Technical Glitch Behind No Monday Night Council Broadcast
If you thought you were on the wrong channel this past Monday evening when you were expecting to catch the bi-weekly meeting of Moose Jaw City Council on Shaw Cable 10 or the City's web-site you weren't alone.
Due to a technical difficulty the wrong feed was provided by Shaw Communications out of Saskatoon and local Council watchers got to take in community programming and promotions about Saskatoon.
The equipment used to broadcast Council meetings is owned by Shaw and they provide the feed not only to their own community channel but the City of Moose Jaw as well.
The wrong feed is just one in a series of technical difficulties which have cropped up in Shaw's City Council coverage over the last year.
Other technical problems have included such things as pre-empting portions of Executive Committee and Council meetings on the live feed, sound quality and slowing switching between speakers at the meetings.
“The last major technical glitch of this magnitude was losing a tape of a committee meeting during the Multi-Plex debate,” one of over a dozen MJ Independent (MJ INDY) readers who contacted us said.
According to the City of Moose Jaw's communications director Craig Hemmingway (CH) the loss of the Monday evening's Council and Executive Committee meetings on Shaw Cable 10 as well as the City's web-site was due to the fact Shaw provided an incorrect video feed.
For those who watched it the feed was Shaw's Saskatoon programming and promotional broadcast.
In the interest of dispelling rumours here are the questions and the answers provided we asked about the lost broadcast.
MJ INDY - Have you spoken to Shaw to rectify the problem? If so what type of response did you get?
CH - Yes and they were responsive in trying to fix the issue.
MJ INDY - Will there be any opportunity for a tape to be placed on the City's web-site of the two meetings?
CH - Yes, we are currently working at uploading the meeting to the City’s website and will advise media/public once it has been done.
MJ INDY - There has been a number of major technical difficulties with the Shaw feed as well as portions of the Council and Executive Meetings lacking sound or being glitchy in their quality do you knew what efforts are being taken to rectify the problems?
CH - We are in constant communication with Shaw about any issues and will continue our efforts to ensure a quality broadcast.
MJ INDY - The City of Moose Jaw is committed to transparency as well as accountability in its operations and part of that is to have better communications do you have any comment on the impact such technical difficulties have on that objective?
CH - It’s unfortunate this incident happened, but we thank Shaw for acknowledging their mistake and working to correct it.
MJ INDY - I ask that question based upon now there are a few saying there is a coverup and/or a conspiracy about what is going on.
MJ INDY - As part of the Shaw broadcast on the City's web-site do you think that it broke any City policy as I understand the City has a policy of not promoting one business or interest over top of another and there are portions of the Shaw broadcast some may construe as doing such - especially since the programming featured Saskatoon entities which may be competitors to Moose Jaw for profits and non-profits alike?
CH - As mentioned, Monday’s issue was an honest mistake and we are treating it as such.
MJ INDY – Is there anything the City can do to prevent this form re-occurring and what has been done so far?
CH - We will do our best to ensure that all necessary steps are taken on our end to ensure broadcasts air as intended.
MJ INDY - Do you have anything to add?
CH - Shaw will continue to air re-broadcasts of the City Council meeting on Channel 10 as per their schedule.
Attempts to secure a comment from Shaw were unsuccessful but the video of the meeting is now up on the new City of Moose Jaw web-site and being re-broadcast on Shaw Cable 10.