Councillors will want to look their best as of Monday as their viewing audience could potentially grow to include the entire wired world.
Starting Dec. 5, council's regular Monday meetings will be web streamed live on the City of St. Albert website. What was once a defeated budget proposal has since evolved into a unique partnership with Shaw Communications, which already broadcasts the meetings on TV, with a two-hour delay. The partnership will ensure that the webcast's production value will be identical to what viewers would see on TV.
"It will be exactly the same. It's all part of the same process," said Jennifer Jennax, general manager of corporate and strategic services.
City council first turned down the idea of web streaming in 2010 during budget negotiations but resurrected and approved it earlier this year. The city has not purchased any new cameras. Instead it is using the cameras Shaw has installed in council chambers at St. Albert Place and purchased the equipment that enables the cameras to broadcast to both the web and TV, Jennax said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse warned staff on Monday that, in other webcast city council meetings he's watched, the production value is minimal and that staff will have to identify themselves vocally. But Jennax said the webcast will have the same production value as Shaw's TV broadcast, meaning banners will be used to display the names and titles of individuals speaking during council meetings.
The webcast will also be available on iPads and most smart phones. The city has set aside an entire webpage on its site where viewers can watch the live feed or archived footage from previous meetings, while perusing the agenda for the meeting and any associated documentation with all agenda items.
"Web streaming allows city council meetings to come to people, where and when it is convenient for them," Crouse said in a statement. "This was one of the key initiatives council wanted to accomplish in 2011, as public engagement and communication are a priority."
The webcasts will start at 3 p.m. on the first, third and fourth Mondays of every month. Anyone wanting to watch can visit http://stalbert.ca/council-meetings-minutes.
Program expansion
Councillors also passed a motion during budget deliberations Tuesday to include web streaming in the east boardroom at St. Albert Place, where council typically sits as the standing committee on finance on the second Monday of each month. Coun. Wes Brodhead brought the motion forward.
Jennax couldn't say when those meetings will begin to be web streamed as it will need to be investigated. The boardroom has poor audio quality and doesn't have Shaw infrastructure in place.
"It's still preliminary. We haven't done the planning around it," Jennax said, noting the motion was only passed Tuesday in committee of the whole and has yet to be formally ratified by council.
At the very least, the city will need a camera operator in order to expand the program, and possibly an audio engineer to operate a soundboard, Jennax said.
"The other alternative is to have one camera to capture the whole room but that could be awkward," Jennax said, because viewers will not necessarily know anyone's names.
