High Five on Facebook Live!

The towns of Avon and Vail recently collaborated with High Five Access Media to purchase and incorporate the technology needed to stream council meetings and other events on Facebook Live. The update allows High Five Access Media to simultaneously live stream to multiple destinations, including Live on Five, YouTube and Facebook. Live streams of Avon and Vail town council meetings will be posted on High Five’s Facebook page and shared to the town’s pages, creating additional ways for the community to take part in public meetings.

In addition, all meetings are shown locally on Comcast cable Channel 5, Apple TV and Roku.

The new technology was successfully tested at the Jan. 19 Vail Town Council meeting and will be used for the upcoming Avon Town Council meeting on Jan. 26, which begins at 5 p.m. Moving forward, all Avon and Vail Town Council meetings will offer a live stream on the towns’ Facebook accounts. The potential for live streaming additional public meetings and events is being considered on an event-by-event basis.

The Facebook Live stream allows the public to both watch and engage with meetings in real-time, and comments on the live streams will be answered via Facebook comments within 24 hours.

“We are excited to incorporate this technology into Avon Town Council meetings because it offers another opportunity for the community to watch and engage with the public process,” said Avon Town Manager Eric Heil.

Vail Town Manager Scott Robson notes, “Now more than ever it’s vital to invest in technologies like this to increase public access and engagement in light of meeting restrictions due to the pandemic.”

For more information, please contact High Five Access Media at info@highfivemedia.org.

High Five Access Media is a nonprofit, noncommercial, grassroots community access media center that is available on Comcast Channel 5 and anywhere, online. HFAM provides coverage of local government meetings and offers free media education to valley residents and nonprofits so they can learn about video production, check out video equipment for free, and express their ideas and advocate for a cause on cable television and the web.

High Five Access Media is partially funded by franchise fees provided to the towns of Vail and Avon from Comcast. The towns hold franchise agreements with Comcast. These agreements allow the cable operator to distribute their programming on cables buried in public-owned rights of way and make a profit. In return for using these rights of ways, Comcast pays the towns a portion of their profits to the towns, which approve funding for High Five. To learn more, visit highfivemedia.org.