El Mirage council directs staff to research live captioning, translation and camera upgrades for meetings

The El Mirage Common Council discussed audiovisual upgrades for council chambers on Jan. 20 and directed staff to research options — including live captioning and translation services, improved camera switching and stream delivery — and to present demonstrations at a future work session.

City staff presented four broad options: modify the existing in-room AV and add embedded captioning; install additional dedicated screens; subscribe to an AI captioning/translation service (e.g., Wordly AI or similar); or contract for a one-stop production system that provides hardware and hosted switching. Staff provided preliminary cost comparisons: a subscription-based live-caption/translation option was quoted at just under $8,000 per year (coverage and number of languages affect the price), a hardware modification to embed captions on existing screens was estimated at just under $40,000, and vendor-hosted turnkey systems (historically marketed under providers like Swagit, now part of Granicus) have been priced in prior budgets at roughly $50,000 per year for a small multi-camera package.

Councilmembers emphasized accessibility and clarity for residents who cannot attend in person. Councilmember Scottie Gentry and others noted poor current stream clarity and urged solutions that support viewers with disabilities. Councilmember Ryan Eldridge raised concerns about translation accuracy and urged the use of human review or disclaimers where automated translation is used: “I am concerned about the translation because I know that, ... when I do a translation, I always have somebody who is Spanish speaking ... look over it,” he said.

Staff recommended further research, vendor comparisons and a live demonstration. The council directed staff to return with product demonstrations and cost options at a work session before committing to a particular system. Staff also noted operational trade-offs between Microsoft Teams (which the city currently uses for remote participation) and Granicus Livecast (the city has begun to pilot), including a roughly 40-second delay on the Granicus stream and differences in remote participation capabilities.

The council did not adopt a procurement action at the meeting; members asked staff to prepare demos and additional information for a dedicated work session so the council can evaluate accessibility, translation accuracy, production complexity and cost before a purchase.