Despite its hefty $57,875 price tag, a completely upgraded audio/video system recently installed in the Municipal Center’s Council Chambers did not launch without a few hiccups this week.

The upgrade, which was substantially completed in time for the December 7 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, failed to sync to the municipal website meeting webcast system, forcing anyone trying to view the meeting online who hit a blank and silent monitor screen to call in and try to listen to proceedings.

Unfortunately, for the first 20 minutes or so of that meeting, even the phone line integration was compromised, distorting dialog and creating an annoying echo for at least a few people calling in to listen and/or make public comments.

One of those frustrated callers was former First Selectman Pat Llodra, who eventually asked if the meeting was being recorded because the live audio was so compromised. It became so bad that she ended up dropping off the meeting call, ostensibly to wait for a clearer recording to become available.

By the time the Board of Finance convened the following evening, the video aspect of the new system appeared to have been corrected, projecting various images of the meeting room with markedly better quality than the original system, but still sans audio.

Town Director of Technology Al Miles told The Newtown Bee Wednesday morning that the source of that problem was found and resolved, adding that audio and video of the two meetings would be available for archived viewing later that afternoon.

The upgraded technology was contracted after the original system, which was somewhat advanced when the Municipal Center first opened, was determined to have reached or exceeded its practical life. In recent months, video and audio quality appeared to degrade, and tech shortfalls prevented presentation integration, leaving viewers unable to define most information being projected to attendees in the room.

Hardware for the new system, including $500 in shipping charges, totaled $46,695. Labor costs included engineering, design, fabrication, programming, installation, training, support, and project management added $11,180 to the tab (at $130 per hour).

The bulk of labor charges at $7,540 covered the actual integration and hardware/infrastructure installations.

Hardware upgrades include four new powered robotic cameras with a joystick controller and the ability to also control the system remotely using a tablet computer; a six-input streamer/switcher station; a 22-inch monitor; a dedicated PC for streaming integration of Zoom and virtual interactive conferencing; a new digital projector that can integrate imaging through the conferencing system for remote viewers; and new in-room audio speakers.

The system will also help eliminate microphone issues. Formerly, they were tethered to conference tables. Now, wireless mics can move to where speakers are seated.

A separate wireless lapel mic is also included for anyone who may need to make presentations hands-free.

The final step in the A/V overhaul will be migrating the public viewing platform from an internal webcast system using the soon-to be-discontinued Adobe Flash software - to YouTube. According to Miles, all Newtown public meetings being webcast from the council chambers will be streamed and archived on the YouTube web-based site beginning in January.