From The Computer Guy, Pat Palmer, of Hampton –
A lot of communities are kicking the tires on streaming council meetings, including Hampton and Mason City, but someone is trying to get them to spend a lot of money on increased bandwidth and other expenses that I just don’t understand.
Many of the conferences and events I go to are streamed on less than 5mbps download and 1mbps upload, with the UPLOAD speed being the most important.
My recommendation is the Ustream.tv platform because you can livestream and record at the same time without having to upload everything after the event to YouTube. In addition, the media can use clips from Ustream, instead of the whole video from YouTube.
The handy thing about Mason City is that, while I haven’t looked at their setup, they are ahead of the curve as they already have a video feed in place, where Hampton would need to acquire cameras and a mix board. Both cities may need an additional computer to run the video feed into.
I guess my way of thinking is that if they can run cameras and cable up to an eagle’s nest, they cities of Hampton and Mason City can stream their council meetings.
Ustream is a free service as well as YouTube. The Decorah Eagle’s Cam is streamed on Ustream.
One can only pray that Mr. Trout reads this and gives up on his quest to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on a service that can be done for free with a little effort from City Hall staff. This is exactly like the concrete paving debacle. Just write a check and let someone else do all the work while City Hall sits back and watches, no effort required. More dollars leaving the City, never to return.