City Council Tech Upgrades to Benefit the Public

Santa Rosa, Calif., will soon outfit its City Council chambers with new projection equipment, high-definition cameras, large flat-screen televisions and a new tech backbone intended to improve the viewing experience of those in the chambers or viewing the meetings from home. The $350,000 upgrade will come from cable television providers Comcast and AT&T, which are required to fund capital or equipment upgrades for public education and government channels, reported PressDemocrat.com.


The City Council building was built in 1969 and was long overdue for an upgrade, said Santa Rosa Chief Technology Officer Eric McHenry. The council chambers seat 135 people and are used by many different organizations including the Planning Commission, Board of Public Utilities and Santa Rosa School Board.
 

The upgrade is intended to improve the viewing experience for those in the chamber and those watching on cable TV, streaming video live or replaying it on computers and mobile devices. Another advantage of the upgrade is that because newer equipment is more reliable, the city can lower operations costs by maintaining the system with one technician instead of two.