What's News? - August 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
This August, the IRC team headed to San Antonio, Texas for the 2011 NCSL Legislative Summit where we unveiled our new Chamber Automation app on Apple’s iPad2. The Chamber Automation application enables legislators to stay connected with the current calendar items, amendments, and a complete overview of current bills as well as providing the ability to search, view and print archived legislation. This software is currently available for use on both Apple and Microsoft tablet operating systems. Tablet PCs and the enormous flexibility and portability they bring to the table may well be the way of the future and IRC looks forward to incorporating more aspects of the legislative process, like voting and roll-call, on tablets computers.
In addition to the Chamber Automation app for the iPad, we also shared information regarding our new and improved xmLegislato.net software, which not only includes our latest .net voting applications but all the applications to support the entire legislative process. Our team of developers has worked feverishly on updating our xmLegislator.net system to a level of functionality never seen before, further proving that our IRC’s software and hardware remains superior to any other product on the market.
With the new products on display, it was no surprise that we received a large amount of interest at our booth. Old friends and new faces alike were welcomed by IRC staff in attendance; Howard Jorenby, Richard Physioc, Tyler Schaeffer and Jessica Hayashida. Throughout the summit, we constantly engaged booth-goers, sharing our knowledge with legislative staff, other vendors and even our competitors. It was wonderful to see so many of you and we look forward to seeing you again next year in Chicago where we can once again cement our standing as the industry leader in voting and legislative management systems.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Recently, IRC met with the good people of the Iowa House of Representatives to put in place a plan for IRC to install an automatic camera system in the House. This system will work in tandem with the Request to Speak system and be used to capture video and sound of members speaking from the floor when their request to speak is recognized and their microphones turned on. The cameras – five of them mounted at strategic points in the chamber – utilize IRC’s software and the RTS system to pivot and tilt to the exact position of a member once that member’s microphone is activated by the system. Camera personnel and those working in the video booth have plenty to do as it is and the automatic camera system provides an immediate, sleek, and accurate transition to capture video of speaking members and prevents duplication of effort on the part of the staff. As well, in the circumstance of two members engaged in a debate, multiple cameras will be used to capture the action for the video booth staff.
Though the Iowa House does not have full-color LED displays, this would be an instance where the video feed could be displayed live on the chamber displays .
The final, single stream of video will be continuously transferred to a third-party website where the video and sound will be both stored and made available for streaming on the internet live and as archival footage. As per IRC’s recommendation, the Iowa House has chosen Granicus as the entity to provide storage and live streaming of the video/audio content.
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