01-28-08 Information and Technology Committee

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Information and Technology Committee January 28, 2008 Page 2 their meetings are broadcast which included such cities as. Madison, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne and Bloomington. He has also worked closely with Brent Cummins, Web Design Technician with the City's Information Technologies. As a result a compressed version from WNIT has been developed. Mr. Gilot stated that in his personal opinion the audio of WNIT is very good and that the only complaint is that when the camera zooms in and zooms out that the picture becomes somewhat grainy. Mr. Gilot noted that the city receives approximately $670,000 annually in cable franchise fees, which is the same amount received under the local franchise. These funds are deposited when received into the City's General Fund. Mr. Gilot stated that in December of 2007, after sending notice, Comcast has dropped the Public, Education and Government (PEG) channel studio, video tapping and broadcasting support. Comcast cited the State of Indiana's preemption of local cable franchise contracts for taking this action. Mr. Gilot stated that "PEG Broadcasting" is not a "city core competency". He added that Mishawaka, Elkhart and South Bend Mayors have all decided that this is not an area which they would like to start a new city program. Mr. Gilot suggested that the Council provide input to the Mayor, but as of this point Mayor Luecke would like to "keep Council Meetings publicly accessible, but does not encourage PEG expansion of services at this time". Utilizing the Common Council's web page link is believed to be satisfactory at this time, since Council meeting playbacks can be accessed through this means on a 24/7 basis. Looking to the future with WNIT public television moving in about a year to the current WSBT downtown building may present future opportunities. Investigation of moving the headend will be necessary; however public access will be a significant challenge. It has also been noted that U-Tube and Google which are available 24/7, have surpassed public channel capabilities. In response to questions raised by Dr. Varner, Mr. Gilot stated that as of December 2007, the Comcast studio has no staff, and that only the channel is available. Mayor Luecke noted that the channel is available however staff persons are needed to manage the operation. Currently they do not do plug-ins, and Mishawaka and Elkhart are not interested, and he does not want to take on plug-ins at this time. In response to questions raised by Council Member Kirsits, Mayor Luecke noted that costs have not been calculated however they would include labor costs for management and review, etc. Dr. Varner then requested Deputy City Clerk Janice Talboom to access the laptop to show a few minutes of the January 14, 2008 South Bend Common Council meeting from the Council's web page. Dr. Varner noted that there still is an issue of needed upgrades to the computers being utilized by the Office of the City Clerk and the Council.