th the FCC voted 3-2 to impose new rules on the local franchising process. This doesn’t affect subscribers at the present time because it appears the rules only take effect after a franchise runs out, which will be in about 14 years. There are many local governments and allies (National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, etc.) in this challenge to the FCC’s authority to change the rules. The FCC order would allow telephone companies to build systems without allowing a franchising authority or an entity like the City to require that the entire city be able to receive a service. There will be a meeting on February 6th including the League of Minnesota Cities and MACTA to talk about this and other issues. B. Comcast updates Mr. Leupold reviewed a brochure about how Comcast is supporting the broadband revolution. Mr. Dunlap presented a PowerPoint presentation regarding Comcast price changes effective 2/1/07. Chair Huiras asked what six digital channels basic customers receive if they get a digital receiver for $3 per month? Mr. Dunlap said TPT MN, TPT Kids, TPT Create, KSTP Weather, KARE Weather, and WUCW. Chair Huiras said he was glad to see a price break on broadband service for customers that also subscribed to cable TV. He asked if they could get specifications on buying a 3 cable modem? Mr. Leupold replied people could get modems at places like Best Buy and Circuit City and would report back regarding specs. Mr. McHugh asked if Comcast partnered with retailers for modems? Mr. Leupold believed they did. He noted a correction in the presentation that the ability to start ordering video on demand (8,000 hours available and 95% at no additional charge) level begins with the digital starter package. Commissioner Browning asked if any of the VOD was high definition, and Mr. Leupold replied that some are. Mr. Dunlap said some Comcast fees for installation had gone down. Chair Huiras said it was interesting that some customers with the standard package and a converter box could go to the digital starter package and reduce their fee. Mr. Leupold said that this was another incentive to encourage customers to subscribe to digital packages, which are different than what Time Warner offered. Commissioner Peterson asked if the digital starter package didn’t get AMC, was it in the next tier? Mr. Leupold replied yes. Mr. Dunlap stated Comcast had also tried to parallel their packages to what the previous service provided and he hadn’t gotten any complaints about that. He recommended the Digital starter package as the best value, costing less than $2 more than the Standard package, but includes a converter box so the customer can get the free Video On Demand content, including channel 1000, Local On Demand that includes Council meetings and Park Perspective. C. Cable Company reports and suggested categories to track Chair Huiras indicated the Commission used to receive subscriber numbers and would like to continue receiving that information. Mr. Leupold responded there is a difference between what Time Warner was comfortable providing and what Comcast provides. Comcast feels subscriber counts are proprietary. Comcast could consider the information the Commission needed and if it related to the business they conducted, they would provide more general information. Chair Huiras indicated he would like to know the number of subscribers in St. Louis Park and the level of service they subscribed to. Commissioner Overend felt it was a way to follow trends. Mr. Leupold didn’t believe those numbers affected the business of the Commission. He was open to entertaining a discussion to see how that information was relevant to Commission business. 4 Chair Huiras asked in view of the changes, were they losing or gaining subscribers in St. Louis Park? Mr. Leupold replied they watch that closely, but it was too early to see trends. D. School District accountability policy proposal – No report 7. Old Business A. Fiber optic ordinance update from staff Mr. Dunlap indicated he had no update. Chair Huiras asked if there had been any movement in Burnsville? Mr. Dunlap hadn’t checked lately but would follow up. B. Park Wi Fi update and next steps Mr. McHugh distributed a handout of information listed on the City website. He met with Clint Pires, CIO of Information Resources, who said that the contracts with the partners had been finalized in December. The plans are to build the City in four quadrants (NE, SE, NW & SW) during March through July and plan to have it done by end of July. The contract says the contractor must be done by the end of August. They will be using three kinds of radios, a total of 400 radios, 25 main radios with a battery back up, hooked up to fiber network, and sub back haul radios. Access points are powered by solar panels with battery back up. There will be eight miles of additional fiber, in addition to the existing fiber shared with the School District, a significant partner. Park WiFi is developing a marketing plan for MDU’s (multiple dwelling units) because about 7,000 of the 20,000 households in St. Louis Park live in MDU’s. They also refer to commercial multiple tenant buildings as MDU’s and will be meeting with managers and owners of these units to figure out how a network would be set up for individual units and common areas. Construction will begin in March in the NE quadrant. The Broadband Coordinator for Park WiFi will be hired this month. That team will be working on the retail and customer service. There will be more information about workshops, “chat” nights and “install fests”. The Commission will be able to participate and will get more information before April. After the network is complete, there will be quarterly meetings for subscribers with Unplugged Cities, the customer service provider for Park WiFi. Chair Huiras asked if the NE quadrant would begin service in March? Mr. McHugh replied they might not all be able to get service as quickly as they like. They will do it quadrant by quadrant and make sure coverage is uniform in that quadrant before service is started. Mr. Dunlap noted information is available at the City’s web site or by linking to the Park WiFi web site. Chair Huiras asked is this was ahead of schedule? Mr. McHugh replied yes, the timeline is more optimistic knowing what they do about the design of the network. 5 Chair Huiras asked if the numbers of subscribers were the same? Mr. McHugh replied he hadn’t heard any changes. C. Park TV update Mr. McHugh reported Channel 16 had been operating since the beginning of January. They had to get a satellite dish installed on the City garage to receive NASA TV. The programming schedule changes twice a week. The schedule can be found at slptv.org. They had done sports programs, plays and presentations. D. Studio update Mr. Dunlap indicated he spoke with Tom Marble and the studio cameras had not been replaced yet but that the new cameras are due soon. There haven’t been any changes in the studio yet, which is ready for Community TV users to make reservations. Mr. McHugh indicated the first two programs they plan to do in the studio are with the Historical Society and another produced by Scott Smith with Veterans, which will be a continuing series. They can promote studio use in March after staff had more experience using the equipment. 8. Reports A. Complaints Chair Huiras noted the majority of complaints were regarding the AMC channel, which had already been addressed. Mr. Dunlap indicated the customer on complaint #21 had contacted the escalation team and was now happy. Commissioner Dworsky noted of 36 complaints, 10 were regarding the AMC transfer. Chair Huiras noted he had experienced problems with the HD Tier (KARE, WCCO and KSTP) and asked if there had been problems? He had been told by customer service to reset his digital receiver, which didn’t help. Mr. Leupold indicated he would look into it further. Chair Huiras asked if problems were related to the cold? Mr. Leupold replied the cold shouldn’t cause problems. Mr. Bailey expressed a concern about his hold time waiting for customer service. Mr. Leupold apologized and noted they had been receiving a high volume of calls. Commissioner Browning asked if calls went to call centers outside of the metro area? Mr. Leupold said only for high speed Internet support. 9. Communication from the Chair 6 Chair Huiras asked if a meeting date had been set with City Council? Mr. Dunlap said he wanted to check which date worked best for the Commission, with March 12th or 26th available. Commissioners present had no preference and Mr. Dunlap suggested scheduling the Commission for March 12th. 10. Communications from City Staff Mr. Dunlap reported the Comcast van had been transferred to Park TV. Statistics on web streaming had been compiled and he offered to provide them if Commissioners were interested. (They were). On February 5th, City Council will be looking at the By-Laws amendments. The Commission needed to address another amendment regarding a list of Holidays when the public meetings should not be held. Commissioner Peterson referred to a letter from Mr. Mattern regarding moving Lifetime Movie Network and Soapnet off standard cable to digital cable, in addition to AMC, and expressed concern that the cost for standard cable had still gone up. Mr. Leupold replied the products remaining on that service were the most popular and in some cases cost more for Comcast. Commissioner Dworsky requested a spreadsheet showing the various tiers at the next meeting. Mr. Leupold indicated the channel line up card lists the channels in the different tiers. Commissioner Hartman felt the list was confusing, and Chair Huiras noted there were many choices and packages. Mr. Dunlap indicated he had channel line up cards available in his office for those interested. Mr. Bailey asked what percentage of analog customers complained about the channels being moved and what do they anticipate with Lifetime? Mr. Leupold indicated they had heard from customers about the changes and taken it to heart. Commissioner Browning asked what prevented them from offering the channels on both analog and digital? Mr. Leupold replied it was not an effective use of bandwidth. Analog takes up the space of five to six digital channels. They also need to offer more HD TV which takes a lot of bandwidth. Mr. Bailey asked why it costs more if it opens more bandwidth? Mr. Leupold apologized, and said he wasn’t prepared to answer that question but that it could be the cost/price relation to technology. Commissioner Browning said new technology costs more initially. Mr. Leupold indicated as the channels may be used for new services, there was no subtraction of equipment or hardware. Comcast feels the standard package is still a great value. 7 Commissioner Hartman asked if there was a dual channel digital tuner? Mr. Leupold replied yes. Commissioner Hartman asked if it had a radio controlled remote and could operate from another room? Commissioner Browning clarified RF vs. infrared. Mr. Leupold indicated he was not familiar with that. 11. Adjournment Commissioner Dworsky made a motion, Commission Browning seconded to adjourn at 8:25. The motion passed 7-0. Respectfully submitted by: Amy L. Stegora-Peterson Recording Secretary