More Reliable and Less Expensive Video Depositions
Kenneth J. Kalb, CEO, StoryCloud
January 2017
Video depositions can be problematic, unnecessarily cumbersome and all too often prohibitively expensive. That’s why StoryCloud has introduced an entirely new video deposition platform that is more reliable, secure, remarkably easy to use and inexpensive.
In the past, a single videographer records a deposition using a traditional video camera and four separate microphones. The session is often interrupted and halted every two hours to allow for the time limits of recording MPEG1 files on a DVD. After the deposition, the video content is usually made available to participants days or weeks later by mailing a USB thumb drive, or DVD. In the event the videographer makes a mistake, improperly framing, focusing, or capturing audio there are no alternatives. The videographer is a single point of failure.
StoryCloud has a better more secure and reliable way. First, we record the session with a videographer present using a state of the art iPod, or similar Apple device. The content, which can be continuously recorded for more than 32 hours, is stored immediately on the Apple device at a rate of 1 gigabyte per hour. The content is in a native high definition MPEG4 format. Next, unless unusual circumstances dictate otherwise, we use a single high performance microphone to capture the audio for all participants. Modern audio technology is capable of producing extremely high quality sound in medium sized conference rooms with many participants.
But a single person behind the camera can still make a mistake, and that’s where StoryCloud’s 30 years of experience in building highly available fault tolerant telecommunications equipment for Cisco, Lucent, Ericsson, Alcatel, as well as its intellectual patent portfolio of three recently issued patents and nine more pending, come in to play.
While the video and audio are being recorded on the local Apple device during the deposition, StoryCloud connects the system on a Wi-Fi network to the cloud. Sending small amounts of data (less than one half a megabit per second), the software double checks the videographer using powerful and proprietary algorithms to insure that the content is in focus, properly lit, framed correctly and that the audio can be clearly heard. This means that if the videographer blinks, or happens to fall asleep, we catch it. Simply, this advanced technology enhances the performance of people; making the product vastly more reliable.
Moreover, depending upon the available bandwidth, the video can be streamed to the cloud during the deposition, or immediately thereafter. At all times during the process the content is safely stored on the local camera, and secure and encrypted when streamed to the cloud. In all cases, it is made available within 24 hours after the deposition. Downloadable file formats include MPEG1 and MPEG4, as well as, audio WAV and MP3 files.
Most importantly, StoryCloud makes this vastly more reliable and easier to use platform available at an all day, 8-hour rate of $400.00, which is a fraction of the price most attorneys currently pay for an all day video deposition.
By Guest Blogger: StoryCloud, Inc.
