Neulion web video at City Hall

Voila the link to Vancouver’s web video system. (We recommend you bookmark it!)

http://civic.neulion.com/cityofvancouver/

CoV neulion web video screen 8-Dec-2014

We like to praise City Hall where praise is due and this news is a great thing to praise. In the summer of 2014, the City of Vancouver launched a new web video service in the Council Chambers for Council meetings, committee meetings, and Public Hearings, etc. This will really help a lot of people by making it easier for anyone to view video online — live and archived.

CityHallWatch inquired with Corporate Communications and learned the following:

  • The NewLion system will work on both Apple and Windows-based computers, as well as mobile devices (phones and tablets). (A huge improvement. The old system only worked well on Windows Explorer.)
  • Video quality is improved through higher bit rates.
  • A timer at the top shows the countdown time to the next scheduled meeting.
  • New functions include the ability to …
    • pause and rewind live meetings, and
    • access archives using a calendar interface (but note that the calendar is only for archived meetings, not upcoming meetings.)
  • To view archives before October 25, 2014, click here: http://former.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/councilmeetings/meeting_schedule.cfm?selOption=PrevMeetings

 

On Twitter the City Clerk often tweets news and updates on City meetings. Twitter ID is @VanCityClerk.

NeuLion appears to be popular with a lot of professional sports clubs, colleges, and companies. See here.

Now that Vancouver has adopted this new system, we call on citizens across the Metro Vancouver region to call upon their own mayors and councillors to strongly urge them to have Metro Vancouver introduce live and archive web video for ALL of its Board and committee meetings, as soon as possible. This is not rocket science, and most municipalities have already made the move. Metro Vancouver owes it to society to be more transparent, without further delay. See MetroVanWatch for its challenge to Metro Vancouver and all member municipalities: 2015, a new year for Metro Vancouver: Goal #1 – Web video for ALL Board & Committee meetings – live and archive.

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TIPS

To find the exact clip for a certain segment of a meeting, go back to the Council meeting agenda, where you can click-copy the URL that reads “Video Clip of this Item.”

It seems the technicians mark spots in each meeting with some kind of tag for each agenda item. For example, for the November 25, 2014, here is the main link.
http://civic.neulion.com/cityofvancouver/index.php?clipid=3494226,015

It seems that 3494226 is the meeting number…

… and the last three numbers are for each segment (unrelated to exact time). For example, 011, 012, 013, 014, jump to the start of each segment.

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