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Town clerk, staff outline fixes after town‑meeting streaming and AV failures
Summary
After technical problems disrupted Fall Town Meeting, the town clerk and staff recommended regular AV inspections, an AV specialist for large meetings, wired microphones or mic runners, testing across the full meeting duration, and modest budget support for recurring AV staffing and equipment ahead of spring town meeting.
Town Clerk Mary Ellen and town staff told the select board on Nov. 17 that technical problems disrupted much of the recent Fall Town Meeting and outlined steps to avoid repeat failures.
Mary Ellen said failures arose from competing wireless traffic on shared frequencies, fragile HDMI switches, and scheduling conflicts with school events that used the same access points. An AV specialist hired on night three remedied problems temporarily: "We hired an AV specialist to get us through the third night which was successful," she said.
Staff recommended a package of actions: hire or retain an AV specialist to inspect equipment ahead of meetings and quarterly thereafter; test equipment across the full expected meeting duration rather than a short pre‑check; consider wiring microphones or assigning mic runners; set earlier deadlines for presenter materials so slides are preloaded; and explore modest budget requests for either equipment purchases (sturdier HDMI switches, projection/lighting improvements) or recurring AV support for FY27. The clerk proposed coordinating with school IT to reduce competing access‑point congestion and to avoid scheduling conflicts with athletic events.
Board members suggested using student volunteers for mic‑running and creating a run‑of‑show checklist, and agreed the select board could consider a one‑time equipment purchase from available discretionary funds. The board asked staff to return with a prioritized list of equipment and estimated recurring costs to include in the FY27 budget request.
Next steps: town clerk to prepare an AV/operations budget package and inspection schedule for the board and town manager; staff to coordinate with WindCam, school IT and potential AV vendors; and to finalize presentation deadlines and a run‑of‑show for the spring meeting.
