In March 2021, following the House Administration’s submission of the Technical Observations: Hybrid Proceedings and Specific Information Concerning Committee Witnesses information report to the Board of Internal Economy, tangible improvements have been achieved in several technical areas being tracked and monitored due to their potential impact on the work done in virtual proceedings. Also in March 2021, the Board of Internal Economy and the Liaison Committee members requested that a technical observation dashboard be prepared and shared. As a result, the following provides an update, through to the end of June 2021, to the data included in Appendix A of the previous Liaison Committee report:

• 1) The number of committee witnesses whose IT equipment and connectivity were tested prior to their appearance (see Figure 1);
• 2) Types of headset used by witnesses (see Figure 2);
• 3) Reasons for audio quality issues experienced by committee witnesses (see Figure 3); and
• 4) The number of participants who joined the meetings using a hard-wired connection, rather than Wi-Fi (see Figure 4).

Figure 1: Witnesses and pre-tested witnesses (by month) (July 2020 to June 2021)

Note:      As of February 2021, the House Administration calls all committee witnesses to schedule pre‑tests.

Figure 2: Committee witness headset type with microphone (November 2020 to May 2021 and June 2021)

Figure 3: Reasons for audio-quality issues experienced by committee witnesses (June 2021, as compared to February to May 2021)

Table 1: Resolution of incidents by category (June 2021, and November 2020 to May 2021)

Table 2: Breakdown of resolution of headset and microphone-related issues (June 2021, and November 2020 to May 2021)

Figure 4: Network connection of committee meeting participants (June 2021, as compared to November 2020 to May 2021)

In general, wired connectivity provides a better audio chain.