Advice wanted on setting up Civic Webcam

[ahhaa]

This is a rural area, except close along the shore of Lake Michigan. Population drops 75% in the winter, and that's when the City Councils and Township Boards get up to fiscal shennanegans. The local newspaper has dropped to a weekly flyswatter of car and real estate ads, they've actually quit their online presence.

When cable arrived, it promised the Council meetings would be televised; which is done after a fashion. It is abyssmal quality for any number of reasons, but it does make it possible for cabled residents to watch the proceedings from home.

The real problem is a lot fewer people still have cable, due to price and low cost DSL and satellite.
A large part of our upperscale population is not here for half the year; some only here for a few weeks a year- but they all must pay property taxes, school bond issues, etc.
The poorer folks don't have cable for the obvious reason- this is Michigan.

So... my idea is just to utilize the web - the new HD Webcams and YouTube or some such video service so that anyone anywhere can see what now only those with cable can see.

The Council Chamber has wifi, but it isn't currently public. I have an old D-8 Sony camcorder with a great zoom and nice low light sensitivity for meetings not in the Chamber.

I'm looking for advice on a KISS system that any bozo can operate without fail, so I don't have to actually attend all the meetings just to click a mouse ... Mebbe using security cam software?

[edDV]

Why not use a camcorder, then edit and web publish? Or record and web publish the cable broadcast?

Youtube has time limits. City council meetings get long winded.

[ahhaa]

Thanks once again Ed... well, I don't want to be 'the goto guy' for one thing; I was thinking more in terms of those automated systems like the IP cameras for security. A flip-a-switch system.
Microsoft and others are introducing cheap HD webcams, 16:9 would be useful in that the typical frame of interest is a long row of seats.
Bad audio and bad lighting are the other usual suspects now requiring a human operator.
I doubt Comcast would allow retransmission, but mebbe.

You are right about the long windedness, but it serves a purpose; after the public goes home some interesting votes surface.

For example, 'they' now want to build a huge new park; it's way out of town and requires soccermom's car to get to. 'They' are blithely telling the public they'll 'just need $1 per resident' to develop it. Well, even counting in the infants, that's $6,000/year max. That doesn't begin to cover stuff like toilets, paths, lighting, bleachers, patrols, parking, signs, etc. It doesn't cover mowing the acres of grass. Now, in Michigan? Its sock it to the summer people... who I think have a right to see what is going on.

[edDV]

Someone has to run the cameras and host the transmission. Comcast will probably allow retransmission. Ask them. The owner of the show is local gov't.