By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

City of South Lyon officials are looking to upgrade the technology in their meeting chambers.

Much of the City’s audio and video equipment is over two decades old and at the end of its technical life. South Lyon Mayor Dan Pelchat compared it to driving a vehicle from 1998 in current times. The Cable Commission along with South Lyon Community Schools, has been researching methods for upgrading the recording and broadcast equipment for over a year. Project representative Rich Perry was before City Council, at their latest meeting, with a resolution requesting the installation of official upgrades.

Perry said the new system will be much more user-friendly and easy to operate.

Perry said the new system will be able to take digital feeds of presentations as opposed to their current system of zooming in on a screen. They will also be able to add graphics, dates and names to broadcasts.

Councilman Glenn Kivell asked if it would be capable of automatically switching to speakers like some online meeting applications are capable of. It was explained that while that might work well in online or smaller settings, it’s not ideal in the large council chambers with several mics that could pick up a speaker’s comments. Councilwoman Maggie Kurtzweil asked if the system could potentially provide for remote capabilities, but that was uncertain and not said to be part of the current scope. Though that can be looked into, City Manager Paul Zelenak said it’s taken a long time to get to the point they are at now, and they would like to move the project along.

City Council approved their portion of the project, which is 50%, and will come out to $16,164.30.