Basic Philosophies of Access

PHILOSOPHIES...

PEG access TV is the modern-day soap box on which Americans - protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in exercising their freedom of expression – may exercise their right of free speech. Freedom of speech has been extensively defined by U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and any start-up access center is advised to be well-versed in these. Briefly, we know that freedom of speech does not protect the right to cry “Fire!” in a crowded theater – unless, of course, there is a fire! Likewise, the FCC and the Supreme Court have defined pornography and obscenity, and the distribution of such material is entirely prohibited (see www.fcc.gov). There is no free speech defense for the distribution of pornography except by private corporations to private individuals who solicit such material, and this right has been questioned in a number of internet site cases. Finally, while up on a soapbox, whether boxwood or electronic, no one is permitted to commit a violation of local, state or federal laws. Most often, this lawful restriction of speech refers to libel, slander, invasion of privacy, gambling schemes, consumer fraud, and copyrighted material misuse.

A community media center excels when it serves the role of facilitator of free expression by soliciting or facilitating all points of view, educating its participants about the responsibilities implicit in free speech, and providing its hardware and training resources to all, equally, without regard of any content or point of view.

Equipment

EQUIPMENT...
Master control is the area where your station’s video and audio signals are routed to the cable company’s (or companies, if there are more than one in the community or district) head end. That signal is then sent out to the cable subscribers. The cable companies should provide the access center with the equipment it takes to get the signals to their head end. This equipment usually consists of signal modulators, fiber connections, etc. They (the cable operator) should also provide the center with equipment (usually demodulators) to send signals back to master control. These are necessary for the cable company to receive signals back to the playback area from remote live drops (such as city council/selectman’s chambers, schools, etc.) for recording or live cablecasting. You need to ensure that the cable operator provides the access center with a subscriber return feed, simply a regular cable line such as the one you receive in your home, so the master control operator can see how your signal is being fed to the cable subscribers (quality control).

Playback source equipment will usually consist of some format of tape, DVD, hard drive,and live sources, such as studio and remote feeds. What is chosen here should be consistent with the types of portable and editing equipment that is purchased. Generally, community sponsors submitting imported programming (programs produced somewhere other than you the local access center) will ask you what format you’d like their program on.

Cablecasting equipment to consider
• An audio/video switcher or router (chooses which piece(s) of equipment to play out).
• An automation system (for unattended playback of your programming).
• A community bulletin board system (a messaging system for displaying graphic pages).
• Monitors (for cuing of your playback devices).
• Televisions (usually one per each PEG channel, for monitoring of the subscriber signal).
• Waveform monitors.
• Vectorscopes.
• Time base corrector (TBC). A time base corrector or frame sync should be placed.
before each modulator and/or after each source.

Access Board of Directors

BOARD OF DIRECTORS.....
The Board of Directors ideally may consist of a cross section of the community. Board members may be appointed by the Issuing Authority, the Cable Advisory Committee, elected from the Organization's membership or a combination of all of the above.

The Board of Directors generally develop organization by-laws, goals and objectives and with the Director, put together operational policies.

The Executive Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the access center.

At minimum, the Director should report to the Board at every Board Meeting. If they meet quarterly, the Board may require the Director to report monthly by mail or email. Or, the Board may prefer that the Director report only financial matters monthly, but hold the other reports until Board Meetings. Some Boards require all materials to go out ten days in advance of a meeting to allow Board Members time to read everything before the meeting. Other Boards only require a few days, or none at all. The Board sets the rules by formal vote for the Director to follow regarding reports.

Public Access Television

PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION (First-Come, First Served)...

This standard, set when PEG Access television was in its infancy, was created to make the distribution of equipment and resources fair to everyone in the community. Essentially, the philosophy encourages everyone to use the facility on a first come – first serve basis. If you reserve specific equipment for a specific time and date, no one can come along later and requisition your equipment claiming that their need is greater or their project is more important. In addition, members of the access center or citizens of the community, depending on how the access center determines its membership, are treated equally by the staff, with no one group given preference over another.

This philosophy is still practiced in public access with a few caveats. One of these is that there are segments of the population, particularly those that are underserved minorities that, because of their situation, cannot compete with other groups within a community and get fair access. In this case, these groups may need a few extra concessions to get their message out to the community. Examples of this might be extra staff help at the beginning of their training, special appointment hours to serve members working two or three jobs, or perhaps special classes in their native language. In any case, no group within the community is more important than another. We just want to make sure everyone gets the same opportunity to use public access.