When Gov. Linda Lingle decided to address the public on the eve of a binding arbitration hearing with the Hawaii Government Employees Association earlier this month, she chose to do so through a live webcast from her office rather than holding a press conference, and we immediately asked for permission to stream the speech live on our Web site.

We have been attempting more live-streams because the new technology is a chance to record high-profile news events and have anyone with a computer tune in and watch events as they unfold. In this case, with nearly 50,000 state workers wondering if they will still have jobs, the interest in this speech was fairly high and more than 6,000 tapped into our broadcast.

We plugged into the governor's camera feed and what was shown on our site came from the technical hookup the governor's office provided. All media outlets were given the opportunity to do the same and KGMB9 attempted to join in, but could not get its equipment on site in time, according to the governor's office. We acted as a pool outlet and gave KGMB9 our recorded tape. Other news organizations asked the governor's office for a feed to accompany their nightly newscasts.

Given the animosity between the administration and public employee unions, we faced criticism that we were somehow in cahoots with the Lingle administration because we decided to use their feed and thus, it was argued, further her agenda. But nothing could be further from the truth. We weren't in the room when the governor gave her remarks and simply shared a technology open to everyone.

Had the HGEA called a press conference, we would have streamed its remarks as well. As it happened, HGEA representatives did not call us until three hours after Lingle's speech. We placed Lingle's transcript on our Web site as soon as we received it because we believe the information should be posted as quickly as possible.

This is similar to the president of the United States or another major elected official giving an address or pushing a particular point of view, even when there is no press conference. An opposing point of view usually follows, set up by those who wish to make those views known.

Our feed and the governor's ran simultaneously and the server soon was overloaded, leading to technical difficulties that required Lingle to stop the speech after she had started. Lenny Klompus, Lingle's senior adviser for communications, said the feed worked perfectly 30 minutes, 10 minutes and five minutes before the speech began but acted up just after the speech began.

Despite the difficulties, we will be on hand again to report news in whatever format works best. Look for more breaking news live streams from www.honoluluadvertiser.com.