(12/15) At their December meeting, the Taneytown Council awarded SYSCOM a contract to provide the council chambers with additional audio-visual improvements at a cost of circa $56,000 to better the streaming of council meetings throughout duration of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Also planned in conjunction with the AV upgrading will be a reconfiguration of council chambers.
During the December council work-session, City Manager Jim Wieprecht stated that, under a tight deadline, he, working with information technology specialist Dan Dennis, and Mayor Bradley Wantz … had produced a list of various technological improvements, which he dubbed a "technology package," that would improve holding remote or hybrid meetings in the council chambers. The city manager further stated that the cost of the package should qualify for reimbursement under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding relief guidelines.
Wieprecht said that the list includes various elements of technology that will allow the staff and council to offer better remote and hybrid meetings "if and when we do get to a point where we might have some council members returning (physically) to the council chambers, but we may not be opening the doors to the public yet."
Wieprecht further stated," This equipment that we’ve got lined-up is going to help us produce a better product and have those hybrid-type meetings."
Wantz said, "One of the issues we’ve had in the council chambers has been our audio-system and the lack of video-system," adding that as the pandemic progresses, whether the city does hybrid, in-person meetings, or non-public meetings … "we would really need a better AV system that can manage those things."
Wantz further stated that IT-specialist Dennis generated a list of proposals from several audio-visual vendors, and "we settled on what he believed is the best for what we’re looking for." He said the package would include adequate audio … sufficient microphones for all of the council members … staff and delegation tables … mounted displays for projections, … mounted, and remote-control cameras (that can capably pan around the room and zoom onto speakers).
The mayor further stated that staff are looking into flipping the council chambers 180-degrees, which would include multiple video-display screens allowing for viewing from various perspectives
The cost of rearrangement and redesign of the council chambers would involve little more than an in-house construction of a new delegation table at a cost of about $2,100.
