More and more states are finding themselves unable to hold court due to a shortage of court reporters. If you find you are unable to hold court because you simply cannot get enough stenographers to cover your courtroom, it may be time to add a digital recording.
Many courts do not require the presence of a court reporter to conduct proceedings. Why waste a stenographer’s valuable time going to these courtrooms when a well-trained, but more cost-effective employee can capture a multi-channel audio recording of the events? Your transcribers can then work directly from the audio recording to produce a certified transcript. This allows you to save your stenographers for situations that do require a court reporter’s presence for proceedings.
Hardware for Courtroom Recording Situations
Justice AV Solutions (JAVS) has specialized in AV recording in courtrooms, council rooms, and government hearings for over 40 years. Our team of experts has a great deal of experience meeting the challenges and demands of courtroom recording. With that in mind, here are some things to consider when purchasing an audio recording device for your courtroom.
Multi-channel Audio
You can’t expect a small, handheld recorder to capture a high-quality audio recording of an entire room. Multi-channel audio recording means you set multiple microphones up in a room, and those microphones work together to capture everything being said – in the entire room. A typical courtroom setup would have one microphone on the judge, one on each law table, and one on the witness stand.
When used in conjunction with multi-channel audio recording software, you can capture every microphone on a separate audio channel. This allows your transcriptionist to listen to each channel individually if desired. This can come in handy when multiple people are talking at the same time. The transcriptionist can turn off the audio to every channel except the one assigned to the person that needs to be transcribed, filtering out the other speakers in the room and allowing them a more accurate record of proceedings.
LED Status Indicators
Everyone in the room needs to be confident that your system is working properly and that the record of proceeding is being captured. One very reliable solution is to utilize microphones that are equipped with LED indicators. Ideally, the light on the microphone changes color when recording starts or stops, microphones are muted, or the session is paused. This allows everyone to see the status of your system and be assured it is working.
External Control
Events may occur in the courtroom that a judge or mediator does not want recorded – much less transcribed – such as private bench conferences, private discussions with a lawyer, etc. Make sure to get an audio recording system that easily allows someone like a judge or council to temporarily mute the recording. Quality audio recording systems come equipped with a programmable button on the microphone that allows a user to manage what is being recorded. The use of a user-controlled mute button helps ensure that your transcriptionists don’t unintentionally transcribe comments that should have been stricken from the record or were not meant to be heard in the first place.
Recording Software
Multi-channel recording requires a little more than your run-of-the-mill recording software. You’ll want to have software that records each microphone in a separate channel and allows for external user control regarding functions like muting microphones. More robust software will also allow your employees to take notes during the recording and should automatically time stamp and store those notes in your recording file. Learn more about JAVS Suite 9.