NewsLive Chamber Board

Boards:

The message boards at the top of the screen contain information that comes directly from the House and Senate message system, with some changes made to provide information and links from MDN.

The message boards autmatically are updated every ten seconds.

The date stamp is the time and date the message appeared.

Below the description of what a chamber is doing are three buttons to select what to display in the message section. The current function will appear depressed:

	This will display earlier messages. Keep clicking this button to keep going back in time. Automatic updates of chamber messages is disabled when this button is depressed.
	This displays the current chamber message. It also restores automatic updating of current messages that was disabled when you were looking at earlier messages.
	This will display more recent messages. The button will be greyed out and do nothing unless you are displaying older messages. Automatic updates of chamber messages is disabled when this button is depressed.

Note: When you are reviewing older messages (with the << or later with the >> button), the board will NOT be updated automatically. To resume automatic update for a board, simply click the Now button.

Audio:

Audio from the House and Senate is streamed in MP3 format and in broadcast quality. To get the audio stream, there will be two buttons followed, on non-mobile phones, by an embedded player if supported on your browser.

Mobile Phones

Desktops
	This calls up MX Player, the dominate player for both Androids and iPhones.
	This calls up QuickTime.
On desktops there will be two buttons followed by a possible additional line.
	This calls up the default player for most computers to invoke whatever player you have installed to listen to MP3 streaming audio.
	This will only play audio if you have QuickTime installed.
If you have a plugin for playing audio from within your browser, a third line will display that player where you can invoke the audio stream without launching a separate application. At present, only Windows Media Player and QuickTime are supported.

For technical details and getting connected on a mobile phone, click the Android help button.

MDN's audio stream functions throughout the year, even when the legislature is adjourned. If, after a short announcement when you first open up the stream, there is silence, it may mean the legislature is not in session, is in recess or that some action that does not require debate is underway, such as standing at ease.

Schedule:

The regular session of Missouri's legislature begins at noon on the Wednesday that follows the first Monday in January and is prohibiting from passing bills after 6pm on the Friday that follows the second Monday in May.

Technically, the legislature can continue to meet until the end of May, but only to enroll bills that have cleared the legislature.

The legislature reconvenes on the first Wednesday following the second Monday in September to consider any bills vetoed by the governor. The veto session can last no longer than ten calendar days.

The governor or the legislature itself can call a special session for any time (even running concurrently with a regular session). A special session called by the governor can last no more than 60 days. A special session called by the legislature can last no more than 30 days.

During most weeks of a session, the legislature will begin the week at 4pm on Monday and adjourn for the week at about noon Thursday. At times, particularly toward the end of a legislative session, the legislature may start earlier on Monday and/or continue into Friday. Afternoon and evening sessions also may be held.

MDN Live Legislative Audio

In the multimedia Internet era, you would think it would be simple to listen to live audio from Missouri's House and Senate on either desk-top computers or mobile devices.

That, most definitely, is not the case!

There can be unique ports for audio streaming, rather than the standard web port 80.

There are two different types of play lists (*.m3u or *.pls) for direct links to streams.

A further complication is that in 2020, the legislature, particularly the Senate, adopted a streaming format that older audio players may not support.

MDN's streaming service converts both the House and Senate formats to a format of lower bandwidth and which should be supported by older audio players on both desktop and mobile devices.

The test and layout of the play buttons will depend on whether your using a desktop or mobile device.

The first button will link to the m3u play list file (*.m3u) to connect to MDN's audio stream. The second button will link to to the play list file (*.m3u) to contect directly to the House or Senate audio stream.

Resolving Problems

If clicking the Listen button does not call up your audio player, you'll need to associate files wih the extension M3U to call up your audio player.

If you don't know how to do that, for a mobile device simply enter into your player the link displayed in the Listen button. Your player may require you preceed the entry with http:// or, in the case of the Senate link, with mms://.

For a mobile device, enter one of the links listed at the bottom of this help file.

If you are roaming with your mobile phone and switch connection (such as G4 to WiFi), you may loose the audio stream and have to reconnect. Just click the play button on the player.

Connection Links

Below are the connection links you can enter into your media player if the buttons of NewsLive do not work.

Play-List Links
House		Senate
http://mdn.org/chamber/house.m3u		http://mdn.org/chamber/senate.m3u
http://mdn.org/chamber/house.pls		http://mdn.org/chamber/senate.pls
Direct Links
House		Senate
http://house.mdn.org:8000		http://senate.mdn.org:8010
http://chamber.house.mo.gov/housechamber		http://chamber.senate.mo.gov/senatechamber
		mms://chamber.senate.mo.gov/senatechamber

NewsLive: Live Chamber Actions and Audio

MDN Live Legislative Audio

Resolving Problems

Connection Links