By Kim McDarison
The Fort Atkinson City Council Tuesday approved funding not to exceed $31,766 to upgrade its chamber in the city’s municipal building, giving council the ability to hold hybrid meetings.
Monies, potentially coming through a grant, will be spent to upgrade the technology in the council chamber, allowing in-person meetings to resume while continuing to offer remote access, City Clerk Michelle Ebbert said.
Trever Brandenburg, owner of Ignatek LLC., which is the city’s IT service provider, attending the meeting through Zoom, said he believed the new system could be installed sometime this fall.
In a memo to council, Ebbert wrote: “During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the city council transitioned to virtual meetings online via Zoom. The virtual meetings provided a safe environment for city council, management team, local media outlets, and members of the public to attend and participate in public meetings.”
She continued: “Now that vaccinations against the coronavirus are available and life is returning to normal, the city council and staff are looking forward to returning to in-person meetings.”
Ebbert said a hybrid approach for future meetings would make options available for participants who preferred meeting in-person as well as those who preferred attending online.
Proposed plans are meant to accommodate as many people as possible, she said, adding that hybrid meetings would likely promote increased public participation by offering more than one option.
Recently, Ebbert said, Ignatek performing a survey of equipment within the council chambers and provided a list and cost estimates for technology needed to create an interactive, hybrid system.
According to Ebbert, the approach would still use the Zoom meeting format.
The proposal and quote submitted by Ignatek calls for a new sound system with wireless microphones to be installed in the council chamber.
Additionally, the system will make use of a 65-inch television with a camera mounted on top, which will be affixed to a mobile rolling cart. The television would be used to provide a picture of council viewable by those attending the meeting through Zoom, Ebbert said.
Sound would be transmitted through council members’ microphones using a desktop computer to aid in quality.
A second television would replace an overhead projector used by the city.
The system would further require a new laptop to operate as a “hub” to begin and record Zoom meetings.
Looking at funding sources, Ebbert said the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provides some funding for eligible projects that include investments in public facilities or adaptations to public buildings to “implement COVID-19 mitigation tactics.”
While a proposal for submittal to the ARPA was still in preparation, Ebbert said, staff was recommending that council move forward with the project, citing “a desire to expedite the return to in-person meetings.”
City Manager Rebecca Houseman LeMire described the project as an “eligible use of ARPA funds.”
During the meeting, Ebbert noted an advantage of having a hybrid system is that it would provide council members and department head who might be at home or out of town on business or vacationing an opportunity to attend a council meeting.
With that in mind, she said, she and LeMire had recently discussed looking at ways through which a hybrid approach could be developed. Ignatek was tapped to help develop what she and LeMire had envisioned.
Ebbert described the upgrade as “really good,” adding: “Our microphone system is also taken into consideration, knowing that that also itself has aged, and those council members that have been to prior meetings, you’ll know sometimes we have some feedback issues. Now knowing that this upgrade meets the criteria for the ARPA funds, we though, let’s look into quoting the sound system, not only to improve the system, but also hoping that that would double over as an improvement to increase the sound for those that are electronic.”
Brandenburg noted that equipment included within the quote will also create an “interactive streaming council/conference room.”
A summary within the quote broke down costs as follows: hardware, $27,037.63; software, $678, and services, $4,050.
Looking at costs, Ebbert said: “A big portion of this is the sound,” citing some $22,000, which would include the cost of wireless microphones, transmitters, and “a lot more features.”
Under visual equipment required to make the hybrid upgrade, she listed televisions, webcams and the two computers.
Ebbert said the city did entertain looking at quotes from other venders, but discovered that there would be some issues with allowing another vendor to access some of the city’s security components, which, she said, “created a little concern.”
She was able to price compare items included within the Ignatek quote, she said, and determined that the city was getting a competitive rate.
Brandenburg told council that Ignatek has been working with the city for “quite a few years” and the company “handles all aspects of technology” for the city.
With a grant available, he said, it looked like an appropriate time, while creating an interactive system, to also look at aging equipment that could benefit from replacement.
He specifically mentioned components associated with sound, including the microphones, and sound and recording systems.
He identified challenges in creating the interactive hybrid system, including current cabling, sound feedback and recording devices that are aging.
“There are only a few people who know the ins and outs of that machine or that equipment,” he said, adding that new equipment, and the associated supportive training, would increase the pool of staff members who could confidently operate the chamber system.
While Ignatek provides IT services for the city, Brandenburg said, it has not installed a large number of sound systems. With that in mind, he noted, the company has reached out to a vender, ADI (Analog Devices, Inc.), which, he said, put his company in communication with a company that has been “strictly doing chamber conference rooms during the COVID period. So that’s why you’ll see some features (like) the oscillating camera to follow who’s speaking.”
ADI, a Massachusetts-based company, “is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of analog, mixed-signal, and DSP (digital signal processing) integrated circuits,” according to its website.
“The nice thing about ClearOne (a Baltimore-based manufacturer of voice, video and web conferencing products, according to its website), and the ADI vendor is the support. So they are going to send in a representative … to help us install this, plus train you. So more people will know how to use this,” Brandenburg said.
He added: “I don’t know how old the chamber room is, but the microphones don’t stand up any longer, they kind of fall over, and there’s the older cabling, so that’s why we went with a new system.”
“We have the issue when a council member would turn their head to address another council member, their microphone doesn’t directly pick them up. So If I had to listen to a recording the next day to confirm a message or a motion, it was really hard to hear,” Ebbert noted.
Citing the grant, Ebbert said: “Overall, it needs an enhancement, whether we take it at this time, with this upgrade, or if we address this down the road, we just thought maybe now would be a good time to try and see if this was an option.”
Councilman Mason Becker asked if the upgrade would allow the city to livestream meetings online.
Brandenburg said it would.
Responding to Becker’s question about an operational timeline, Brandenburg said there was currently a backlog when ordering technical equipment, but he believed it could be ready by the first part of next quarter.
Becker said he understood that to mean “sometime in the fall.”
Brandenburg agreed with his understanding, adding: “Potentially sooner. What we would do is get everything in-house and pre-stage everything on location and make sure everything is ready to go, so then it’s pretty much plug and play when we get to you guys.”
Council President Chris Scherer asked about servicing the equipment.
Brandenburg said ADI would provide two types of training: the first would facilitate end users and the second would focus on those who would provide service for the equipment. His company would be able, with ADI support, to service the equipment, he said.
Brandenburg said his company has installed one other ClearOne system with support from ADI. That system is running and he has not been made aware of any concerns, he said.
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