The City of Lewisville has moved to quickly improve public access and engagement with its governmental processes by live streaming City Council, Planning & Zoning, and Zoning Board of Adjustment meetings on the City's official website, starting March 3. The meetings, which were previously available on the City's YouTube channel, now offer a one-stop-shop location for agendas, backup materials, and the live video stream.
Aiming to simplify navigation for residents, the live stream will be hosted on the "City Council Meetings" page on the cityoflewisville.com. To find the page, users can just type "City Council Meetings" in the search bar on the homepage, click on the first link that appears, and consider bookmarking that page for easy future access. When meetings are ongoing, the live video will be displayed, and in the absence of a meeting, a blank box will greet visitors.
One key feature of this new service is the inclusion of live closed captioning managed by artificial intelligence (AI). According to the City of Lewisville, while the AI may initially make a few errors in spelling and naming, it is expected "to get smarter as it learns names, locations, and Lewisville-specific events," leading to fewer mistakes over time.
Besides live coverage, the website also archives the meetings, allowing viewers to watch them after they've concluded. The archived videos come with a "transcript" option which displays the full meeting's dialogue. If users are looking for something specific, they can click on any agenda item and be instantly taken to the corresponding section of the video.
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