By Bruce Arditte, Senior Account Manager, GovTV
Today, robotic and audio/video networking technologies make it possible for local and State governments to provide advanced Internet and television broadcasts of their government meetings.
From our Broadcast Operations Center just outside of Los Angeles, California we are able to remotely produce television and Internet broadcasts of government meetings, anywhere the Internet reaches. These government broadcasts can include advanced features such as agenda item synchronization, speaker identification graphics, closed captioning - and even language translation. Remotely provided services cuts personnel and operating costs dramatically and brings professional–level broadcasting within the economic reach of virtually all State and governments today. But this wasn’t always
the case . . .
Ever since the very advent government itself, the question of access by its constituents to government has been a paramount consideration.
The ancient empires of Egypt, Sumer, Assyria, Persia, and Macedonia were followed by the rise of Greek city-states, the first self-governing communities. Greek philosopher Aristotle distinguished three categories of government: monarchy, government by a single individual; aristocracy, government by a few; and democracy, government by many. Ancient Rome introduced the principle that constitutional law, establishing the sovereignty of the state, is superior to ordinary law.i
Fundamental to any government’s ability to function is the need to communicate with those who would be citizens. In the days of Monarchies and aristocracies this arguably, was primarily a one-way communication – ergo: you will pay taxes, or else! The notion of democracy however, calls for a two-way communication by virtue of its very nature: “government by many”. ”Communication”, as defined by Encarta, is” The process of sharing ideas, information, and messages with others in a particular time and place.”
For government, the “particular time” is typically “now”– since it must function in somewhat of a real-time mode, making decisions and creating legislation as a reaction to current events and situations.
“Place” however, has always posed a problem. In the early throws of government, its very success depended on the ability to communicate its mandates, laws and policies to its subjects. This was typically accomplished by pages, soldiers or “criers” on foot or horseback who would spread the word and/or post bulletins throughout the villages and countryside.
How to represent and act on the needs and issues of a geographically, economically and culturally dispersed body of individuals remains today, in any modern-day Nation-State, still an arduous challenge.
Arduous, yes, in man’s beginnings in Europe and Mesopotamia from a geographic standpoint, but it became monumental in the American Colonies of the 1700’s – which were soon to cover a vast expanse of land which was then beyond comprehension. A brilliant and lasting solution emerged with the establishment of the Congress of the United States of America, the legislative branch of the Federal Government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The key concept here is the construct of “Representative, or Senator” - one who has an origin then in a particular region or colony, whom is to be elected locally and then was to travel to Washington D. C. to represent his constituents. (The same system exists today.) This concept of representation was a direct result of the challenges of “place” in the communications process being too dispersed and is a direct reflection of the lack of instant communication technologies which was prevalent in the day. From then-on, the world was about to change:
In 1923 Russian-born American engineer Vladimir K. Zworykin demonstrated an electronic television camera. David Sarnoff, vice president of RCA, became interested in his invention. RCA started the first regularly scheduled television programming in 1941. By the end of the 1950s television was on the air almost everywhere in the country. Television has been one of the most important communication technologies in history.
Television stations were expensive to design, build and operate. The medium survived but by the existence of a single, pivotal entity, commercial sponsors. Soon the public would become accustomed to what we today call “broadcast quality” television, which can loosely be defined as having adequate lighting, clearly audible audio, crisp focus – and most importantly – comprehensive coverage of the action occurring on stage, on location, or in-studio. This required a vast expense in plant and equipment - including multiple cameras, camera operators, special dollies, tripods, grip and lighting crews, but above all, specially trained and talented personnel to produce, direct and engineer television programming. Needless to say, this capability was clearly out of the reach of even the Federal government at the time to produce programming of government proceedings. Nor was it likely a popular opinion of the day that the American public was even interested in watching detailed government deliberations. The public relied rather, on their elected representatives to vote their conscience and on the traditional press, radio, and television reporters to keep them informed.
Television, for many years, remained out of the reach of most government applications simply due to its sheer cost. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created a source of funding for noncommercial television stations and resulted in the formation of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Stations affiliated with PBS need not adhere to any network time frame and may schedule programs as they wish. Public stations operate on contributions from viewers, corporate gifts, foundation grants, and support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.iii In some ways, this act paved the way for government television since it created an avenue for, and an acceptance of noncommercial broadcasting including government broadcasting. Suddenly television needed not be only “entertaining” it could be informative and educational as well.
As on-air broadcast television gave rise to Cable Television systems, a new iteration of noncommercial broadcasting emerged, local community access cable television channels where local communities and governments could air self-produced programming in studios that were typically made available by the cable companies.
Government-access television (GATV) is a type of television channel created by government entities (generally local governments) and broadcast over cable TV systems or, in some cases, over-the-air broadcast television stations. GATV programming generally deals with public affairs, board meetings (i.e. city council, county commission, and school board), explanation of government services, and other public-service related programming such as public service announcements and longer public information films. In the U.S., laws regarding GATV are contained in the US Code, title 47, section 531 (47 USC 531), and are enforced by the Federal Communications Commission. Since cable systems are privately GovTV owned entities (unlike broadcast television), the must-carry requirement for GATV channels is often drawn out in local franchising agreements for the municipality or county it operates in.iv
GATV is a form of public-access television, also called PEG channels" It's how we, the people, see and govern ourselves," explained Gloria Tristani on the importance of public, education and government (PEG) access channels to Americans. Tristani, an FCC Commissioner from1997 to 2001, was the keynote speaker at the Alliance for Community Media's (ACM) biennial Central States Regional Conference on November 9, 2007.v For most Americans, it wasn't until an entity known as “CSPAN” hit the scene, that government television truly came into its own.
Brian Lamb, C-SPAN's chairman and CEO, conceived of C-SPAN while working at Cablevision, a cable industry trade magazine, as their Washington D.C. bureau chief. C-SPAN was created as a cable-industry financed, non-profit network for televising sessions of the U.S. Congress and other public affairs event and policy discussions. Bob Rosencrans, a cable industry pioneer, was alone in providing the initial seed funding of $25,000 to start up C-SPAN.[1] It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the
government, and does not sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality and a lack of bias in its public affairs programming.
C-SPAN first went on the air on March 19, 1979, broadcasting a speech by then congressman Al Gore. C-SPAN2, a spin-off network, covers all live sessions of the U.S. Senate and went on the air on June 2, 1986, with the original channel then focusing on the House. The latest spin-off, C-SPAN3, began broadcasting on January 22, 2001, and shows other government-related live events along with historical programming from
C-SPAN's archives.
Prior to the development of CSPAN, most government broadcasts – especially those carried by small local cable television stations on community access channels were often not very well produced from a technical standpoint. Many were shot with only one camera and poor audio coverage, making action, the speakers, debates and discussions difficult to follow. The American viewing public on the other hand, by virtue of being exposed to years of multi-million dollar broadcast-quality television programming, found it hard to embrace this
primitive programming as a viable form of government access. CSPAN did an admirable job of demonstrating to the American public that government television was viable and valuable.
How then, was a high degree of quality in broadcasting ever going to be successfully provided to the government level? The answer was inevitable: “Technology and Innovation”. Another solution – more economical, more manageable – had to be developed in order for government to obtain high quality government television. Rather than a 20th Century solution, a 21st Century solution was needed.
GovTV has emerged with “virtual remote technologies”. The key advantage to the GovTV approach is that local government investment in extensive staff and hardware technology is not needed – the IP based broadcast infrastructure installed by GovTV, is remotely operated. The government broadcast is remotely produced by GovTV specialists---leaving government free to do what it does best - govern.
The suite of GovTV’s “Virtual Remote Technologies” makes extensive use of emerging Internet technologies which require no personnel inside the government meeting room to operate. Instead, IP based systems provide government services, while being controlled via the Internet.
Broadcast-quality television production, however was merely the beginning of the
development of integrated services delivered to government with Virtual Remote Technologies. The application of GovTV’s remote Internet-based technologies allow solutions to be implemented and made available at a fraction of traditional government operational costs.
1 Encarta® 98 Desk Encyclopedia © & 1996-97 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.