The City of South Pasadena broadcasts all of their City Council and Planning Commission meetings. When they approached us to modernize their meeting broadcasts, we were happy to help.
Working together, we developed a plan to repurpose equipment when possible, upgrade studio equipment to support new technology, and create an efficient workflow that allowed the production to be done as affordably as possible.
It is always a pleasure working with a city that understands the value of using technology to make their meetings as accessible to the public as possible. South Pasadena is a good example of such a city.
Respecting taxpayers dollars is always a priority, so the first step was determining what we could keep and repurpose. By installing a few affordable interfaces, we were able to keep and reuse a number of existing large televisions that are used in the Council Chamber to show presentations. From there, we moved onto replacing key equipment in the studio to provide new support for HD broadcast and recording. By installing some of the equipment in a remote location, we were able to make the most out of a smaller space.
Adding in an automated playback system provided a simple way to schedule meeting rebroadcast on the local cable channels with no need for City staff involvement. Additionally, we supplied equipment that allowed for both live and on-demand webstreaming of their meetings. These two items provide better access to meetings for residents with and without cable access.
On meeting nights, a professional director from Studio Spectrum arrives early to handle all of the preparations for the meeting. This includes technical work with the equipment as well as working with City staff to gather any information needed for graphics and presentations. By having a Studio Spectrum staff member consistently assigned to the meetings, they are able to be more familiar with the City’s needs which enables the meeting to be carried out more affordably with less crew.
After the meeting is adjourned, the finishing process begins. Our staff handles timestamping and indexing meeting items, scheduling automatic playback, duplicating, and distributing all recordings to City staff, and making the webstream available on demand. Knowing that all the details are met, City staff is free to focus on their greatest priority… serving the needs of their community!