Media Vision

1078 60th Street
Oakland, CA 94608
United States

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‘The future is hybrid’: Media Vision launches all-in-one meeting software for local governments.

Posted on Monday, January 18, 2021

As the world re-molds itself to a future in which the working trends of 2020 are likely to remain, Media Vision launches its latest product in the US market, Virtual Council.

Built exclusively for local and federal governments, Virtual Council is an all-in-one solution for hosting online or hybrid moderated sessions. More than a short-term answer to Covid, the software hands council members the tools and support to create a more effective, equal meeting experience for all participants—now and in the future.

Answering the call of American policy makers.

Around March of 2020, the enforcement of shutdown orders had local and special governments—like most sectors in the US—turning to commercially available tools for collaboration. But as Media Vision reports, where public policy making is concerned, most would soon discover that there were inherent deficiencies to these platforms.

Video Teleconferencing (VTC) solutions may have been available for council members to see and hear each other—while using Yes/No/Abstain voting solutions from smartphones or tablets—but these rarely offered the crucial request-to-speak function. In terms of public distribution, a computer may additionally have been needed to extract the audio and video of each recording to submit them to the streaming solution. The result? A system consisting of multiple, unspecialized tools.

“Jumping on the ‘Zoom wagon’ only ever solved part of the remote work problem for governments,” explains Wesley Sutcliff, VP of Technology at Media Vision. “Depending on the requirements of a council, there may have been as many as five unique vendors attempting to work in parallel to facilitate all the functions carried out by policy makers.”

That’s where Virtual Council comes in.

After eighteen years of success with Council Chamber solutions by TAIDEN, Media Vision quickly identified that there were too many unique vendors involved with hosting a moderated meeting. Their answer was to create an all-in-one SaaS subscription offering technical support throughout the lifetime of the relationship.

The features of Virtual Council include:

Moderated discussion, thanks to a request-to-speak list and speech timer.

Online voting whereby councils can assign voting privileges, cast votes or abstentions, and view outcomes by name.
Safe facilitation of public engagement through microphone/camera control.
The creation and download capabilities of easy-to-share meeting reports.

How does it work?

Councils can sign up to one of three subscriptions, all of which include a Customer Success Manager and a thirty-day cancellation period. Plans vary in price depending on the number of hours of meetings required, and can be purchased alongside Media Vision’s award-winning AV equipment for maximum sound and image quality.

Calling on councils to join the Virtual Council ‘Pilot Program’.

As part of its launch, Virtual Council is offering five councils the chance to use the software free of charge for three months, during which time they will benefit from the support of a dedicated Customer Success Manager to help them make the most out of the tool. Places will be awarded on a first come first served basis, so get in touch with the team to register your interest now, or request a demo of Virtual Council in action.

Press contact:

For all information and media requests about Virtual Council or Media Vision, please contact Chloë Walford, Head of Marketing, at chloe@media-vision.com.

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