House seeks a host to webcast committee hearings

The House of Representatives is looking for a vendor to handle all live streaming services for the legislative chamber’s 20 individual committees.Each committee currently is responsible for attaining webcasting services on its own for hearings that are broadcast on the Internet.But in a pre-solicitation issued Wednesday the House described plans to streamline and consolidate the process by selecting a private contractor to handle webcasting for all committees.Responses are due Jan. 4.At this point, the House wants to establish a pilot program starting in January (when Congress returns from its winter recess) and then determine whether to move forward with a one-year contract.The winning bidder must establish a global network of streaming services that will be available 24 hours a day and stream and archive content in different formats for each committee.