City of West Covina Enhances Transparency with Hands-Free Broadcast System
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) March 05, 2019 -- West Covina, California has taken their City meeting webcast and citizen engagement to the next level with hands-free video® streaming and broadcast services provided by Swagit Productions.
“Our hope was to improve our civic engagement within our community, and Swagit has definitely helped us do that. More and more people are watching our feeds every day,” said Shawn Granger, City of West Covina IT Manager. “The response from our constituents has been very positive,” Granger noted, adding “We have been pleased with Swagit, and are very happy with the service.”
The City had considered simply upgrading their control room equipment. However, they realized that hardware alone would not significantly improve the quality or reliability of their meeting broadcasts, and would not be the best value for their residents. Instead, West Covina chose the combination of cost savings and service provided by Swagit and their Avior™ broadcast system, which allows the City to fully outsource the direction and production of their public meetings. “Now, with Swagit remotely controlling our meeting broadcasts, we no longer have a single source of failure if our part-time production staff member is unavailable,” Granger said.
“The City of West Covina needed an impactful way to update their public meeting streaming and broadcast systems – and Avior™, which requires no additional City staffing, was their answer,” said Russell Towers, Swagit Account Manager. “Residents have a convenient 24/7 tool that enhances access to their government in action.”
With Swagit’s EASE™ and Social Media eXstream solutions, the City Council and Planning Commission meetings are streamed live on the City’s website, on Charter cable Access Channel 3, and on YouTube. After the initial meeting broadcast, the meeting videos are archived for accessible on-demand viewing on the City’s website and YouTube channel.
Key features of the on-demand videos on the City’s website include:
• An indexed agenda accompanies the archived video – making it easy for viewers to choose which meeting agenda items they wish to watch, and then jump directly to that particular point within the video.
• The “search” tool can be used to locate specific words used within agenda items; clicking a positive search result will take the viewer to the exact agenda location within a meeting.
• A “Share” tab provides a shareable link to any specific point in a meeting video.
The West Covina City Council meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m.; the Planning Commission meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m..
About West Covina
West Covina, the “Headquarters City of the San Gabriel Valley,” is located 19 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and is part of Greater Los Angeles. The West Covina City Council has made it a priority to foster a more transparent West Covina and is dedicated to providing its community convenient access to pertinent information on City Hall functions.
About Swagit Productions, LLC
Swagit Productions, LLC, based in Dallas, TX, provides hands-free video streaming®, broadcast, and captioning solutions to local, state and federal government agencies. Swagit pioneered the Avior™ Broadcast System – a complete package of HD PTZ (Pan, Tilt and Zoom) cameras and professional video-switching equipment that enables any client to fully outsource the production, operation and distribution of multi-camera broadcasts for public meetings. Swagit’s progressive online, mobile and social platform solutions include the sole-source EASE™ hands-free webcasting® system for public meeting indexing, plus agenda integration, archiving, on-demand playback, closed captioning and the innovative Sound Search™. Swagit’s focus is on emerging technology and relevant avenues of distribution – for example, Swagit’s ISD/Community/PEG (Public, Education and Government Access) portal and app featuring social media integration and on-trend resident engagement.
Nancy Bauman, Swagit Productions, LLC, http://www.swagit.com, +1 (214) 432-5905, [email protected]
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