Burgaw, N.C. (August 30, 2012) - The Pender County Board of Commissioners Meetings will now be streamed live. Beginning September 4th, at 4:00pm, the Pender County Information Technology Service (ITS) Department will begin streaming the Board of Commissioners Meetings live through the County’s website as well as the Pender County Planning Board and Board of Adjustment Meetings.

Over the last few years, The Pender County Board of Commissioners has shared ideas on how to make their meetings available online to provide more citizen access and availability to county meetings and information. During the June 4, 2012 Pender County FY 12-13 Departmental Budget Meeting by the Board of Commissioners, the Pender County Information Technology Services (ITS) Department was tasked with researching options to achieve this at the most economical price. The ITS Department began researching solutions to upgrade audio and video systems to address coverage and delivery methods. Several different software packages and delivery methods were assessed based on:

• Cost
• Service Provided
• Simplicity
• Quality

Ustream.tv was selected as our platform of choice. Since our citizens and businesses are not always able to attend meetings, this will allow them to view live and archived meetings from home or at the office.

Our first meeting was recorded on July 23, 2012 as a test where adjustments were made to audio/video sources. We will broadcast our first Board of Commissioners Meeting live on September 4, 2012.

*The live meetings can be accessed from the Pender County Government website at:

Live videos - http://www.pendercountync.gov/OnlineServices.aspx

Video Archive - http://www.pendercountync.gov/ArchivedMeetings.aspx

If you have any questions regarding the live or archived videos you can contact the IT Department at (910) 259-1260, or send an email directly to Erik Harvey, Director at: eharvey@pendercountync.gov.