[558] in I/T Delivery
MIT Cable Television Delivery Report for August 2001
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Randy Winchester)
Wed Sep 5 17:05:42 2001
Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.2.20010905160140.0642b610@po11.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 17:03:53 -0400
To: delivery@mit.edu
From: Randy Winchester <randy@MIT.EDU>
Cc: randy@mit.edu, "Seagren, Carl A" <cseagren@mit.edu>,
"Ridgway, Lee S" <ridgway@mit.edu>, jerry@fallsearth.com
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Project Name: MIT Cable Television
Project Leader: Randy Winchester
Report Date: September 5, 2001
Accomplishments:
* I met with MIT Housing managers on August 9 to discuss the project,
provide information about how to request service and solicit feedback.
* Held a second Delivery meeting on August 10. Housing managers Robert
Ramsay and Dennis Collins were invited to attend to provide some insight
into box distribution problems.
* I met with Ken Campbell on August 14 to get assistance with two press
releases. The Tech Talk article that resulted from this meeting was
published on August 29.
* Email announcing the new service was sent to all dormitory email lists.
* Posters and flyers advertising the new service were distributed in
dormitories.
* Installation of satellite dishes, cabling and headend equipment was
performed.
* MIT added The Research Channel in the free basic channel line up.
* Eight Boston broadcast channels have been installed in the
headend. There was some difficulty receiving a clear signal on one of the
eight channels, the cause determined to be due to the arm of a construction
crane at Simmons Hall blocking the view of the transmitting tower. A DTV
receiver that was purchased and installed solved the problem.
* Promotional items for a "early sign up" drawing were provided by
Motorola, Inc. Fifteen Sony 19" television sets will be awarded at three
schools that contract with FES. Motorola is also provided text pagers for
the giveaway.
Plans for September 2001:
* Perform cutover on September 1, 2001. (I won't keep everyone waiting
for next month's report. The cutover went smoothly. There were no cutover
issues. There is a small issue with the staging of set top boxes that I
will report on next month.)
Issues:
* Several MIT Housing managers protested our plan to ship UPS or mail
set top boxes to MIT dormitory addresses with the comment: "We don't want
to be in the cable tv business." This actually indicates a larger problem
with dormitory desks having difficulty managing and providing security for
the large quantities of shipments at the beginning of the term. We quickly
devised a PLAN B to set up a pick up location and to notify customers via
email when their equipment is available. Mike Foley from Campus Activities
Complex was a big help by setting up parking for FES trucks in the
Kresge/Chapel Turnaround. Building 9 lobby is also available for box
distribution.
* FES did not utilize MIT web certificates based on difficulty with
implementation. This looked like a good idea on the surface, but we
learned that MIT certificates do not work with AOL and FES did not want to
restrict sign ups. Not implementing MIT certificates did not create any
sign up problems.
* It was not possible to contact The Tech to place advertising. They
did not respond to email or answering machine messages. There was nobody
in the office when I went to check.
The project notebook, which requires an MIT certificate to view, can
be found at: https://web.mit.edu/mitcable/www/Projects/
Randy Winchester, randy@mit.edu
MIT Cable Television, mitcable@mit.edu, http://web.mit.edu/mitcable/www
Room 9-050
x3-7431, Fax: x3-8000
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<html>
Project Name: MIT Cable Television<br>
Project Leader: Randy Winchester<br>
Report Date: September 5, 2001<br>
<br>
Accomplishments:
<ul>
<li>I met with MIT Housing managers on August 9 to discuss the project,
provide information about how to request service and solicit feedback.
<li>Held a second Delivery meeting on August 10. Housing managers
Robert Ramsay and Dennis Collins were invited to attend to provide some
insight into box distribution problems.
<li>I met with Ken Campbell on August 14 to get assistance with two press
releases. The Tech Talk article that resulted from this meeting was
published on August 29.
<li>Email announcing the new service was sent to all dormitory email
lists.
<li>Posters and flyers advertising the new service were distributed in
dormitories.
<li>Installation of satellite dishes, cabling and headend equipment was
performed.
<li>MIT added <b>The Research Channel </b>in the free basic channel line
up.
<li>Eight Boston broadcast channels have been installed in the
headend. There was some difficulty receiving a clear signal on one
of the eight channels, the cause determined to be due to the arm of a
construction crane at Simmons Hall blocking the view of the transmitting
tower. A DTV receiver that was purchased and installed solved the
problem.
<li>Promotional items for a "early sign up" drawing were
provided by Motorola, Inc. Fifteen Sony 19" television sets will be
awarded at three schools that contract with FES. Motorola is also
provided text pagers for the giveaway.
</ul>Plans for September 2001:
<ul>
<li>Perform cutover on September 1, 2001. (I won't keep everyone
waiting for next month's report. The cutover went smoothly.
There were no cutover issues. There is a small issue with the
staging of set top boxes that I will report on next month.)
</ul>Issues:
<ul>
<li>Several MIT Housing managers protested our plan to ship UPS or mail
set top boxes to MIT dormitory addresses with the comment: "We don't
want to be in the cable tv business." This actually indicates
a larger problem with dormitory desks having difficulty managing and
providing security for the large quantities of shipments at the beginning
of the term. We quickly devised a PLAN B to set up a pick up
location and to notify customers via email when their equipment is
available. Mike Foley from Campus Activities Complex was a big help
by setting up parking for FES trucks in the Kresge/Chapel
Turnaround. Building 9 lobby is also available for box
distribution.
<li>FES did not utilize MIT web certificates based on difficulty with
implementation. This looked like a good idea on the surface, but we
learned that MIT certificates do not work with AOL and FES did not want
to restrict sign ups. Not implementing MIT certificates did not
create any sign up problems.
<li>It was not possible to contact The Tech to place advertising.
They did not respond to email or answering machine messages. There
was nobody in the office when I went to check.
</ul>The project notebook, which requires an MIT certificate to view,
can<br>
be found at:
<a href="https://web.mit.edu/mitcable/www/Projects/" eudora="autourl">https://web.mit.edu/mitcable/www/Projects/</a><br>
<br>
Randy Winchester, randy@mit.edu<br>
MIT Cable Television, mitcable@mit.edu,
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/mitcable/www" eudora="autourl">http://web.mit.edu/mitcable/www</a><br>
Room 9-050<br>
x3-7431, Fax: x3-8000</html>
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