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Residents ask council to restore Zoom as borough moves to YouTube livestreaming
Summary
Residents urged the borough to restore Zoom or other interactive virtual options after the March 12 meeting switched to a YouTube live stream; staff said technical limits prompted the switch and recordings will be uploaded to the website.
Multiple residents asked the borough March 12 to restore Zoom or other interactive virtual participation options after the meeting was broadcast live on YouTube without a monitored chat.
A resident said Zoom had been "very successful" during COVID and that many residents rely on the ability to join remotely and ask follow-up questions; the resident noted occasions when people attend meetings while commuting and asked for a return of Zoom to accommodate participation. "There's no chat," one speaker said of the YouTube stream, asking whether questions can be taken; officials replied that the YouTube stream does not include interactive chat and explained the change was prompted by storage and technical limitations with the borough’s new streaming setup.
Council staff said the draft agenda and meeting video will be recorded and uploaded to the website and that the switch to YouTube was made to address storage/scalability problems with the borough’s previous streaming arrangement. The DPW and IT staff said they are reviewing new architecture for the website and streaming and acknowledged tradeoffs between interactivity and technical reliability.
No formal vote was taken about changing the virtual participation platform; staff said they would continue to receive feedback and work on possible solutions that increase access while addressing the borough’s technical constraints.
