Council meetings and other District of Houston meetings and events could soon be appearing on a screen near you.
The District of Houston council Oct. 20 agreed to spend $5,000 on equipment to enable streaming and recording.
“Webcasting equipment could increase levels of public engagement by allowing Council to broadcast their public meetings online, which would encourage residents to view their meetings from their homes,” District communications officer Holly Brown wrote in a memo.
“Council could choose to either live webcast meetings or record them to be shared online as a permanent recording of the meeting, or both,” she added.
Additionally, council asked that quotes be gathered for equipment to ensure that the system ties into the District’s teleconferencing existing capability to support streaming.
With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting attendance at meetings and events, the provincial government has been encouraging local governments to use available means to communicate with citizens.
The money to buy the equipment is coming from the District account established for council travel and expenses. The 2020 budget for this amounts to $67,400 but only $2,076 has been spent to date.
But with the pandemic all but putting a halt to travel for the foreseable future, the remainder is available for other uses.