USA: CourtSmart 'goes on the record' with AKG microphones for critical courtroom proceedings

N. Chelmsford, MA, March 13, 2003 - With the proliferation and widespread use of digital audio/video recording systems in industries that demand a verbatim record, courtrooms have become increasingly reliant upon current technology for the critical operation of recording legal proceedings. To assist the country’s courtrooms in maintaining the most accurate records possible, CourtSmart, a Massachusetts high technology company, has successfully recorded millions of hours of legal proceedings throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe using their innovative digital recording systems - which utilize AKG CK 80, CK 31, and C 562 CM microphones.

“The requirements in the courtroom are rather unique,” states Andrew Treinis, President of CourtSmart. “We focus on the human speech range which is limited, in comparison to the range of an acoustic instrument. The pickup patterns and the way that speakers interact with one another make the courtroom a unique environment. AKG microphones were chosen because they out-performed all other microphones for our specific requirements and we now use them almost exclusively in our installations.”

The CourtSmart engineers, who have installed the most technically advanced audio and video recording systems in the highest courts throughout the U.S., put every piece of equipment through rigorous field tests and difficult situations to measure performance. This includes putting the equipment into live courtrooms, explains Treinis. “For a courtroom environment, bench testing or testing in a laboratory can only take you so far. So we put the competing microphones side-by-side in the courtrooms to test the performance range such as how much gain can we use before feedback and how natural and intelligible is the audio.” Treinis noted that one of the most important tests is the microphones ability to “withstand physical abuse. This is a courtroom setting where some people’s basic nature is going to be to grab and twist things,” he says. “So the microphones have to withstand that and still perform the way we want them to. The CK 80 that we use meets all that criteria.”

The CK 80 is a hypercardioid modular screw-on capsule with smooth response from 50 Hz to 20 kHz. All Discreet Series capsules feature pre-polarized condenser elements with gold plated contacts to ensure reliable connections and trouble-free performance. The CK 80 capsule can be used with any of the Discreet Acoustics Modular Series installation modules. Each capsule is supplied with a W 80 windscreen that reduces the impinging air stream. This reduction of air velocity reduces wind noise while maintaining acoustic transparency.

In 1995 Treinis created CourtSmart’s fault tolerant, database driven recording systems after he saw a need in the industry to provide quality, reliability and support for courtrooms, law enforcement agencies, government agencies and wherever verbatim records are required. With the implementation of the CourtSmart system, courts can now ‘hear everything.’

“The ‘record’ is sacrosanct—you cannot miss words or inflections,” says Treinis. Paul Trepanier, A/V Manager of CourtSmart agrees, “Our systems allow us to tune a courtroom to its specific requirements for the recording and capturing of the record. Using the AKG CK 80, the speech is clear, intelligible and regardless of where a person speaks from in the room, audio will be picked up.” Trepanier goes on to say, “AKG interchangeable modular capsules and goosenecks allow us to get the most out of each installation.”

With close to 1,000 courtrooms currently using CK 80 microphones (including the new Broward County, FL court complex which boasts 70 courtrooms and hundreds of AKG mics), Treinis also relies on AKG’s support department, which includes NorEast Marketing. “We chose AKG as a company—not only because the product was good, but the support has been very good to us as well,” states Treinis. “Often times we have rush requests where courtrooms need to be brought on line very quickly. AKG is very supportive in our requirements and have been able to deliver product where and when we need it on time. The product is reliable, we can rely on it and it’s consistent. That’s very important. We have the assurance that every AKG microphone we use performs.”

“CourtSmart is bringing to the forefront a major technological shift in the rapidly changing face of the court system,” states Kevin Madden, Market Development Manager, Installed Sound. “AKG is pleased that our microphones are playing a part in that change. CourtSmart is a company with many years of experience in this very specialized field. They engineer all of their products and provide real solutions to law enforcement. The company also has some of the best software and hardware engineers that I have seen designing the CourtSmart applications. AKG looks forward to continuing in its long and healthy relationship with CourtSmart.”

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CourtSmart Digital Systems is located at 51 Middlesex Street, N. Chelmsford, MA 01827; Tel: (800) 235-8690. For more information, please visit: www.courtsmart.com.