Council chambers have quietly become some of the most demanding AV environments around. What used to be a handful of gooseneck microphones and a creaky PA now has to juggle hybrid meetings, public livestreams, recordings, accessibility requirements and absolute reliability — all while being simple enough for non‑technical staff to operate confidently.
Environment Canterbury (ECan), the regional council for Canterbury, New Zealand, recently faced this challenge when modernising its Christchurch council chambers. The brief was clear: create a future‑ready space that supports transparent governance and meaningful public participation, without turning every meeting into a technical exercise.
To deliver it, Vega New Zealand designed and integrated a system built around Televic’s Confidea wired delegate platform, combined with PTZ cameras, ceiling array microphones and full Microsoft Teams integration. The result is a chamber that feels calm, controlled and decidedly modern — whether you’re seated at the table, in the public gallery, or attending remotely.
Hybrid meetings are no longer an exception in government settings — they’re the baseline. Council members, staff, presenters and the public all need reliable access, whether they’re physically present or joining via Teams or Zoom.
At ECan, the AV system handles this with minimal fuss. Camera switching follows whoever is speaking, audio is clean and intelligible for both the room and the livestream, and remote participants integrate naturally into proceedings rather than feeling bolted on as an afterthought.
Crucially, all of this happens without constant operator intervention. The system is designed so council staff can run meetings themselves, with confidence, rather than relying on an AV technician hovering in the background.
“This is what a hybrid‑ready council chamber should look like. We had another council visit recently and they simply said that they wanted what we had.”
The backbone of the installation is a 24 seat Televic Confidea FLEX wired delegate system, connected in a redundant loop topology. In this setup, units are daisy-chained with the circuit closing back to the Plixus Central Engine. This is ideal for council chambers, ensuring uninterrupted meetings through self-healing technology that reroutes data if a cable fails.
Each Confidea FLEX tabletop unit includes a touch display, push to talk microphone control and clear LED indicators showing live status — simple, intuitive cues that matter in the heat of a formal meeting.
Unlike other systems that require separate hardware models for different roles, every Confidea FLEX unit is software-configurable to operate as a chairperson, delegate or even a dual-delegate station.
Although ECan isn’t yet using every available Confidea feature, the platform is ready. Voting, request to speak workflows and delegate authentication via ID cards can all be enabled later, without changing the physical infrastructure. That future proofing was a key requirement for the project.
Audio quality is one of the standout strengths. Delegate microphones feed both the room and the broadcast mix, while voice lift through ceiling loudspeakers ensures intelligibility for the public gallery without the sound becoming overbearing or unnatural.
From an integration perspective, the system ticks important boxes: Dante audio output with clean mix‑minus for conferencing; microphone‑triggered camera switching; PoE power and data — eliminating batteries or external power supplies; and built‑in system diagnostics that allow remote monitoring of health, connectivity and participation data such as talk time.
“When it comes to delegate systems, we specify Televic exclusively. The platform is reliable, straightforward to integrate and they just work.”
If there’s one thing that will undermine public trust in a livestreamed council meeting, it’s poor audio. In this respect, the ECan installation stands out. Speech is clear, consistent and controlled, whether you’re listening in the chamber or watching remotely.
That consistency carries through to recordings and archives as well, which are increasingly important for transparency and accountability. The system captures meetings cleanly, providing reliable records without additional complexity.
Vega Technology Consultant Brett Minnie is unequivocal about the choice of platform:
“The audio quality of the Televic units is outstanding. You can hear it immediately on the ECan livestreams. When it comes to delegate systems, we specify Televic exclusively. The platform is reliable, straightforward to integrate and they just work. We’ve installed Televic in the Samoan Parliament and other government spaces, and we expect to deploy them in future councils too.”
One of the understated successes of the project is how little attention the technology demands during meetings. Automation handles the heavy lifting, from microphone logic to camera control, while the control interface remains approachable for everyday users.
This balance — serious capability paired with restrained, intuitive operation — is what turns a technically impressive system into one that actually gets used properly.
And the chamber hasn’t gone unnoticed. According to Minnie, visiting councils are already taking notes.
“This is what a hybrid‑ready council chamber should look like. We had another council visit recently and they simply said that they wanted what we had. That was the goal — to create a repeatable, proven template that other councils can adopt, powered by Televic.”
