Huron County council is look at a few options regarding upgrades to the council chambers.
Clerk, Susan Cronin, says they want a hybrid model, so that councillors, staff and members of the public would have the option of attending a council meeting in person and watching from their home. Cronin says the equipment in the chambers now is seriously outdated and is due for an upgrade and there are some serious problems with the current audio quality.
Cronin says they’re also looking at a couple of options for the video component.
“Council has asked us to look into a little bit more in depth technology for the video component, right now we’re focusing on the audio component and we will be presenting a report regarding the audio, potentially in July, maybe in August.”
Cronin says, as far as the video is concerned, council had asked staff to look into something that would give them more than just a wide shot of the entire room.
“That’s their wish, yes. So right now what we’re looking at is two cameras and you would see the entire room through two different positioned cameras and they’re looking at one that will, it’s basically voice-activated and will zoom in on the speaker.”
Cronin says council has already approved a budget of 175-thousand dollars for the upgrade and the quote they have now for the audio equipment and some video is about 169-thousand dollars, but council would like to see a higher quality video. Cronin says if the cost for the higher quality video pushes the total cost over 175-thousand dollars, she’ll look for council’s approval to do that.
