It made the switch to broadband for the January cabinet meeting having spent 12 months webcasting via dual-line ISDN.
The move resulted in a substantial improvement in transmission quality which is set to get better still from February when the authority increases its broadcast bandwidth still further.
This, in turn, is expected to lead to a significant growth in the number of East Sussex people accessing the webcasts from their homes or public libraries.
Councillor Bob Tidy, lead cabinet member for e-government at East Sussex County Council, said: "Even though the picture quality hasn’t been great, our webcast audience has been growing. It’s measured in the hundreds rather than thousands, but that’s still a lot more people than would previously have turned up to watch the proceedings in the council chamber at Lewes.
"Now that we’re going out over broadband, we hope that more and more people will take the opportunity to watch how the decisions affecting their county are made.”
He added: "East Sussex County Council has led the way in facilitating and encouraging the spread of broadband across the county. By the end of May, virtually every home and business in East Sussex will have access to the technology.
"Now we are leading the way in the country by demonstrating how the technology can be used effectively to engage our residents in the democratic processes without them having to leave their homes.”
Anyone not on broadband can still access the East Sussex webcasts via a dial-up modem, but picture quality suffers. However, all the county’s libraries are equipped with broadband-enabled computers which can be booked by the hour and used free of charge.
Even if people aren’t able to view the webcasts live, they can dip into them later because all meetings are recorded and can be accessed via the county council’s website.
See our page on v ideos of council meetings.
Reference:
05/036/DB
Contact the press team
