Redfish Technologies is pleased to announce its successful participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Perth between Friday, 28 October and Sunday, 30 October.

Heads of State Seating Location

Redfish Technologies, engaged via Merrill Corporation, provided and managed two FTR digital recording systems to record the three Heads of Government Executive Sessions and one of the Foreign Ministers Sessions held between the Friday and Sunday.  The Executive Sessions were attended by 53 of the Commonwealth member countries’ Heads of State or their delegate.

The main meeting room at CHOGM 2011

Using the two recording systems, one as a primary and one as a backup, Merrill Corporation was able to provide a complete verbatim transcript to the Commonwealth Secretariat Office within two hours of the completion of each of the sessions, using six verbatim transcription officers and editors.  The recorded audio and notes were provided in real time to the transcription pool, enabling transcription staff to commence transcribing the sessions immediately.

The Commonwealth Secretariat Office was extremely happy with the service provided and described it as “a Rolls Royce service, the best ever that they had received, without question”.

Furthermore, the recordings, along with the transcripts of the sessions, have been provided for the Commonwealth Secretariat in various formats (FTR proprietary format, WMA and MP3), as well as the session notes (FTR proprietary format and HTML) for long-term archiving by the Commonwealth Secretariat Office in London.

Redfish Technologies is delighted to have partnered and participated in this unique event with Merrill Corporation and looks forward to working together again into the future.

About Redfish Technologies

Redfish Technologies is a specialist provider of professional audio/visual solutions for structured meeting places and conferences.   Redfish Technologies provides a variety of services, expertise and knowledge in consultancy, design, implementation and support on many of the world’s digital audio recording projects in structured meeting places and conferences

Working with the “best of breed” manufacturers, Redfish Technologies also provides expert assistance in the areas of ongoing support, additional customised integration services and audio/visual implementation to complement these digital recording solutions and their integration into the venues they are deployed within.

About Merrill Corporation

Legal professionals around the world depend on Merrill to provide accurate, timely and easy-to-use transcripts of their audio recordings. Whether they are transcribing files for a judge in London or a conference in Sydney, Merrill is trusted to convert what has been spoken and recorded into what can be seen, searched and analysed.

Merrill’s trusted team has streamlined the audio transcription process to make working globally as efficient as working locally. Our state-of-the-art technology solutions allow us to work easily with both analogue recordings and digital files, processing them in a confidential, secure and cost-effective environment.

The AAERT Planning Task Force has worked for the past nine months to assist the AAERT Board develop a long-term strategic plan for the association.

As part of that process, we completed an environmental scan that included member surveys, analysis of member demographics, a review of other associations in the industry, and a comprehensive scan of trade journals and other media for news regarding current court reporting issues.

We created a framework for our research by defining those market segments that we believe best represent the court reporting market today and specific to opportunities for AAERT members. We identified traditional court reporting market segments, and then compared those segments to the business focus of AAERT members.

AAERT State of the Industry 2011 from AAERT on Vimeo.

The conference was a great success for everyone.  The LGMA organisation has published the summer edition of the “Statewide” magazine with an interview article about Redfish Technologies.   Download the digital edition of the magazine HERE and look for page 17 or read the article in expanded news article…

The answer is heavily dependent in the type of environments you will be recording.   Before I offer my suggestion to you, it may be worth providing an explanation of the different types of microphones that can be used, this should help you decide on what might be the best microphone for you to use.     There are a wide range of microphones available for meeting environment, and all have some pros and cons associated with them.  All professional mixers will support any of these types of microphones.

Firstly microphone are split into two groups, Dynamic and Condenser based.   You’ll find both condenser and dynamic microphones in many professional audio or electronics stores. While they may seem similar, they’re actually very different in not only how they work, but also how they’re constructed and what sort of sound recording they may be best suited for. Both condenser and dynamic microphones come with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Dynamic Microphones: Dynamic microphones use electromagnetic induction to transmit sound. As sound vibrations enter a dynamic microphone, a diaphragm vibrates and bounces a coil embedded in the magnetic field of a permanent magnet, thereby creating a current that varies in accordance with the sound entering the microphone. This varying current reproduces the sound electronically as it is moved to an output like a speaker.  This method of operation can be thought of as the opposite to a loudspeaker.

Pros and Cons of Dynamic Microphones: Dynamic microphones are typically not as accurate or as sensitive as condenser microphones, and are thus usually unsuitable for a fixed meeting environment or recording where accurate pick-up of multiple participant is required.  However, they do not require a battery or other power source and are very sturdy thanks to their 100-percent mechanical construction, allowing them to take a lot of abuse and not deteriorate in quality over the years. This strength makes dynamic microphones a popular choice for on-site and mobile events where you need to transport the microphone around.

Condenser Microphones: Condenser microphones are considered the most common type of microphone. Condenser mics use diaphragms, which are thin, membranous plates, as one plate in a capacitor. A voltage runs in between the capacitor and the diaphragm, which moves up and down as sound vibrations enter the microphone. The distance between the diaphragm and the capacitor is recorded via the electronic charge and is transmitted into electronic sound.

Pros and Cons of Condenser Microphones: Condenser microphones require either a battery or phantom power (external power provided by all professional mixers), as a voltage must be constantly maintained between the capacitor and the diaphragm inside. Condenser microphones, because of their sensitivity and speed, are well-suited for in-studio productions, speaking venues (courts, interview rooms, parliament) and for use in film production.

The second most important fact is that of the type of microphone pickup pattern that is used.  This is referred to as the polar pattern.  There are several polar patterns available:

The most basic microphone pickup pattern is omnidirectional — which means that the microphone picks up sound equally from all angles. Omni pattern mics tend to be the most technically accurate, but they may well pick up sounds not intended for them, especially where several people are talking together. That’s why cardioid (unidirectional) mics are more suitable for meeting environments.

Directional microphones are referred to as cardioids because a graph of their sensitivity at different angles looks ‘heart-shaped’. The least sensitive spot of a cardioid microphone is right behind it, with the most sensitive spot being ‘on-axis’. Cardioids (or the more tightly-focused hyper cardioids — see below) are used extensively in court recording locations and structured meeting venues because of the need to prevent cross spill between speaking participants.

Hyper cardioid mics, sometimes also known as supercardioids, are useful in situations where you have multiple speaker closely seated, and you need to prevent spill between the speakers, these are ideal to really separate your speakers allowing the isolation aspect of your recording software to be used to the maximum.

Additionally some condenser microphones can be built to provide several different pickup patterns which may be changed with a simple switch. To achieve this, the capsule is made with two diaphragms, and by changing the level and polarity of the polarising voltage on one of the diaphragms, every possible pickup pattern can be created, starting with from omni, progressing through cardioid and hypercardioid.

A picture of diffrent polar patterns is shown below.

Recommendation: My recommendation to any person wanting to recording meetings, for accurate voice reproduction that will make transcription far easier, is to use Condenser microphones.  These are more expensive in the main but offer far superior voice reproduction and allow a polar pattern pickup that will aid the meeting environment.  In a meeting environment these would be fitted with a Cardioid or Hyper-Cardioid head to  allow separation of the speakers per microphone.

Popular models of quality Condenser microphones would be , AKG, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica.

Popular models for the Dynamic Mics would be Sure, Sony, Crown

RedFish Technologies differs from other audio visual systems integration companies as we specialise in structured meeting environments for local governments. We work with technology and integration partners to understand and deliver your unique requirements with professional systems.    This  industry focus and specialisation allows us to understand the exact needs, work flow requirements and the manner in which local government operates.

Find out more today

Designed to control and display the FTR recording systems direct from the phone. Additional real time feedback of the recording process is also provided, so your secure in the knowledge that the recording is operating even if you cannot see it.

Available from the Apple iTunes store at the links below.

DOWNLOAD NOW

COMING SOON – iPad Support for the iRemote for FTR  Application

How to make it work.  read the instructions below or watch the embedded video

User Guide

Setup Guide

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Redfish-Technologies/150008981692330

We believe in world-class support, and that can only be achieved with a world-class system.  Incorporating everything you would expect from a superior support solution, we can offer all aspects of service & support including:*

• Integrated Email Ticketing – simply send an email to support@redfishtechnologies.com.au and our system will log the email and provide you with an automated ticket response.
• Phone Level Support – we now track all calls in our system, so you never lose that important information even when your are off the phone.
• Website Instance Support – see the Red Tab marked “SUPPORT” on the left, click it and submit a support ticket from anywhere on our website.  Go on it is that easy…
• Full Management, Reporting and Access – access everything that you have logged with us, immediately, all the threads and information, even attachments. If you are part of a group you can even view your colleague’s information and comments on existing tickets for your organization.   Note: SLA with Redfish is required for this option
• SLA Management – that’s right, we track everything, if you have a support contract with us we  can now offer Service Level tracking to make sure none of your tickets ever get old!!
• Tweet It – yep that’s right, just sign yourself up on our site and tweet your support needs from anywhere and anyplace..
• RedFish Technology Forums – full knowledge base and technical articles, follow us with RSS, Twitter or even facebook integration, find out what’s happening on the technical side of things…
• Mobile support – need to get support on the move our portal is fully mobile compatible.

So check out the new support portal…  more will be added soon.

*of course some of these items come at a costs….  Sign Up to one of our support contracts today

I have used a product called SoundPaper that is on the App store.  This product records the audio while allowing you to take notes in a written or diagram format.  Once recorded you can select any of the writing or diagrams and play back the audio at the point you were writing or drawing!!

Ideal for anyone in a court, meeting or other event where you need to link your notes and audio together.

Watch the video below..