91原创 City councillors held their on Monday afternoon, Jan. 13.
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It was the first session since the space underwent extensive remodelling to update technology and eliminate the old layout that Mayor Nathan Pachal has called a "Judge Judy" configuration, with members of council sitting lined up together along one wall, in favour of a more collaborative design that has councillors, the mayor and senior staff sitting around a table.
A decades-old video system that provided grainy images and tinny sound has been replaced with a high-definition system with crisp images, improved audio and in-chamber speakers.
"Our previous council chamber had technology that's decades old," Mayor Pachal told the 91原创 Advance Times.
"It was a real challenge to really view the meetings [online]."
Other changes include new flooring, new chairs, and extra features for accessibility that will include aids for the hearing impaired and additional space for persons with mobility issues.
Graham Flack, City deputy director, corporate services, said a final cost was still being tallied, but it appeared the project came in below its $250,000 budget, despite some unexpected technical hitches that delayed council's return past the scheduled Oct. 21 date.
Flack called it "a good outcome."
"All the video and audio technology in that room was approaching 25 years old," Flack explained.
It's limitations became apparent during the pandemic, he said.
"It came to light a little bit when COVID happened and we tried to move to a hybrid environment [allowing virtual meetings] and we realized we didn't really have the technology in place to allow us to do that."
Now, they do.
"Flack said the goal was "to provide a system that basically provided ultimate flexibility," which can be modified and upgraded with ease.
"In the future, we're even looking at things like closed captioning," Flack said.
"It will also address a lot of accessibility needs for people using the room, such as people with hearing impairments," Flack said.
"Visual impairments is a bit of a work in progress, but this new system will allow us to expand the technology and start leveraging things, basically to support better communication with our public as well as committees, internal staff meetings and so on.
