StarWitness Weekly

Why verify?

2011-03-01T05:46:00.000-08:00

This week at Video Scene Magazine we've written up a story to show the importance of verifying video evidence before leaving the scene of a crime.

Check out the entire story at Video Scene Magazine.

Covered the camera but not the mic

2011-02-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

A cabbie and another suspect were arrested recently on suspicion of being involved in a robbery of $33,000 in gaming chips from a Las Vegas table. The two suspects allegedly used the cabbie's taxi as the getaway car. They covered the cab's surveillance camera to hide their faces but forgot about the microphone. The surveillance system recorded audio as well, capturing incriminating conversations about the robbery.

Read the entire story at the Casino City Times.

Call for video evidence

2011-02-28T08:05:00.001-08:00

When you need more video evidence, just ask. That's what police are doing in one arson case. In Brisbane, Australia police are asking any onlookers who may have filmed the fire on their phones to come forward.

Read the entire story at the Brisbane Times.

Situation forensic science

2011-02-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of talk in the forensics world centered around the science of forensic science. We've started taking a look at this topic in the first of a series of articles at Video Scene Magazine. The first article takes a look at the different sides of the debate. The article starts with one explanation of law enforcement's use of technology: Police "bring in new equipment or new technologies because they work in theory, but know little about how to use such technologies so that they work best."

Read the entire article at Video Scene Magazine.

Video id: "Geezer Bandit"

2011-02-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Is he a geezer or playing one on video evidence? As of the end of January 2011 the "Geezer Bandit" has committed 13 armed bank robberies. Witnesses estimate him to be between 60 and 70 years old. And he looks that old on the surveillance video. But there is a theory that he is a younger individual with a disguise.

Referring to another case that involved a recent mistaken identity on surveillance video the Associated Press explains how the Geezer Bandit could be a case of mistaken identity as well:

"Adding to the case's intrigue is the possibility that the elderly looking robber is not old at all. The theory gained traction after a white Ohio man admitted to robbing several banks while wearing a mask that looked like a black man. It was so realistic that police mistakenly arrested a man who had similar facial characteristics. Even the wrongly accused man's mother thought a photo she'd seen of the robbery suspect she'd seen on the news was her son."

(See our earlier post for a link to more on the earlier case of mistaken identity.)

Read more on the Geezer Bandit at the Associated Press.

StarWitness tour update

2011-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

We kicked off our 2011 tour last week at Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in Birmingham, Alabama. The tour is another way we've got your back in the world of forensic video. You can attend any of our one-day educational seminars for free. And every agency who attends walks away with a fully-functional free software demo. One agency told us they were grateful to have a fully-functional demo because they're going to use it right away on their backlog of video evidence. Their comment was: "After the seminar I believe this could nearly cut in half the time per case as I now use a wide range of tools to get from start to finish."

We've added some dates to the tour. Sign up at our registration page.

2011 TOUR DATES

MAR 8TH: LA COUNTY SHERIFF, SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA
MAR 18TH: CARY, NC
MAR 25TH: RAPPAHANNOCK REGIONAL CRIME JUSTICE ACADEMY, FREDERICKSBURG, VA
APR 5TH : JOHNSON CSO, MISSION, MO
APR 19TH: NESPIN, FRANKLIN, MA
MAY 24TH: SFPD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
JUN 6TH: NY STATE POLICE, ALBANY, NY
JUN 30TH: ARAPAHOE CSO, CENTENNIAL, CO
SEP 23RD: GRAND PRARIE PD, GRAND PRARIE, TX
OCT 7TH: CLACKAMAS CSO, PORTLAND, OR

Forensic video vigilante

2011-01-31T06:57:00.000-08:00

We've certainly seen the gamut of law enforcement using social media and the web to release pictures and video of suspects from video evidence. But victims using these techniques is a newer twist. Social media puts the power of broadcasting into the hands of anyone. And one victim, Jimmy Minh Do, decided to use it.

Read the rest of the story at Video Scene Magazine.

Forensic video greatest hits re-release

2011-01-31T06:54:00.000-08:00

In May of last year we published our first list of free software downloads and references to help boost your video-forensic capabilities and know-how. Today we're re-releasing our list with some new hits.

Get all the hits at Video Scene Magazine.

If you know of anything worthy of adding to the list, email me at samb@signalscape.com

Your StarWitness

2011-01-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

You’ve Got An Ally.

As part of our relentless commitment to helping you catch criminals with video, we’ve launched a new online resource. We call it Your StarWitness because it really is YOURS. Your forums, tips and tricks for you, and in-depth insights on the latest in video forensics. The site is also designed to be easily shaped by your specific interests–your photos, status, videos. All in one place.

And if you’ve got questions, you can believe that YourStarWitness.com has answers. Lots of answers: User manuals, video tutorials and an archive of our previous online user forums.

This new site replaces our StarWitness Forums and StarWitness University sites. We'll soon be taking down the old sites. So check out the new site, and say hello to your real ally against crime.

Check out Your StarWitness at YourStarWitness.com. (Just click sign up and enter your info to get an account.)

Forensics lab for critters

2011-01-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

There's a forensics lab where some of the victims have more than two legs. It's the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory, the only lab in the world dedicated to crimes against wildlife. The lab divides its services into chemistry, criminalistics, genetics, morphology, pathology and digital evidence.

A video unit, listed under digital evidence, provides services that aim to make video evidence for their cases accessible for the court system. Analysis typically produces clarified photographic prints from video. According to their website they perform format conversion, repair of damaged videotapes, authenticity, stabilization, time-lapse conversion and comparison and more.

Full description of Video Unit services toward the bottom of Digital Evidence Unit page at U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services Forensics Laboratory.

Full video tour of the lab at U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory.

Like us?

2011-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

If you like us now you can now tell the world. Just search for "StarWitness" on Facebook and you'll find our page. We'll be posting all our StarWitness Weekly blurbs on our wall.

Direct link to our page: StarWitness Facebook page

DVR fail

2011-01-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

How old is the typical DVR at the crime scene? In our latest article at Video Scene Magazine we take a look at how long a typical DVR lasts. Online discussions held by security professionals gave us some insight on the matter. We discuss how long DVRs typically last, as well as, what causes them to fail and what parts inside the box go first.

Check out the article at Video Scene Magazine: "DVR fail"

Video evidence in John Wheeler death

2011-01-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

John Wheeler, a former presidential aide and former chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, was found dead December 31, 2010. It's an interesting case that has gained a lot of national media attention. Police have released video evidence showing Wheeler two days before his death. He appears walking through a parking garage holding one of his shoes in his hand. Here's the video...

If you want to read more about the events before his death and the trail of video evidence check out our post at Video Scene Magazine: "Video trail"

Digital in-car camera standards

2011-01-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

The DOJ is currently seeking comments on proposed standards for digital video cameras for police vehicles. They're interested in feedback on things such as the testing of the cameras and rules of evidence.

The official name of the program is the Vehicular Digital Multimedia Evidence Recording System (VDMERS) Standard for Law Enforcement.

Here's a link to an article on governmentvideo.com: Police Vehicle Digital Camera Standards Proposed

Link to the announcement on the Federal Register: Vehicular Digital Multimedia Evidence...

Police writer

2011-01-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of police writers out there sharing their experiences through books, articles, blogs and social media. Commander Kristen Ziman, a Commander with the Aurora Police Department, is one. Describing herself as "Police Officer, writer of observations, student of the masters" she's been sharing her policing experiences through an online blog for the last several years. She recently began writing a column for the The Beacon-News. In her most recent article Commander Ziman wrote on bravery, courage and the "Thin Blue Line". Her article inspires us to resolve this new year to practice more courage.

You can read her latest column at Police Beat: Resolve this year to be courageous

You can also check out Commander Ziman's blog, titled Think Different, at beexceptional.blogspot.com.

And follow her tweets at twitter.com/Cmdr_KZ

Milestone for video evidence

2011-01-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

Video evidence has hit a new milestone in pop culture: a "top ten list". The Houston Press published a list of top ten celebrities burned by video evidence over the past decade. It includes the home video of David Hasselhoff rolling around drunk on the floor, a jail confession from Tom Sizemore and more. The last two items on the list are Tiger Woods' voice mail begging, "take your name off your phone, just have it as a number" and the recording of Mel Gibson losing it, which are, as we all know, technically audio evidence.

Check out the full list at Top ten celebrities this decade who crashed and burned with video evidence.

Be advised: video presents the facts

2010-12-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

Video evidence can be a great storyteller. A storyteller of the truth, revealing the scene exactly as it occurred. One such visual truth telling benefited the prosecution when video evidence revealed missing pieces in the story... Continue reading at Video Scene Magazine

Deliberate with digital evidence

2010-12-22T13:43:00.001-08:00

A recent appeal in Indiana claimed the court should provide the jury with the ability to examine digital evidence during deliberations. The digital evidence in the case included three CD-ROMs containing a series of digital photos. In the appeal the plaintiff, Paul Arlton, a patient who received eye surgery from the defendant, claimed that the digital format of images of his retina would have aided the jury during deliberations. He claimed that the digital images provided more detail than the smaller, printed copies, which were the only form of the evidence available to the jury during deliberations.

The Court of Appeals of Indiana agreed.

The opinion from the Court of Appeals of Indiana opinion states that the "jury should not have been precluded from accessing the digital exhibits". The opinion addresses some of the practical issues with giving the jury access to the digital format of the evidence, for example, potential unintended issues with giving the jury access to a computer to view the images. The jury could misuse the computer to access extraneous information. The opinion suggests that evidence be transformed into a medium that is accessible without a computer or provide the jury with a 'clean' computer that contains no other information and no access to the Internet.

If this ruling stands for other cases and all types of digital evidence it brings up some good questions for digital video evidence.

Full opinion from Court of Appeals of Indiana

StarWitness world tour

2010-12-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

We're going on tour. In 2011 we're putting on the "Forensic Video in a Box World Tour". We'll be giving free one-day seminars across the nation.

If you're interested in an update on what's happening with video evidence including technology updates, digital video recovery techniques, and enhancement techniques this tour is just for you. Dorothy Stout of Resolution Video will be leading an informative session covering the latest on video technology, methods of video evidence collection, and enhancement techniques. This session will also allow you hands-on time with the tools available in both StarWitness FreezeFrame and Video Pro.

2011 TOUR DATES

FEB 8TH: JEFFERSON CSO, AL
MAR 8TH: LA COUNTY SHERIFF, CA
MAR 25TH: RAPPAHANNOCK REGIONAL CRIME JUSTICE ACADEMY, VA
APR 5TH : JOHNSON CSO, MO
APR 19TH: NESPIN, MA
JUN 6TH: NY STATE POLICE
JUN 30TH: ARAPAHOE CSO, CO
SEP 23RD: GRAND PRARIE PD, TX

If you're interested in attending please email
sara.baker@signalscape.com.

One-on-one grant assistance

2010-12-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

We're considering offering a grant assistance program through Police Grants Help to provide assistance for anyone who wants to purchase StarWitness products. Considering budget pressures as of late and in the upcoming year we thought this could be a good way to help out. We foot the bill for the assistance and any agency who needs the assistance will receive it without paying.

Here's how the program works. We will provide any agency who wants to purchase our product under a grant program with contact information for one of the grant consultants at Police Grants Help. The grant consultants start work with the agency by discussing various grants. Based upon eligibility, the grant consultants send full information on particular grant programs to the agency. The agency then selects one of the grants to use and the grant consultants answer questions, as well as provide review and edits for the application. The grant consultants work with the agency one-on-one providing personalized consulting to assist the agency in successfully securing funding.

If this type of grant assistance sounds like it might help you in 2011 please email us a quick note at
samb@signalscape.com

If you haven't checked out the Police Grants Help website there's a lot of good grant information so have a look. There are a number of products that provide this type of assistance including things like body armor, firearms training, in-car video, Taser and Segway, just to name a few. You can find the site at: PoliceGrantsHelp.com

NY Times article - video is everywhere

2010-12-10T11:00:00.001-08:00

"The advent of video-in-your pocket camcorders and cellphones, and the proliferation of surveillance camers, mean that events that once would have gone unrecorded are preserved for posterity--and, inevitably for trial."

An article recently published by the New York Times discusses the prevailance of video evidence. It explains the effect of video evidence on juries and rulings, as well as offers some predictions.

In the article, Professor Cassell, a former federal judge now teaching at the University of Utah, anticipates that in the future video evidence may need masking of parts of frames to ensure that the video has “'a laserlike focus on probative parts of the tape and exclusion of irrelevant parts of the tape.'”

Link to the New York Times article: "With Video Everywhere, Stark Evidence Is on Trial"

Need funding for a StarWitness system?

2010-12-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

There's a good article in the November Law Enforcement Technology that discusses how to apply for grants to purchase forensic equipment. They cite two grant programs that our customers have successfully used to purchase StarWitness products: Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program.

Link to the Law Enforcement Technology article: "Funds for Forensics"

Link to more information on the JAG grant program (estimate due date June 2011): JAG Grants at policegrantshelp.com

Link to more information on the Coverdell grant program (estimate due date May 2011): Paul Coverdell grants at policegrantshelp.com

Caught in the act by phone app

2010-12-06T12:52:00.000-08:00

One man's video surveillance system e-mailed him a photograph showing a someone's head peeking around the corner of his backyard. He checked the live video feed though his phone's app and saw "two guys rummaging around." He called the police and put one technology-driven-citizen-activism case on the books.

Here's a link to then entire article at MercuryNews.com: San Jose man uses surveillance app on iPhone...

TV show airs on the side of reality

2010-12-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

Every fictitious TV show we've seen exaggerates what can be done with video evidence. Castle got it right in one scene. "In the real world zoom and enhance can only get us so far."

Digital Summit International 2011

2010-12-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

DSI is a great educational conference for multimedia evidence. It will be held in Las Vegas on August 23-25, 2011.

Register online at this link: DSI online registration

Mistaken identity on video evidence

2010-12-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

Wrong man arrested because he looked like the mask the criminal wore in the video evidence.

Here's the link: The white robber who carried out six raids...

Proprietary players and Windows 7

2010-12-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

What happens when you try to run a proprietary video player designed for Windows XP on Windows 7? We tested 33 players and wrote up the results at VideoSceneMagazine.com.

Here's the link to the article: Playing proprietary video evidence with Windows 7

Please help by giving us your feedback

2010-09-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

It’s been exciting week for everyone here. The feedback you’ve given us for the FreezeFrame 1.7 release has been great.

For example, here's the first line of one email: "WOW! You guys have just made my day with the new audio upgrade. It works so easy."

The email closes with: "Thanks for continuing to improve your product. On that note, a minor improvement, but a major time saver, would be to include a reverse play button in FreezeFrame, not just a backup frame button."

I love these sorts of suggestions as much as the ‘WOW’s, ‘made my day’s and other positive feedback.

Why? Because we love to figure out what you want next. Our goal is to never lose your valuable feedback. We pool all your suggestions and our ideas into a virtual voting booth.

We're currently planning our next release, so your vote means a lot to us right now. Please head over to our StarWitness Voice website at starwitnessvoice.com and take a moment to enter any suggestions you have and vote. (The website opens to the FreezeFrame suggestion forum. On the right column of the site, you'll find links to the suggestion forums for our other products.)

As always, don't hesitate to contact us if you are having any trouble with your 1.7 install or need anything -- tech-support@signalscape.com

Sam Burgiss
Director of Products
samb@signalscape.com

New Release - FeezeFrame 1.7

2010-09-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the release of StarWitness FreezeFrame version 1.7.

FreezeFrame version 1.7 offers several new features. The most significant new feature is the ability to record and play audio with your video evidence. This includes capturing audio through the ‘Record a New Video’ menu option, importing audio through the ‘Import a Video File’ menu option and screen recording audio through the ‘Capture video from screen’ menu option. You will hear any recorded audio when you playback the video evidence. In addition you can export the audio with the video from FreezeFrame.

Other new features include:

PAL (PAL-B) video system support.
Mark point times displayed in trim screen
‘Cancel’ after analog video recording, import and screen recording now prompts user for confirmation to avoid accidental loss of video.
Export of uncompressed WMV file format

If you're current with your StarWitness maintenance agreement you'll receive the software update in the mail this week. If you need to check on your maintenance status or need a quote for renewing your maintenance just email us at sales@signalscape.com or call us at 888-685-2100.

CODEC H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks

2010-08-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

I didn't say it, Wikipedia did. Wikipedia's article on Windows' DirectShow contains a section titled after the place you might sometimes feel you've been sent: CODEC hell.

DirectShow is Microsoft Windows' underlying multimedia framework. Windows calls on DirectShow to do things like play video and audio. Most people assume computers now play any type of video or audio right out of the box. However we, as forensic video people, deal with so many types of video we know that's not the case.

We recently had a call from someone new to the world of video evidence. They understood AVI to be a standard video format. It's not. That's right. If you didn't realize it, AVI is a standard file container not a standard video file format.

Here is the shake down on AVI.

Being a standard file container means that an AVI file can be opened by any program that works with the AVI format. Let's use Windows Media Player. WMP opens an AVI and looks at the video contained in the file to determine its type of compression. If can play that type of video: it does. And if it can't? It throws you a not-at-all-useful error message.

How do we cope? We need CODECS, the cure all for opening a compressed video file. Once Windows Media Player determines the type of video in the AVI file it then looks for the matching CODEC on your computer. You can think of CODECS as keys that allow your computer to unlock various types of compressed video. Each type of compressed video requires its own key. And just like my key ring is different from your key ring so is each computer's key ring of CODECS. My computer may have different CODECS than your computer, which explains why the AVI file the detective claimed wouldn't play (on his computer) played with no problems on your StarWitness computer. There are more CODECS loaded onto our StarWitness systems than the typical office computer.

No matter how cool, new, high-tech or video-enabled your computer is, you'll still run into a video you can't play. You'll know you don't have the right CODEC when you get that not-at-all-useful error message from Windows Media Player. What to do? Get a CODEC Appliance. (It's a fancy name for free software. One CODEC Appliance is GSpot. Once again, I didn't say it, or name, it in this case.) When you open an AVI file in GSpot you'll get the name of the CODEC. Then you can google to find a free download. Once you install the downloaded CODEC, the video should play.

Should doesn't mean always will.

CODEC woes don't always end with a simple install and download. If you work with CODECS long enough you'll see some "strange behaviors". (Not just your own strange behaviors: strange behaviors of your computer.) These could be a video opening in one program, such as Windows Media Player, but not opening in another, such as importing into Freezeframe. Or reinstalling a video CODEC, which you know had previously worked fine on your system, and discovering it is haywire the second time around. Even the experienced, technically savvy and computer nerdiest among us just want CODECS to go away sometimes. Many times these deeper CODEC issues involve something so dear to Windows' heart: the Windows Registry. If you end up stuck with a serious CODEC issue you may need help repairing your Windows Registry. Give us a call 1-877-674-3031.

And now you have background knowledge for understanding Wikipedia's explaination of CODEC hell, or at least you should enjoy the fact that "nuclear arms race" is used in the description.

"Codec hell (a term derived from DLL hell) is when multiple DirectShow filters conflict for performing the same task. A large number of companies now develop codecs in the form of DirectShow filters, resulting in the presence of several filters that can decode the same media type. This issue is further exacerbated by DirectShow's merit system, where filter implementations end up competing with one another by registering themselves with increasingly elevated priority.

"Microsoft's Ted Youmans explained that '[DirectShow] was based on the merit system, with the idea being that, using a combination of the filter’s merit and how specific the media type/sub type is, one could reasonably pick the right codec every time. It wasn't really designed for a competing merit nuclear arms race.'

"A tool to help in the troubleshooting of "codec hell" issues usually referenced is the GSpot Codec Information Appliance, which can be useful in determining what codec is used to render video files in AVI and other containers. GraphEdit can also help understanding the sequence of filters that DirectShow is using to render the media file. Codec hell can be resolved by manually building filter graphs, using a media player that supports ignoring or overriding filter merits, or by using a filter manager that changes filter merits in the Windows Registry."

Sam Burgiss
Director of Products
samb@signalscape.com

P.S. There is hope. Some market surveys paint a picture of a future with fewer compression standards in use by the surveillance industry. But for now we have to deal with all of them odd-balls as many as they are.

Field Agent 2.0

2010-07-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished the final edits for the flip guide that goes in our new Field Agent. This flip guide makes our second-generation Field Agent an even easier way to recover video at the scene. Pick a type of collection by flipping to a section of the guide and you'll see simple steps illustrating what you need to do.

Just like our first version, the new Field Agent provides the full capabilities of a Forensic Video Analysis system. It gives you desktop system power in a laptop package. After collecting the video evidence you can clean it up and distribute the best image of the criminal right at the scene.

As I explored the new Field Agent kit I felt that I was diving to new depths in equipment organization. Six color-coded bags give you exactly what you need for each type of collection including CD, DVD, FLASH MEDIA, USB/FIREWIRE, ANALOG/VGA and FLOPPY/OTHER. Every bag is CLEARLY labeled. In ALL CAPS. The bags shout at you, "PICK ME. PICK ME." When you pick a bag and open it up you discover the organization goes much deeper.

The USB/FIREWIRE bag blew me away.

The USB hard drive in the bag displays its amount of available space. Because DVRs can't tell you available space on a USB device, it's a big time savings to know right away. There's no need to boot up your laptop and plug in the drive just to find out how much remaining space you have, saving you the experience of exporting video for an hour only to learn that your hard drive filled up and you need to repeat the process. Wasting another hour of your life seems like the goal of a lot of DVRs out there.

The flash drives in the USB/FIREWIRE bag are organized in a folio and clearly labeled. Some DVRs will work with only a smaller drive. In our previous kit you had to read the fine print to find the 512MB drive. Now its right there in plain view.

This new kit improves even the CD and DVD media: They're all pre-labeled for evidence use; housed in plastic clamshell cases for the best protection.

The new Field Agent will save you time. And save you headaches.

If you currently own one of our Field Agents we're offering an upgrade package. Send in your old kit with $3,350 and we'll send back a brand new kit reorganized in bags with a load of new components.

Your new kit will be a Pelican Storm case, about the same size as the older case but with push-button closures and rubberized handles. The case contains newly designed foam that holds all the gear in regardless of the laptop or any other component being out of the kit. All the gear bags are on top, easy to grab.

The upgrade also includes a new laptop bag, six new component bags, CDs and DVDs with evidence labels and clamshell cases, four new USB flash drives in a case, new 300GB USB drive with available space display, 1TB USB drive (physically smaller than the previous 1TB drive), USB hub, NTSC monitor, flash media wallet, media card reader, and a new flipbook with step-by-step instructions for each video evidence recovery method.

Sam Burgiss
Director of Products
samb@signalscape.com

P.S. If you want to try our our Field Agent, shoot me an email and we'll ship you a demo you can use for one month free of charge.

Pick Our Next T-Shirt

2010-07-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

We have created a web survey to let you choose our next t-shirt design. Click Here to take the survey.

If you are planning on attending the annual NATIA conference next month, please come by booth #916 to get a t-shirt.

If you are not planning on attending NATIA just email us your shipping address and t-shirt size and we'll mail you a t-shirt out after the conference.

Thank you

2010-07-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

I hope you had an opportunity to celebrate Independence Day. Being on vacation this week I am reminded of just how free we really are in this great country. I am proud to have the right pursue happiness with a week at the beach. All of the rights we have are precious and we shouldn't forget those who have made our rights possible and those who continue to keep our country independent.

It's the people who serve our nation in every way that we need to thank. You deserve thanks. Thank you for always striving to keep our streets, our cities, our states and our nation safe. Thank you for going farther, doing more, making use of any tool that helps you hold the thin blue line.

One way we express our thanks to you for all you do is by always striving to make our products better, our support better, our training better--anything we can do to make things better and easier for you to do your job. We're always thrilled when we hear that we have helped you out, or as Detective Fazio says "saved his butt". Here is his recent story...

"I just got done using my StarWitness Field Kit for the first time and it saved my butt. We were on scene collecting computers on a search warrant. I dragged my Field Kit with me thinking there was no way I would need it. Boy was I wrong. This was a large fraud case, long story short the guy had some Sony HD video cameras the warrant stated we could look at them but not take them. Well, when we viewed them let's just say it was the silver bullet. I needed to get this video off, but how you ask? The guy would not give up the cables or the software for the cameras. We tried for about an hour with a laptop to get the video off with no success. Then I remembered I had the StarWitness Field Kit. Sure enough when I started looking at the kit I found a cable that would work along with the portable DVD burner in the kit. I got the video off with no effort!! I looked like a rock star. You saved the Day!!"

Detective Joseph Fazio
Will County Sheriff's Police

Update to Our List of Free Forensic Video Resources

2010-06-25T10:21:00.002-07:00

I updated our Greatest Hits list of Free Forensic Video Resources for a training class I gave last week. I thought I would share the list, which includes free websites and tools that help with forensic video.

Changes in the list include:

Rearranged the list into greatest hits format: I rearranged the list so that you where to start. Rather than sorting by category, I sorted the list into The Basics, Next Steps and Deep Cuts.

Addition of file-extensions.org: The filext.com website was the one I used most for file extension lookup in the past, but they changed the format in a way that gives less information and more ads. I also use fileinfo.com, but looked around for other sites and found file-extensions.org. I compared them all using file extensions from various DVRs and found that file-extensions.org had the most listings related to CCTV.

Added k-lite CODEC pack: This is a package of free CODECS. You could find all the CODECS yourself one-by-one, but this package gives you a convenient way to grab the most common CODECS in one install.

The Basics

SWGIT Best Practices for Forensic Video Analysis - PDF document
http://www.theiai.org/guidelines/swgit/guidelines/section_7_v1-0.pdf

Best Practices for the Retrieval of Video Evidence from Digital CCTV Systems - Flipbook
http://www.tswg.gov/subgroups/isf/electronic-evidence/retrieval-of-video-cctv.html

file-extensions.org - The Source for File Extensions Information - Website of file extensions
http://www.file-extensions.org

GSpot - Codec appliance software application
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/index.htm

media-geek.com - Source for proprietary players and CODECS
http://media-geek.com/ (click downloads from the menu)

Next Steps

k-lite CODEC Pack - Collection of numerous CODECS
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_codec_pack.htm

free-codecs.com - Download CODECS and CODEC Packs
http://www.free-codecs.com

AFREECODEC VT - Codec appliance software application
http://www.afreecodecvt.com

MediaInfo - Codec appliance software application
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en/Download

AVICodec - Codec appliance software application
http://avicodec.duby.info/

fileinfo.com - The File Extensions Resource - Website of file extensions
http://www.fileinfo.com

filext.com - A free online resource by Uniblue - Website of file extensions
http://www.filext.com

fourcc.org - Source for video CODEC and format information
http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php

Deep Cuts

VideoInspector - Codec appliance software application
http://www.kcsoftwares.com/index.php?vtb

Virtual Dub - Video playback and editing software application
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/

IrfanView - Image viewing software application
http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

videohelp.com - List of links to various video software
http://www.videohelp.com/tools

AVIedit - Editor for avi files
http://www.am-soft.ru/aviedit.html

Video Scene Magazine - Publication dedicated to catching bad guys with video
http://www.videoscenemagazine.com

If you know of anything that should be added to the list or have any feedback please email me at samb@signalscape.com.

Sam Burgiss, Director of Products for StarWitness

I Did Not Take Those Diapers

2010-06-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

The day-to-day focus of video surveillance is not necessarily those big crimes, it's a number of things that help a business' bottom line. My following recent experience proves the point.

One night I went through the self checkout at the local grocery store. I had several items for breakfast the next morning and a pack of diapers.

The next morning when the two-year old woke up it was time to put the new pack of diapers to use, but I couldn't find them. I searched anywhere I could think that I might have laid down a pack of diapers. No luck.

I thought it through and the only thing I could come up with is that I left them at the store. When I checked out at the self checkout I placed the diapers on the bagging area but not in a bag. I had to squeeze them beside one of the bagging stands to fit my other items.

We found a lone diaper in a diaper bag and fixed up Mr. Two-year Old. Then, on the way into work, I stopped by the store with my receipt from the night before. The lady at the service desk checked the written log, which the store keeps, of everything left at checkout registers. I could see the last entry was oranges and other stuff. No diapers listed anywhere.

Then she called the manager to the front and asked him to check the video. I've starred in hours of sample footage for our products but never in any real video evidence. They were looking for video evidence of me not taking that pack of diapers. I didn't say anything about being intimately familiar with video evidence, but I couldn't resist to ask to step into the office and view the video with them. They looked at the time stamp on my receipt and then checked the video at the coresponding time. No luck. These diapers were really chafing me. I was almost ready to give up on buying diapers altogether and switch to cloth.

They continued to look. About ten minutes later in the video I identified myself. The camera over the self-checkout area was at the perfect position to see the pack of diapers. The video showed me putting the diapers on the checkout area and pushing away my cart without them.

"The time clock was off," said the service desk lady as she rolled her eyes.

The sarcastic me was thinking, "no way? The clock on a CCTV system was wrong? It can't be."

"Go get what you need," she said. And I was cleared of all charges.

This brings up a great point about video surveillance. It's not always the armed robbery or other big crime that stores are trying to deal with by setting up video surveillance. They are also looking to solve other problems, maybe not so big in terms of public safety, but important to them in terms of money. Think fraud, employee theft, wrongful lawsuits, and so on. Those are all important problems for a business. And sometimes the perfect camera position, and CCTV setup works for these problems, but drives you crazy when a big crime occurs and you can't get anything good from the video.

Sam Burgiss, Director of Products for StarWitness, samb@signalscape.com

Calling all StarWitness Customers:

2010-04-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Collecting video from a crime scene seems like a pretty straightforward task. If you have the tools you need and access to the surveillance system it should be a breeze, right? For every easy collection there is at least one crazy collection, forcing you to jump through hoops to get the data you need. If you've ever been there, we want to hear from you! We want to hear your weirdest, craziest, funniest or wackiest DVR collection story.

Not sure what constitutes a crazy collection story? Here's a hypothetical example: You show up at the scene of the crime and find the DVR system. The problem is that the monitor for the system is in a completely different room and cannot be moved. In order to find the video you need on the system you work the controls on the DVR while somebody helps you by watching the screen in the other room, yelling across the building:

"STOP, TO THE LEFT, NO BACK TO THE RIGHT, CLICK. UP, TO THE RIGHT, CLICK. *$#%, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO START ALL OVER."

To tell us you're crazy collection stories follow this link and fill in your information and story. Once all the stories are in, we'll take vote on the craziest story. The winner will receive 1 year or Support and Maintenance on their StarWitness system free of charge. We can't wait to hear your stories!

Video Scene Magazine: Sneak Peak

2010-04-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

For the upcoming issue of Video Scene Magazine we interviewed an agency right in our backyard, Durham Police Department. Here is a sneak peak of the interview:

Technology is always evolving. Making the tools we use to fight crime more precise, more intense and more effective. But criminals are also evolving along disturbingly parallel lines as they try to outwit law enforcement.

Someone who has a unique view on this dynamic is Durham, NC CSI Officer Marilyn Coble. Unique in that she’s on the front lines in a city that’s viewed by outsiders almost like a coin–one side shiny (academics and medicine), the other scarred (crime). But also unique because her resume is dotted with experience which only forms a straight line when viewed in retrospect, from how perfectly it’s positioned her to do what she does today. Computer graphic design. Lab work. Crime scene investigations. And now, video forensics.

We sat down with Officer Coble to get her take on ways to use video to help solve crimes, even when the criminals are getting savvier about being ‘caught in the act.’

“Criminals know they’re probably being filmed now. They wear hats, keep their faces covered,” she says. “We’ve got to stay one step ahead of them.”

The rest of the interview will be released by the end of the month in the next issue of Video Scene Magazine. To make sure you get your copy subscribe through the website. We will also post all the articles on the website once the issue has been mailed out.

StarWitness Strikes Again!

2010-04-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

We love hearing reports of customers using StarWitness to successfully solve a case. Our goal is to help law enforcement catch bad guys using video evidence, so it's rewarding to see when our goal is being accomplished.

A few weeks ago we received word from one of our customers that StarWitness software was crucial in identifying and charging a suspect with producing child pornography. Pembroke Pines Police Detective Steve Wetterer used StarWitness FreezeFrame and Video Pro to slow down and clear up the face of the suspect so he could be identified by the task force. The files were extracted as real player files by the Secret Service computer forensic unit and given to Detective Wetterer allowing him to clean up the footage using his StarWitness System.

For more information on Detective Wetterer's case you can visit the Southern District of Florida Attorney's Office website and read the press release.

Come See us at DSI-Vegas:

2010-04-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Digital Summit International 2010

Digital Summit International is an Educational Conference that showcases the latest digital technologies for investigators and law enforcement professionals. Educational presentations, workshops and exhibitors will highlight the latest technologies for all types of digital evidence - from video, audio, cell phones, and cameras, to data acquisition, image enhancement, digital asset management and beyond!

We will be attending DSI-Vegas on August 17-19, 2010. We hope that you will also be attending and able to stop by our booth for information on StarWitness Products and our latest capabilities and offerings.

As a valuable reader we would like to invite you to attend this show. We have secured a discount code for StarWitness Weekly readers that is available for a limited time. It is included with the registration link below.

To learn more about DSI-Vegas visit the conference home page:
www.dsi-vegas.com

To attend the show click the link below and use discount code “EC-107”:
www.dsi-vegas.com/register

To contact DSI-Vegas directly call 702-373-4901 or email info@dsi-vegas.com

StarWitness: At the Scene

2010-03-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

StarWitness Field Agent: how it started

Since 2001 StarWitness has provided Turnkey forensic systems to the Law Enforcement community to help put bad guys behind bars, starting with our Video Pro Systems. Our software was developed with this specific goal in mind with help from the US Secret Service. Since then we have developed a community and provided forensic systems to Federal and state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the county. Through communication tools such as StarWitness Uservoice and StarWitness Forums we have used feedback from real customers to enhance our products for their use. And through the StarWitness Weekly and the Video Scene Magazine we have spread knowledge on video forensics to the community.

It was through this network of communication that we developed the StarWitness Field Agent. A complete system for collecting digital video at the crime scene including a collection kit and a rugged laptop with StarWitness FreezeFrame software. The kit was designed to include all the tools necessary for any kind of digital collection whether it be from a removable media drive, a data port or an analog video output. Once you have collected the video you can work it in StarWitness FreezeFrame right at the scene or back at the office, the laptop goes with you everywhere!

Try it Yourself

If you're interested in experiencing video collection in the field with the StarWitness Field Agent let us know and we'll set your agency up with a 30 day free trial of the product. We'll send you the field collection kit with all the tools needed to collect video evidence at the scene of the crime and the laptop installed with StarWitness FreezeFrame and Soundbite to use for one month. To find out more about trying the StarWitness Field Agent contact our sales team toll free at (888)685-2100 or you can visit our website for information on contacting your sales representative directly.

Advanced Backup

2010-03-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

The other week we showed you an easy way to back up your cases on your system with the Copy and Paste method. This week we're going to show you a more advanced way to save your cases, having you're computer do it for you. Below you will find a walk through of automatic backup written by StarWitness Tech Support Guru, Chad Gulzow.

The free option is the Windows Backup utility, accessible from the Start Menu under Accessories -> System Tools, or by typing “ntbackup.exe” in a command prompt.

The intro screen gives you the option to go into Advanced Mode, which will give you the full range of features you want without having to dig through too many prompts to reach them. From the welcome screen, select Backup Wizard (Advanced) and click Next on the following window. Select the middle option, Back up selected files, drives, or network data, and click Next.

The next window will ask what you want to back up. Hit the + sign next to My Computer, and check the box next to the Video Drive. If you have FreezeFrame on your computer, use the + next to Local Disk (C) to expand the C: Drive, then expand Program Files, Signalscape, and StarWitness FreezeFrame, then check the box next to the Data subdirectory. Finally, scroll down to the bottom, and check the box next to your My Documents folder, if you want to back that up as well. Feel free to check off any other directories that contain work-related files while you’re here. Hit Next at the bottom of the window.

The next window asks for a place to create your back-up. Click the Browse button on the right, and point it to your external hard drive. Give the back-up file a name and press Next.

The following window is optionally the last. If you’re happy with your settings and just want to create a one-time back-up, then by all means, hit Finish. However, you can use the Advanced… button to access more features, such as setting scheduled back-ups, and incremental back-ups (this is VERY handy). For the setup of the Advanced features, please read on.

If you hit the Advanced button, you are now at a window with the prompt Select the type of backup. I prefer the Incremental option. It takes less time with subsequent back-ups, because it only backs up files that have been added or modified in your selected directories since the last back-up task was performed. If you have a 10GB video that you haven’t touched in the last year, why bother copying it every night just because it’s still on your video drive? The Daily option is similar, as it makes a copy of every file you’ve created or worked on in the past 24 hours, but if you don’t back up every single day, you’ll end up losing work if your system crashes. Incremental is probably the smartest and safest option here. Select it, and hit Next.

On this screen, you can select to verify the data after a back-up task is performed. I would not recommend selecting either the second or third options, and in fact I don’t personally use the first option when backing up. But, you’re an advanced user, and these choices are available to you. Make any selections you wish (or none) and hit Next.

This screen asks if you want to append (add) the backup to the existing backups, or replace the existing backups. You should probably leave it on Append, if you are using Incremental back-ups. Hit Next.

This screen is what saves you tons of trouble in the future. It asks, When do you want to run the backup? with the options of Now or Later. Select Later, which reveals a button that reads Set Schedule… Select the Set Schedule button.

Here, you can tell it how often you want to back-up your data. I would recommend, at a minimum, once a week. If you use the system daily*, though, you will certainly want to do daily back-ups. As for the start time, I recommend setting back-ups to occur after you would normally leave for the day, and give it a window of about an hour in case you need to stay late to work. Make your selections and hit OK, then hit Next. Hit Finish on the following screen to begin the back-up.

*NOTE: If you select the Weekly option, you can choose multiple days of the week to perform back-ups. When building one of our new-model systems, this is the option that I use, and set it to back-up every Monday through Friday at 11:00 PM.

Windows now knows to perform an incremental back-up when you told it to, so as long as your computer is turned on and your external hard drive is plugged in, it’ll record away without you having to do a thing. And if you do end up getting a big case and having to stay late, you can tell the system to forget the back-up task for the day, and it will perform the back-up the next time it is scheduled to perform instead, happily copying two sessions worth of data without complaint.

Hopefully now you have a better idea of how to back up your data and save your cases from possible computer crashes. If you have any questions or need any assistance in setting up your back up feel free to contact StarWitness Tech Support through email or by phone at 877-674-3031.

Easy Backup

2010-02-25T06:08:00.000-08:00

In our last article we stressed the importance of backing up your cases and video evidence. Well, here are some tips on how back up the data on your system:

The easiest way to back-up your data is the old-fashioned manual copy and paste.

Once you've hooked your external hard drive to your system, simply go to My Computer on the desktop and open your Video Drive (in most cases, the D: drive). Open a second My Computer window and locate your external hard drive. Select everything on your Video Drive drive, and drag it over to the icon for your external hard drive.

Keep in mind that if you have a lot of information on your Video Drive, it will take a while to copy the data. Assume that it will take about one minute for every 1 Gig of data you transfer, so if you plan on regularly backing up large files you may want to get in the habit of doing it right before you leave the office at night.

Other important files to back-up:

• If you are a FreezeFrame user, go to C:\Program Files\Signalscape\StarWitness FreezeFrame, and copy the “Data” directory over to the external hard drive. The video data recorded on the Video Drive won’t be accessible without the information from this file.

• You may also want to copy your My Documents folder, if you keep screen captures, images, and other work related documents there.

The next time you want to back-up (and you should do so regularly), repeat the process. When you backup, your system will ask if you want to overwrite the existing files on the external hard drive, and you should always click “Yes to All” when making a back-up copy.

Next week we will show you a more advanced way to back up your data, so keep an eye out for the next Weekly Witness article!

Always have a good Backup!

2010-02-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

In our last article we showed you that collecting digital video at the scene of a crime is not as impossible as it may seem. If your agency has a StarWitness system, or any video forensic system, the next step is to take your video back and run it though your system. It won't take long to realize that digital video files, especially uncompressed files, can be huge and can quickly fill up the hard drive of your system.

So what is the best solution for storing all your digital video without filling your hard drive? Well there are a couple of different routes you could take.

One way to back up your files and ensure you don't lose any information from a potential system overload is to archive them to CD or DVD. Archiving to a CD or DVD has been a capability of FreezeFrame since it was launched in 2005 and remains a good way to back up your cases. A few things to keep in mind when you decide to archive to CD or DVD include storage of you're DVDs and possible degradation of the media over time. Though CD cases are smaller than VHS tape cases, they will still take up space somewhere, so keep that in mind. Also CDs unfortunately do not last forever, so make sure to keep track of when the CDs are created and how long they will last.

Another way to preserve your evidence is to back it up to an external hard drive. The ability to move your cases to and external hard drive has been a part of FreezeFrame for many years now. In fact, all systems shipped out with FreezeFrame come with a 1TB external hard drive just for backing up your cases. This allows more space for backing up large files and protection in case your system ever crashes.

Your video evidence is important and most times irreplaceable. We want to help make sure you never lose potential case breaking evidence, so watch for our next article to learn some tips on how to back up your data, whether it be to CD or to and external hard drive.

Digital Collection: What to Know

2010-02-04T08:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a short preview of one article we are working on for the next issue of Video Scene Magazine. Enjoy...

It's no secret that video surveillance has been shifting away from analog and towards digital recording systems. For the law enforcement community, with the switch to digital comes a new set of obstacles to overcome at the crime scene.

There are over a thousand companies offering digital surveillance and closed circuit television systems, meaning there is a possibility that no two crimes will have the same DVR system. The variety of different DVR systems not only makes it difficult to operate and view the evidence at the scene, it also makes evidence collection an obstacle. Where one system may feature a DVD burner for collecting video, another may have a flash card slot, and the next just an Ethernet port or analog NTSC video connection.

This is where it's important to be familiar with the different forms of digital collection and to ensure you have the tools you need for all the different methods of collection at the scene. Here is a chart of the collections methods you may run into and the tools you'll need to collect:

Collection Method	Tools for Collection
Collection from a Removable Media Drive	CDs, DVDs, Flash Media Cards, Floppy disks
Collection from a data port	USB cables, Firewire cables, External Hard Drive
Collection from an Analog video output	S-Video connectors, composite connectors, a Scan converter

We will feature a more indepth analysis of collection methods and handling digital evidence at the scene of a crime in the upcoming issue of Video Scene Magazine. To catch the next issue make sure you subscribe to the magazine at www.VideoSceneMagazine.com.

Has This Happened to You?

2010-01-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

Check out the StarWitness Field Unit, products designed to collect video evidence in the field, and make sure the DVRs on the scene are giving you all the video you need to catch the bad guys!

Survey Says...

2010-01-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

In the last issue of Video Scene Magazine we introduced a survey for our readers to help us gain insight into how video evidence is making out in the fight against crime. Well the survey is complete and the results are in! We plan on revealing the results in the upcoming issue of Video Scene Magazine, but we thought you might like to see a preview of the results to hold you over.

Of the 103 readers who took the survey:

63.1% work at a Municipality. Here is a breakdown of who works where:

42.7% are detectives. See the percentage breakdown of all the departments below:

and 94.2% work with video evidence on a regular basis.

Of those who work with video evidence:

92.1% work primarily with Digital video where 7.9% work primarily with analog video.

53.9% have presented video evidence in court and 46.1% have not.

81.6% have equipment dedicated to collecting or enhancing video evidence where 18.4% do not.

To see all of the results catch the next issue of Video Scene Magazine coming out soon. If you have not subscribed to the magazine visit the website and sign up now!

From the StarWitness Team:

2009-12-21T12:31:00.000-08:00

Have a Voice in 2010

2009-12-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

Another successful year is winding down and as always, we are excited to see what the future holds. We're also excited to hear what you'd like to see in the future of our products.

In 2008 when we opened the vote in the StarWitness Uservoice forum we gained awesome insight and knowledge from the ideas and votes that you submitted. Some of the ideas are now a reality, added to the software in this past years software releases. Other ideas are in the pipeline for upcoming releases, including the most highly voted idea, to add audio capture and feedback to FreezeFrame. There are even some ideas that have been added just recently that are awaiting feedback and votes.

So if you haven't been to the Uservoice forum for a while, or if you've never been before, check it out now to add and vote on ideas. You have ten votes. You can vote on ten ideas or weigh in with more than one vote on an idea that you really like. You can also enter new suggestions you have for any product, training or anything StarWitness.

The Lowdown on Grants

2009-12-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that one of the best ways to gain money for new equipment is through Government grants. The challenge is finding the grants that work best for what you need and writing the application. Here are some tips we've come up with to help you with those challenges.

Know what kind of grant you're applying for.
There are different types of grants each allocating the money differently. Knowing the difference may give you the heads up you need when writing your application. For example, Direct Grants require applicants to apply directly to the federal government, where Pass Through Grants contain money passed to the state and allocated out by the state. In the case of Competitive Grants a specific amount of money is assigned each year and organizations compete for awards. This may require you to be more focused on the state's priorities and how they align with your goals as applications are evaluated on how well they meet the objectives of the grant program. With Formula Grants the funds are assigned to a predetermined set of recipients based on a formula. How the funds are used is also determined by the appropriations legislation.

Know the key things to remember when writing your application.
Here are some best practices when writing grant applications:

Don't judge the grant by it's title. Make sure you understand what the grant is really about before deciding if it fits your needs.
Gain support from your local officials.
Refer to previously awarded applications. This may give you an understanding of what reviewers are looking for in applications.
Address your short and long term goals.
Place important information at the top of the applications. The first paragraph of any article or story is where the author hooks the reader. It's the same concept for writing your application.
Edit thoroughly for mistakes. It only takes one mistake on your application to prevent your agency from being awarded the grant money. Edit, edit and edit again.

Know where to find information.
Here are a couple of places to look for grant information:

Audio Capture in FreezeFrame

2009-11-30T05:51:00.000-08:00

Someone recently asked us: "When playing a vhs or dvd thru the Star Witness Freeze Frame software there is no audio. Do we have something hooked up wrong?"

No.

The current version of FreezeFrame does not support audio recording or playback: no matter the source of the video it will not have audio when played through FreezeFrame.

There is good news. Our next version of FreezeFrame, v1.7, will support audio. This support includes audio capture for the Record a New Video option and the Import a Video File option. This capability will pair the captured audio evidence with the video evidence throughout the analysis. You will hear the audio played as the video plays. When you export a video file from Freezeframe the audio evidence will be exported with the video evidence - to either uncompressed AVI format or WMV.

We are excited about this new feature, which came directly from your input. If you have not visited our StarWitness Voice website you should have a look at: starwitness.uservoice.com. You can vote on new features you think we should implement and enter suggestions.

Tools to Help with Your Video Evidence

2009-11-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

Between gathering video evidence at a crime scene and using it as a tool in the courtroom there may be many steps and obstacles. How do you keep the evidence viable for the courtroom? How do you deal with possibly obscure digital file formats? Where do you look for answers when you hit a doorstop? To help knock out some of the obstacles we have put together a list of useful free video software and reference websites. Here are some of the highlights:

GSpot is a codec appliance software application. This freeware application helps you establish what codecs are required to play a media file and identifies whether the codecs are present on your system. It will also identify problems associated with the codecs and the media files.

Virtual Dub is a video playback and editing software application geared towards processing AVI files. It can also read MPEG-1 files and handle sets of BPM images and is available as a free download.

FileInfo.com is a searchable file extension database containing information about thousands of file extensions. Each entry contains information about the file format, a description of the file and the programs that can open the file.

Media Geek is a forensic multimedia community containing a variety of downloads and links as well as forensic video news, blogs and forums. This is a great place to go to ask questions about or read up on video forensics. It is also a great place to download proprietary players and codecs.

These are just a few of the helpful sites and downloads we have found. The complete list can be found in our upcoming issue of Video Scene Magazine. Visit the Video Scene Magazine website and subscribe now to make sure you get the next issue.

Training, Training, Training

2009-10-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

It seems as though we've been on a training kick for the past couple of months. Between our new Product Certification class and our bi-yearly Recovery and Analysis class, it's been a pretty busy season. We're thrilled to be educating the community and providing tools to help put criminals behind bars.

Our latest training was the Recovery and Analysis class held this past September. We were extremely pleased with what trainees took away from the class: A complete picture of how to use video to capture bad guys. Not just an overview but really digging into the details. Dealing with all the problems of video evidence from analog to digital video systems (digital video was a big component of the class).

We were thrilled that everyone learned so much and found the class to be so thorough. Here is some of the feedback we received from the latest trainees:

"Very good class, material presented in a good manner, nice setup for the classroom"

"The training was the most thorough that I have had this far. Very helpful regarding the legal aspects of Video Evidence"

"class was good - plenty of hands on and good lecture"

"The training was above and beyond my expectations"

Our next Recovery and Analysis training class will be held February 8th - 10th, 2010 in Phoenix, AZ. To find out more about the training visit our website or email us. Also check out our training calendar to find out about other StarWitness classes.

Product Certification

2009-10-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we held our first Product Certification class with great success. One of the great things about conducting any training class for the first time is gaining valuable feedback from the trainees. We were thrilled to learn what trainees gained from the class and what they would like to see added to future classes.

Here is what some of the trainees had to say about the class:

"Both Instructors were experts on their topics"

"I think the product Certification course is an excellent idea and I would recommend it to other Signalscape Users."

One valuable tip we gained during this class is that a week is not long enough to cover Video products and information and Audio products and information. That's why going forward we are splitting Product Certification into two classes, one dedicated to Video and one dedicated to Audio. The Video class will cover StarWitness FreezeFrame and Video Pro capabilities and filters as well as video best practices and technical information. The Audio class will cover StarWitness Audio Pro and SoundBite capabilities and filters as well as an overview of audio technology.

The next Video Product Certification Class will be held March 22nd - 26th, 2010 and the first Audio Product Certification class will be held April 19th - 23rd, 2010. For more information contact a sales representative or visit our website. We hope to see you at our upcoming Product Certification classes!

Video Scene Magazine - eNews

2009-09-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hopefully by now you have had a chance to read through the current issue of Video Scene Magazine. Our goal with every issue is to give you more insight into how video evidence is making out in the fight against crime and to keep you informed on whats going on in the community. The last issue focused on how to get the most out of your video evidence in today's economy of diminishing resources. We hope it gave you an idea of new places to look for video evidence, how to best handle the evidence you find and how to make sure it works towards prosecuting criminals in court.

For our next issue of the magazine we are asking you to help provide us with some additional insight. We want to know your experience with video evidence; what tools you use, where you look for information and news, how effective video has been for you as evidence. To help gain this insight we developed the Video Scene Magazine Survey. Our hope is that the survey may help us find new ways to fight crime using video evidence which we can in turn share with the community. We would like to thank you in advance for participating in the survey and you can look for the results in the next issue of Video Scene Magazine.

If you have not had a chance to see the new issue of the magazine visit the website to catch up. To receive future issues of the magazine in the mail select the 'subscribe now' icon on the left side of the web page and fill in your information.

Recover and Analysis Training is Coming Up!

2009-08-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Our February training in Phoenix Arizona was a great success and we are looking forward to our chance at another great training this fall. We are thrilled that attendees find our training valuable in their mission to catch criminals using video evidence.

From the evaluations, it seems the most valuable thing about the class was what the attendees took away: A complete picture of how to use video to capture bad guys. Not just an overview but really digging into the details. Dealing with all the problems of video evidence from analog to digital video systems (digital video was a big component of the class).

We were thrilled that everyone learned so much and found our instructors to be so informed.

"Hands on exercises were very good."
John A. Guzman, Phoenix Police Department, Arizona

"This class was really helpful for me to get an understanding of video forensics"
Kim Crockett, Kansas City Police, Missouri

"The instructors gave unbiased answers to questions regarding software that was not from Signalscape. That led me to believe in their credible opinions."
Mark Gustad, Eden Prairie Police Department, Minnesota

Our next Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence class will takes place September 14th through September 18th in Cary, NC. Please check out our five minute course preview to learn more. (Yes, it really takes just under five minutes.) Also check out the flyer for more information on the class content. Seats in the September training are filling up fast. Please contact us for more information and to reserve your seat!

Announcing: StarWitness Field Kit

2009-08-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that video recorded during a crime is crucial evidence. But many times collection methods are complicated and the evidence goes unused. Different versions of DVRs with different collection methods make it difficult to capture video correctly, especially without proper understanding and education in the technology.

These pains are what prompted the development of the StarWitness Field Kit. The Field Kit simplifies the process of collection by including the equipment needed to capture video from various CCTV surveillance systems in one case. The equipment included in the kit as well as a specially developed flip guide gives you the 1-2-3 for every type of digital video evidence collection.

The guide helps you quickly and easily assess any DVR to decide what type of video evidence you'll be recovering - from a standard AVI file to DVRs that only have one connector other than the power cord. Once you determine the recovery method, flip to the color-coded section of the flip guide, grab the corresponding colored bag and you're ready to go. Everything you need for that collection is in the bag.

Once you have the proper tools the challenge lies in keeping up with all the digital video evidence and best practices for recovering the evidence. The three day training class included with StarWitness Field Kit will give you an understanding of video technology and current best practices for handling video evidence. Through Interactive training and hands-on exercises you will learn proper evidence handling procedures, the ins and outs of video technology and the tools available for video analysis. Whatever format, you'll be ready to deal with it: in-car, personal video recorders, DVRs, DCCTV. You'll return to your agency empowered with the best practices for recovering video evidence and the tools needed to put them to use.

For more information on the StarWitness Field Kit visit our website or contact our sales team directly.

The Results are in

2009-07-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well you guys asked and you shall receive! We took the top two shirts from the survey and had them printed for NATIA. One of the choices we added in as a bit of a joke, something to make you laugh. Well it must have worked; here was the most popular T-Shirt:

We have a very limited supply of this shirt available and will be giving them away before the reception to those who want one. So if you voted this shirt into the top position come see us at booth 300 on either Tuesday or Wednesday to claim one for yourself.

For the Wednesday night reception we will be handing out the second most popular shirt:

So stop by our booth during the reception for a chance to collect this shirt!

Also, don't forget about your opportunity to gain some training on video evidence during NATIA. Sam Burgiss will be hosting Catching Criminals with Video Evidence: Video Evidence Analysis, a class featuring demonstrations of collecting, clarifying and circulating video evidence.Video evidence will be worked during the session using real equipment from beginning to end. The class will be held on Monday July, 13 at 1:00pm and Tuesday July, 14 at 8:00am.

We hope to see you next week!

Putting on our Blue Suede Shoes

2009-06-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

That's right, We're headed to Memphis for NATIA this year. And with a new NATIA comes the chance for you to try our products, talk to our trainers and collect a brand new StarWitness T-Shirt! The past couple of years we have asked for your input in picking a new shirt design and this year is no exception. If you are attending NATIA let us know what T-Shirt you would like to see by taking our T-Shirt survey.

The T-shirt giveaway will be held on Wednesday night during the reception, but don't make that your first stop at the StarWitness booth! During the show we will be showcasing our newest product, Field Kit, as well as our existing products Field Agent and Analyst. We will also have our trainers and sales representatives there to answer questions and fill you in on whats new with StarWitness. So make sure you stop by and see us in Booth 300.

This year Sam Burgiss will be hosting a two hour training session titled Catching Criminals with Video Evidence: Video Evidence Analysis. The class will feature demonstrations of collecting, clarifying and circulating video evidence. Video evidence will be worked during the session using real equipment from beginning to end. There will be two chances to catch the class, so make sure you schedule it in for either:

Monday July, 13 2009: 1:00pm - 3:00pm or
Tuesday July, 14 2009: 8:00am - 10:00am

We look forward to seeing you there!

StarWitness Strikes Again!

2009-05-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

We always love hearing that our products are helping put criminals behind bars. That's why we were thrilled when we found that one of our customers recently used StarWitness Freeze Frame to help solve a crime. Detective J.C. Blankenship of Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office sent us the following email about the case:

"In August and September of 2008 our region had a series of attempted and completed sexual assaults on hotel workers. Two of these incidents occurred in our county. In August a cleaning lady was sexually assaulted while she was cleaning a room. In September another cleaning lady at a different hotel was approached and the suspect attempted to assault her but she screamed and he fled. In the first Incident Detective Robin Kocher collected DNA evidence that later linked the suspect to the crime. In the second incident in September all we had was poor video footage and a witness account of the incident. Using the Star Witness Freeze Frame I was able to enhance images of the vehicle and suspect.
The images showed the suspect wearing his black skull cap and showed the Tattoo on his arm.

After the second incident we received a DNA hit. We set up surveillance on the suspect’s residence and took him into custody on the first incident. Photos were taken of his vehicle, tattoo, and skull cap. Both victims identified him in photo line ups. The images captured using the Star Witness Freeze Frame were used as evidence during a jury trial. On 4-14-09 a Jury found Derrick R. Gosnell guilty and sentenced him to 86 years in prison. He also faces charges in neighboring jurisdiction for a similar incident. The DNA evidence and the video enhancement sealed this case shut. "

Thanks again.

Detective J.C. Blankenship CFCE, CCE, CCFT Certified Forensic Computer Examiner Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office

Detective Blankenship also directed us to this article containing more details about the case and sent us some of the images that helped to break the case.

FreezeFrame 1.6 and Sound Bite 1.1

2009-05-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that we have recently released our newest updates for StarWitness FreezeFrame and StarWitness Sound Bite.

We have created this short video to walk you through the new features in FreezeFrame version 1.6:

The new version of FreezeFrame features several new features designed to make the software work more easily for you. We have updated the import screen for the screen recorder which looks very similar to the other processing screens in the current version of FreezeFrame. The new screen allows the user to trim the video before importing it into a case file.

Other new features include:

- The ability to merge cameras in a demultiplexed file.
- The ability to export video clips to a compressed wmv or Windows Media Video file. This file format can be sent via email or uploaded onto a website.
- The ability to scrub the video in the processing screen using the keyboard.

In addition to the new features, we have also included a number of bug fixes in the update to help keep your software running as smoothly as possible.

The new version of Sound Bite is now able to open files larger than 250MB and includes a variety of streamlining and bug fixes designed to make your software run smoothly.

All customers who are current on support and maintenance can expect to receive the upgrade via US mail by the end of this week. Feel free to contact us at sales@signalscape.com if you want to know more about reactivation, or if you’re unsure about the status of your support and software maintenance contract.

Sound Bite now on StarWitness University

2009-04-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that Sound Bite training is now available on StarWitness University. StarWitness University is our newest training tool which provides online product training for all customers who are current on support and maintenance. The University was launched in February and featured a training course for the FreezeFrame software. We have now added the Sound Bite training course which includes videos and texts to guide you through using the software. We plan to include Video Pro and Audio Pro training on the University in the future, so keep your eyes opened for announcements!

To gain access to the university contact the StarWitness training team at our toll free number, 877-674-3031, or send an email to training@signalscape.com. To get a sneak peak of the university and instructions on how to enroll play our short introductary video. If you are a customer and you are not up to date on your support and maintenance, or if you are not sure of your support status contact your sales representative to find out how you can gain access to the university.

Grant funding for Video Evidence equipment

2009-04-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

Law enforcement is getting four billion dollars from Obama's recovery act. Almost all of the four billion is for state, local and tribal law enforcement. Two of the four billion is for Edward Byrne grants. These grants can be used for video evidence equipment and personnel.

In an effort to help you take advantage of the opportunity available through the Edward Byrne recovery funding we are sponsoring a webinar this Wednesday, April 29, 2009. Please register now to attend at 2:00 PM EST Wednesday this week.

Here is some more info on the webinar...

Leveraging the Justice Assistance Grants Local Program - Sponsored by StarWitness from Signalscape

Public safety agencies that qualify for the Local JAG program are in a unique position to leverage significant Stimulus funding for their projects. The flexibility of JAG, combined with the sheer size of the opportunity make this year's program especially notable.

Join Grants Office CEO Michael Paddock as we discuss the Local JAG program, application procedures, Recovery Act accountability requirements, and allowable activities.

If you're on the list to receive a Local JAG grant this year, this session will help you ensure you know everything you need to before you apply!

Register now at this link

Video Scene Magazine - Issue 2

2009-04-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Video Scene Magazine Issue two has hit the stands! That's right, the newest issue of the magazine focused on educating readers on forensic video is here and ready to go. In light of recent economic conditions we chose to focus this issue on the ever increasing law enforcement conundrum: how to catch more criminals without consuming more resources.

In the new issue we take a look at how social and video sharing websites are becoming critical tools for police in the article "YouCrime.com". Article "Desert Heat" gives insight to how the Arizona Department of Public Saftey is aiding in the fight against crime through an elusive interview with Detective Patrick Smith. Also featured are tips on how to prepare yourself for presenting evidence in court and some tips and tools for handling video evidence.

To read the new issue of Video Scene visit the website. If you would like to receive new issues in the mail be sure to click on the Subscribe Now icon on the left hand side of the screen. We always welcome new contributors for the magazine, so if you have an interesting story or information on new trends pertaining to forensic video don't hesitate to contact the editor Sam Burgiss.

Video Evidence Survey

2009-04-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

We all know that video evidence has led to countless confessions and convictions. This makes video evidence certainly seem a good place to look to improve crime catching–from the idiots posting videos on the internet of themselves committing crimes to all the video from the rising number of video surveillance installations on public and private property.

But the question remains: exactly how good is video evidence in the fight against crime?

That's why, as part of our latest issue of Video Scene Magazine, we’ve developed a survey that will give us all some additional insight. Please participate in the survey at VideoSceneMagazineSurvey.com. We’ll publish the results in our next issue. Let’s all learn something from each other. It may help us find ways to improve how we use video evidence to fight crime.

Catching Criminals using Facebook

2009-04-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

We've recently showed you how the law enforcement community has been utilizing YouTube.com and other video sharing websites to help catch criminals. Well, recently we have discovered another online avenue that has been used to help bust criminals, internet networking sites.

In Queenstown, New Zealand police are using Facebook.com, a popular social networking website, to upload videos in hopes of catching local criminals. They created a social group titled "Queenstown Police" and have uploaded numerous pictures and videos of criminals in action. In Mid Janauary this unusual method of trying to identify suspects paid off when a young man robbing a tavern was caught on a surveillance system. Stills from the video were posted on the Facebook site and a suspect was identified and apprehended shortly after.

This new trend of using the internet to assist in catching criminals is one of the topics covered in the upcoming issue of Video Scene Magazine. If you would like to learn more about the subject and read other interesting articles about forensic video make sure to visit www.videoscenemagazine.com and subscribe to recieve the next issue.

New Training: StarWitness Product Certification

2009-03-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that we here at StarWitness are dedicated to educating our customers as much as possible. Well now we are opening up registration for our newest training class, Product Certification. The class is designed to provide StarWitness customers with in depth knowledge of all StarWitness products. Our new Product Certification class is a week long course held at our Cary, NC location and will cover everything you need to know about using StarWitness products to enhance video and audio.

As well as providing an in depth analysis of StarWitness products, the certification class will also cover technical information about digital and analog video, discussion on the hardware we use, information on codecs and compression and discussion on industry best practices in video forensics. We want all or our students to walk out of the class with a better understanding of the science of video forensics and how to use StarWitness to get the most out of their video.

For more information on the Product Certification class visit the product certification page on our website.

If you would like to sign up for a class please contact your sales representative.

We hope to see you in training soon!

CSI vs. Reality Training Session

2009-03-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Here's an opportunity for you to get a great two hour dose of our training. If you're planning to be at the Mid-Atlantic National Technical Investigators Association conference you can attend Sam Burgiss' two hour training session on Wednesday, April 1st in New York, NY. The class, CSI vs. Reality, will take place at 1:00pm.

During the training session you'll see demonstrations of collecting, clarifying and circulating video evidence. Video evidence will be worked during the session using real equipment from beginning to end. Some of the tools used are software downloads available for FREE. Other tools include inexpensive hardware like CD-ROMs, flash drives, etc. used to collect video evidence from DVRs. You'll also see the capabilities of higher-end video evidence tools.

For more information on the training session please contact us at training@signalscape.com. We hope to see you there!

Another Training Success!

2009-03-06T08:16:00.000-08:00

We're still excited about one of the most successful Recovery and Analysis training class to date! The class was held in mid February at the Arizona Department of Public Safety in Phoenix, AZ and provided trainees with a wealth of knowledge on video technology and current best practices of forensic video analysis. From the evaluations it seems that students were very impressed by the trainers and by the value they gained by attending the class. How can we complain when we get reviews like this:

"I had never taken a class relating to this field. But this class was really helpful for me to get an understanding of video forensics. I'm looking forward to further educating myself with books and other training classes."
- Kim Crockett, Kansas City Police Department

We are thrilled to provide valuable knowledge to help you put criminals behind bars for good! Our next Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence class, coming this September, will be held in Cary NC in our brand new Training facility. Check out the flyer for dates and information on the class content. Please contact us for more information and to reserve your seat! We hope to hear from you soon!

Email us at training@signalscape.com.

Presenting: StarWitness University

2009-02-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months we have been hard at work developing a tool that we think will help you, as a customer, in your quest to catch criminals using video. StarWitness University is our newest training tool that provides online training for all customers who are current on support and maintenance. This new online tool provides videos and text to help you better understand StarWitness software. Right now we have completed the StarWitness Freeze Frame training course online and we plan to expand the library in the coming months to include Video Pro, Audio and Soundbite.

The great thing about online training is that it's always available for you to find. If you are in the midst of a case and need some tips for editing your video, you can turn to the online training as a point of reference to guide you. If you have not used your StarWitness system for a while and feel you need to brush up on training, the university will be there to help you! If you are trying to help your coworkers get a feel for the system you can use StarWitness University as your guide. We hope that this tool makes it that much easier for you to catch bad guys using video!

To gain access to the university contact the StarWitness training team at our toll free number, 877-674-3001, or send an email to training@signalscape.com. To get a sneak peak of the university and instructions on how to enroll play our short introductary video. If you are a customer and you are not up to date on your support and maintenance, or if you are not sure of your support status contact your sales representative to find out how you can gain access to the university.

StarWitness Year in Review

2009-01-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Another year has come to a close, and what a year it was! Between tradeshows, training classes and software releases this year was very busy! As you all know, our main goal as StarWitness is to help you catch criminals with video. This year was better than ever to help that happen.

One of the tools we were proud to offer to the law enforcement community during 2008 was our Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence training class. We held the class twice in 2008 with great success. The training class is a combined effort from us here at StarWitness and Dorothy Stout of Resolution Video. The week long training class provides everything you need to know to catch bad guys with video.

In addition to all the time spent learning the curriculum in class, we also like to get to know the trainees. Wednesday night is typically dinner out together. We aim to make the training a memorable and educational experience for all! With two successful classes this past year we are looking forward to 2009 with two more classes. The first class will be held in Phoenix, Arizona in February and the second in September in Cary, North Carolina. (Please check out our five minute course preview if you want to learn more.)

Another great accomplishment of 2008 was the launch of Video Scene Magazine. Each issue of this magazine offers unique, expert insight and interviews about the latest opinions, gadgets and innovations surrounding forensic video and video surveillance technology. Every article is designed to be both informative and objective as we discuss the most critical issues in our field today. It's a must read for anyone committed to catching criminals with video. Set up your own free subscription and get a look at the first issue at videoscenemagazine.com.

Another way that we love to get out and stay involved in the law enforcement community is through tradeshows and conferences. We participated in many shows this year. One that stands out is the National Technical Innvestigators' Association Annual Training Conference and Technology Exhibition. Last year NATIA was hosted in San Jose, CA and proved to be a great opportunity for us. Not only did we connect with our customers but we were also able to educate those who have not heard about what is going on in the world of video evidence.

Any chance we get to educate people about the usefulness of video evidence is an automatic win. And if we have to organize a Nerf dart gun shoot off to help do that, we will! You heard us correctly. Every year at NATIA we use reception time to organize a fun game with t-shirt giveaways for everyone who participates. This year the big game was a Nerf gun shooting contest. Though there is no photographic proof of the great success, you'll have to take our word that the line wrapped around the aisles and the free t-shirts were a huge hit!

It is always a thrill to get face to face with the community at shows, but we have also been keeping busy making sure customers get the most out of our software. With the introduction of Field Agent, our new on-the-go video collection and analysis kit, we also released an updated version of Freezeframe. Freezeframe version 1.5 added the ability to work from an external hard drive in order to provide more case storage space as well as including important bug fixes. We also released an update for Video Pro which added a new spotlight/blotout filter as well as new sample graphs showcasing the filter. Since we believe in constantly improving our software to make it easier to use and to add new capabilities you can look forward to more releases in 2009!

And there you have it! It was a great year for StarWitness, but we couldn't have done it without the support of the community! So thanks to everyone who helped make 2008 such a great success.

Let the Video Evidence Come to You

2008-12-15T08:39:00.000-08:00

Video evidence can come from many different sources. Whether it's from a crime scene or an online video sharing website like YouTube it all seems to have one thing in common: you have to collect the evidence yourself. But wouldn't it be convenient if the video evidence found you?

As reported by The Clarin, a major newspaper in Argentina, Argentine Police are now accepting photo and video evidence sent by citizens through the internet. As part of an effort to assist the police by freeing them up from smaller police issues Argentine authorities have opened up complaint centers in Buenos Aires. As part of the system Argentine citizens can submit photos and videos of crimes committed to the complaint centers through the internet. Complaints with accompanying photos or video can either be uploaded to the website of the public prosecutions department or sent to them by email.

The idea of the complaint centers is to help police concentrate more fully on their job of protecting the people. The complaint centers help sift through complaints and evidence, a lot of which is sent in through the website and by email, and relay the critical evidence and information to the police. It looks like the Argentine Police have found a way to make catching criminals even easier.

From the StarWitness Team:

2008-12-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

Not your typical video evidence

2008-12-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

You may have encountered video evidence of various forms: a VHS tape, video on a DVR that's part of a digital CCTV surveillance system, a video from your agency's covert video surveillance recorder or even a video from your agency's in-car camera system. But have you encountered video evidence on a video hosting website like YouTube?

Sites like YouTube have had various video evidence. In some cases, the not so smart criminals directly post themselves performing a criminal act. Other times it's a bystander who happens to film a crime. From whomever or wherever that video is uploaded and hosted on a website. It's your job is to be prepared to handle that video evidence - collect it, clarify it and circulate your results.

One woman in Seattle became frustrated after reporting crime in her neighborhood to the police. She began to chronicle the crime by making video recordings and post them to YouTube. She posted videos such as, "Crackheads playing football in my alley" and "Crackhead makes pipe out of a can while wearing sombrero". She got a lot of attention and inspired others to do the same.

Here is a sample of a "vigilante video". (Warning: Illegal and explicit activities. We know its nothing new, but just thought we would throw in the obligatory warning.)

Let's suppose this is your evidence. What would you do? Somewhere in the dark corner of that alley is the suspect you need to show on the 6'oclock news. You need to recover the video evidence, clean it up and send out a picture of the suspect.

The screen recorder offers the ability to capture a video that plays on your computer screen. This includes videos on YouTube or any other website.

Here is a frame from the video before any clarification.

After screen recording we clarified the frame to create the following result.

Your Fifteen Minutes of Video Crimefighting Fame

2008-11-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

The premier issue of Video Scene Magazine, which we published in July 2008, has received a great response. We thank everyone who has subscribed and read the magazine.

In an effort to further educate and empower the community of people who want to utilize video as a tool for law enforcement we plan to release a new issue of the magazine every six months.

Our next issue is just around the corner, which means it's time for you to consider taking advantage of the opportunity to capture your "fifteen minutes of forensic video fame". Video Scene Magazine is looking for authors, contributors or any objective people out there who wish to share knowledge...tools, trends, case studies...anything that could help others catch criminals with video.

In exchange for your contribution of writing a few words, you and your article will be featured in Video Scene Magazine. Not only will your article appear in the magazine, but your picture and short biography will be featured as well. Imagine 5,000 of your closest crime-frighting, forensic video friends seeing your picture and biography in the front pages of Video Scene Magazine. Here's how our last group of contributors appeared.

If you're ready to make yourself look good to the boss, pad your resume or just see your picture in an actual magazine. Here are a couple of topics we think will be helpful and relevant to the law enforcement community:

Crime on YouTube - A less than brilliant criminal has conveniently posted their crime on YouTube, now what? This article would explain how to handle evidence found on a online video hosting website such as YouTube.
Storage of Video Evidence - How do you back up and archive your video evidence? Is CD-ROM the way to go, or is it better to back up to an external hard drive? What are the pros and cons of the different methods of video evidence storage?
Industry News - What is going on in the video industry? This article could be about CCTV surveillance or any other topic that is hot to the industry right now.

To check out the current issue of Video Scene magazine and to find contact information visit the website at www.VideoSceneMagazine.com. If you are interested in contributing an article please contact the Editor in Chief as soon as possible by emailing samb@signalscape.com. In order for your article to be published in the next issue we have a couple of deadlines:

12/5/08 - an abstract of the article is due on this date
12/19/08 - the final copy of your article is due on this date

Please consider our invitation to contribute and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

10 Years of StarWitness

2008-11-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

It was in 1998 that we developed one of the original versions of StarWitness Video Pro software. Our BETA software was burned onto a CD with a cover printed with our office laser printer. It wasn’t the packaging that counted. It was ability to clarify video evidence, which excited our customers a decade ago. At the time, it was bleeding edge.

You might be wondering – ‘How does what we offered ten years ago compare to what we offer today?’ The people involved with the development of the original forensic video software are still here at our company. And they are involved with what we do today. We spoke with a few of them and others who contributed along the way and here’s what we discovered.

The concept of forensic software was first explored by Signalscape a decade ago. It all started with the development of audio-enhancement filters for real-time clarification of recordings. The Signalscape Editor was created as a tool for assembling audio enhancement filters in an organized graph and applying them to an audio file. The jump from audio editing to video editing occurred in 1998 when Steve Goodridge, PhD came to work at Signalscape. Tapping into his background in image processing, Steve envisioned how the work Signalscape had done with audio enhancement could be applied to video. He created a variety of video-editing filters (including Gain, Frame Averaging and Contrast), which still form the underpinnings of all our forensic video solutions today.

The Signalscape Editor software enabled users to organize video filters and apply them to video in real time in the same way audio filters were organized and applied. This real time capability is what made it possible to turn the technology into a useful product. There was simply no other system with this ability. Both law enforcement and federal agencies were clamoring for just these abilities.

The combination of cutting-edge technology and this inherent need in the forensic lab led to the development of the Video Pro turnkey solution (which was later branded in 2005 as StarWitness). The original Video Pro system consisted of the Signalscape Editor and Video Toolkit installed on an Silicon Graphics PC. The Silicon Graphics system was chosen because it had a built-in ability to capture and output uncompressed video. At the time, it was difficult to find a system that would easily output large digital video files and the Silicon Graphics system provided that capability.

Over the years, that original turn-key forensic video system, Video Pro, has grown into so much more. Filters have been added to provide more capabilities. Filter Pro, a software pack of advanced filters, was created to complement the product. Video Pro led to the development of FreezeFrame, an easy-to-use forensic video system that requires less training and has a user-friendly interface.

With great technology we worked through the years on supporting law enforcement through training, technical support, education about forensic video, anything we could do to help you catch criminals. Its been our privilege to evolve and innovate over the past ten years in order to serve you. We can't wait to do the same over the next decade!

Association of Forensic Mulitmedia Analysis

2008-10-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

A new association has recently formed specifically to serve the community of Forensic Multimedia Analysts including Forensic Video, Audio and Imaging Analysts. One of the first priorities of The Association of Forensic Multimedia Analysis will be to offer certification to the forensic video, audio and imaging communities.

You can become a member of the AFMA over the next several months for free. At this time there is no cost to join, simply express your interest in the organization. As a member you will receive emails regarding the status of the AFMA, and you will be qualified to participate in the upcoming committees and activities of the AFMA. To sign up, send an email to info@theafma.org with the subject AFMA MEMBER REQUEST. After your request is made via email you will receive an invitation to the AFMA member's website.

At this time the Board of Directors is being elected. You will need to become a member of AFMA in order to vote. A link to vote for the Board of Directors can be found on the main page of the AFMA member's website. If you know of anyone else who would be interested in participating in the AFMA please forward the information to them.

Tattoo from Video Leads to Apprehension

2008-10-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

Detective J. C. Blankenship of Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office recently used his StarWitness FreezeFrame system to identify two perpetrators in a robbery. He sent us the following email about the case and included the stills used to identify the suspects:

"I have used the system already and had success in clearing a robbery. The original video was very compressed but I did the best I could. There were two suspects. I was able to make out a tattoo on the neck of one which with other investigative interviews aided in his apprehension. With the other, I was able to focus on the suspect that stood still long enough for me to frame average and then focus on the tattoo. That helped identify him. I am sending the stills and the after apprehension photos on the press release. I did not write the press releases or I would have given you kudos."

Detective J. C. Blankenship CFCE, CCE, CCFT Certified Forensic Computer Examiner Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office.

Your second most important vote of 2008

2008-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

You have a right to VOTE in the second most important election of this year: StarWitness Voice 2008. Claim your voice as we plan our next product releases and upcoming year. Make your StarWitness system do things that people working with video evidence five years from now would only dream of. You are our crystal ball; the flux capacitor of our De Lorean, allowing us to learn from the future at exactly 88 miles per hour.

The best thing about Choose StarWitness '08 is... it's so easy. Just point your web browser to starwitness.uservoice.com and VOTE. You have ten votes. You can vote on ten ideas or weigh in with more than one vote on an idea that you really like. You can also enter new suggestions you have for any product, training or anything StarWitness.

We are a blank canvas. A stone tablet waiting for your chisel. A MySpace page without our hideous background. It's your input, your ideas, your suggestions that will march us to the forensic video capabilities of the future.

Power to the people (you).

Fantisimo Training

2008-09-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

"Fantisimo." That's how Larry Minton from Ozark Police Department in Alabama described our Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence training class last week. We're not holding back on how big a compliment it is to have our class described as fantisimo.

From the evaluations, it seems the most fantisimo thing about the class was what the attendees took away: A complete picture of how to use video to capture bad guys. Not just an overview but really digging into the details. Dealing with all the problems of video evidence from analog to digital video systems (digital video was a big component of the class).

We were thrilled that everyone learned so much and found our instructors to be so informed.

"I very much enjoyed the class. The instructors were very knowledgeable and answered all questions. Dorothy's real-world experience was quite valuable. Sam's knowledge of StarWitness software was a perfect mix with his technical background."
Michael Connelly, Cleveland Police, Ohio

"The instructors were both outstanding."
Jose Diaz, Radford Police Department, Virginia

"The instructors were very helpful and well informed. They are two great people. The company is lucky to have them."
Frankey Peterman, Ozark Police Department, Alabama

Our next Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence class will be next February in Phoenix. Please check out our five minute course preview to learn more. (Yes, it really takes just under five minutes.) This is the first time we’ve held the class out west, so if you're out there and have been waiting for the class to be closer to you, the time has come. Seats in the February training are filling up now. Please contact us for more information and to reserve your seat!

Email us at training@signalscape.com.

Using your external hard drive with Freezeframe

2008-09-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

If you need some extra storage space on your Freezeframe system the latest version provides a great way to free up some space without sacrificing access to your cases and videos. We shipped version 1.5 of Freezeframe at the end of March. If you have this version and have installed it you'll be able to do exactly what's shown here in our short video.

If you don't see the External Storage options listed in your Freezeframe menu then you don't have version 1.5 installed. If you are interested in this version of Freezeframe please contact us at info@signalscape.com.

Freezeframe version 1.5 was released on March 30, 2008. If your support and maintenance for the product was up-to-date you received an installation CD in the mail. You may have the CD but have not yet installed it.

Video Pro version 1.7 Release

2008-08-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the release of Video Pro version 1.7.

The most significant addition to Video Pro version 1.7 is the new Spotlight/Blotout filter. It lets you highlight a part of a video frame by changing the brightness and contrast of that section independently of the rest of the frame. For example, just circle a person’s face or a license plate to highlight it.

The filter’s new blotout capability lets you darken one or more areas of a video frame. This is commonly used to conceal the identity of someone in a video. By blotting out a face in a video frame, you will have protected the identity of that person.

Along with these new capabilities, Video Pro version 1.7 also contains new sample graphs. These graphs demonstrate the capabilities of the new Spotlight/Blotout filter, the use of the Mean filter to reduce compression "block" artifacts and the use of Frame Averaging to reduce compression artifacts.

Our driving passion is to help you in your pursuit of criminals, and we hope Video Pro version 1.7’s new features will give you an additional edge in this regard.

The new release will be mailed out to Video Pro customers who are current on support and maintenance as of Friday 8/22/08. If you don’t hold this status but would like to receive the new update, please contact your Sales Representative either by phone at 888-685-2100 or by email at sales@signalscape.com.

Make the Scene

2008-08-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

Want an insider's look at catching criminals with video? You'll have it at your fingertips with the all-new Video Scene Magazine. Each issue offers unique, expert insight and interviews about the latest opinions, gadgets and innovations surrounding forensic video and video surveillance technology. Every article is designed to be both informative and objective as we discuss the most critical issues in our industry today. It's a must read for anyone committed to catching criminals with video. Set up your own subscription and get a look at the first issue at videoscenemagazine.com. We'll be publishing the next issue this winter, so feel free to contact us about possible submissions or comments, too!

Training in September

2008-08-06T06:48:00.001-07:00

We have a new upcoming training class in Cary, North Carolina on September 8 to 12, 2008. Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence is a one week training course designed to prepare you to properly retrieve, process and analyze video evidence.

To see what the class is about please check out our five minute preview.

Cops 1, Dim-Witted Criminal 0

2008-06-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

In Manteca, California, a not-so-smart criminal named Erich Hans Urbat stole a CCTV camera from the outside of a home. How do we know the ‘not so smart’ part? Urbat neglected to consider one critical fact: the recording was not inside the camera—it was inside the house, on a DVR. So he didn’t bother covering his face as he looked directly into the camera and unbolted it.

"Sometimes we just get really lucky and they aren’t too bright," said Captain Dave Bricker of Manteca Police Department, according to the story reported by The Modesto Bee.

The video went to Brian Holland at the Manteca Police Department for analysis. Working with the AVI file, Holland had to do some trial-and-error to get it to play in his DVD playback program. Once he got it working, the video was mirrored and upside down. He used the StarWitness Screen Recorder to capture the video then applied the ‘rotate/flip’ filter from the Advanced Processing category of the Video Pro Toolkit to correct it. The resulting image allowed investigators to identify the suspect based on knowing him from a prior arrest.

How He Did It

In Video Pro, there’s a little-known filter named ‘rotate/flip’. It's not used often, but as you can see, on occasion it's downright imperative. In Brian's case, he "finally got it to play in a DVD playback program”, but he needed the filter to whip out a right-side-up, un-mirrored shot of Urbat. Looking at Brian's resulting image, you see the criminal in perfect orientation with the Microsoft Windows title bar upside and reversed.

Upcoming Events - NATIA

2008-05-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

If you've been waiting for your chance to demo StarWitness software and check out our new product, Field Agent, then you're in luck! We will be setting up a 10 x 30 booth at the upcoming NATIA show in July showcasing all StarWitness products. That means you’ll get a firsthand look at our top of the line desktop solution, Analyst, and our high-performance laptop solution with field collection kit, Field Agent. This will be a prime opportunity to see the full capacity of our turnkey solutions up close and personal. In fact, if you’ve got any video evidence (on CD’s, flash drives or cassette tapes), bring it along and we will work with you to clean it up on the spot.

NATIA will also give you a chance to learn more about the field of forensic video. We’ll have three trainers in our booth who will be happy to answer any of your questions. Whether you’re curious about presenting evidence in court or learning more technical details regarding how video works, these experts will be there the entire time the floor is open to offer their insights.

Also, don't forget to stop by our booth at the Exhibitor Reception on Wednesday night for a chance to receive a StarWitness T-shirt or hat!

Hashing for Digital File Integrity

2008-05-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

This week we have a guest writer: Dorothy Stout. Dorothy has written a great article on hashing, which is a digital file identification technique that can be used to ensure you are "faithfully coping digital media".

When Dorothy is not writing articles on hashing, she is busy offering forensic video training classes through her company, Resolution Video (class descriptions follow her article below). We hope you enjoy her insights….

Hashing by Dorothy Stout

In our training classes and in forensic forums there is much discussion over the use of hashing, or more specifically the use of a hash function. In this edition of our newsletter, I would like to describe the purpose of a hash function, how it can be used in video and imaging forensics, and some resources for implementing hash functions in your case work.

Simply put, a hash function is a mathematical formula that turns a computer file into a number. The number, often called a hash value, is generated in such a manner that another file would not produce the same hash value. The hash value is considered the "digital fingerprint" of the file and is typically used to uniquely identify that particular file. Any changes or alterations to that file, no matter how slight, would completely change the hash value.

In video and imaging forensics, hash functions can be used to uniquely identify the files received and/or created in our casework. The Federal Rules of Evidence provide that faithfully copied digital media is considered an original if proof exists that the copy is the same as the original (FRE 1001 (3)). Therefore, files downloaded from a digital video security system onto a jump drive and then copied to a CD-R can still be considered the original by using a hash function. The same is true for files generated on flash media in a digital camera. These files are still considered original when they are downloaded and copied to a CD-R.

Two examples of hash functions are MD5 and SHA-1. A wide variety of programs are available that utilize these hash functions. The good news is that no matter what program you use, a hash function should be the same. For example, the MD5 hash function in a program like MD5summer will provide the same hash value for a file as the MD5 hash function in a program like Iside. Both of these programs and a host of others are available for free or a nominal fee. Another option would be a more robust file management program like QuickDownloader from Advant-ics (www.advant-ics.com) that authenticate the handling, authenticating and disseminating of digital image files.
__

Dorothy Stout
Resolution Video Inc.
www.resvid.com
703-759-7803
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To learn more about a forensic workflow that includes utilizing a hash function, attend one of Resolution Video's following classes:

Digital Video and Adobe Photoshop offered May 19 - 22, 2008 in Tucson, AZ or October 28 - 31, 2008 near San Francisco, CA. The next class in Tucson, AZ is nearly full with only 3 seats available. Contact Dorothy if you would like to attend.

Adobe Photoshop for Forensic Video Analysts offered July 28 - 31, 2008 near Denver, CO. This four-day class is Resolution Video's most thorough on Photoshop and is taught by two top instructors: George Reis and Casey Caudle. Students who have attended this class in the past consistently remark on the impact this class has on their ability to process images from video evidence.

Video Evidence in Stolen Baby Case

2008-05-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

A kidnapper took a one-day-old baby from the arms of its sleeping mother at a hospital in Florida. According to the Orlando Sentinel story, the suspect posed as a nurse taking the baby for an eye exam, and then left with the infant hidden in a duffel bag.

The Orlando Sentinel video on the web shows surveillance video for the entire event. They have also included video that reveals the suspect lurking around the hospital two hours prior to the kidnapping. It's a good reminder to always think like an investigator. To ask questions of the video just as you would a suspect–"So, video, do you have any pictures of this suspect before the crime occurred?"

Interesting Interview with Executive from the Security Industry

2008-05-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

We ran across a recent, intriguing interview with Paul Bodell, the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at IQinVision - video surveillance equipment manufacturer (their focus is on megapixel IP cameras).

The interview, Video Surveillance Continues to Grow—But Are We Letting the Bad Guys Get Away?, interests us because Bodell answers questions concerning the effectiveness of security video in terms of forensic video. His answers are a glimpse into how one security veteran sees the industry in terms of standardizing video for forensic and evidentiary use.

Success Stories

2008-04-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

We're always glad to hear success stories from the field. When a community benefits from a StarWitness solution, we know we have done our part helping you catch criminals.

The Brewer Police Department in Maryland received a StarWitness solution several weeks ago. The Bangor Daily News featured the story on April 1st. Detective Sgt. Jay Munson is ready to start catching criminals.

In Kentucky, the Ashland Police Department put out their first video to the local news media within about a week of receiving their StarWitness system.

Before they got the system, the case investigator took his poor-quality original footage to local and regional police departments to try and get an ID - no luck. But working with their new StarWitness solution, the department shed some light on the matter by coming up with broadcast-worthy footage. Now, armed with this video, they are hot on the trail of a thief stealing metal from Ohio and West Virginia rail yards. According to the story told by WSAZ the thieves have stolen thousands of feet of expensive copper wire and are wanted in a $25,000 copper wire heist.

Freezeframe 1.5 release

2008-03-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

It's in the mail...We have just shipped Freezeframe 1.5 to everyone who is up-to-date on software support and maintenance.

What’s new with this new version:

For one, it gives you several new options for case and video storage. Until now, if you have been running out of space on your system, the only options were backing up and archiving on CD or DVD disks. With Freezeframe 1.5, there are several new storage options available.

Freezeframe 1.5 will allow you to seamlessly work from an external storage device. Just attach an external hard drive to your system and move cases to the hard drive from directly within the Freezeframe software. Work on any cases, along with the videos associated with those cases, directly on your external drive. Plug the drive into another Freezeframe system and you will be able to work directly on the case from there, or move the case and its videos onto the second system.

You’ll also free up much needed space on your Freezeframe system with this version’s ability to archive and backup cases to any storage device. That means you’ll be able to archive cases to a networked drive, an external hard drive, an internal hard drive, etc. We also fixed a few bugs, so all these new features should run with remarkable smoothness.

Full release notes and the user's manual can be found on our StarWitness forums post.

More about support and software maintenance...

Your support and software maintenance contract is active for one year after you purchase your system. After that, you can reactivate to receive all software updates. Feel free to contact us at sales@signalscape.com if you want to know more about reactivation, or if you’re unsure about the status of your support and software maintenance contract.

What does it take to catch a criminal?

2008-03-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

A recent story in the Daily Mail, a London newspaper, tells of a situation in which an angered citizen speaks out against the police. According to the story, Mr. Crowley's car was robbed with the entire incident being caught on a neighbor's home CCTV system. Mr. Crowley says his anger stems from the fact that he had given police "clear CCTV footage of crooks raiding his car only for them to suspend the investigation - for lack of evidence."

A spokesman for local Police explained that the video footage had not given them anything significant because of the quality of the video.

This brings up an interesting question: what exactly is "clear" CCTV footage? Clear is relative to what you are attempting to discern. It may mean one thing if you need to know the make or model of vehicle, or a sequence of events, but it's totally different if you need a license plate or a face. Saying that CCTV footage is "clear" doesn't say much. It's like saying a rabbit is fast. It might be fast compared to a turtle, but not compared to a Ferrari.

From Mr. Crowley's point of view, the video evidence was clear enough to catch criminals. He concludes "you can commit a crime and still get away with it despite being caught in the act." He equates video evidence with "begin caught in the act.”

Maybe it's the so-called CSI-effect, which makes people equate video to a conviction. In our previous newsletter, we explained how the security industry loved the idea of recording video. When something bad happens in a business or facility "simply review the video and go get the guilty party." And as we said then... "in most situations the evidence produced by a video surveillance system does lead to more information about a crime." It simply depends on how clear that information happens to be.

There is no dispute that video evidence provides a tremendous opportunity to learn new information about a crime and to catch criminals. This opportunity offers us the direct motivation for collecting and analyzing video evidence in the first place. There is a lot of video evidence out there - more and more every day. That evidence must be properly collected and analyzed in order to leverage it in the fight against crime.

Television's Digital Countdown (and What it Means to Security)

2008-03-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

In less than a year, NTSC standard will become yesterday's video format. Named after the National Television System Committee, NTSC began in March of 1941 with the first standard for black-and-white television transmission. It has evolved to set the standard for everything from number of frames per second to color encoding.

But in February of 2009, NTSC will be turned off - kaput - done - stuck with the proverbial fork. It's the end of TV as we know it. If you rely on over-the-air TV signals for any of the sets in your home, you’ll be staring at blankness. And you won’t be alone. Around 17% of US households will be affected, according to the Nielson ratings.

What will replace it? Another acronym–DTV, or Digital Television. According to the FCC's DTV website, Digital Television is "an advanced broadcasting technology that will transform your television viewing experience. DTV enables broadcasters to offer television with better picture and sound quality. It can also offer multiple programming choices, called multicasting, and interactive capabilities."

How will this transition to digital impact the security industry and video surveillance systems? In the case of analog CCTV video surveillance, this industry has pulled from the broadcast industry and its NTSC standard. To bring digital CCTV (or DCCTV) to market, however, the security industry has pulled technologies and equipment from various sources.

NTSC made its way into the security industry and all those CCTV systems for one simple reason–it was there. As NTSC-based technology evolved prices dropped. Equipment like cameras and recorders moved from the broadcasting industry to the consumer and security industries. Remember your first VCR? What an amazing concept: you could record anything you saw on your television onto a tape and watch it later. No more missed shows. The security industry loved the idea of recording video maybe even more than consumers did. If anything bad happens in a business or other facility, video surveillance allows us to simply review the video and go get the guilty party. The insurance industry bought into the idea, as well, offering discounts to businesses with video surveillance.

Now NTSC-based video surveillance systems are in literally thousands of businesses and other facilities. The field of forensic video analysis has proliferated along with the growth of this video evidence. In some cases, the motives behind the video surveillance are not ideal for the forensic video examiner. For example, cameras pointed down at the cash register drawer when a robbery occurs in front of the cashier. However, in most situations the evidence produced by a video surveillance system does lead to more information about a crime.

But with the advent of digital video technology, the security industry began to face some tough decisions. Manufacturers of CCTV equipment had to determine how to make the transition to digital while keeping happy customers who had paid a fair amount of money to have NTSC-based cameras installed. They were not ready to pay for rewiring and have made the transition to digital by switching from an analog recorder (such as a VCR) to a digital recorder (DVR).

Rather than borrowing technology from the broadcasting industry, the DVR is essentially a computer in disguise. And there are hundreds of video formats out there in the computer world with no standardization. DVR manufacturers have used many of these formats and added their own twists - including the dreaded proprietary formats. The security industry has begun its transition to digital, and we all know that transition is anything but standardized.

Adding another wrinkle, the computer industry isn’t the only one jumping in to provide video technology. Networking technologies let video surveillance systems do more than just record video from existing NTSC-based surveillance cameras. Moving to networked video cameras offers significant advantages. A major one being the move away from the constraints of the NTSC standard, increasing video resolution beyond the limits of NTSC.

Just as NTSC brought various challenges to forensic video analysis, the transition to digital video evidence will keep forensic video examiners on their toes well into the future.

Why use uncompressed video with digital video evidence?

2008-02-24T03:56:00.000-08:00

We were recently asked in training class "Why should a standard-format, compressed video file (like an AVI containing compressed video) be converted into an uncompressed format before being examined?"

This is a good question.

At first glance, it seems like a lot of trouble and expense (in terms of disk space) to convert these small, compressed files into uncompressed ones. And it is possible to work with many files in their compressed format, assuming you have the proper decoder (commonly referred to as the CODEC) installed and working. However, it is a better practice to convert the files to an uncompressed format.

Here’s one reason: decoders are inconsistent. They often won’t let you step frame-by-frame through the video, for example. So you could be missing potentially critical portions of the evidence.

Reminds you of the behavior of VCRs and videotape evidence, doesn't it? When you play the tape you see all the frames and fields of the evidence, but when you pause it you only see one field. The playback of the video evidence is inconsistent. The same is true for digital video and some of the CODECs.

Putting video evidence into an uncompressed digital format gives you a reliable and consistent methodology for examining the evidence. And that's what you want when you go to court to explain your examination of that evidence.

Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence Class in September

2008-02-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

We are offering a weeklong training class entitled ‘Recovery and Analysis of Video Evidence’.

This course will show you how to properly retrieve, process and analyze all your critical video evidence. It will give you an understanding of video technology and the best practices for cutting-edge forensic video analysis, including proper evidence handling.

Through interactive training and hands-on exercises, you will learn proper evidence handling procedures, the ins and outs of video technology and the tools available for video analysis. Whether it's analog or digital, you'll be ready to deal with it: in-car, personal video recorders, VHS CCTV, DVRs, DCCTV. You will return to your agency empowered with the best practices for collecting and analyzing video evidence, as well as implementing standard operating procedures.

The class will be in Cary, North Carolina the week of September 8-12.

(Please note, this class was previously named 'Video Tech Agent Training'.)

Free 'Bust Criminals' Poster

2008-02-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

Introducing a new way to keep a tally of the criminals you’ve caught with StarWitness. Our poster/sticker kit will look great hanging in your agency, your lab, anywhere you want a little help logging in the bad guys you put away.

It’s simple. Just apply one of the stickers to the poster each time you bust someone. So all your co-workers and friends will have an instant update about how much crime you’re keeping off the streets–just by walking into your workspace!

But it’s more than just easy. It’s free. So if you want one, email us at info@signalscape.com and we’ll send one your way.

For a first look at the poster, see the image below.

Freezeframe 1.5 release coming soon

2008-02-02T06:15:00.001-08:00

New Freezeframe on the Way.

We will soon be releasing Freezeframe 1.5. What’s new with this version? Lots.

For one, it gives you several new options for case and video storage. Until now, if you have been running out of space on your system, the only options were backing up and archiving on CD or DVD disks. With Freezeframe 1.5, there are several new storage options available.

Freezeframe 1.5 will allow you to seamlessly work from an external storage device. Just attach an external hard drive to your system and move cases to the hard drive from directly within the Freezeframe software. Work on any cases, along with the videos associated with those cases, directly on your external drive. Plug the drive into another Freezeframe system and you will be able to work directly on the case from there, or move the case and its videos onto the second system.

You’ll also free up much needed space on your Freezeframe system with this version’s ability to archive and backup cases to any storage device. That means you’ll be able to archive cases to a networked drive, an external hard drive, an internal hard drive, etc. We also fixed a few bugs, so all these new features should run with remarkable smoothness.

If you’re up to date on your support and maintenance, you should be getting a CD of the new release in just a few weeks.

More about support and software maintenance...

Your support and software maintenance contract is active for one year after you purchase your system. After that, you can reactivate to receive all software updates. Feel free to contact us at sales@signalscape.com if you want to know more about reactivation, or if you’re unsure about the status of your support and software maintenance contract.

Upgrades Made Easy

2008-01-27T18:44:00.000-08:00

If you’ve got an older system with Video Toaster and Video Pro software, we’re giving you a unique chance to trade in your system for an upgrade at a discounted cost.

It’s simple. Just send us your CPU, and we’ll send you a new one that matches the specs of our currently shipped systems. That includes giving you Freezeframe, our easy-to-use forensic video software. We’ll also update all your other software, place your Video Toaster card and software back onto your new system and move your video drive data onto the new system.

And don’t worry about any frustrations or learning curves with the upgrade. You’ll get all the new manuals, and a full year of support, software updates and access to StarWitness University for online training that will get you up to speed with your new Freezeframe software.

Feel free to email us for more details about this special deal on a completely updated system.

Come See Us at Southwest NATIA

2008-01-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

January 30 to February 1

We will be exhibiting this week at the National Technical Investigators' Association Southwest Chapter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. If you're attending the conference, drop by and get a first look at our new StarWitness Field Agent. Just ask Rod Mirador at our booth - he'll show you the in's and out's of this powerful new tool for solving crime in the field.

DHS CEDAP awards announced

2008-01-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

The Department of Homeland Security will provide 32 StarWitness systems to municipalities through the Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP).

We have spoken to several recipients who are anticipating their new forensic video system. The Cabarrus County Sheriffs Office in North Carolina announced their award in the Charlotte Observer.

Congratulations to all the recipients. We look forward to meeting you in March for training.

For those of you not aware of the CEDAP program...

CEDAP helps meet the equipment needs of smaller jurisdictions by providing communications interoperability, information sharing, chemical detection, sensors, personal protective equipment, technology, and training in using the equipment, devices, and technology. Awards are made to law enforcement and emergency responder agencies not currently eligible for funding through the Department’s Urban Areas Security Initiative grant program.

For more information about CEDAP, including a detailed equipment catalog and application information, you can visit the Responder Knowledge Base (RKB).

Forensic Video 101: Zooming

2007-12-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

We all have our favorite lines from CSI-type shows. My favorite is, “I’m at 26-times magnification”. Viewing a typical surveillance video at 26-times magnification will show you the individual pixels that make up a frame of video. It’s like looking at a microscopic mystery photo showing you the surface of some common object, but you can't tell what it is. Sunflower seeds or peanuts, for example, look like the surface of some far off planet.

What does 26x magnification look like?

Typical video evidence is recorded at 720x486, 640x480 or even 320x240 resolution. A 640x480 resolution recording is equivalent to 307,200 pixels. That's one third of one megapixel. Twenty-three times smaller than a seven megapixel digital camera. Zooming in on images or frames from video is much different than zooming in on a high-resolution image from a digital camera or a photograph from film. A frame from a typical video demonstrates this.

As you can see, 26x magnification does not help in a typical forensic video situation. Zooming 2x to 8x might be typical for Forensic Video Analysis. One good example is the sample case distributed with our latest version of Freezeframe. This sample case uses a zoom setting of around 5x to show the details of a license plate.

Video frame before clarification:

Video frame after clarification (zoom setting around 5x):