"The ability to view the specific items on the meeting agenda makes it much more convenient for people to watch the discussions and votes that interest them," said Mayor Dalton S. Edge. "It brings government to the people. That is why the City Council asked staff to implement this project."
The video on demand service offers an easy interface that allows people to watch a growing archive of programs produced by WCTV-48. The "vault" of programs includes Planning Commission meetings, 48NEWS, Horizons, Health Matters, That Other Show, PeopleNet, SportScene, The Sounding Board, and specialty programming such as the WCTV-48 produced video on the historic sites of Chesapeake.
Already underway are interviews with candidates for mayor, city council and school board on The Sounding Board, and in April see full coverage of a candidate forum.
"Before we launched this service, people were limited to watching the programs online when they were telecast on WCTV-48," said Mark S. Cox, Director of Public Communications. "That just isn't acceptable to the public today. Expanded online video services from the major media outlets have raised the expectations for all of us."
According to a July 2007 survey report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 57 percent of Internet users have watched or downloaded video. In Chesapeake, people without internet access can view the videos using the free internet access at Chesapeake libraries.
At this time, Windows Media Player 9 or higher is required to view the videos. While Macintosh users can download a player from Microsoft to play the videos, plans are underway to add a more Macintosh-friendly option. Users can also listen to podcasts of the programs and subscribe via RSS to be notified when new content is added.
