RRC televisions to remain blank as cable dealings fail

All of the blank television screens on Round Rock Campus might eventually be showing something, but it won't be cable programming.

After months of negotiations with four major cable companies, ACC administration has hit a brick wall in their attempts to get cable television at Round Rock Campus any time soon.

"All we can do right now is put ACC stuff on the public TVs because we can't get cable right now from anybody," said Round Rock campus manager Judy VanCleve.

Manager of Video Support Services for ACC, and the man who was in charge of trying to get cable programming for Round Rock, John Kennie, explained the difficulty involved in attempting to strike a deal with any of the cable companies.

"I have been making every effort to find cable," said Kennie. "At this point no cable [provider] services that specific location."

He explained that some cable companies were willing to bring service to the Round Rock Campus on the condition that ACC pays to get the line out there. ACC is unwilling to pay this cost because it is too high, said Kennie.

Facilities project manager Paul Mason said that it would have cost ACC $150,000 to $200,000 to get Time Warner Cable to run a mile of line from their nearest hub.

Kennie explained why they decided against satellite service.

"The problem is local channel availability; you will have to pay extra to get the local channels," said Kennie. "The ACC cable channel will not be available using satellite or Direct TV."

According to Mason there are 23 televisions at RRC that cost an average of $1,500 each. Mason explained that seven of the televisions had been requested by specific departments for purposes other than cable programming, six had been put in high traffic areas to act as message boards, and 10 were put in break rooms to be used for cable programming.

RRC was built in a rural area, and that brought up issues that ACC wasn't expecting, Mason said.

"I assume that future campuses in other rural areas we will have to deal with this again," said Mason. "Having learned what we learned at Round Rock, we probably won't put TVs in break rooms until we know what's going on."

VanCleve explained ACC's intention for having the televisions.

"The vision is to get everyone together and see what kind of things they want to show and then come up with a template and find out who will enter that stuff," said VanCleve.

She said that informational slides could be displayed on the televisions showing students how to do things like properly throw away their garbage and recycling.

Students have mixed opinions about what the televisions should be used for. Nursing major Matt Courtney explained why he likes their current state.

"I'm actually kind of glad that they aren't on because I come here to study with people," said Courtney. "If I wanted to watch TV, then I'd stay at home. I'd just prefer for them to stay off."

Conversely, computer science major Adam Fennimore told a story about when he wished there was cable.

"The other day I had a break between classes, and I was hoping to catch a bit of the baseball game, but the TVs weren't on," said Fennimore.

He didn't see any point in having two giant televisions that are turned off.

"They should at least put something on them or give them to me," said Fennimore. "I could put something on them."

In VanCleve's opinion, even if the campus eventually gets cable service they might not show cable programming.

"I think the TVs in the public areas won't change except the one in the commons," said VanCleve. "The main reason for having those is to provide information not entertainment."

She told a story about when she was the campus manager at Pinnacle Campus. She was in the faculty break room and two faculty members were fighting about what to watch on the television. She felt that this kind of a problem could be avoided by showing things besides cable programming.

"If we find really imaginative ways to use it, it will be good; it will be good for all of us," VanCleve said.