The Importance of a Digital Record

“If you get video, you do not only get a perfect record, which you don’t get with any other system, you get it speedily, it’s available instantly, and the cost (it costs something to install it) but the cost of operating is minimal.”

-Ret. Judge James Chenault

At JAVS, we believe that an accurate and accessible record helps create an open and transparent society. That’s why for over 35+ years, we have worked to develop scalable, reliable, court-specific digital recording technology.

By helping create transparency in the courts, we help them strengthen credibility, streamline processes, improve relationships, and increase public trust. Digital court records allow for quick and easy access to the record of any proceeding. By providing this level of transparency to the public, courts can nurture the public’s trust and easily allow affordable public access to court records.

As a part of this transparency and accessibility, digital recording is the only means of capturing a verbatim record of the spoken and unspoken record. Our audio recording technologies design for discerning nearly any background noises and only to capture the spoken word. Verbal communications captured through digital recording also includes the tone of voice in which statements made, their volume, pitch, and any insinuations that might happen.

By integrating a digital video record of the proceeding, you can ensure that all non-verbal communications permanently document, too. Video recording is most useful for capturing facial expressions, gestures, body language, and posture of those participating in proceedings. The recording can be most useful when reviewing the record to see which words emphasize or what the body language was when spoken. Read the white paper “Getting the Whole Story: Why Capturing Nonverbal Communication is an Important Part of the Video Court Record” for a more in-depth look at how important it is to capture a verbatim, digital record of verbal and non-verbal communications.

Digital recording in the courtroom provides a virtually unobtrusive means of capturing the verbatim record. Somebody can play any portion of the recording that can be played back at the judge, council members, or jurors’ request. Accents, technical terms, foreign languages, and their translations are each captured and can be reviewed by anyone, in their original form, later.

If a case needs to be transcribed, digital recording helps to make the process much easier. Our professional design team will work with each courtroom to strategically place microphones throughout the room to ensure each voice capture. Each microphone is a program as its channel. This way, during playback, individual channels can be isolated to discern a specific voice if multiple participants speak at once.

Millennials are considered the most tech-savvy generation of our time. As millennials begin taking decision-making positions in the court, they have expectations for increased transparency. They expect accurate and complete records of the quick, easy, and free docket to access. In most cases, millennials expect these records to be available online, right at their fingertips. This type of transparency can only achieve through digital Audio/Video recording. To read more about millennials entering the court, read the white paper “Millennial Expectations of Transparency in the Courtroom.”

Digital recording is truly a part of the modern-day record. Digital recording offers a blend of video, audio, transcript, evidence, and notes from the trial that can deliver through an intuitive interface accessible from anywhere in the world.

 

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