So much happening these days that todays post will be a hodgepodge of issues and events.
STUDIO RENOVATION
Well it's hard to tell but things are moving along in the high school studio. Last night I found some lights on, so I am assuming power is back to that portion of the school. It's been almost 6 weeks of walking through a dark mine cave-in with a flashlight, just to get some shows on. Seriously..I have to put a hard hat on to get a new show on the air. When we put the 4th of July fireworks on live, I nearly fell into a 6 foot hole in the middle of the hallway. With a month to go until school starts, I have been told that C.G. Schmidt, the main contractor, has a great reputation for cleaning up when all the construction is done. We are going to need it. Here are a few pictures which include the new addition and the actual server that is running on an extension cord, keeping Channel 14 on the air.
CABLE LEGISLATION
Back in May the state senate approved a bill which took the ability of municipalities to negotiate their own cable contracts away. Now all franchising goes through the state. The bill was lobbied heavily by AT&T to promote more competition. The senate bought that notion. Time Warner and the other cable providers in the state eventually went along because they had conceeded so much. Only 3 months later we are already starting to see the reprecussions of the bill. Cable and other media providers have had increases in prices, some are hidden in service changes. Channels are being realigned, taking the community access that so many people rely on and putting it on a more expensive tier of channels. And lastly, the media giant are picking and choosing just were they are going to provide service. Th poor guy in Spooner is never going to see a telehone company provide video service to his home, and since there is no competition his cable bill will increase and the level of quality service will no longer be regulated as they now have a lifetime franchise agreement. Please contact your local assembly representative or state senator to express your conscerns with this poorly thought out legislation.
NEW SHOWS
We just finished the first production meeting for a new show, currently titled "What's Cooking with KC Thorson". The show will be part cooking show and part nutritional information. The first show should tape in mid September. Looking forward to KC joining the family and also some taste testing after the show.
The Cable Access Trailer was put to the test this last week, covering the Police and Fire softball game at Falls Fest. Technical issues with power foced some comproimises, but all in all it went well. The game will be airing throught the rest of the summer. Thanks to all that stopped by and said hello or stuck thier head into the trailer to see what it was about.
In addition to the softball game, we did our first concert in the park (no rain this week) with the trailer and it worked perfectly for the Community Band. New to the mix was the addition of some remote control camera heads. Now in a pinch the trailer can be operated by one person. We still want camera people but just like with the concert, our camera men were playing trumpet.
All of our studio shows are on hiatus but "Reel Movie Talk" managed to get out and do a remote show. Too many summer blockbusters I guess. That show will hit the cable airwaves this week.
Gordon Kirchoff after a well received first show has produced "The Show" episode 2. This light hearted mix of interviews, skits and music is well worth the time.
Village Voices is also going outside the studio to host the Voters Forum at the Community Center on August 19th at 7:00 pm. Host Karen Nelson will be the moderator for the forum which will feature candidates for District 5 fo the US house of representatives and candidates for the 24th Assembly District. The public is invited for the taping. The show will then air up to the election in Menomonee Falls, Germantown and any other community with access facilites with-in these districts.
Someone asked why we didn't cover the BOys State Summer Baseball tournament up in Stevens Point. Well the WIAA has contracted with a company that does not aloow taping of playoff games. If you do, you need to sign an agreement and relinguish all previous tapings to add to thier library and then they maintain the rights to the playoff games. So even if the State torunament comes to Germantown next year and the Falls boys are in it again, we won't be able to cover it. We will hwever be covering more high school sports this year with the trailer. I would request though that we really need parents in these sports to step forward and help with production. The access channel is here for your use. W provide some programming on a volunteer basis to promote the channel. But truly if you want to see more soccer or cross country, we need volunteers. Call or email from the Channel 14 website to volunteer or to make suggestions. www.fallscableaccess.com or sign up for the teleproduction classes on the Rec Department website. www.fallsrec.org
TIME WARNER or U-VERSE
I'm very happy to provide information to consumers on the advantages and disadvantages of all the service providers. Just like political candidates of late, the ads on television are loaded with fine print. People and corporations who hit the airwaves and print media with their message, try to be very careful as not to tell lies that could get them in serious legal trouble. Some are very careless, while others spend millions on ways to beat the competition. The current trend is to leave out information or put it in very small print. We have all seen the Lottery ads that have the odds of winning posted on the bottom of the commercial. They have to post the odds so that you are completely informed of the astronimical chance of winnning. In reality only Evelyn Woods herself can read that porint, in that size in 4 seconds. The smae is true with the media providers. Feel free to email me questions at info@fallscableaccess.com . Here are just few examples. AT& T claims that you can record up to 4 shows on the DVR at one time. ( I consider myself a pro at time shifting programs to suit my schedule, but 4 shows is never an issue) They fail to let you read that that is only 4 standard definition shows. No multiple HD recordingss. Tme Warner allows you to record 2 HD shows at one time and watch another on playback. Also at this time AT&T is not providing cable access. In fairness that is not all thier fault brcause qw haven't been able to get together for a technical meeting. However in other area were they have solved the streaming issue, there are major complaints about the 1 minute it takes to upload the link to the channel and then the quality issue caused by the compression in streaming. This is a problem in many communities right now and they claim to be working on it. As for now Time Warner is the only lace to view the 3 local access channels in the Falls. Another claim is that U-verse has more HD channels. That is true by a few, but there is an extra charge for them in the bigger packages. Time Warner includes the HD channel in all the digital packages at no extra charge. As for overall cost, it is hard to compare ala carte services between different providers but I think you will find that the differences amount to around $5 or less. And don't get me started on combined services. I think the phone compmay should stay in the phone business and the cable compnay in the cable business. Remember those allin one stereos with turntable, 8 track and amplifier in one. You never got a good amp, the best turntable or the best 8 track in those setups. You went to components. You nay have paid more but you got the best of all. So when it cmes to cable service I say, "leave with the date that brung ya". Time Warner was committed to Menomonee Falls from the start and has service available to every last address in Menomonee Falls.
AS ALWAYS .......STAY TUNED
