It was revealed on Friday, that MCAT, Missoula Community Access Television, will offer live streaming of the Montana Supreme Court oral arguments to be heard at the University of Montana on April 22.

KGVO News began investigating the possibility of live streaming last week, considering the fact that the hearing would occur on a weekday during work and school hours, and also that the subject matter of the City of Missoula v Mountain Water Company held such importance to the community.

MCAT General manager Joel Baird confirmed the news on Friday afternoon.

“Through our media assistance grant program, we’ve donated over $1 million for in-kind programs to civic groups and non-profits in Missoula through the last 10 years,” Baird said. “The law school is the sponsor for this free coverage by Missoula Community Access Television.”

Baird described how the streaming process will work.

“We’ll be able to provide a one-camera set-up of the arguments from both sides, and it will be live streamed from our website at MCAT dot org,” he continued. “Viewers will be encouraged to click on the ‘live stream’ tab, starting at 8:30 on Friday morning. We will archive the program and then later that day we’ll have it available on our ‘video on demand’ page on the website.”

Baird was asked about the last time such an event that drew a large online audience on the MCAT website, in which author Jon Krakauer appeared at the Doubletree Hotel to talk about his book, ‘Missoula; Rape and the Justice System in a College Town’, that drew so many viewers the system crashed.

“We’re hoping to do this live stream event through what is called ‘cellular bonding’, with both Verizon and AT&T as our carriers,” he said. “In this instance, we’ll have our own wireless modems in the third-floor U.C. Ballroom where the event is taking place, with two supports, both Verizon and AT&T in case one conks out, so we’re hoping to be able to support up to 600 simultaneous logons.”

The hearing will be held in the University Center Ballroom on the third floor, and is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Free parking for spectators will be provided on the first level of the University Center parking facility.

More From 96.3 The Blaze