County Government Uses Presentation Technology

To Deliver Information for Citizens and Officials

Local government forums have historically been critical venues for the exchange and dissemination of information. Increasingly, however, this information is in electronic or digital format and broadcast via sophisticated media, requiring that governments adopt new presentation technologies.

South Carolina's Beaufort County wanted to offer its citizens, its officials and its employees a means for receiving and posting multimedia information both during to its bi-monthly county council meeting, and for other county business conducted within its chambers.

Stage Front Presentation Systems, Savannah, GA, was asked to create a presentation environment that would meet these needs.

Specifically, the county wanted to present visual information ranging from zoning maps, to charts and graphs related to county budgets, to local voting results as broadcast live from the local government channel in a manner that would accommodate viewing by as many as 120 attendees, as well as members of the county council. Further, Beaufort County Government wanted to provide a live feed of the council's proceedings to the local government channel broadcast by the local PBS affiliate. 

Council's administrative clerk, Sue Rainey, a sixteen-year veteran of the Beaufort council emphasized two criteria for success in creating a presentation solution: that the public be able to view information as well as council members; and that it be unfailingly simple to use.

According to Rainey, the challenge of displaying this information to all council meeting participants was addressed by configuring a dual LCD projection system that is capable of displaying multiple sources simultaneously or independently on each of the two large (6' x 8') screens. Combining the capabilities of a visual presenter, dual workstations with ports for laptop presentations and a wireless network with a simple control selector has made the system practically goof-proof, she says.

"The Presentation System we provided basically has opened up a whole new world of electronic communication for the county, "said SFPS account representative Dave Mueller, "by providing the means to display all types of medium, including video, data, internet, and local CATV feeds not only to the council members but also to the citizens of the county that frequent council meetings. "

According to Rainey, the success of the council chamber's new presentation system allows her to think even further about other improvements to council operations. For example, she says, she's asked Stage Front to duplicate the system in the adjoining executive conference room where standing committees hold their public meetings. She also hopes to eliminate the wasteful practice of issuing council members' information packets on paper, by issuing CDs that can be viewed on small screens at council members' seats.

"This is really cool, "she says.