Legislative Services updated the Rules Committee on Jan. 9 about an audiovisual upgrade to the Assembly Chambers and on the municipality's plans to discontinue programming Channel 9.

Claire Ross, Legislative Services Director, said the chambers are being upgraded from standard definition to high definition and the assembly will start to see new cameras and improved production. Ross also said the project includes live closed-captioning integrated into the YouTube livestream and that staff will ask each assembly member to record the land acknowledgment in their voice so the captioning device can program speaker-specific phrasing.

Ross described some of the immediate visible changes: "You will notice, cameras in the chamber... They have already been installed, and they are functional," she told the committee. She added that members might see camera light indicators showing which camera is live.

Ross also said that Yukon TV will stop municipal programming: starting in January viewers who tune to Channel 9 will see a holding message, and as of Feb. 11 the municipality will no longer push public meetings to Channel 9. The change will move live viewing to the municipality's livestream platforms (YouTube) and other web-based distribution.

Clerk's office staff told the committee the AV project has been tested (a Test at the Jan. 6 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting) and that a part ordered to improve closed captioning has arrived and will be retested at the next P&Z meeting; full switch-over is planned for Feb. 11.

Committee members were told a one-page summary of the changes will be distributed to members for constituent communications. Legislative Services said media partners welcomed the improved quality because it will make it easier to clip and redistribute meeting video.

No action was voted on; the committee received the briefing and asked for follow-up communication materials to distribute to constituents.