AGENDA ITEM
TO:
HONORABLE MAYOR
AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM:
KIM BOLES
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT/DEPUTY CITY CLERK
SUBJECT:
title
CONTRACT SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH SWAGIT PRODUCTIONS, LLC (SWAGIT)
summary
Summary:
The City Council will consider entering into a new Contract Services Agreement with Swagit to provide remote video streaming services of Council meetings, including closed captioning in English and Spanish.
recommendation
Recommendation:
Authorize the Interim City Manager to enter into a one-year Agreement with an additional one-year extension with Swagit to purchase and install video hardware and broadcast system and streaming video services for a not-to-exceed amount of $111,900, in a form approved by the City Attorney.
body
Fiscal Impact:
The cost for purchase and installation of the video hardware and broadcast system is a one-time cost of $80,580 and was presented to Council during the budget workshop and approved as a decision package for FY 2022-23 City Clerk Contract Services budget (account 100-43-5400). The streaming video services cost of $2,610 monthly is included in the FY 2022-23 budget (account 100-43-5400).
Strategic Plan Objective:
Goal No. 6: Promote a transparent and open government.
Background and Analysis:
The City’s video hardware and broadcast equipment is old and outdated. Over the past year the equipment has had multiple issues, and at times, staff brought in a consultant to troubleshoot the system, frequently at the last minute, and at times during a Council meeting. The City also relies on a consultant to provide the video production of each Council meeting. Earlier this year, staff began researching options for a replacement system. Quotes were received from the following vendors:
• Swagit Productions, LLC included video hardware and broadcast system, remote video production, live streaming, and closed captioning in English and Spanish for a cost of $111,900.
• Vidiflo, LLC (Vidiflo) included an updated video server, hardware, and software, live streaming capability, and closed captioning in English for a cost of $57,297.56.
• Western Audio Visual (Western) included a slight upgrade to current equipment, and no closed captioning for a cost of $28,034.50.
The Vidiflo and Western systems would continue to require a consultant or additional staff onsite to provide video production, and neither offered remote video services.
Swagit provided a list of public agencies that utilize Swagit for reference. Staff contacted the following public agencies: Chino Hills, El Cajon, Indio, Palm Springs, the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, and Austin, Texas. All provided positive feedback regarding Swagit.
Staff is recommending that the City enter into a new Contract Services Agreement with Swagit to purchase and install video hardware and broadcast system and provide streaming services for Council meetings. Services to be provided under the new contract include:
• Video Capture and Encoding - Extensible Automated Streaming Engine (EASE) Encoder records content according to City’s broadcast schedule and transfers the recorded audio/video to the Swagit Content Network via a secure Virtual Private Network connection, making it available for live and/or on-demand streaming.
• Indexing and Cross Linking - Using the City’s published meeting agendas as a guide, Swagit’s Managed Service Division (SMSD) indexes the meetings without any work from client staff. SMSD will annotate the content by adding jump-to points with specific item headings, giving users the greatest flexibility to find the specific content they need. Users can step through video by searching for or clicking specific items.
• Agenda Management Integration - SMSD will link agenda packets directly to the video player for easy access.
• Archiving - Audio/video can be stored securely on the Swagit Content Network indefinitely. Fault tolerance and high availability is assured through replication of audio/video content to multiple, geographically redundant, Storage Area Networks. This includes unlimited storage of meetings.
• Presentation - By navigating the video library, users can view a list of meetings chronologically and once in a selected meeting can go to the jump-to markers to search for specific points within individual audio/video clips. Meetings typically begin to post within 3-4 hours from the end of a meeting, depending on the client’s connectivity speed and bandwidth. Notwithstanding any technical or network issues, fully indexed meetings are available on a client’s site in less than 24 hours.
• Delivery - In order to deliver on-demand content to end users in a format that is native to their computer’s operating system, Swagit by default delivers content in the HTML5 streaming video format. This format has proven itself as the format of choice from such vendors as YouTube, Google Video, Facebook, ABC and NBC/Universal.
• Monitoring - Swagit is monitoring all aspects of the Swagit Content Network to ensure its health and availability. This monitoring extends to cover remote Swagit EASE Encoders deployed on client premises. In the rare event of trouble Swagit engineers are promptly notified so that they may dispatch a swift response in accordance with support procedures.
• Statistics - Swagit collates log files from their streaming servers monthly and processes them with the industry recognized by Google Analytics. These reports help to highlight growth trends and identify popular content.
• Support - Beyond their proactive monitoring response, Swagit offers ongoing 24/7 technical support for any issues our clients may encounter. While Swagit’s choice of quality hardware vendors and a thorough preinstallation testing phase go a long way toward ensuring trouble free operation of their EASE Encoders, Swagit does recognize that occasionally unforeseen issues arise. In the event that their engineers detect a fault, they will work to diagnose the issue. If necessary, next business day replacement of parts will be completed. Swagit offers continual software updates and feature enhancements to their services and products for the life of the City’s managed services contract.
The Agreement and the annual budget provides for the production of 25 meetings per year. The cost for additional meetings (remotely video programmed, indexed, and closed captioned) would be a cost of $1,030 per meeting. Upon approval, it will take approximately six weeks prior to installation of the new video production system.
Reviewed:
_________________________
Sharon del Rosario
Approved:
_________________________
Joe Hoefgen
Attachment