We all want to exceed at what we do, and for public sector change-makers, that means finding new advanced ways to serve and engage with their communities. Throughout the past couple of years, trends in data suggest residents have growing demands for engaging with local government. Public sector organizations must keep up with trends in resident engagement tools to serve residents meaningfully and keep up with rising expectations.
A trend for public sector organizations and engaging with residents includes video and live streaming solutions. It’s reasonable to consider that the pandemic advanced digital expectations for residents and their preferences for consuming information with familiar devices, (smartphones, laptops, video/live stream, and more)
Knowing that video and live streaming are trending solutions for public sectors, let’s discuss another component that takes video and live streaming one step further – closed captions.
1. Closed captioning
Video captions are an accelerating trend for video marketing in general, captions provide clarity on the words being spoken and help viewers understand the content being presented. Data suggests users prefer watching videos with captioning and experts say captions on videos can boost view time by 12%.
For local governments, another stake in offering captions involves ADA compliance. Captioning for videos and live streaming can help viewers who may be deaf or have reduced hearing to understand the content. Leading local government video providers offer real-time captioning for live programming, and post-meeting captioning to help residents consume content.
Using captioning for video/live streaming isn’t just advantageous for tech trends, it also serves as a more inclusive platform for residents and city staff alike.
2. Hands-Free
City clerks have many responsibilities leading up to, during, and after public meetings. What if there were a way to eliminate processes and automate them to be more efficient? That’s where hands-free video production comes in, and the ability to have full-service video production handled remotely. Cutting-edge vendors provide “hands-free” options, that allow city staff to get back to other core missions and leave the AV duty to a team of professionals.
The process works as such: during the public meetings, the meeting is recorded, live-streamed, and produced by the vendors entirely remotely through hardware called Avior. The Avior technology provides a package of HD PTZ (Pan, Tilt, and Zoom) cameras, professional video-switching equipment, and associated components that enable city staff to fully outsource the operation and production of a multi-camera broadcast for public meetings. An enhanced resident experience involves enhanced technology, like hands-free video and streaming solutions.
3. Sound Search
Public meetings historically have long run times, with an average duration of 4 hours and 40 minutes. During public meetings, various topics are covered, and sitting around for the whole entire meeting can be daunting for the average resident.
The new tech wave involves a transcript search feature, supported by leading video production software. Full-service video platforms allow residents to digitally search for a keyword they’d like to hear about in a public meeting, and then be taken to that exact spot in the video meeting. Let’s say an engaged resident specifically wants to hear updates about park regulations, the resident can search for a keyword like “parks” in an intuitive digital platform topic in a platform, and be taken to the exact place in the meeting where the topic is discussed.
The obvious advantage of this capability is the aspect of time, time saved for residents makes for positive local government sentiments.
4. Social Media Streaming
According to Facebook, 78% of its users are already watching live-stream videos. Meaning government meetings must embrace various social media platforms to reach and engage with audiences. Social media streaming helps maximize video and live streaming reach and engagement on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.For example, on Facebook, there are notification settings that send out to users before a video is live-streamed, helping increase resident participation.
5. Reliable Video Equipment and Redundancy
Keeping recordings of meetings and minutes for local government is crucial for providing transparency and aligning with FOIA requirements. For public meetings, it’s essential that the video recordings come with the right equipment to ensure the success and transparency of the meeting. Reliable video and live streaming equipment include AV hardware, the stands for hardware, monitors, and more.
The equipment needed would include things like AV hardware, stands for the hardware, etc. The most important feature of a video and live streaming equipment pack is that it works, and works consistently. When the equipment for public meetings is unreliable, it can lead to troubleshooting during meetings, which is frustrating for residents and city staff. In short, you can’t have an excellent video public meeting without excellent equipment.
6. All-Inclusive Video Production Suite
Last not but not least, let’s discuss the benefits of a vendor that “does it all.” When thinking about video production for public meetings, it might be easy to defer our efforts to internal communication departments, but public sector organizations should rely on industry experts who have years of experience.
Clerks and city staff generally don’t have the time and resources to allocate to top-tier level video production (or if they do, it’s going to cost them). For public meetings, video production is the last thing a city clerk wants to think about when preparing information for their constituents. After all, public meetings take a lot of preparation from city staff. From developing minutes, getting the recorded index finalized, preparing discussion topics, revisiting old agenda items, and more. With full-service video streaming solutions, city staff can save time and stress.
Bottom Line: Video recording is only one step for innovative public meetings, taking it one step further would be full-service video production. Video production involves not only recording the video meeting, but also involves finalizing, editing, producing, captioning, and distributing the video. Talk to Granicus today and discover the endless possibilities with video and live-stream solutions.
