Plans for Belleville council online broadcasting put on hold

By John R. Moodie

BELLEVILLE – People hoping to watch Belleville city council online are going to have to wait a little longer.

Council voted to put off the decision Monday afternoon to stream council meetings until capital budget talks in February. Live streaming technology creates a broadcast accessible online via computer or other device.

A report from City Clerk Matt MacDonald, from the corporate services department, was brought back to council detailing the costs of providing online video streaming of council meetings, giving the public the ability to watch meetings from a home computer. Council meetings are currently broadcast by the local Cogeco cable station.

The cost ranged from $10,000 to set up a high definition stationary camera to $100,000 for production quality coverage.

“My preference is to do it right and have it on demand where they (people) can access it at their leisure from where ever they may be,” MacDonald told council.

“I want to put the appropriate product out there, so that we can keep people coming back, so they have a good experience,” he added.

Councillor Mitch Panciuk asked Macdonald if council were to choose a low-cost solution at this time would the money invested be lost if council chose to upgrade in the future.

“Certainly, what I would propose would be scalable,” said MacDonald.

Panciuk, who originally called for the streaming of council in December, called for an immediate solution.

“There are a number of citizens in Belleville who don’t actually have Cogeco service. Many of them, in Thurlow, don’t have that as a provider, so I think we are looking for a quick fix, a low cost fix.”

He motioned council allocate $10,000 towards the installation of a camera with the option of upgrading the service at a later date.

Councillor Jack Miller expressed his support of streaming council meetings but said he would prefer to wait until capital budget talks.

“Why not bring it forward, have it appropriately positioned within the budget, and maybe we would have a bit more information as well. It is not like we are talking four to six months down the road,” said Miller.

Councillor Paul Carr supported Miller’s motion to have the decision deferred until the upcoming budget talks.

“I have to agree with Councillor Miller, we are a few weeks from the capital budget, we need to look at it in a bigger context and then also look at what may be projected in term of expendables,” said Carr.