Mike Balkman Council Chambers reopen with technology improvements

After several months of work, Culver City's main council chambers are back open with much-needed improvements.

Today's Cultural Affairs Commission meeting will be the first in the improved Mike Balkman Council Chambers. The chambers were closed following the December 9, 2024, City Council meeting to make several upgrades, and since then, most meetings scheduled to be held there have been moved to the Culver City Senior Center.

Audio and visual features in the council chambers were beginning to reach the end of their lifespan and become obsolete, most of which had been in use for 10 years. A need for continuing technological integrations prompted the city to conduct a more comprehensive series of improvements.

"Over the years, some components have been replaced due to failure and to ensure continued operation," Chief Information Officer J.R. Wright told Culver Crescent. "However, the overall impending hardware and software obsolescence requires updating the systems."

One of the primary goals of this project was to minimize the potential risk of failures, such as audio difficulties and streaming bugs. Still, some components, like the agenda voting system, are hosted on a cloud or by another entity outside city staff's control.

When COVID-19 forced virtual meetings in 2020, components were added to the chambers' existing technology to support hybrid public meetings and allow for virtual public participation. Today's more intimate upgrades make these added capabilities intrinsic to the chambers' design.

"With the redesign," Wright said, "the system incorporates these components in a more integrated way."

New chamber features include a 114-foot-long single-screen video wall and digital nameplates to identify council members and commissioners sitting on the dais. A new Assistive Listening System will allow people to use their phones to enhance their ability to hear meetings and new cameras have been installed to improve the experience of those streaming the meetings.

Meeting sign-ups will not be changed, but the city is switching the online platform for streaming meetings. Those who sign up to watch meetings online in the Mike Balkman Council Chambers will use Zoom instead of the previously used WebEx, and live viewing of meetings will also be available on the City's YouTube channel as before. Streaming for meetings in other venues will remain unchanged.

These improvements were completed on February 6 before undergoing testing. The final tests and staff training were finished Monday, just in time to host today's Cultural Affairs Commission meeting. The city spent $525,000 from its Capital Improvements and Acquisitions Fund to complete the project and maintain an agreement with IMS to service and support the chambers.

"This agreement includes on-site preventative maintenance," Wright said, "which is conducted quarterly and has served to prevent a total system failure."

Following the Cultural Affairs Commission meeting tonight, the City Council Meeting will return to the improved Chambers for the first time on February 24, and the Planning Commission will follow on February 26.