VHS videotapes of meetings prior to April 2006 have been encoded into digital format
Hundreds of archived Sarasota City Commission meetings, dating as far back as 1990, have been made available on demand via the City of Sarasota website, www.SarasotaFl.Gov, the city has announced.
Regular City Commission meetings, special City Commission meetings and City Commission workshops prior to 2006, which had been stored on VHS videotape, “were encoded into digital format by the Office of the City Auditor and Clerk,” a news release explains.
“We’re excited to make these meetings available to the public via the internet,” said Interim City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs in the release. “A typical VHS videotape has been found to last somewhere in the range of 10 to 25 years before significant deterioration occurs, so digitizing this content will preserve those older meetings indefinitely. This underscores our commitment to transparency,” Griggs added.
The city began live streaming and digitally archiving City Commission meetings in April 2006, the release explains.
“During the recent digitization process, every effort was made to use the highest video quality possible,” the release adds.