The tripod-mounted camera is making a return to West Nipissing council meetings for Eastlink viewers.
Several months ago, the municipality replaced the camera on a tripod with a camera at the back of the council chambers that offers an ultra-wide angle view of the room.
However, the problem has been because the camera doesn’t zoom into who is speaking, it’s difficult for people watching the council meeting from home to know who is saying what during a debate.
But, with the camera mounted on a tripod and operated by a student, the student can move the camera around to different speakers and zoom into them.
The audio with Eastlink is not a problem.
However, it was noted that some members of council lean too close into the microphone resulting in sound distortion of their voice.
Others sometimes aren’t close enough to the microphone resulting in a lower sound.
Staff says this is something council members will have to figure out in terms of knowing how far to place their mouths from the microphone to ensure good audio reception for the home viewers.
Council will go the student route which may cost around $60 a meeting rather than adopt what North Bay City Hall does which is to bring in Cogeco, the North Bay cable provider, to broadcast its sessions at $500 a meeting.
A crew from Cogeco sets up the equipment before the start of each North Bay meeting and then tears the equipment back down again at the end.