April 7, 2010 Minutes
MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – April 7, 2010
Johnes Ruta, NH
Joyce Listro, NH BOE
George Alexander, H treasurer
Tad Weinstein, WH chair
Jen Sacco, H secretary
Carl Lambert, Sr. H, new member
Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m. by Tad Weinstein. Introduction of council; Sharon/Comcast not present; CTV representative not present.
Feedback from state video advisory council meeting from Tad Weinstein; Tad is now treasurer of SVAC by election. They are working on picture quality, video quality. At&T and Cablevision were present at the SVAC meeting. George was uncomfortable with the lack of information about picture quality and technical information. Should output signal be measured, or signal strength into a box be measured? George was told that no signal is technically digital; all transmissions are on RF frequency which is a carrier of a digital signal that is converted at the box itself. So the question is, what are we interested in? The picture quality, or the signal quality. Tad responded that the SVAC maintains that picture quality could be better if it were not so compressed, that an engineer on the committee has done independent testing and found better quality picture. That man maintains that pay for service should be tied to picture quality; if the signal will be highly compressed, he believes consumers should be able to pay less.
George raised issue of court decision in favor of Comcast that the FCC had no oversight for maintaining “net neutrality.” “Nuclear Action” would be for FCC to declare that video providers are the equivalent of the bell system of phone providers.
Tad reported that Comcast has received notice that Comcast rates are going up.
Introduction of new member of CTAC.
Heard from Sydney Evans, of “America Speaks It’s Mind” show. Alleging that friction between CTV and the ASIM show was “premeditated.”
Heard from Larry Czajkowski, who says they refuse to back down until they get a ruling favorable to their claim, which is that they arbitrarily and capriciously had their show cancelled by CTV and that they were thrown out and threatened with the police. He feels he has been slandered, in front of the press, without evidence.
Mr. Evans claims this is an issue of freedom of speech, and that the future of the U.S. is at risk as a result.
George clarified that their first complaint, which was filed with the DPUC, is now out of our hands as an advisory committee. He asked for clarification about the claim of censorship; is there evidence Joe Schofield saw their tape prior to not allowing them to air their show?
Larry Czajkowski claims that CTV is being mismanaged by CTV; Tad cautioned us not to lose sight of what the real topic at hand was, which is their original complaint. They said that when they were denied a film crew, everyone else should be denied a film crew as well.
They claim the rules of CTV need to be updated, and are also mad that Comcast did not send a representative to the meeting.
While we are waiting for CTV to respond (they have until April 21st), Jen suggested that we ask for a copy of CTV’s rules and regulations, so that we can look at them to see if there is some substantiation of the claims of not following due process on the part of CTV.
ASIM claims to have never been given a reason why as to why their show was cancelled.
Mr. Evans believes the reason the show was cancelled was because of personal friction, not because of content.
Meeting adjourned 7:00 p.m.