Enhancing Democratic Transparency: Caerphilly Council’s Automated AV Upgrade

Caerphilly Council has recently adopted AREC and Televic solutions to improve transparency and engage more effectively with constituents. With the support of distributor CUK Group / Tukans and system integrator Kinly, the council implemented the AREC DS-9CU speaker tracking solution. This system ensures that all active councillors using the Televic D-Cerno discussion system are always visible, dynamically switching between connected network PTZ cameras. The video feed is routed to a KL-3T Media Station for recording and can also be streamed directly to social media platforms. In addition, the DS-9CU feed doubles as a webcam for videoconferencing applications, enhancing remote meeting experiences.

Like many UK councils, Caerphilly Council prioritises engaging constituents in the democratic process and ensuring its work is visible. The council communicates through a combination of traditional and social media updates, public events, and the recording and streaming of meetings. Previously, these recordings provided a way for the public to stay informed, but they were time-consuming to produce and limited to select sessions. The original setup also made it difficult to switch between cameras during meetings, meaning sessions with up to 99 participants were largely captured using a single camera. To meet the growing demand for high-quality digital content, the council opted to upgrade its AV system with a solution recommended by Kinly.

The solution centers on the AREC DS9CU, a versatile 9 channel speaker tracking station designed to replace live camera crews. By automating video production, it reduces costs and simplifies both media creation and minute taking tasks. Fully automatic, the DS9CU offers a wide range of features tailored for government institutions and supports a variety of video inputs, including AREC and third party PTZ and fixed cameras, computers, and network streams via HDMI, USB, NDIHX, RTSP, RTMP, and other protocols. It can display and control PTZ presets from connected sources through integration with microphone discussion systems, RS232 TCP HTTP API commands, or simple manual controls. The system also automatically composes video layouts with up to nine inputs, enhanced with customizable overlays, backgrounds, and text.

At Caerphilly Council, the DS9CU integrates with the Televic DCerno discussion system, tracking 99 seats via three Avonic network PTZ cameras. When a DCerno microphone is activated, the DS9CU displays the corresponding camera and calls the assigned PTZ preset. In meetings where multiple microphones are active simultaneously, the system manages this automatically using its selectable speaker tracking modes, Override and First in First out, ensuring each councillor is shown in the correct order.

The council uses the discussion view produced by the DS9CU as a video source for the KL3T, a 3 channel Media Station that records and streams council meetings in Full HD. This station is particularly well suited for use in councils due to its built in interactive display, which provides a clear overview of ongoing recording and streaming and allows full control over video layouts, graphics, and other settings.

The council is also using the same discussion view as a webcam in videoconferencing applications, primarily Zoom and Teams, by means of an HDMI to USB signal converter. Using the DS9CU in this way has allowed the council to significantly improve the visual clarity of its meetings, making full use of all available cameras and enabling dynamic switching between them without manual intervention.

Recent council meetings using this system can be viewed on the CaerphillyCBCTV YouTube channel, including the meeting from 23rd July, which marked the first use of these products.