The push to implement video-streaming of the Arkansas Senate and its committee meetings next year bogged down Thursday as several senators grappled with what they want from vendors.
The aim of Senate President Pro Tempore-elect Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, is for video-streaming to begin with the regular legislative session that starts Jan. 14.
Jay Stanley & Associates of North Little Rock, Brant Collins of Little Rock and Swagit Productions LLC of Dallas each submitted proposals to provide cameras and other technology to the Senate.
Sliq and Swagit Productions also have submitted proposals to provide streaming services, including indexing of videotape of the Senate's meetings.
But, at Thursday's meeting of the Senate Efficiency Committee, Sens. Linda Chesterfield, Linda Collins-Smith and Bill Sample said they also favor placing individual microphones at the desks of the chamber's 35 senators for audio as part of the video-streaming project, and they want the vendors' proposals to be revised to reflect that.
"The good news up to this point is the committee is getting an education on the different types of software, equipment, everything else that is out there," Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said at the meeting. "What the committee is going to have to do very quickly is to decide what they want it to be like.
"What do we want the streaming to look like because it is a much different animal, if you want it to be zooming in, the picture to come up, [and] name tag come on ... versus a split screen that also gets saved and recorded. There are different ways to archive. Everything needs to be considered for what you want that ultimate product to look like because [the vendors] are going to have to tailor to what you want," Dismang said.
"So if y'all are saying that we want individual mics at each station, then there needs to be a determination of things that [the vendors] know to budget for," Dismang said.
Chesterfield, the committee chairman, pressed Dismang about what would be the maximum amount the Senate could spend on the project.
With officials for the companies that submitted proposals in the audience, Dismang said, "We have asked to be realistic with this."
He noted that the current proposals range from about $70,000 to about $250,000.
"It is going to grow exponentially, depending on what we want, and I am trying to find from you, is there a ceiling beyond which we cannot go?" Chesterfield said.
"We have [done] very little with renovations, new furniture, and anything else in our chamber," Dismang said.
The Senate's committee rooms, on the other hand, are undergoing renovations with the assistance of a $1.2 million state grant during the past few months.
"So, there is no answer as to how much," Chesterfield said.
"Again, we want to be realistic," Dismang said. "What we want is for the system to be something that is user friendly for the senators and user friendly for the public."
"If we come in here and it is going to cost $2 million, would we able to afford it? That's all I am asking," Chesterfield said.
She said "if money is not an issue as far as an amount beyond which we cannot go," she would like at next Wednesday's meeting for vendors to include in their proposals "these stand-up mics that you jerk up and down."
Sample said, "In the chamber, decorum calls for us to stand, so we do need a pull-up mic. As far as the committee rooms, I would be satisfied with a static camera.
"If we want a standing camera in front of the chamber and one in the back of the chamber as well as [in the old Supreme Court room], then it's easy for them to price it and price the microphones. If we want a camera that sweeps the room, we need to tell them that," said Sample.
But Chesterfield said, "I do not want a wide-screen shot of everybody doing everything in the Senate chamber.
"The challenge will be in the Senate ... to zoom in on the person in the well and you zoom in on who is asking the question or wants some information," Chesterfield said. "You don't have a full shot of the House."
Brant Collins warned the senators that "technology won't solve the people issue."
The Senate needs to hire a minimum of two staff members because there could be times when the Senate committee rooms are being used at the same time and both meetings need to be video-streamed, he said.
Vin Nguyen, an account manager for Swagit Productions, said, "We have an option ... where you can utilize our own remote control cameras ... which we are able to operate from our facilities in Dallas."
In the state House of Representatives, floor proceedings first aired in 2010, followed by House committee meetings in 2011.
This morning, the Legislative Council will consider a recommendation from its Executive Subcommittee to purchase video equipment and other technology from Jay Stanley & Associates for $78,697.64, and negotiate with Sliq for streaming services for the committee rooms in the Multi-Agency Complex, west of the state Capitol.
The Arkansas Senate is one of nine in the country that don't provide video webcasts of their sessions in their chambers, although they provide live audio, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Metro on 09/21/2018