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. City of Arden Hills Staff Report To: From: Item Title/Subject: Honorable Mayor and City Council Kenneth Gammell, Television Production Coordinator Cable TV Monitor for Council Chambers Introduction: This report provides details for a proposed purchase and installation of a television monitor for Council Chambers. The purpose for this monitor is for attendees of City Council Chambers to verify that the meeting is being broadcast on cable television. Discussion: 1. BackQround . City Council and Planning Commission meetings are broadcast live on cable channel 16. There are a number of steps the cable technician needs to perform to switch to live TV. The process includes cueing videotapes, setting up the graphic page, switching the video feed from the bulletin board to live TV, and setting up the camera shot. If the meeting begins before these steps are completed, cable viewers may not see a portion of the meeting. Currently, there is no method for the cable coordinator to signal to the chair holder that the meeting is ready to begin. Without visible feedback, the chair holder may not know that there may be immediate technical difficulties. There is also no visible verification that the graphics being displayed on the television screen are correct. For example, the name of a speaker may have been misspelled. This problem could be noticed in Council Chambers, and the cable technician can be notified to correct it. The cable television monitor also provides participants to monitor the camera angles, to determine if they are on screen at a particular time. For example, Council members may not be aware of being on cable, and their appearance may be misinterpreted. 2. InstallinQ a Cable TV Monitor in Council Chambers . There are two possible solutions for monitoring cable in Council Chambers. One idea is to have the image from cable TV viewable on each computer monitor installed in the dais. One problem with this idea is that the computer monitor would still have to serve its primary function of displaying a PowerPoint presentation or the document camera. In order for this to be accomplished, a Picture In Picture (or PIP) device would have to be installed. This would allow the larger screen on the monitor to display presentations, while the smaller screen would display the cable program. This idea was discussed with an engineer from EPA. The engineer said it would require a unit that would cost at least $10,000.