A better city council experience for both council members and constituents
West Haven city wanted a better way to reach their constituents remotely. Averaging about three meetings a week such as zoning, safety planning, and city council sessions, in-person attendance was often a challenge for both constituents and council members alike. The city’s goal of bringing the meeting experience to remote users turned to urgency once the pandemic hit in early 2020. Moving meetings online required a fast move to unfamiliar remote technologies in order to keep their citizens safe and socially distanced.
The quick change from in-person to online resulted in tech pains we’ve all experienced in one form or another. Poor audio connection and the Zoom learning curve resulted in hard-to-hear meetings and disgruntled citizens voicing their concerns - unmuted and often impolite for all listeners to hear.
“At first the city did not know they could mute participants on Zoom,” explains VLCM Audiovisual Engineer Blake Hendriksen CTS, “they were panicking. Citizens kept unmuting themselves and going off. It was really embarrassing for the council members.”
In their initial quarantine setup, when citizens were not allowed to attend meetings in-person, the remote participants were displayed on a TV to the council members. For the council members, there was only one USB mic for the entire room, which made it difficult for remote participants to hear.
To create a better remote experience for their citizens, West Haven was connected to VLCM’s audiovisual talent to help bring audio and streaming clarity to their remote users.
The project
VLCM first assessed what West Haven had to work with. They determined what could be reused, such as monitors and displays, so they didn’t have to undergo a complete revamp of their conferencing environment.
“We want to be as cost-effective and cost-conscious as possible for the cities we work with,” says Paul James, one of the leaders of VLCM’s Communication Technologies team, “Then, once we determine what we could use and what the client wants, we sit down and draw up a game plan as far as design and functionality.”
Hendriksen adds, “most city council chambers like this are pretty similar in their requirements so I drew somewhat on prior experiences. But this is the first time I had ever done one with remote participants being a requirement. So, that was unique, but there's no way that's unique now.”
Equipment breakdown:
Reused equipment
- A computer for Zoom hosting
- Monitors for each council member
- Audience facing displays to view PowerPoints, notes, presentations
Purchased equipment
- Crestron for video distribution and control.
- QSC audio processor for all audio processing, including audio to and from software-based video conferencing platforms such as zoom.
- Shure microphones
- Lumens PTZ cameras that allow for pan, tilt, and zoom of both the city council members and the audience
- Extron streaming media processor, to operate both Zoom and stream to YouTube LIVE simultaneously
- Vaddio A/V bridge to allow any HDMI signal to be shared into a zoom meeting
Hendriksen’s goal was to create a very flexible presentation space for the council members:
“If council members can’t be there or if they’re in quarantine, they can still join the meeting,” explains Hendriksen. With improved microphone technology from Shure, “people who are watching over YouTube can still hear them and see the council members as if they were in the room. There’s virtually no difference in the audio quality for remote participants versus council members that are in the actual room.”
The Zoom meeting is hosted on a computer using a Vaddio A/V bridge. This technology takes any HDMI signal and converts it into a USB signal so the computer can see the HDMI source as if it were a webcam. This allows the meeting hosts to share somebody’s laptop screen or a PowerPoint directly to Zoom instead of the camera for the room.
Additionally, each council member has their own monitor in front of them so they can view shared documents without needing to turn their heads to look at a large-format display.
Altogether, the project took about a month from assessment to implementation. Implementation took only a week on-site, with an additional week of configuration and working out any foreseeable issues so the council members could be self-sufficient with the technology.
“It turned out really well, says James, “the city is very, very happy with their solution.”
Not only has the audio significantly improved, but accessibility to the meetings is now available through the use of YouTube Live. Council members can attend meetings both onsite and remote, and be able to share their screen or presentations with ease.
To learn more about VLCM’s Audiovisual and Conference Room capabilities, check out our Case Study with Ken Garff, an automotive group based in Salt Lake City who wanted to conference with their remote properties long before the pandemic began. You can also view our solutions at www.vlcm.com/audiovisual.
