John Glenn Schools Stream Board Meetings

Committed to fostering open governance and engaging its community, John Glenn School Corporation partnered with River Systems to bring its School Board hearings in line with state laws requiring government transparency. These regulations require public meetings to be accessible through video streaming and recording and integrate with services like Zoom Room and Zoom Webinar.

The Challenge
Prior to the project, board meetings were not recorded or streamed, and capturing accurate summaries required time-consuming manual transcription. The school district needed a solution that would meet state transparency requirements while remaining simple for staff to operate without extensive technical training or ongoing intervention.

The Solution
River Systems designed and implemented a tailored multimedia system that prioritized simplicity and reliability. At the heart of the solution is the automated pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera programmed to track and frame individual board members as they spoke. This hands-free video approach ensured consistent and professional coverage of the proceedings. Complementing the camera system was a high-performance audio array, installed strategically at the board table. These microphones were able to isolate each speaker’s voice clearly, providing high-fidelity audio for both the livestream and the meeting archive.

The system was also equipped with a cloud-connected platform that enabled real-time broadcasting and automatic recording of each session. These archived videos were made accessible to the public, supporting compliance and transparency goals. In addition, the integrated speech-to-text transcription feature used the high-quality audio feed to auto-generate meeting records, significantly reducing the administrative burden on district staff.

Results
With the new system in place, the John Glenn School Board now hosts fully compliant, publicly accessible meetings. Staff can initiate livestreams and recordings with minimal effort, confident that the automated technologies will reliably handle the rest. The transcription feature has already saved countless hours previously spent on manual note-taking, freeing up time and improving documentation accuracy.

River Systems remains a trusted partner, continuing to support the district with periodic maintenance, remote assistance, and system updates to ensure long-term performance and legislative compliance.