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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDec 2010 min THE MINUTES OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010 The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chair Dennis Stroik. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Brad Peterson, Ken Henke, Dennis Stroik, and Robert Peltier (arrived late). Members Absent: Bob Buboltz and Dan Swee Council Representative: Bruce Nawrocki City Representative: Linda Magee Others in attendance: Will Craig from Elert & Associates and Bryan Olson. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion by Brad Peterson, seconded by Bob Peltier, to approve the minutes of July 15, 2010. All ayes. Motion Passed. OLD BUSINESS A. Channel Check The channel check was done and no problems were found. It was noted that the City currently has the Digital Economy service package. B. Correspondence Log and Follow Up on Complaints No complaints were received by the City since the last meeting. C. Correspondence Received Since Last Meeting 1. July Notice re: MultiLatino Packages-Addition of new Hispanic language tier effective September 22, 2010. 2. August Notice re: AnyRoom DVR Service-A multi-room DVR service that allows customers to share their entire DVR library with additional TV’s in the home. 3. September Notice re: Additions to Digital Preferred Package effective October 28, 2010. 4. September Notice re: Name Change to Xfinity. 5. November Notice re: Addition of Neo Cricket as a pay service effective December 16, 2010. 6. November Notice of Channel Line Up and Annual Notification of Rates. ndrd 7. Receipt of Franchise Fees for 2 and 3 Quarter-Copies were enclosed in the packets. C. Other Old Business No other old business. TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MINUTES DECEMBER 9, 2010 PAGE 2 NEW BUSINESS A. Recommendation of Award of Bid for Council Chambers Technology Replacement Linda Magee distributed results of the bids received for the new equipment needed to update the City’s Cable Studio. She explained that Elert and Associates helped develop the bid specs for the City since they began working with the City in August 2007 to evaluate the existing equipment and technology system and to develop a plan for the eventual replacement. The initial report was provided to the City in November 2007, and was updated to include the Library’s audiovisual needs in January 2008. Elert & Associates was engaged in August 2010 to update the assessment report and new replacement plan. Linda then introduced Will Craig from Elert so he could further explain the process and answer any questions the commissioners had. Mr. Craig stated that Elert & Associates released the RFB in mid November, 2010, to five vendors th who have worked on similar projects. A Pre-bid meeting was held November 16, an addendum was stth added December 1, and the bids were opened December 6. Of the five contacted, three companies submitted bids. The other two companies were too busy to do the work in the timeframe stipulated. Craig stated that all three bids were lower than the estimate of $162,500 contained in the initial assessment reports. He felt that was due to the competitive bidding climate and the companies were looking for work. Peterson asked if this is a firm bid, or if there was a chance of cost over-runs? Craig said the bid specs were carefully written to prevent additional charges. The companies were required to break down the bids detailing the equipment, labor, training and warranties. Whichever company is awarded the bid, will have to adhere to their bid price. He further explained that each vendor bid the same equipment, as required by the bid specs. Therefore, the differences in the bids were primarily due to differences in the labor charges. Craig told members that all three companies have done work for Elert and other cities before and all three are competent and have certified people doing the work. He listed some of the projects each had been involved in recently. Craig said that after receiving the bids, they were reviewed and the companies were contacted with any issues that were identified, so that revisions could be made to the bid if necessary. He reviewed the three issues that were found which did impact the original bid amounts. The final bids received are as follows: Alpha Video $150,807.27 Audio Vidor Electronics (AVE) $141,913.26 Video Services Inc (VSI) $138,141.75 Therefore, staff and Elert & Associatees recommend the contract be awarded to Video Services Inc. (VSI). Henke asked if the City has to pay sales tax on the equipment? Craig said, yes, and that the amount is included in the bid. Peterson asked if it includes the removal of the old equipment and old cabling? Craig said they will remove and dispose of all the equipment and cabling. The labor to do this, and the disposal fees were included in the bid amounts. The City will not have to deal with disposing of any of the old equipment. TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MINUTES PAGE 3 DECEMBER 9, 2010 Stroik asked if they would start soon? Craig stated that they are scheduled to start the beginning of January and that the project should be completed in approximately two weeks. Linda stated they will probably videotape the first meeting in January with a single camera, but the new system should be up and running for the second meeting in January. She went on to inform the members that the bid also includes training of staff. The cameras, micro controls, and audio equipment will need minimal training. The storage and distribution of the programming will require the most training. Craig said a local manufacturer’s representative from St. Paul, will be on hand to do the training. He explained that the bid included a “Gold” warranty package that is the top warranty service and will provide the best technical support possible during the first year. Craig also reviewed the equipment the Library is getting. He explained that we will have a two channel video server and separate modulators since the programming goes on two different channels. Craig told members that the character generator will be part of the scheduler system so that information will automatically be picked up off the scheduler and be included in the character generator messages. Craig was asked if editing equipment was included in the bid. He stated that editing equipment was not included since we will not be doing any programming in house. This is not being set up as a production studio. Nawrocki asked how the parade would be covered. Linda told him we would have to contract it out to another entity that does production, such as North Suburban that has a mobile production van for such events. It would be cost prohibitive for the City to set up a production van for only a few events. She said the other option would be to record the event with a single video cam. She explained that Comcast used to record the parade for us when they had a production van, but she thought the last few years, they also were contracting with North Suburban to do the coverage. Nawrocki said he thought the NE Minneapolis parade was recorded without a production van, so why couldn’t we do the same? Bryan Olson stated that MTN Public Access does the recording of that parade and that they use the CTV production van. Nawrocki then asked what the maintenance costs would be for this new system? Craig said there wouldn’t much for maintenance expenses, except batteries for the wireless microphones. He did tell members that most of the equipment has a life expectancy of approximately 10 years, so replacement and updating will need to begin somewhere in that timeframe. Nawrocki then asked how much the Library’s portion of this is costing? Craig estimated that the Library’s share is about $10,000-$12,000. Nawrocki said he wasn’t sure it’s worth the value to keep the Library Channel going. Nawrocki then stated that he was disappointed that the Commission wasn’t involved earlier in the process to discuss the equipment, help make recommendations and to determine how far we should go with the new system. He said if the members had been involved, maybe the consulting costs would have been lower. Henke responded to Nawrocki’s comments saying that he could never have come up with this extensive and detailed of a list for equipment needed for the new system. He didn’t feel he would have enough expertise in this area, and that the consultant had more knowledge of what exactly is needed and what equipment would best fit our needs. TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MINUTES PAGE 4 DECEMBER 9, 2010 Peterson asked if the equipment could be updated as technology advances? Craig said some software upgrades would be possible and capacity could be increased, but for the most part as long as the system works, there wouldn’t be a need to do so. He again reminded members that replacement of some of this equipment would probably be necessary in 10 years or so. Bryan Olson who attended the meeting asked several questions regarding the equipment that was chosen and wanted details on what each piece would be used for. He also asked Mr. Craig if his firm worked on the Duluth system. He told him that Elert was not involved in that system. B. Other New Business th The regular meeting of December 16 will be cancelled. REPORTS A. Report of Commissioners Education -Dan Swee-- Nothing to report Library - Bob Buboltz—Nothing to report. Public - Government -Ken Henke--Nothing to report B. Report of Comcast- The reports of July-October 2010 were included in the agenda packets for the commissioners to review. The November reports were passed out at the meeting. Ken was concerned about the phone stats and the fact that they dropped to 81-87% at times. Dennis reported that he had contacted Kathi regarding a call he made to report an outage. He said it took over a half hour before he was able to talk with a service representative who then told him they were aware of it. He felt there could have been a message, earlier in the process, to let those holding know that. C. Report of the Assistant to the City Manager Nothing further to report. Motion by Ken Henke, seconded by Brad Peterson, to adjourn the meeting at 8:25 pm. All ayes. Respectfully submitted, Shelley Hanson Secretary