Please note that we do not webcast when the Council is in closed or private session (also known as Part 2) and the public are not allowed to be present.
There may also be times when we are unable to broadcast due to technical issues. We will do our best to update the website if this is the case.
A webcast is basically a transmission of audio and video over the internet. Video cameras at some of our council meetings capture the information and you can watch all the action live through your normal internet connection from the comfort of your own home.
We currently broadcast a number of our meetings and you can see the list on the left with both past and upcoming titles.
Click on a meeting title on the left hand side of this page to pick what you would like to watch.
You will also find links on each meeting page to documents and presentations associated with the webcast.
Don't worry if you miss a meeting - you can still see it for up to six months afterwards in the Webcast library.
The Webcast Player allows you to watch, pause and stop live and archived webcasts. If you've watched videos on YouTube or Facebook before, the controls will be very familiar
Webcasts that haven't started yet display a Timeline, and if the meeting has Agenda points, these will be listed here in their planned order of inclusion. If there are no Agenda points, the Timeline only displays the webcast starting time.
Archived webcasts will list the Agenda (if one was created for the meeting). If the webcast includes Agenda points, click on these to jump to that part of the meeting; if it includes Speaker Profiles, you can also click on a name to jump to the point in the webcast when that person speaks.
The main home page displays an overview of live, future and recent webcasts in a panel on the right of the page. If the feature has been turned on, this panel may also display two 'We recommend' webcasts. You can watch any of these webcasts by clicking on them.
To see every webcast, click on the Webcast library button and scroll through the list. Alternatively, find specific webcasts by using the Search box, which lets you search by title, description, agenda points or date.
In addition, most webcasts are tagged with a key word or phrase when they're created - for example 'Scrutiny' or 'Council Meeting' - so you can easily find all the webcasts that relate to a particular topic by clicking the relevant tag; tags also provide visual clues - the larger the word in the Tag cloud, the more webcasts you'll find that are tagged with that word.
Note: you can only search for one tag at a time.
Click on the title of the webcast you want to watch in the Webcast overview list or the main Webcast library. The Webcast player will open a new window, and after a few seconds begin playing the webcast.
Live webcasts display only the information being sent out during the webcast, so it's not possible - for example - to skip backwards to an earlier part of a meeting.
Archived webcasts enable the viewer to navigate to any point of the webcast using index points or by dragging the horizontal scroll bar below the video window.
Note: Speaker Profiles are only displayed for archived webcasts.
Yes, so long as the player is 'in focus'. Use the Tab key to select the player and then continue using Tab to move between the video player controls.
| Shortcut key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space bar | Starts and stops playback |
| Left and right arrow keys | Skips forwards and backwards through the video |
| Up and down arrow keys | Increases and decreases audio volume |
| F key | Switches full screen playback on and off |
| M key | Mutes and unmutes audio |
| S key | Switches subtitles on and off |
| Selected control | Keystroke | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Play button | Space bar | Starts and stops playback |
| Speaker | Space bar | Mutes and unmutes audio |
| Progress bar | Left and right arrow keys | Skips forwards and backwards through the video |
| HD | Space bar | Switches to the HD version of the webcast, if available |
| Settings | Space bar | Opens and closes the Settings panel |
| Full screen | Space bar | Switches to full screen playback - press Esc to close full-screen playback |
You can skip to a different part of a webcast by dragging the horizontal scroll bar below the video to the left or right; alternatively, if the webcast includes Agenda Points and/or Speaker Names you can click on these index points to jump to a topic of interest or to the point when a particular person is speaking.
On the Webcast Player page there's a Feedback tab. Use the form here to comment on a particular webcast or to let us know if you're experiencing technical problems.
It's possible to share entire pages via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, or by pasting a link directly into an email message. Just click the green Share button, then select the service you want to use or copy the link in the Share link box.
Entire Agendas and individual Agenda Points also have their own Share buttons which work in the same way.
Note: Choosing to share an Agenda Point will automatically set the video start point accordingly; you can turn this off or alter the start point manually in the dialogue box.
Some meetings may be downloaded for viewing offline.
Click the Download icon at the bottom of the video window and then follow the instructions in the pop-up window.
Agenda items which are associated with a particular geographical location will display a map pin and a link. Clicking on the link will open the Map tab and display the location, together with the Agenda point and a link to play the webcast from that point.
If you'd like to stay up to date with those webcasts that interest you there are two ways:
- the easiest way is to click the Subscribe button, select the topics that interest you and and then click the Subscribe button
- alternatively, you can use the RSS button and follow the instructions to paste the link into your favourite RSS newsreader
The tag cloud shows the tags (or keywords) assigned to any webcast, with the most popular ones appearing proportionally larger.
Clicking on a tag will filter the list of webcasts accordingly. To remove the filter, click the 'Remove tag filter' link at top of the page.
Note: You can only filter the webcast list one tag at a time.
For best results, please make sure you're using the following web browsers.
| Device | Browser support |
|---|---|
| Desktop and laptop PCs | Internet Explorer 11 (Win 7), Internet Explorer 11 (Win 8.1+), Edge, Chrome 8+, Firefox 6+, Opera 15+, Vivaldi, Safari 8+ |
| Mobile devices | Chrome for Android, Firefox for Android, Opera for Android, Safari for iOS, Chrome for iOS, Opera for iOS, Internet Explorer for Windows Phone 8.1+, Edge for Windows Phone 10+ |
The Webcast player doesn't require a plugin, it runs out of the box using open standards (HTML5).
This commonly happens because the person speaking hasn't turned on their microphone. If you think that's the case, please let us know via the Feedback form.
Other things to check are:
Note: Some webcasts use audio systems that are inherently quiet, so you may have to compensate by turning up the volume at your end.
There are a number of reasons why you might not be able to see a webcast, including:
This is usually due to a slow Internet connection. We work hard to make sure our webcasts can be viewed by everyone, but a slow connection may result in some buffering. You can often improve performance by closing down any other programs which may be using your Internet connection, for example Skype, Dropbox, Facebook and YouTube.
Although our webcasts are encoded in a way that allows them to stream smoothly for most people, if you're using an Internet connection that's shared with lots of other people - which is common - performance will drop at busy times. Close any programs that may be using the Internet and/or try again at a less busy time of the day.
The size of the video window in the Player has been selected to provide the optimum balance between performance and picture quality. However, the video can be put into full-screen mode, by selecting the enlarge icon at the bottom right of the video window.
If you're using a computer at work it's possible that your company does not allow the viewing of external webcasts. Please contact your network administrator if you're experiencing any difficulties.