Council rejects bid to broadcast meetings
THE costs of broadcasting council meetings would be almost £16,000 for a one year, and £50,000 over five years, it was revealed to councillors in the Kilmory chamber.
Opposition councillors proposed a one-year trial, but this was defeated by an administration motion to consider it within next year’s budget.
Argyll and Bute councillors heard a report outlining the costs of live broadcasting full council meetings in Lochgilphead, and expanding coverage to all venues used by area committees, using the UK’s leading council chamber broadcast service from Public-I.
The report explained: ‘The council chamber in Kilmory is already equipped with audio and video technology to allow a range of connectivity options such as video conferencing, Skype conferencing, audio conferencing and presentations.
‘The system was designed to provide a feed to a webcasting solution should the council decide this was an option they wished to pursue in the future.
‘Public-I are based in Hove in East Sussex and they broadcast live and recorded meetings for 110 local authorities in the UK, including 10 in Scotland.’
The company confirmed it could install a fixed encoder in the chamber and take a feed from the existing cameras and audio system, costing from £15,900 for a one year contract to £49,800 for five years.
‘The system offers a basic 50 hours of webcasting, hosted and streamed over a 12-month period with access to six months of archived material. Additional hours of material can be hosted and streamed at a cost of £46.50 per hour, per annum.’
‘If the system is adopted, members will be required to sit in the same seat in the council chamber on each occasion they attend a meeting. Name badges would be produced and laid out at the start of each meeting. This is to ensure that pre-configured automatic settings for the cameras and microphones correctly identify individual members when they are speaking.’
Council leader Aileen Morton, seconded by Councillor Kieron Green, moved the matter should be considered further in the budget process for 2018-19.