So all of those making these claims can sit back and waffle on about this additional officer required for every meeting of committees.

Namely two required for every committee.

Why can they do this, because an officer said it.

The question then arises, who is this officer?

Cllr Lafferty was good enough to identify him in the chamber, not by name, but by a description of where he was sitting.

He states that this information came from the gentleman sitting to the right of the Provost.

That is Eamonn Daly, Democratic Services manager

Newsline also notes that RM64 posted on this forum correspondence between RM64 and Cllr Miller. Cllr Miller appeared reluctant to identify his source of his information about the second officer, although eventually if became clear it was indeed, Eamonn Daly and according to Cllr Miller a recognised expert on Web Casting.


Cllr Miller

Which brings us onto another gem that RM64 posted, the result of an FOI regarding Web Casting, and the answer was provided by Eamonn Daly.............


Now that seems pretty clear cut to us..............

What do Public-i say, the company that ERC pay 10k a year to for the service.

We have taken information from their web site and spoken directly to a senior member of their staff.

Our findings are astonishing.

The following is from the company web site that provide the current council software to Web Cast.

Connect, on the other hand, works as part of the AV suite, and with camera control the meeting can be completely automated: no operator required. Connect integrates seamlessly with modern.gov and CMIS which means information such as speaker profiles and meeting resources are included automatically.

We then asked the question of a senior member of staff from the company.

Q:- How many people are required at a meeting to deal with the Web Cast?

A:- None

Q:- We understand that a member of staff requires to book the meeting and upload resources, can you explain what that entails.

A:- Up to 4/5 weeks before a meeting a member of staff requires to inform us the date and start time of the meeting.

We do everything else, our operators make the system live on the date and time requested.

Contact can be made by telephone or email.

Uploading resources relates to placing name tags against the speakers in the side bar of the web cast.

This can be undertaken automatically or a customer may choose to do this manually.

However manually is no more complicated or time consuming than clicking on prepared name tags and then placing them against the speakers footage.

From the company web site

Simple set-up
The software has been designed to save you time.

Staff can set-up shots, speakers and layouts in minutes. Unlimited combinations – infinite possibilities.

Automated camera tracking removes resource from your meetings.

Camera Control software allows conference microphones and cameras to communicate with each other – no operator needed.

The innovative automated camera tracking system works with all leading audio suppliers. Using an older system? Camera Control is compatible with a range of models.

Q:- What does automated camera tracking mean?

A:- The package that organisations pay for removes the requirement for staff to be involved.

When a microphone is activated a pre set camera transmits the image and when the microphone is switched off, the camera focused on the chair resumes to being active.

No staff are required at any stage.