Newtown's Youtube Video Problems: Resolved???

 

[UPDATE 28 Oct 2024] I noticed that the videos of the last two BOS meetings (10/9/24 and 10/23/24) pause for a second or two every 30 seconds or so. This was very annoying as some comments were missing. I complained again noting that there was no quality control to prevent what should have been a known problem from continuing. It appears that the company responsible for our AV system – Video Gold – began testing the system after I complained. Note that the township is paying this company up to $125,000 to upgrade our system and it should not be up to me to blow the whistle on these problems!

[UPDATE 27 Sep 2024] I complained about this and it appears that the video was updated so that now the sound is better BUT the resolution is again a problem. See this screen capture showing a closeup of supervisor Elen Snyder:

Compare this with the same images captured on 9/26/24 (see here). Lores again! In addition, the format of the video does not fit the full size of the Youtube screen! This just proves to me that Video Gold, which handles the township’s AV, is, in my opinion, incompetent and we should get a new AV company! To date, we’ve paid Video Gold $110,257.80 to upgrade the township’s AV and this is what we get? 

[UPDATE 25 Sep 2024] Finally, Newtown Township’s Youtube video resolution is now on a par with videos of other municipalities as shown in the screen capture below. 

You can now read the names of supervisors on the nameplates!

HOWEVER, the sound quality is awful! I can hardly hear what’s being said. Tell me what you think:

[Original post date: 17 Sep 2024]:

Back in 2018 I documented my efforts to improve communications with residents (here) and noted the improvement in the quality of the Youtube video of Board of Supervisors (BOS) meetings. I even suggested that, at the time, the videos were on a par with Youtube videos of other townships.

NOT ANYMORE!

Recently, I visited the Lower Makefield website to see what their BOS is up to and was impressed by the high-resolution Youtube video of one of their recent BOS meetings. I compared that with the quality of a recent (11 Sept 2024) Youtube video of a Newtown Township BOS meeting (see image above).

There’s Really NO Comparison!!!

Take a look at the following detail of the nameplates in the two videos:

Obviously, it is impossible to read the Newtown version. You will also note that the Newtown video does NOT match the dimensions of the standard Youtube screen size – it is smaller. I would note that changing the size would not mitigate the resolution problem.

Video Gold is the company that Newtown hires to provide its video coverage of BOS meetings, including live streaming of video on Youtube. The supervisors approved an AV system upgrade from Video Gold not to exceed $125,000 from the American Rescue Fund. As of 11 September 2024, the township has paid Video Gold $103,728.30.

As a result, there have been several AV improvements such as high-resolution cameras, larger TV monitors in the meeting room, and more speakers/better acoustics. Residents attending the meeting can now better see and hear what’s going on at meetings.

But the videos archived on Youtube are WORSE THAN EVER! 

During the AV system approval process I asked the Video Gold representative specifically about the quality of the videos and he assured me that viewers would even be able to read the nameplates. As you can see from the above image, this is yet to be achieved as far as the Youtube archived videos are concerned.

I hope that this Youtube lowres image problem is just a temporary situation. Video Gold is still working on improvements. When I know more, I will report it here.

Posted on 17 Sep 2024, 01:15 - Category: Communication