Residents can now keep up with the Cleburne City Council from the comfort of their homes via the Internet and cable TV.
Tuesday’s council meeting will run live on the city’s website and the city’s Charter Cable channel 191. The meeting will also stream on www.cleburne.net.
The city recently contracted with Swagit Productions of Dallas to film council meetings. Workers outfitted council chambers with four cameras and video equipment in early February. Although filming is controlled off site, from Dallas, the set up in city hall allows for onsite filming should the need arise.
“They spent a whole day installing the equipment and did a really good job,” Cleburne Information Technology Director Willie Resto said. “They had to set the cameras up for all the different angles. The cameras can rotate 360 degrees. There are two in the back of chambers and two in front, behind the council. People will see whoever is talking at the podium, wide shots and individual shots of council members, the overhead screen when they vote and things like that. We also upgraded some of our own microphones and sound system.”
Two earlier council meetings filmed as a test run may be viewed on the city’s website.
“The test runs went well and the system appears to be working fine,” Resto said. “The council members have to get used to being on video I suppose, but everything’s going really well.”
For now, only city council meetings, including the workshop portions, will be filmed. Other city meetings, such as the Cleburne Buildings and Standards Commission and Cleburne 4B will likely be filmed and broadcast in the future.
Council meeting videos will be archived on the city website after the fact, allowing residents to access previous meetings.
“The neat thing is that the videos are indexed,” Resto said. “People can look at the agendas, which are posted online, and go to the specific agenda items they’re interested in on the video.”