NEWPORT — If you’ve been meaning to attend a Newport city council meeting but just can’t spare the time to get out to one, there’s some news you’ll be happy to hear. Mayor Paul Monette is working to have them streamed live online.
“The idea of streaming our meetings live on the web was my idea to allow people, who are not able to attend, to view them live via the Internet,” Monette said.
The platform Monette has chosen to use is Livestream. Livestream, formerly known as Mogulus, is a live streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content using a camera and a computer through the internet. The company offers a free ad-supported service and multi-tiered premium services.
In the future, anyone with an Internet connection can watch the meetings live on a computer or mobile device. Users will also be able to access archived meeting videos as well.
Since the project is just getting going, there are still a few bugs to work out.
“The first time I did a test was actually via my cell phone which I had setup as a hotspot,” Monette said. “This worked okay, but I need to get a better connection in the council room.”
Monette says that he still plans on taping them for rebroadcast on NEK-TV.
