The New York City Council Streams Meetings Live with LEIGHTRONIX

HOLT, Mich., Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- This November, the New York City Council conducted their first live Internet broadcast by utilizing LEIGHTRONIX streaming technology.

The city aims to utilize the streaming technology to create a stronger Internet presence and provide transparency that enhances open government. Live broadcasts give viewers immediate access to events as they occur, while archived, video-on-demand provides community members with the opportunity to watch recorded council meetings at their convenience.

"Webcasting is important for transparency and for civic engagement," said Gale Brewer, the City of New York's former chair of the Committee on Technology. "Folks are very excited about being able to see the city council."

On November 17, at 1:30 p.m., live video from a camera fixed on the council members was routed to a LEIGHTRONIX PEGstream-SD real time streaming media encoder to convert the video/audio to a digital stream suitable for Internet delivery. With limited strain on the local network, the encoder sent a single outbound digital media stream to the world-class LEIGHTRONIX PEG Stream online servers.

At the New York City Council's online Legislative Research Center, hosted by Legistar, a link was added and online viewers were able to easily click on the live video Webcast feed from the LEIGHTRONIX PEG Stream servers, making it available worldwide to an unlimited number of viewers.

The meeting was also captured in its entirety by the PEGvault-SD digital video encoder as a high quality digital media file and forwarded to the online servers at PEG Central, the Web media hosting and streaming video-on-demand service hosted by LEIGHTRONIX. The PEGvault-SD is tightly integrated with the Legistar Legislative Management System, and allows for starting and stopping recordings along with entry of video index points as a meeting proceeds.

At the conclusion of the live Webcast, the meeting's video was automatically made available to the public as an on-demand video resource. Hosted at PEG Central and accessed through the New York City Council's Legistar Insite portal, the video link is accompanied by documentation from the meetings that include past and upcoming agendas and minutes. Clicking on meeting details within the legislative calendar gives a viewer access to video index points that link to video segments for specific agenda items from the November 17 meeting.

About LEIGHTRONIX, INC.

LEIGHTRONIX is recognized as an industry leader in specialty video equipment design and manufacturing, including digital video solutions, television automation, live and video-on-demand streaming media, and remote equipment control. A model of stability and longevity in the quickly evolving professional video market, LEIGHTRONIX continues to set standards in product value and versatility that exceed customer expectations in both product performance and support. Exceptional product reliability, a standard 5-year warranty, and cost-free technical support have made LEIGHTRONIX one of the most trusted names in the industry. For more information, visit http://www.leightronix.com.

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SOURCE LEIGHTRONIX, INC.