The Greensboro City Council has discovered a new way to appear to be open and transparent while being the opposite.
At the Tuesday, May 9 work session in the Plaza Level Conference Room, the City Council finally got a camera upgrade, but for the first one hour and 12 minutes of the meeting there was no sound.
At the work session on Thursday, April 27, four city councilmembers attempted to participate via Zoom and discovered what those who had been watching the video of the work sessions for months already knew. Because of the lack of individual microphones and the wide angle shot from the one camera, it was impossible much of the time determine who was speaking. Much of the time to those watching the meeting it really didn’t matter who was speaking because you couldn’t understand what was being said. The multidirectional microphone or microphones picked up the side conversations as well as the speaker, and at times the side conversations drowned out the speaker.
Because of the difficulty councilmembers were having participating remotely, the council asked what it would cost for the needed upgrades. At that meeting it was reported that a new camera for the Plaza Level Meeting Room would cost about $5,000. In the world of the City Council, $5,000 is not even considered pocket change.
The new camera makes a huge difference in the video. For the May 9 meeting, the camera zoomed in on the speaker and it is possible to see the speakers’ gestures and even their expressions. Being able to see expressions and gestures are crucial for that meeting since those watching from home can’t hear what it being said for the first hour of the meeting.
The sound is available on the City of Greensboro YouTube site at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb-3PHrqa8w . But on that site you get the sound and the graphics of the presentation. The City Council can be seen in a tiny corner of the screen, but once again there is the problem of determining who is speaking.
With all the drawbacks, it turned out that the old system with limited video and poor sound quality was much better than the new system with far superior video and no sound.
Why don’t we all just hide behind our laptops, desktops, dumbphones, tablets, idiot boxes, etc? That way we can remain faceless, and immune from other people. AI will make us happy.
Anyone else think the council prefers the meetings to be problematic?
More of the same old same old. Is it time to throw in the white flag?
Another SNAFU!
According to thiscouncil except for Methany 400 K to buy a Gun Show name is chump change. They spend our tax money like a Drunk Train Robber!
They are all progressives who hate guns. There will never be another gun show in Greensboro because the current Council Members and their urban constituents, for the most part, hate guns.
They just don’t like the non felon, legal gun owners to not own guns.
Can we get a court order or class action lawsuit against this obstructive disenfranchising cabal of career nogoodniks?
US News & World Report just ranked Greensboro the 13th most dangerous city in the US. Maybe they can get some real IT people, broadcast the meetings like a normal entity with 2023 technology, and find a way to keep Greensboro from becoming a true s?!$ hole. Greensboro is the perfect example of a democrat run city. The elite and the serfs. The elite go to the GPAC and live in low crime neighborhoods. The rest of us cannot buy a ticket to anything and wonder if we are going to get knocked in the head.
Damn straight!
They have an entire council chamber wired for sight and sound. Just use it, dummies.
They should hire us to solve it properly.
If you thank enough of your job & responsibilities G O to the meeting in person to H E L L with zoom!!