28
Sep
2018

September 5, 2018 Minutes

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CTAC   – Monthly Meeting Minutes – September 5, 2018

Members in attendance:
Tad Weinstein (West Haven), Chair
Peaches Quinn (New Haven)   Vice-Chain
George Alexander (Hamden) Treasurer
Johnes Ruta, (New Haven), Advisor, Acting Secretary
John Jesson (New Haven Free Public Library System)

Sharon Codeanne (Comcast Representative)

Visitor: Kurtis Kearney (New Haven citizen)

Meeting called to order 6:05 PM.

1. New Member introduction: John Jesson – New Haven Free Public Library System – appointment by City Librarian Martha Brogan to replace Ashley Sklarr.

2.   August 1 Minutes
No modifications requested. Motion to accept: Tad Weinstein,   2nd’ed: George Alexander.
Vote unanimous. (Johnes recused – submitted Minutes.)

  1. COMCAST Report: – Sharon Codeanne:
    Community Relations
    Great Places to Work and People magazine ranked Comcast No. 4 in its list of “Companies that Care,” for Comcast’s ongoing commitment to create real and lasting impact in the communities where we live and work.Comcast was a sponsor of the annual New Haven public schools Back to School Rally; also donated a laptop that was raffled-off to students.Comcast and Amazon announced an agreement to launch Prime Video on Comcast’s Xfinity  X1 TV later this year, giving Xfinity TV customers easy access to thousands of additional premium shows and movies

 

Marketing
On May 30th, Comcast launched international channels and 31 new international packages.

As of June 27th, WCTX SD and WCTX HD ceased providing programming.

On July 24th, the Tennis Channel was added to the Sports & News service tier and  also remain available on the Digital Preferred service tier.

New Customer offerings:
Comcast offers a $9.99 per month discount – available ONLY to new customers, or those off-line from Comcast for more than 90 days.

 

Discussion:
George Alexander says that another APP Flash Player is needed to run the Comcast X1 App. This raises questions and discussion on the functionality of FLASH functions on various  browsers.

Johnes asks question about X1 Apps – Is direct entry of URL possible. Sharon answers that she will research and respond by email. Though not likely.

4.   Correspondence
George has received more subscription payments for Comcast customers, sent to CTAC. This is puzzling as Comcast payment envelopes always include payment envelopes addressed to Comcast, and specific instructions to subscribers not to send payments to CTAC.

Report from SVAC CT Statewide Cable Advisory July meeting in Cromwell attended by

  1. Peaches Quinn:
    SVAC reports to CT Public Utility Regulatory Authority, as does our local CTAC.
    SVAC meeting includes all other Cable jurisdictions and cable providers – Frontier, Comcast, Cablevision, Optimum, Cox.Peaches: “SVAC is now much more attuned by community issues. Technical Services related to cable: Emphasis of SVAC Chair on related technical items and topic of returning money to communities.   Idea of distributing financial resources to local cable advisories in question:
    Distributing monies to 169 towns would diminish such amounts otherwise needed to retain financial pool for possible legal expenses anticipated by SVAC.”   Johnes wonders what these unexplained “legal expenses” might be ?Tad comment: “SVAC is pro-legislation.”George’s question: “Are there towns wanting to set up their own local cable systems?”
    Peaches: “Will research further. Such constructions would be challenged by existing cable franchises.”6.   CTAC By Laws

Yvonne Manning-Jones (not present this meeting) is working on update of CTAC By-Laws. To be applied to the CTAC website: http://cableadvosory.org/

7.   CTAC Membership
Need to fill vacant posts for all three towns as chartered.   Hamden: Members of the public can apply to the Hamden Town Clerk.   Commissioners are elected by the Hamden Town Council.

8     General Discussion

Discussion on capabilities of Satellite TV services:   Selections are only downloadable, Satellite TV is not UPLINK capable. Programming cannot be interactive.

Frontier startup business disaster in CT:   George explains that when ATT sold CT franchise to Frontier, they did not share their IP addressess networking, resulting in total breakdown of incipient internet, TV, and telephone land-lines services.

Frontier has not established Fiber Optic FIOS service in limited areas.

9.     Next CTAC Meeting:   Wednesday, October 3, 2018, 6:00 PM at CTV, New Haven.

Meeting adjourned at 7:10 PM.
September Minutes Submitted 09/19/2018 by Johnes Ruta, CTAC Acting Secretary, New Haven Rep #2