May 30, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Cardiff, Wales-based managed services provider eLINIA (http://www.elinia.com/) will host live streaming of the proceedings of the National Assembly for Wales (http://www.senedd.tv), it was announced recently.
According to the company, their “web TV” service will give the public “unrestricted access to plenary sessions and committee meetings, plus a searchable archive of debates which will be added to daily”. Barcud Derwen, the UK’s largest broadcast service provider outside of London, is responsible for delivering the broadcast infrastructure within the Assembly and will run the streaming application to provide an average of 35 hours of content a week.
“We’ve been the host broadcaster for National Assembly Wales since 1999 and see huge potential in extending our service to a new audience, via the internet,” explained Barcud Derwen’s new media manager, Mr. Rhun Roberts. “Working with eLINIA has allowed us to concentrate on what we do best, in the knowledge that the service we deliver has a robust, flexible foundation.”
The move is part of the e-democracy initiative designed to encourage citizens to engage with the democratic process in Wales – one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. The content provided by Barcud Derwen will be digitally tagged to enable users to search by topic, date, or by Assembly Member. Meetings will be tagged and sorted by agenda item.
”The Assembly is committed to using the most modern and inclusive methods available to help people understand, engage and participate in Welsh democracy,” suggested Peter Black AM, Commissioner for the Assembly and the Citizen. “E-democracy has a number of benefits: the potential to engage with people who may not normally take an interest in the Assembly; services such as senedd.tv makes watching the Assembly’s proceedings much more accessible to people, not just in Wales but all over the World.”
“As the role and influence of new media continues to grown, we will provide National Assembly Wales with the flexibility and peace of mind it needs to give citizens access to the information they want, when they want it,” added eLINIA’s Technical Architect, James Carnie.
