From Janet Kipling, Exeter 383654, May 16, 2008

The annual meeting of Devon County Council will be broadcast live on the internet.

Devon residents can follow the meeting on Thursday 22^nd May from 2.15pm.

Items to be decided at the annual meeting include electing the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the County Council, the Leader and Deputy Leader and the Executive Members. .

The live 'webcasts' will be made on the Council's award-winning website http://www.devon.gov.uk/. People can watch the webcasts live or view the recordings later whenever they want to.

They can also use the website to send in their views on the issues discussed, decisions taken and the webcasting service itself.

Those who are not connected to the internet at home, can access recordings of meetings from libraries. People are advised to check availability with their local library first.

The webcasting service is becoming increasingly popular. Last year a total of 15,843 people watched either live or archived webcasts. The number of viewers in January this year was 1,409.

Notes to Editors:

Devon is one of a number of councils nationwide which have full webcasting contracts with public-i. Over 50 local authorities have also webcast a variety of meetings and events during the past two years.

Watching and listening:

To listen or watch you need a connection to the Internet, a PC or Mac with a Sound Card (all computers bought in the last two or three years should come fitted with one), and speakers which are turned on!

You will also need a program on your PC for RealOne Player (the new name for RealPlayer). The basic RealOne Player program is available for FREE from RealNetworks.

Don't be put off by the long instructions - you only need to follow them once to have them set up on your computer forever. As an example, download a suitable program using the links below.

Download RealOne Player
(Windows 98, Millenium Edition, 2000, NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later, XP or Mac OS X.)

Download RealPlayer 8 or G2
(Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 3.1, Mac OS 7.x/8.x, Linux, + others).