2018-12-11 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                             11 DECEMBER 2018


Option 5 - this is a single fixed camera managed by an independent service provider (Interstream).
This is currently being used by Mossman City Council. Its advantages are that it allows for
bookmarking of the video to align with items under consideration on the agenda. This enables
viewers who are watching the video at a later point to go directly to the item on the video that may
interest them by clicking on a link to the agenda. Obviously, this also comes at a higher cost.
Option 6 – this is a multiple fixed high definition camera system managed by an independent
service provider (Interstream). Its advantages are that it provides a 4 window screen with 3
cameras showing the Council meeting attendees and the agenda being located in the 4th window.
It also provides for bookmarks similar to option 5. This is the most expensive of the options.

All the options will require additional work from our Council meeting support staff with updating
webpage links, downloading backups etc. This will take approximately an additional one hour of
administrative work per meeting.


The recommendation is to implement option 3. Under that option, a fixed high definition camera
would be installed in the Council Chambers facing along the meeting table and three
omnidirectional USB microphones would be located on the meeting table. The proposed
technology looks like this:




Staff believe that this option will provide the best value for money for Council. Obviously, the key
is to have good audio based on the feedback from other Councils. It is anticipated that the
omnidirectional microphones should work well but if there is any issue with audio quality, we would
need to look at single microphone systems for each speaker which come at a higher cost. Quotes
for a fully wired, fixed microphone system in our Council Chambers indicate costs of up to $11,000
for a 14 station system. We don’t anticipate that will be required but Council should be aware of
that possibility if there is any problem with the audio.

There is also no bookmarking of the video in this option. (Bookmarking in this context allows a
viewer to jump forward to a particular point in the video that correlates to a specific item on the
agenda.)
Special issues for consideration include:
1.   Our Council has undertaken two off-site meetings per year since 2014, generally in the
     hinterland areas of our Shire. This has been part of our commitment to being accessible to
     the community. It is intended that this should continue in the future. Obviously, some of the
     locations that we visit to undertake Council Ordinary meetings would not have the facilities
     to do a “live stream” of the meeting due to connectivity or broadband issues. In those
     instances, the intention would be to record the meeting and subsequently load the file to the
     Council’s website at a later date. This would create a similar level of service other than not
     being live at the time that the meeting is held. This would of course be subject to the ability
     to physically use audio and camera equipment at the (typically) community hall. A portable
     camera will be required in those instances and we will need to ensure that we can record the
     audio with the portable USB omni-directional microphones.



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