Board ready to stream live in December

Sweetwater County Commission meetings will start being streamed live sometime in December.

During the Commission meeting Tuesday, the Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a motion to spend up to $10,000 for equipment needed to get them live on the internet.

“We’ve had discussions before about broadcasting the meetings,” information technology director Tim Knight said.

However, each time those discussions seemed to come up budget constraints were always an issue so the issue was put on the back burner.

Knight said he has found inexpensive ways to broadcast the meetings live for free through an open source that would run through a normal computer. He said he would then need three or four cameras for the room. One would be pointed at the Commissioners, one at the audience and one at the presenter and the screen.

“We could broadcast and record it at the same time,” Knight said.

He said he could stream the meetings live on Facebook and later post them to YouTube. Since most of it’s free, except the equipment, he felt he could complete the project for under $3,000.

Commission chairman Reid West said he heard comments that it’s hard to hear audience members in the back when they make public comments. Knight said he could purchase some more microphones to help with that problem.

“If we are going to do it, let’s do it right,” West said.

Knight had set up some small web cams and was recording the audio so he could show the Commissioners what it looked like. Then, Commissioner Wally Johnson suggested the budget be changed to up to $10,000. Commissioners John Kolb made that motion and the vote passed unanimously.

Knight said he could have everything purchased and set up by December.