Andrew Brattle, RMT Web Editor, talk to us about the benefist of livestreaming thier events.
Case Study
Livestreaming Union meetings fro RMT
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
Case Study
Livestreaming Union meetings fro RMT
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
Background
Public-i have been working with several organisations to webcast union meetings. Over the years, RMT, GMB and Unite have come to us to capture their events – strengthening their communications strategies.
As trade unions have seen how membership has been declining for some time, streaming union meetings is key in reaching the digital audience.
Implementation
As a democratic and campaigning trade union, the RMT Annual General Meeting holds vital importance. It serves to instruct future policy and holds to account all union activity.
An AGM decision was passed to enable all future meetings to be broadcast live on the internet. This would mean RMT members could have full access to the decision-making process, ensuring inclusivity and transparency.
RMT has enjoyed an extremely positive relationship with Public-i who have consistently delivered a reliable live streaming service that fully meets all RMT requirements. The benefits to RMT have been numerous as live streaming the event has helped to encourage more members to get directly involved in union decision-making. Live streaming has also increased attendance of, as well as participation in, the AGM.
RMT has been proud to work in partnership with Public-i as they consistently strive to improve their service and deliver a quality product on behalf of our 85,000 members.
Lessons learned
By combining live streaming with social media, Unions can engage people in a debate, maximising the reach of their message. They can livestream directly to their Facebook page and embed their webcast on their website. Livestreaming it’s also a great way to make meetings accessible to all as it offers subtitling, transcriptions and even a live forum.
Another great benefit of webcasting is that Unions can cut in cost, as they can reach those members who are unable to attend the meeting. For internal meetings, they can cut travel costs and stream the meeting privately – inviting staff to view the meeting online.
Unions can even take things one step further and restrict the content for members, charging per webcast. This is a great way to pay for the service and even build revenue on top.
An interview with Julia Cleary, the Scrutiny and Systems manager of the City of Wolverhampton Council, about the integration of hybrid meetings
Background
The City of Wolverhampton Council have been using Public-i since 2017 to webcast all full council meetings. Following the introduction of strict rules around holding meetings face to face due to the pandemic, our Council leaders were keen to introduce hybrid meeting functionality to the Council Chamber and to hold a hybrid full council meeting in September 2020.
Planning the system
The Scrutiny and Systems Manager contacted Public-i in July 2020 to enquire as to the feasibility of installing an AV hybrid solution into the existing solution in the Council Chamber. This would allow the Council to webcast meetings from both the Chamber and an online Microsoft Teams meeting. A meeting was arranged for the next day with representatives from Public-i to discuss options.
City of Wolverhampton council room
The first stage was to arrange a site visit for an engineer to understand the current set up and exactly how much work would be required. One of the main issues we had was that the existing AV equipment, including the microphones and TV screens were managed by an external company and it was vital to ensure that all interested parties were included in the initial conversation as any changes had the potential to affect the equipment managed by them. ICT, facilities management and the external contractors were all communicated with prior to the initial site visit.
Given the unusual circumstances it was vital to have additional Covid 19 risk assessments in place which Public-i were able to provide straight away.
Originally it was thought that having the install ready for 16 September full council meeting was overly ambitious but Public-i were able to move work around to try and accommodate our request and an install date of Monday 7 to Tuesday 8 September was agreed.
Implementation
The engineer was on site when I arrived, along with our account manager who had personally travelled to collect a piece of equipment and delivered it to the Council building, he repeated this the next day too, travelling miles to ensure that the install could go ahead as planned.
Audio Visual rack before the installations
It soon became apparent that two days was not going to be sufficient to complete the build to the required standard and again, our account manager was able to rearrange other commitments to allow the engineer to remain on site for the entire week.
On the penultimate day there were still come concerns in relation to the sound quality and Public-i were able to provide us with a sound technician on the last day to help address these issues. The sound tech was brilliant and she managed to sort out not only the current issues but a number of historic issues that we had been unable to pinpoint the source of.
Testing and system use
On the final day the system was tested multiple times and we set up a number of test meetings with staff joining in the Council Chamber and through a Teams meeting to ensure that we were at ease with using the system and that everything was working seamlessly, the sound technician and engineer remained on site until all of this testing was complete. The training was provided on site but in reality little training was required as the operating processes were very similar to what had been the case previously.
It worked wonderfully. It’s really good kit: really easy to use and everyone seemed impressed with it
Next steps?
We are currently assessing all our existing meeting rooms and the facilities in them to ensure that they are fully future proofed and able to meet streaming demands going forward.
Visit City of Wolverhampton Council site
