Memo

To: Members of the Media, Interested Parties
From: Eric Koch, City Council Communications Director
Date: March 11th, 2014
Re: Broadcast of Events in the City Hall Red Room

In keeping with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s commitment to transparency, openness and utilizing technology to bring government closer to the public, the City Council is proud to announce that we will be expanding television and internet broadcasts to include events in the Red Room at City Hall.

Working with NYC Media, council staff has prepared the Red Room camera to show live footage of any public meetings that take place online and on Channel 75 and for press conferences in the Red Room to be streamed live on the council website. It is our hope that this utilization of technology will allow you and your colleagues, as well as the public at large, to view more City Council events- even from outside of City Hall.

The council staff has formalized a process by which NYC media will be alerted when Red Room events are to be broadcasted. Our staff will make every effort to keep you in the loop when events will be streamed and broadcasted so you are able to plan accordingly. Please note that while we will broadcast as many public events in the Red Room as possible, technical limitations prevent us from broadcasting in the Red Room when events are occurring simultaneously in both the City Hall Chambers and Committee Room.

We look forward to providing the public and press more ways to engage the Council in the future through technology. Hopefully you’ll find this useful when covering the City Council, and we welcome your feedback.

Streaming video can be accessed at http://council.nyc.gov/html/stream/livestream.shtml