Lenawee County getting new audio/visual equipment for board meetings

ADRIAN — The Lenawee County commissioners’ chambers will get new audio/visual equipment to aid in live streaming meetings as well as provide a better viewing and listening experience for those present in the chambers.

Addison-based audio/visual consultant Red Letter will provide the equipment. Red Letter is the same vendor that Lenawee County originally contracted with to handle the systems in the chambers during the renovation process.

Lenawee County is purchasing a 110-inch, 4K ultra-high definition, commercial, LED display that will sit on the wall behind the chairman’s desk. The wall will be cleaned up to blend in with the remaining walls. The county also will purchase two 85-inch, 4K, commercial, LED displays that will be mounted on the east and west sides of the room above the newly installed speakers. The monitors will have the capability of synchronously displaying the same items or different items.

Four cameras with telephoto lenses will be included. The equipment package also includes the switch, mounting brackets, installation and training. The cost of this option is $67,380.

More: Lenawee County making improvements to commission chamber's sound quality

At the commission’s personnel ways and means committee meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Ralph Tillotson, R- Adrian Twp., questioned a $7,500 restocking fee in the contract.

County administrator Kim Murphy said that she had questioned that, too, but it was part of the original order for an approximate $97,000 monitor the county had previously planned to place behind the chairman’s desk. The monitor did not have livestreaming capability, so it was returned, hence the fee.

Commissioner Dustin Krasny, R-Cambridge Twp., said that he was pleased with the current option as well as Murphy’s transparency. Murphy brought the requests for equipment before the information technology/equalization and physical resources committees before bringing them to the full board of commissioners at its personnel/ways and means committee meeting.

A purchase amount not to exceed $68,000 for the equipment was unanimously approved by the county commission.

The county will also be getting a system that will allow the cameras to pivot, tilt and zoom. This gives the county more options when recording meetings, such as fixing the camera on the commissioner speaking and allowing for county marketing and communications coordinator Jennifer Ambrose to run the cameras and livestream the meetings from the back of the chambers.

The option costs approximately $9,000 and was unanimously approved by the commission.

“We have noticed a significant sound issue in the back of the chambers when conducting Zoom meetings utilizing the display unit on the back wall. In discussing the continuing problems with Red Letter and the IT department, it was recommended that we upgrade the system,” Murphy said.

The new system will allow county staffers to see and hear better when conducting Zoom meetings by drowning out the echo in the chambers and reading out voice inflections to provide better clarity to everyone participating, Murphy said.

The cost of this upgrade is approximately $8,800 and includes the unit, new data wiring, installation and setup. The county board unanimously approved an amount not to exceed $9,000 for the upgrade.

The costs for the audio/visual equipment through Red Letter are coming from the building and site division of the county’s capital fund.

While he voted in favor of purchasing the new equipment, Commissioner Kevon Martis, R-Riga Twp., made his thoughts known that the commission should be cautious when purchasing equipment that he said would rapidly become obsolete.

Lenawee County has also purchased software to make its website American with Disabilities Act compliant. Federal law now requires federal agencies and vendors doing business with federal agencies to create, buy and use information and communication technology (ICT) that is accessible to people with disabilities. ICT includes all pages of the county’s website, software applications, intranet sites and tools, and electronic documents.

CivicPlus of Manhattan, Kansas, offers the digital accessibility platform AudioEye, which is an assistive tool and will be embedded in the county’s website to help users who may not have access to assistive technology or who need help reading or hearing content.

The software has a toolbar that provides options for those with disabilities to change the various applications to suit their needs. For example, visually impaired users can adjust contrast and fonts.

The county bought AudioEye at a cost of $13,447. The cost is coming out of the IT division of the county’s capital improvement fund.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County getting new audio/visual equipment for board meetings