The Cottonwood City Council approved a new agreement with Studio G Multimedia Services of Cottonwood to provide broadcast services for city meetings during its Tuesday, June 18 session.
The agreement will run for the next five years. Under its terms, Studio G will record and broadcast up to three council meetings per month, one Planning and Zoning Commission meeting per month and four budget meetings per year. Each meeting must be broadcast on the city’s cable channel, the city’s Facebook page and the CableCast streaming network, as well as being made available for reply without subscription, login or fees.
While the new contract was originally scheduled to be presented to council last month, Financial Services Director Kirsten Lennon explained that the previously contract was extended for one month in order to finalize the details of the updated agreement.
The estimated annual value of the contract to broadcast 52 meetings is $43,400. The base fee for meeting broadcasts is $450 per hour and fees for as-needed services have been set at $250 for producing an episode of “Inside Cottonwood,” $150 per hour for video recording and $80 per hour for video editing. Lennon noted that the contract includes the option to add other services up to a total annual value of $60,000. The agreement also provides that the city will cover 50% of a set of costs required to operate its cable channel, including studio rent, utilities and insurance.
“I think you’re going to be excited about this,” Jackie Bessler of Studio G told the council with regard to adding CableCast streaming to the contract. “What we’re trying to do is provide opportunities. Those that are less technically-oriented can do more simplistic opportunities … and those that are more technically adept will have multiple opportunities through CableCast tht I think they’re going to really enjoy.”
Bessler also addressed the disappearance of the city’s Youtube account “VerdeValleyTV Studio G,” which has been referred to by members of the public during previous council meetings.
“It isn’t that we got rid of Youtube,” Bessler explained. “I want to make sure that everybody understands that Youtube got rid of us. In January, they took down our channel, no warning, no explanation whatsoever. For months, we tried to put in appeals and get some sort of customer service, some sort of communication going. We got zero communication from them. A hundred and something days afterward, we receive an email out of the blue saying, ‘Looks like your channel’s off, fill out this form and we’ll see what we can do about it.’ They came back in 24 hours. ‘Wasn’t our fault that it was turned off.’ They gave no explanation and, most importantly, wouldn’t answer the question of how we can avoid having this happen again. So we researched other opportunities that an organization at a whim could not turn us off again.”
“Cablecast, we control the platform. They cannot turn us off,” Bessler added. “This guarantees we will not have that particular issue again.” The CableCast “smart TV” service offers a streaming app that functions similarly to Netflix or Youtube.
Bessler also addressed community complaints about broadcast quality, reporting to council that Studio G had examined every broadcast that had reportedly suffered from poor video or audio quality or improper transmission and only found a single audio issue with one of them. He advised council that Studio G’s role is to upload the broadcast, and that viewers’ experiences may be affected by connectivity or device issues over which Studio G has no control.
“There is no audio and there is no video until the meeting actually starts. That is for the protection of the council,” Bessler noted. “We’re not going to start the meeting until the meeting actually starts,” which he explained could lead to a perceived lag for some viewers.
“Several times when I’m watching these meetings, I have noticed the audio cuts out and everybody on the stream comments,” Councilman Michael Mathews said. “We don’t have several people at several locations with different internet connections and different devices experiencing the same issue at the same time due to technological ignorance … I don’t know where the problem is.”
“We have looked at every single meeting that has been brought up and we have not been able to recreate it,” Bessler said. “We’ve tried to recreate it on our own phones, our own laptops, our own devices, and we have not been able to recreate that problem.”
He added that the new CableCast system will be able to serve “probably three to four times the viewership that we have.”
“For Luddites like me, thank you for the tutorials,” Mayor Tim Elinski said.
Council then approved the contract unanimously with no further discussion.
