The good news, in both scenarios, is that any number of people could watch at any hour once the footage is archived. Administrators did the same in June for the high school graduation. Triple the number of viewers logged on for graduation ceremonies, some from as far away as Mexico and Bosnia. For a small district such as Penn Manor, doing this without equipment donations would be difficult. That's not much money for a bigger district, but for a small rural system like Penn Manor, it's a sizable chunk of cash.
Districts can cut costs if they already have some of the necessary equipment.
A potentially bigger issue than money, however, is having the staff to produce a webcast. They had to spend an hour setting up the equipment, sit through an entire meeting, and then spend an hour taking it down. It was too cumbersome for them. Besides, Matchock says, not all board members were keen on the idea. Others questioned the legal implications of broadcasting a student's image on the Internet without a parent's permission.