Français

Journals and Transcripts

Home / Solutions / Journals and Transcripts

Need to produce Journals or Transcripts?
Read on


How Sliq Harmony Hub can help

>> For Clerks and Committee Secretaries

Legislatures worldwide need to produce an official record of all meetings. In some cases this is as simple as an audio or video recording. In others it requires meeting minutes, attendance, votes and bill tracking. In the most stringent cases a full multi-lingual set of verbatim transcripts is required, often produced using a highly skilled team of editors.

Our software platform makes it easy to record, index and publish the official record no matter how simple or complex your requirements are.

In addition to producing the official record, Harmony Hub integrally links all timestamped indexes to webcast video archives for simple access to specific points of interest.

What you need to know

Record

Recording audio and video in a highly reliable manner is the basis of our solution. Recorders automatically archive recordings based on an easy-to-use scheduling interface and are highly tolerant to user error. Multiple tracks of audio and high definition video are supported where required. A single integrated system can be used for journals, webcasting and high resolution archiving. Mobile recording makes travelling committees a snap to record.

Index

During a meeting a clerk or secretary can add indexes related to agenda items, people, bills, comments and more. Additionally, this data can originate from mixing boards and third party systems such as touch-screen voting products. Indexes are timestamped so they can be linked to video once published. If required, indexes can be added to recordings after the fact.

Edit

Depending on the complexity of the desired output, a single person or a whole team can collaboratively edit the indexes and produce the official record. In larger organizations, big teams split up the work into small sections and then collate the transcripts to produce the output. SliqScribe Desktop Assistant accelerates this process for maximum group productivity. Optionally, recordings can be automatically sent digitally to sub-contractors for production.

Publish

A final step in the process is the publishing of edited documents and recordings. Documents are published in multiple formats alongside indexed video allowing for simple contextual navigation.

Indexing/Journals

  • Timestamped indexes
  • Index bills, motions, votes, speakers, etc.
  • Publish indexes alongside video
  • Capture live or after the fact
  • Interoperate with Microsoft Word
  • Integration with voting systems

Transcription


  • Full featured SliqScribe Player multi-track player
  • Footpedal and speed control
  • Workgroup operation, split large meetings into segments for parallel operation
  • Flexible take/turn size
  • Integrated with Microsoft Word
  • Import real-time annotations/indexes/log notes

Recording

  • Zero-loss loop recording
  • Web-based scheduling
  • Highly fault-tolerant and user error resistant
  • Simultaneous streaming, audio and high resolution archiving
  • Automatic archive publishing

Webcasting

  • Simple operation
  • Live/VOD support for mobile devices
  • Automatic indexing of agenda/motions/bills
  • Multilingual audio w/closed captions
  • Near-instant archive publishing
  • Integration options w/existing sites

Architecture

The Sliq Harmony Hub solution is a feature-rich distributed software platform that is controlled from a central web interface. Based on Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server, the solution uses a combination of resilient grid and node clustering to provide a high level of fault tolerance. Modern scaling techniques ensure that the platform easily scales to serve content on a daily basis to millions of constituents. Additionally, public facing data is replicated in a cacheable XML format for security and massive scalability. While most of the platform runs on application servers, some client applications are part of the solution for indexing, transcription and workgroup collaboration. Harmony Hub can be run on self-hosted virtual environments, on Sliq supplied cloud servers or on any combination of these options. Harmony Hub is certified for Windows 2012 Server R2 and SliqScribe is certified for Microsoft Windows 7 and compatible with Windows 10. Server components can run under virtualization without issue.

Encoding

The most critical parts of the Harmony Hub solution are the services that record and archive audio and video. In most cases this is our Razorback recording node but if audio-only recording is required then our AudioLogger provides the same function. We designed and built our encoders from scratch so that we could tightly control every detail and make sure that they were rock solid. Supporting multiple audio tracks and multiple video bitrates, Razorback can encode and deliver video streams to the vast majority of mobile and fixed devices. Archive streams at resolutions up to 1080p are possible as well. Razorback and AudioLogger both record in a loop fashion using a ringbuffer so that nothing is ever lost due to venue changes or human error. Some customers who prefer a more compact server footprint choose to encode multiple venues on a single unit. Sliq can provide a turnkey hardware encoder with SDI or analog video inputs or optionally customers can provide their own hardware. Meticulous attention to detail and extensive testing have resulted in a product that you as a customer can depend on much like our existing customers who have recorded millions of hours without missing a beat.

Cloud or Self Hosting

The majority of our customers record at least a portion of their in-camera/private proceedings so for them a pure cloud hosted solution is not an option. Additionally by leveraging existing server, storage and virtualization infrastructure, our customers enjoy great cost savings as their media archives start to accumulate over time. While we do provide a pure cloud hosted option, we leave the choice up to you to decide what's best for your organization.

Server Requirements (Self-hosted)

Intranet Application Servers
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2012 Enterprise Edition (physical or virtual)
  • Microsoft SQL 2008, 2012, or SQL Express 2017
Internet Servers
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2012 Enterprise Edition (physical or virtual)
  • CDN for reverse caching, stream delivery, etc. (high volume customers)

Encoder Requirements

  • Windows 10 (preferred) or Windows Server operating systems 2016 above
  • Intel i7 or Xeon E3 recommended
  • PCI Express capture card (SDI or analog)

Client Workstation Requirements

  • Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise edition x86 or x64
  • Sound card, headphones, footpedals (optional)
  • 17 inch monitor minimum recommended for desktop operation

Base Modules

  • Harmony Hub - Web portal
  • Razorback Encoder - 24/7 high availability streaming and archiving
  • AudioLogger - Multitrack audio only recording
  • StreamAssembler - Automated archiving
  • Desktop Assistant - Workgroup transcription
  • SliqScribe Player - Indexing and playback

Optional Modules

  • XPublisher - High performance media publishing
  • Hawkeye Live - Confidence monitoring
  • Hawkeye - Availability monitoring
  • Custom Integration Module - Third party interfacing
  • Realtime Integration Module - Timestamped data interfacing (microphone, voting systems, etc.)
  • Distribution Server - Automatic media dissemination

We would love to answer your questions

Get in touch now