It will only be a matter of months before residents will be able to see what happens at council meetings without ever having to leave their homes.
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Bathurst Regional Council has installed equipment that gives it the capability to broadcast its meetings live to the public and gave the system a trial run on Wednesday night.
The meeting was recorded, but not broadcast online.
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To ensure residents can see every detail, some of the furniture in the room has been moved to allow a clear view of the councillors and executive staff.
Council has not said when it will webcast a meeting to the public, but it is understood it would be before the end of the year.
Ahead of the formal introduction, councillors have resolved to put council's new Webcasting of Council Meetings Policy on public exhibition.
Under the policy, the meetings will be broadcast with a slight delay that will allow the stream to be halted if there is "an act of disorder" during proceedings.
If the chair of the meeting or council's general manager feel an act of disorder or inappropriate comments have been recorded, these can be edited out of the footage before it is uploaded on council's website.
Any editing will be reported to a subsequent meeting of council.
The meetings will be able to be watched live on council's website and then be made available for a specified period of time after publication of the recording to the website.
Webcasting will start from the "discussion of items of business", which means that anything said by people speaking in public forum will not be part of the stream.
People present in the chamber, including councillors and council staff, will be advised prior to the stream starting that the meeting will be webcast. Attending the meeting constitutes as consent to being recorded.
The webcasting policy will be on exhibition for 28 days and in that time residents can make submissions on the document.
As of December 14, 2019 all local councils will be required to webcast meetings on their websites under the Model Code of Meeting Practice for Local Councils.
Councillor Alex Christian is one councillor who has welcomed the move.
"In the age we live in with technology, I certainly think it is appropriate for our council meetings to be recorded and for people to be able to watch in their own homes," he said.
"It may even generate more interest in what we are doing."
