Town Council Meetings Go Wireless

March 25, 2009 by Josh Morgan

Residents unable to attend Town Council meetings in person or miss the Channel 14 reruns can now view the meetings from their home computer.
Recently, video from Town Council meetings has found a home on the Town’s Web site, www.cheshirect.org. The videos can be accessed from the homepage and viewed through a computer’s Web browser.
“We were originally looking at more sophisticated video streaming, but it was expensive,” said Town Manager Michael Milone. “The Council made it clear that they wanted to go with the simplest, easiest process.”
And that is what’s on the Town’s homepage. Those wishing to watch the videos cannot immediately fast forward or select a portion of the meeting. Instead, the video has to load completely before being able to fast-forward to a different part of the meeting. Milone said the Town did look at more expensive options that would have indexed the video by agenda item and possibly been able to stream live on the Internet, but ultimately, the costs were too onerous. The Town spent approximately $200 on software and hardware to get the videos online.
Councilor Tim White has been a strong proponent of adding Council meetings to the Web in recent years and said he was “happy” to finally see the videos come online.
“It’s there, it’s what I wanted and I’m happy,” White said. “I think it’s a good thing.”
White said he thought indexing the videos or streaming them online was a “nice thing to do, but not necessary.” He felt that having the full meeting accessible online was “no different than having meeting minutes available.”
“It increases transparency in government,” White said. “I think people will take advantage of it.”
Once a DVD of a particular meeting is created, it is handed off to Town Hall information technology staff to convert the video into a computer file. The special conversion software transforms the video into a format recognized by the computer, a process that can take multiple hours to complete.
Milone said depending on the size of the video files, the Town will be able to archive a series of Council meetings on the Web site.
“We are not sure of space limitations or if it would create a problem,” Milone said. “We want to keep them archived, but I don’t know how far back we can go.”
The videos of recent Town Council meetings are rerun on the government access channel for residents with Cox Cable, or could be found archived at the Cheshire Public Library. Now with the videos online, a person can view a meeting anytime they want. White said a lot of residents watch Town Council meetings on Channel 14, but now, with the addition of meetings on the Web site, he said the videos “are available 24/7.”
“This will make it easier for people,” White said. “They can watch it whenever they want and when the time suits them.”
Milone was also unsure if other taped meetings or events would make their way onto the Web site, as the planning is still in its early stages. To view Council meetings, visit the Town’s Web site at www.cheshirect.org and click on the video link located directly on the homepage.