Panel advances video-streaming plan

The Legislative Council on Friday authorized contracts that will pave the way toward video-streaming some committee meetings in the regular legislative session next year.

The legislative committee rooms are in the Multi-Agency Complex, an office building west of the Capitol.

The council authorized a contract with Jay Stanley & Associates in North Little Rock for the purchase of video production equipment and information technology. The firm’s projected one-time cost of buying six cameras and information technology to video-stream meetings in Rooms A and B in the Multi-Agency Complex is $78,697.64, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.

The council also autho-

rized legislative staff to negotiate with Sliq to provide streaming services, including indexing of videotapes. The council also agreed to add a full-time bureau employee to operate the cameras and do other work, and a bureau employee to help out during legislative session. The projected cost of a full-time bureau employee and the session employee are $45,000 and $15,000 a year, respectively, and of contracting with Sliq is $20,000 a year, according to the bureau.

The Joint Budget Committee is among the committees that meet in Room A, and the House Rules Committee is among the committees that meet in Room B.

In the state House of Representatives, floor proceedings first aired in 2010, followed by its committee meetings in 2011.

The Senate Efficiency Committee is to meet at noon Wednesday to consider proposals to allow for the video-streaming of meetings of the Senate and its committees. The Arkansas Senate is one of nine in the country that don’t provide video webcasts of their sessions in their chambers, although they provide live audio, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.