Agenda Packets - 2008/03/03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item 1B City Council Work Session Page 2 2 Limitations of CTV equipment • CTV’s policies permit only 8 hours of editing time per week, typically as two 4-hour blocks, the equivalent of only 4 days per month. This will not be sufficient to support editing the three ongoing programs along with the historical documentary and other programs. • The small hard drives make it difficult to keep the files for multiple programs. Their model is to work on one program at a time. Staff expects the workflow to involve balancing production between more ambitious, longer schedules such as the historical documentary and shorter-term programs such as Seniors on the Run. • The computer systems available in CTV’s edit suites are Power Mac G5s, which are significantly lower performance than the current computer models. CTV has been purchasing Power Mac systems for their production staff comparable to what has been specified for Mound View, but replacement computers have not been provided for volunteers using the edit suites. • The DVD burners in CTV’s computers run at 2x speed compared to the 16x found in current offerings. This means that backing up data and making copies of completed programs takes eight times as long. Staff Costs/Inefficiencies Each 4-hour editing shift at CTV costs another hour by calling to make reservations, driving to and from their facility, checking in, and waiting for staff to retrieve hard drives from locked storage and open up the edit suite. Maximal utilization of CTV edit suites at two 4 hour sessions/week would add another 104 hours of staff overhead (1 hour/session x 2 sessions/week x 52 weeks/year) plus 1560 miles (15 miles round-trip x 2 trips/week x 52 weeks/year) in a year. The current hourly rate, including benefits, for the Cable Television Coordinator is $26.09 and the IRS mileage reimbursement rate is $0.485/mile. The annual cost of driving to CTV to edit is $2713.36 in wages and $756.60 in mileage, for a total of $3469.96. Many functions in the editing process completely tie up the computer’s resources. • “Capturing a tape” is the process of transferring video from the videotape, where it was shot, into the computer, where it can be edited. This process happens in real-time. Each one hour tape requires one hour to capture. During this time, the computer cannot be used for other purposes. • Rendering video files is necessary when there are multiple layers of video, graphics, and transitions. Time required for rendering ranges from a few seconds to 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of the project. • After editing is completed, a self-contained QuickTime file is exported. A one-hour show might take 15 minutes to export. • Completed programs are submitted for playback at CTV using a program called DV Drop. The transfer time can be up to 20 minutes. • Distribution of programs via DVD means creating a disc image. The QuickTime file is brought into DVD authoring software, the menus are created, then the files needed for