Interlakes School Board still grappling with TV exposure
Inter-Lakes officials are mulling over the costs and logistics of recording and airing school board meetings.
The board discussed different ideas for airing meetings with District Technology Director Allan Hale during Tuesday's meeting. The taping of meetings has been an ongoing issue as some residents have requested meetings be aired.
The district has spoken with Lakes Region Public Access and the Laconia School District as part of a preliminary look at the logistics of recording meetings as well as contacting various media companies about airing meetings online.Hale said the district would have to contract with a media server company in order to stream video online. The district server does not have enough bandwidth to support streaming video and multiple viewings could paralyze the website....
Hale said the least expensive option for streaming media would be Onstream Media, which has America Online, the NFL, PBS and the town of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. among its list of clients. A subscription for the school district would cost $99 a month with a monthly viewing limit of 25 GB and with a charge of $3.50 for every additional GB over the limit.
This means the site can have a two-hour meeting on 265 MB of media on its site and stay within its limit if 100 people watch all two hours.
Hale said it is unlikely too many people would watch the full two hours, as most watch for a specific point in the meeting and stop watching afterward.
Another media company, Libsyn, would charge the district $199 a month and have a 40 cent per GB transfer view fee.
Hale said the district originally learned of a $20 a month fee including five-minute audio or video podcasts, though the school district would be charged a business rate.
Hale also said an individual camera could cost between $1,000 and $4,000.
Superintendent Phil McCormack said the district might be interested in having multiple cameras to cover multiple angles of the board and the audience. This arrangement would likely involve one operator switching between cameras through a central system and editing on site. Hale also said there could be one camera operator, possibly a student, with a tripod pointing the camera in the direction of the speaker.
McCormack said the board consulted a vendor, who reviewed the potential needs and estimated hardware costs would likely be between $14,000 and $20,000 with additional costs for a camera operator and editor and the contractual agreement for streaming video.
The district would be able to submit a DVD to air on Lakes Region Public Access. It has been previously discussed that Sandwich does not have cable and cable service does not go to all homes in Center Harbor.
Streaming video might be an option for wider viewing, though many homes only have dial-up Internet and would make for much longer download and viewing times. Hale said there could be an easier streaming option for 56K modems.
Having podcasts or possibly audio-only recordings available has also been discussed.
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