feasibility study for implementation of digital audio

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JUDICIAL REFORM IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT

Feasibility study for implementation of Digital Audio Recording System in

Macedonian courts

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by SAGA MK. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

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Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 3

2. General overview of the Digital Audio Recording Systems ................................. 7

3. Methodology for preparation of the feasibility study ............................................ 9

4. Phases of the implementation of electronic court recording in Macedonia ........ 10

5. Current Technical environment in the courts in Macedonia ............................... 11

6. Information of volume of hearings and calculation of adequate storage ............ 29

7. Digital court recording solution ........................................................................... 30

8. Definition of appropriate technical support for the system ................................. 35

9. Role of the person responsible for the system Court Room Manager - CRM..... 39

10. Audio Archiving system for the use by courts in Macedonia .......................... 41

11. Impact of the system on staffing, physical space, technical environment and budget .......................................................................................................................... 42

12. Project schedule ............................................................................................... 46

13. Requirements for the procurement of a system for Digital Audio Recording . 47

14. Technical Specification for the procurement of a system for Digital Audio Recording .................................................................................................................... 56

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1. Executive Summary In the Macedonian Judicial system, the official record of hearings, known as the

minutes, consists of summarized conclusive written notes dictated loudly by the

judge during the hearing. A typist using ACCMIS types-in the judge’s dictation

directly into the electronic court case file (e-file). At the end of a hearing, the minutes

are printed out and reviewed by the participants at the hearing. Parties might ask

judge to add something to the minutes or put objection to its content. The additions or

objections of the parties will be noted at the end of the minutes. The hearing finishes

by signing of the minutes by judge, minute taker, each party i.e. their legal

representatives, as well as interpreter or translator. If minutes consist of more pages,

the above mention parties need to put their signature on each page. The existing way

of typing minutes by using computer text processing application could be replaced

with Digital Audio Court Recording System which represents technical solution

applied in most of the European and US Court systems. Creation of digital verbatim

record through Digital Audio Recording System, guarantees judicial transparency,

reduces of typing text-notes, possible inaccuracy and paperwork volume.

The new digital technology enabled by special multi-channel software is

designed specifically for courtroom recordings - each speaker to be heard and

recorded separately. The software compresses the size of the audio files, uses

different formats compatible with word processing software, and allows notes to be

inserted during the hearings to identify exhibits or to index witness testimony. Also,

the software allows confidence monitoring of audio levels in real time and real-time

file save to network, hard disk or any removable media including USB drives, flash

cards, memory sticks or CD’s.

The main hardware elements of Digital Audio Court Recording System

comprise of: PC with monitor, high quality microphones, audio preamplifier,

multichannel sound card, speakers, USB dongle, foot pedal, printer and UPS. Five

microphones are dedicated to participants at the hearing (judge, plaintiff, defender,

witness and translator if needed).

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Figure 1

The Digital Audio recording solution can record and playback on multiple

channels and can isolate one or a number of channels for playback. It also includes

bookmarks and text notes features that allow tab stops for instant queuing and text to

be embedded directly into the resulting audio files.

Integration of minutes of the hearings by Automated Court Case Management

Information System, already deployed in Macedonian courts will further improve

accuracy of the hearings minutes, ensuring every word spoken on hearing session to

be electronically recorded and stored.

The main configuration of the system in a typical courtroom for Macedonia is

graphically presented on the figure 2.

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Figure 2

Based on findings from the on-site visits of all basic and appellate courts, as

well as on the desk researches, detailed technical specification for implementation of

digital audio recording system in Macedonian courts is proposed. Also, through

discussions with relevant employees in each court, information have been gathered

regarding duration of hearings (civil and criminal). Based on these data inputs, the

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calculation of adequate disk space and storage device capacity has been calculated,

since audio archiving platform is very essential part of the system, on which all

electronically recorded hearings will be kept.

The impact of the system on staffing, physical space, technical environment

and budget is defined based on stand-alone Digital Audio Recording System.

Certain number of appropriate current court staff with adequate additional

training could easily operate the system. The stand-alone system for Digital Audio

Recording is PC based, and thus does not require additional physical space (PC +

monitor + microphones at the desk of participants of the hearing + Audio Mixer).

The implementation of the system in all basic and appellate courts in the

country should take no more than 16 weeks.

In addition to increasing of efficiency, using digital audio recording, the most

accurate records of the hearings will be obtained. These records will be stored in

adequate storage device, and later can be used for making minutes from the hearings

and in the same time obtain integrity of registration of court hearings by effective and

ergonomic user interface.

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2. General overview of the Digital Audio Recording Systems

In the Macedonian court system, the official record of a hearing, known as the

minutes, consists of summarized conclusive written notes dictated loudly by the

judge during the hearing. A typist using ACCMIS types-in the judge’s dictation

directly into the electronic court case file (e-file). At the end of a hearing, the minutes

are printed out and reviewed by the involved parties and the judge. Parties might ask

judge to add something to the minutes or put objection to its content. The additions or

objections of the parties will be noted at the end of the minutes. The hearing finishes

by signing of the minutes by judge, minute taker, each party i.e their legal

representatives, as well as interpreter or translator. If minutes consist of more pages,

the above mention parties need to put their signature on each page of minutes.

The typist makes the minutes, writing down the dictate on personal computer.

The minutes must be verified by the individual judge or by the council. This process

where a judge makes and dictates conclusions for the minutes, sometimes due to the

length of the statements of parties, the judge cannot summarize accurately. When this

is a case, parties before signing of the minutes, ask judge to put additions or ask their

complaint to be noted at the end of the minutes. The existing way of making minutes

using computer text processing application will be replaced with Digital Audio Court

Recording System which has to be a technical solution to guarantee judicial

transparency. A secondary aspect to the creation of digital verbatim record is the

reduction of the written notes to a paper or transcript format.

Contrary to the practice in other European countries, the Macedonian Laws

on civil and criminal procedure do not require a verbatim transcript of court hearings.

In addition, using digital audio recording, the most accurate records of the

hearing hearings will be obtained. USAID piloted a personal computer digital audio

recording system in two courtrooms in the country - in the courts of Skopje 1 and

Gevgelija.

The new audio digital technology equipped by special multi-channel software

is designed specifically for courtroom recordings - each speaker to be heard and

recorded separately. The software compresses the size of the audio files, uses

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different formats compatible with word processing software, and allows notes to be

inserted during the hearings to identify exhibits or to index witness testimony. Also,

the software allows confidence monitoring of audio levels in real time and real-time

file save to network, hard disk or any removable media including USB drives, flash

cards, memory sticks or CD’s.

The Digital Audio recording solution can record and playback on multiple

channels and can isolate one or a number of channels for playback. It also includes

bookmarks and text notes features that allow tab stops for instant queuing and text to

be embedded directly into the resulting audio files.

The Judicial System in Macedonia operates through 27 Basic, and 4 Appellate

Courts in 27 cities and towns throughout Macedonia. There are 201 courtrooms, but

very often, the court hearings are being held in judge offices, especially civil court

hearings. All Courts have their own computer infrastructure, a Local Area Network

(LAN) pillared by a 32 GB server, accompanied by a backup-server, a domain

controller server and appropriate number of switches and routers. In each court

servers and main router and switches are located in a server-room, run and operated

by an IT professional. All other IT devices and computers dispersed in judge offices,

dactyl-bureaus and courtrooms are plugged into the LAN. All courts have access to

Internet. All courts are interconnected through Wide Area Network (WAN), a VPN

(Virtual Private Network) based on leased Telecom lines. The focal point of

intercourt connectivity is the Supreme Court ICT Center in Skopje. For processing

and keeping records of all court hearings, courts areusing a USAID donated software

application called ACCMIS (Automated Court Case Management Information

System). Same ACCMIS copies are installed and are operated independently in every

court. It is a client-server type of application: data is centrally stored on a court’s file

server, while the application runs on separate application server. Court employees are

using computers as workstations to store and retrieve ACCMIS data.

Any new software for digital audio recording must be integrated with

ACCMIS, and all audio files from one hearing will have to be attached to the existing

case opened with ACCMIS and made official part of the e-file. Therefore, for

example a judge can access the e-file of the desired court case and within it, access

and play on his computer the related audio recordings from any of the hearings. One

of the most critical aspects of the judicial process is the requirement a verbatim

record to be created for all judicial activities.

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3. Methodology for preparation of the feasibility study

The approach for development of the feasibility study incorporates the

following stages:

First step was definition of a skeleton of the study. Simultaneously, a time-schedule

for preparation of the feasibility study and involvement of each entity in the phase of

implementation of the document has been proposed. Next step was preparation of

draft questionnaire for the purpose of interviewing the court staff. Questionnaires

were sent to USAID for comments, improvements and modification.

In the next stage, following activities were performed: Desk research regarding

digital audio recording, advantages of digital audio over analogue audio recording, as

well as specific solutions for digital audio recording for courts. Evaluation of current

applied solutions for digital audio court recording through collection of primary and

secondary data has been performed.

Primary data were collected via semi-structured questionnaires with Courts and

in depth interview with USAID staff.

From March 15th up to April 9th an expert team has visited all courts in

Macedonia. During the visit, detail assessments of the technological environment in

the courts, the physical space, as well as collection of data regarding number of

hearings per day have been performed.

Secondary data have been collected through already publicly available statistics

from the Ministry of Justice, vendor specific web sites, as well as others which deal

with digital audio recording. Secondary data included quantitative and qualitative

data, and have been used for descriptive and explanatory research and analysis.

After that critical desk research regarding digital audio recording with focus

on audio recording in courts has been developed. Next step was collecting secondary

data for best practices in EU, USA and other countries1 where USAID supports such

projects (projects, solutions, statistics, and reports).

1 Moldova, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ghana

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Based on the analysis of the desk researches, interviews, primary and

secondary data, several groups of initiatives have been developed, by which a

creation of technical solution most suitable for Macedonian courtroom has been

foreseen.

4. Phases of the implementation of electronic court recording in Macedonia

The project for installation of Digital Audio Recording Systems (DARS) should

include and the vendor should have included in their offer:

- Site visits and gathering information for current condition of

courtrooms

- Proposing detailed technical specifications for:

o Hardware

o Software

o Installation

- Delivery of the equipment and the software

- Cabling: Power supplies, microphones and Ethernet connections

- Installation of the hardware, switches and storage devices

- Installation of the software

- Configuration, testing and putting into operation

- Staff training (training per each position separately as needed,

judge, typist, lawyer etc.)

- Preparation of technical documentation

- Acceptance test

The total number of courtrooms is 201 i.e. it will be installed 201 stand –

alone recording systems. In order to integrate DARS with the existing

ACCMIS, installation of switch and storage device in each Court (31) is

being planned. In the technical specification, is given the complete

equipment that shall be installed.

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5. Current Technical environment in the courts in Macedonia

5.1. Basic Court Skopje 1

The Basic Court Skopje 1 is placed in building that has ground floor

and three floors. In addition to several departments, judge offices,

experts’ offices, there are 15 courtrooms, as following:

1 on the ground floor,

4 on the first floor

4 on the second one, and

6 on the third floor.

All the court rooms are equipped with new furniture intended for

hearings. In each courtroom there is a main podium for the individual

judge or for the council, two worktables for the plaintiff and for the

defender, and one stand for the witness. Depending on the space,

there are different numbers of chairs for the attendance. Regarding

infrastructure, there are power supply installations and LAN

connections. In each courtroom 3-4 wall sockets exist, and 2 Ethernet

sockets. One wall socket and one Ethernet socket is being used for

ACCMIS, while other ones are not in use.

For operation of the DARS, one wall socket and one Ethernet socket

is needed. Through this Ethernet socket, DARS will be connected to

the switch. Since there is no UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)

equipment, it is necessary to provide it for the DARS. Taking into

consideration the needed power for the new equipment, no extension

of the existing power supply installation is required.

The computers/workstations and printers currently used for ACCMIS

in every courtroom, could be used for DARS, assuming they satisfy

minimum technical requirements. It means that the microphone

preamplifier with all its peripherals can be plugged into the ACCMIS

used computer/workstation.

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5.2. Basic Court Skopje 2

The building of Basic Court Skopje 2 has also ground floor

and three floors, but in contrast to Skopje1, Skopje2 is consisted of

old and new part of the building. There are 30 courtrooms, with the

following arrangement:

6 on the first floor,

6 on the second one,

4 on the third floor – old part,

11 on the third floor – new part and

3 in the Appellate Court building on the third floor

Concerning furniture, the situation is the same like Skopje1 Basic

Court.

In each courtroom there are 3-6 wall sockets, and 3 Ethernet sockets.

One wall socket and one Ethernet socket is being used for ACCMIS

while other ones are not in use. One wall socket and one Ethernet

socket will be equipped with the new equipment. As part of the

DARS, UPS equipment will be provided.






5.3. Appellate Court Skopje

This Court possesses three court rooms and one main hall which is

used for some special occasions and for hearings with large

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attendance as well. The main hall is located on the ground floor and

has 4 wall sockets and 4 Ethernet sockets. Other courtrooms are

located on the first floor and each of them has 2 wall sockets and 4

Ethernet sockets. As it was mentioned above, there are three

courtrooms which are being used by Basic Court Skopje2. One wall

socket and one Ethernet socket is being used for ACCMIS, while

other ones are not in use. One wall socket and one Ethernet socket

will be equipped with the new equipment. As part of the DARS, UPS

equipment will be provided.






5.4. Basic Court Kumanovo

Regarding workspace, furniture and infrastructure equipment, this

Court is in unenviable situation. Nine courtrooms are being used at

the moment. There will be additional three courtrooms on the fourth

floor, but they are under construction and useless for the time being.

Concerning location, the arrangement of the courtrooms is:

3 on the ground floor,


3 on the second floor,

The furniture arrangement enables hearings to be held according to

law.

In each courtroom there are only 2 wall sockets, and 2 Ethernet

sockets. One wall socket and one Ethernet socket are being used for

ACCMIS, while the others will be available for the new equipment.

As part of the DARS, UPS equipment will be provided.

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5.5. Basic Court Kriva Palanka

The Basic Court Kriva Palanka is located in 4-floor building in quite

good condition. The four courtrooms are completely enough for

functioning of this Court. The courtrooms are located:



The courtrooms are very good equipped, with all the needed

infrastructure and furniture.

Only the 3rd courtroom has two wall sockets, while each of the other

have 3 wall sockets. Four Ethernet sockets are installed in each

courtroom.

No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.6. Basic Court Kratovo

There are three courtrooms in Kratovo Court, all located on the first

floor.

All the court rooms are equipped with new furniture intended for the

hearings. In each courtroom, there is a main podium for the individual

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judge or for the council, two worktables for the plaintiff and for the

defender, and one stand for the witness.

All the courtrooms are equipped with 2 wall sockets and 2 Ethernet

sockets. In each courtroom, there is one wall socket and one Ethernet

socket available for the DARS. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.7. Basic Court Krushevo

Two completely equipped courtrooms exist in the Court Krushevo.

Both are located on the first floor.

Both courtrooms are equipped with 2 wall sockets and 2 Ethernet

sockets. In each courtroom, there is one wall socket and one Ethernet

socket available for the DARS. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.8. Basic Court Bitola

Regarding jurisdiction and number of hearings, the Basic Court

Bitola is one of the biggest in Macedonia. It is consisted of 13

courtrooms placed in a 4-floor building, completely equipped with all

necessary furniture and infrastructure. The arrangement of the

courtrooms in the building is:

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1 on the ground floor



1 on the third floor

3 on the fourth floor

In each courtroom, there are 2-5 wall sockets, and 2 Ethernet sockets.

One wall socket and one Ethernet socket is being used for ACCMIS,

while other ones are not in use. As part of the DARS, UPS

equipment should be provided.






5.9. Appellate Court Bitola

The Appellate Court Bitola has two courtrooms, where the appellate

hearings in this region are being held. The courtrooms have the

configurations needed for successful functioning of the Court. There

are podiums for the individual judge or council, worktable for the

plaintiff and for the defender, and a stand for the witness, as well.

Both courtrooms are located on the second floor.

In the first courtroom there are 10 wall sockets and 10 Ethernet

sockets, while in the second one there are 4 wall sockets and 2

Ethernet sockets.





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5.10. Basic Court Resen

The Basic Court Resen has two courtrooms. Both are located on the

second floor of the building. There is only one wall socket and 2

Ethernet sockets in each courtroom. No UPS exists, it should be

provided.






5.11. Basic Court Ohrid

Ohrid Basic Court is placed in 3- floor building located in the centre

of the town.

There are 11 courtrooms, located according to the following

arrangement:



6 on the second floor.

All the court rooms are equipped with new furniture. In each

courtroom there is a main podium for the individual judge or for the

council, two worktables for the plaintiff and for the defender, and one

stand for the witness.

Regarding infrastructure, 6 courtrooms (3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10) are with

only one wall socket. In the courtrooms 1, 2, 7, and 8 there are three

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wall sockets, while the courtroom 11 is equipped with four. In each

courtroom there are two Ethernet sockets, except courtroom 11 where

four Ethernet sockets are installed. No UPS exists, it should be

provided.






5.12. Basic Court Struga

Eight courtrooms function in the BASIC Court Struga. Four of them

are located on the first floor, while the rest are located on the second

floor. All courtrooms are equipped with all necessary equipment

required for the normal functioning of the Court.

In the courtrooms 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8 there are two wall and Ethernet

sockets, in the courtrooms 2 and 3 there are four wall and two

Ethernet sockets, while the courtroom 6 is equipped with three wall

and two Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.13. Basic Court Debar

The Basic Court Debar has two courtrooms. They are completely

equipped with furniture, and both are located on the second floor of

the building.

In the first courtroom there is no available Ethernet socket, because

the PC which is being used for ACCMIS is connected directly to the

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switch and there are two wall sockets. In the second one, three wall

and two Ethernet sockets are installed. No UPS exists, it should be

provided.






5.14. Basic Court Kicevo

There are five courtrooms in Kicevo Court. One is located on the

ground floor, while others are on the first floor.

All the court rooms are equipped with new furniture. In each



stand for the witness.

All the courtrooms are equipped with 3-6 wall sockets and 2-4

Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.15. Basic Court Gostivar

The six courtrooms of the Basic Court Gostivar are placed on two

floors of the building. The arrangement is:

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All of them are equipped with the needed furniture and infrastructure

and there are 3-6 wall sockets and 2-4 Ethernet sockets in each

courtroom. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.16. Appellate Court Gostivar

The Appellate Court Gostivar has only one courtroom, where the

appellate hearings in this region are being held. If there is a need for

additional simultaneous hearing, one more courtroom of the Basic

Court is being used. The courtroom is equipped with all necessary

equipment for normal functioning of the Court. There are podiums for

the individual judge or council, worktable for the plaintiff and for the

defender, and a stand for the witness as well. The courtroom is

located on the second floor and is equipped with three wall sockets

and four Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






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5.17. Basic Court Tetovo

Eight courtrooms function in the BASIC Court Tetovo. Four of them

are located on the ground floor, while the rest are located on the first

floor. All courtrooms are equipped with all necessary equipment

required for normal functioning of the Court. The courtrooms on the

ground floor are smaller and usually are being used for civil hearings.

They are equipped with two wall and two Ethernet sockets. On the

second floor, there is a bigger courtroom which is being used for

hearings with large attendance. There are eight wall and two Ethernet

sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.18. Basic Court Delcevo

The Basic Court Delcevo has three courtrooms. They are completely

equipped with furniture, power supply installation and LAN

infrastructure. In courtrooms 1 and 2 there are two wall sockets and

two Ethernet sockets, while courtroom 3 is equipped with four wall

and Ethernet sockets. All courtrooms are located on the first floor of

the building. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






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5.19. Basic Court Berovo

The hearings under the jurisdiction of this Court are being held in two

courtrooms. Both are located on the first floor, equipped with all

necessary furniture and infrastructure. In each courtroom, there are

two wall and two Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should be

provided.






5.20. Basic Court Vinica

A bigger hall located on the ground floor is being used as the only

courtroom. It is completely equipped and although it is large, there

are only two wall and two Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should

be provided.






5.21. Basic Court Kocani

Internal reconstruction of the Court building in Kocani is expected in

the near future. There are three courtrooms located on the first floor,


infrastructure. There are 5-7 wall and two Ethernet sockets in each

courtroom. No UPS exists, it should be provided.

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5.22. Basic Court Strumica

Strumica Basic Court is one of the biggest Courts in Macedonia,

placed in a 3- floor building. All hearings (civl and criminal) are

being held in 12 courtrooms. They are located as follows:



All the courtrooms are equipped with new furniture. In each



stand for the witness. Each courtroom is equipped with power supply

installation and LAN infrastructure. All the courtrooms are equipped

with 2-5 wall sockets, except courtrooms 3, 6, and 9 where only one

wall socket is installed. In each courtroom, there are two Ethernet

sockets and one will be available for the new equipment. UPS’s

should be provided for each courtroom.






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5.23. Basic Court Gevgelija

Gevgelija Basic Court is placed in a 2- floor building. There are six

very well equipped courtrooms with the entire needed infrastructure.

The arrangement of the courtrooms is:


2 on the second floor.

In each courtroom there are 4-6 wall sockets and two Ethernet

sockets. One Ethernet socket will be available for the new equipment.







5.24. Basic Court Negotino

This Court is one of the smallest regarding the workspace and the

number of hearings. There are three completely equipped courtrooms

with furniture. Except the first courtroom where the Ethernet

connection is direct, the others have two Ethernet sockets. The

courtrooms are equipped with 2-4 wall sockets. All the courtrooms

are located on the first floor. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






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5.25. Basic Court Prilep

The Basic Court Prilep is the only Court where each judge has his

own courtroom.

The new part of the building has enough workspace equipped with

new furniture and infrastructure. In addition to the courtrooms, there

are judge offices, experts’ offices, investigative judge office,

typewriters’ offices and offices for other services.

In this Court, 21 judges are employed and the same number of

courtrooms exists. 14 courtrooms are placed in the new part of the

building, and 7 are in the old part. The courtroom arrangement is:

2 on the ground floor – new part

12 on the first floor - new part

7 on the first floor – old part

In the new part of the building, the power supply installation and the

LAN installation are made under the floor. In the old part both

installations are classic, on the walls.

All the courtrooms are equipped with 2-4 wall sockets and Ethernet

sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.26. Basic Court Kavadarci

The Basic Court Kavadarci has two courtrooms. They are completely


infrastructure. There are 5 wall and 3 Ethernet sockets in each

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courtroom. The first courtroom is located on the ground floor and the

second on the first floor. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.27. Basic Court Veles

In Veles Basic Court, there are eight courtrooms, two for criminal

hearings and six for civil hearings. The arrangement of the

courtrooms is:



2 on the second floor

Four of the courtrooms (two on the first and two on the second floor)

have only one wall socket, while the others are equipped with 4-5

wall sockets. In each courtroom there are 2 Ethernet sockets. No UPS

exists, it should be provided.






5.28. Basic Court Stip

This Court is large regarding the number of hearings, but modest

concerning workspace and courtrooms. Most of the hearings are

being held in the judge offices. There are only three regular

courtrooms, located:

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All courtrooms are equipped with necessary infrastructure.

Courtrooms 1 and 2 are equipped with 2 wall and 2 Ethernet sockets.

In the courtroom 3 there are 5 wall and two Ethernet sockets. No UPS







5.29. Appellate Court Stip

The appellate Court is placed in the same building as the Basic Court.

A big hall on the ground floor is being used as courtroom, and other

two courtrooms are located on the first floor. Each courtroom is

equipped with all needed elements. They are equipped with 2-4 wall

and 2-6 Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.






5.30. Basic Court Radovis

The Basic Court Radovis has three courtrooms. They are completely


infrastructure. All are located on the ground floor and equipped with

2 wall and 2 Ethernet sockets. No UPS exists, it should be provided.

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5.31. Basic Court Sveti Nikole

Basic Court Sveti Nikole is placed in a building with basement,

ground floor and one floor. There are only two courtrooms, located

on the first floor, where the judge offices are located as well. The

courtrooms are equipped with 3 wall and 2 Ethernet sockets. No UPS







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6. Information of volume of hearings and calculation of adequate storage

After visiting all the Basic and Appellate Courts, and the discussions with

relevant persons in each Court, most of the needed information have been

gathered. The hearings are divided in two groups: criminal and civil. The

number of civil hearings is significantly larger than the criminal. For example,

while criminal hearings are being held 1-5 per courtroom per day, in some

Courts there are more than 20 civil hearings per courtroom per day. Based on

these input data, the calculation of adequate disk space and storage device

capacity could be imprecise.

For that reason the calculations are based on the duration of the working day.

All the hearings are being held from 9 to 16.30 o’clock in working days only. It

means that the system must be capable to make audio recording up to 8

hours/day in each courtroom.

According this input data the calculation of the needed disk space and storage

device capacity is approximately (depending on the solution2 and vendors3) 1

GB disk space per day per courtroom. Having that in mind, we have made the

dimensioning on the needed hardware which is described in details in the

technical specification part. It is suggested that the initial purchase of the TAS1

and TAS2 server’s storages should be with disk spaces capacity enough for the

first year of DARS usage which will vary from court to court. Therefore, each

court should envision annual extensions of its TAS storage system.

2 Different solutions offer different audio standard formats (WAV, MP3, etc.) 3 VIQ, Fortherecord, SRS Femida. High Criteria…

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7. Digital court recording solution

Digital Audio Recording Technology as method of making the official record

of hearing court hearings consist of hardware components and management

software.

Analyzing the digital court recording systems installed in many countries

worldwide, two solutions are the most often used:

- Centralized Recording system - Court level

- Stand-alone (local recording in a courtroom with central storing on

TAS in server room) system – Courtroom level.

The main characteristics of the centralized recording system are:

Each Court must have special dedicated room (control room) for the

central equipment

Additional well trained staff is required

Such system requires special technical solution concerning cabling.

Microphone cables (5 in our case) are to be put down from courtrooms

to the control room. It is very inefficient; it is not cost effective because

most of courts have a lot of courtrooms placed at different floors. An

electromagnetic pickup can have an influence on microphone cable

channels. It can distort the recording quality. The microphone cable

channels have to be placed at a distance from the power cables. If the

cable channel is broken, the record won’t be made in a proper way.

One person can control and monitor the recording in 4 (or more)

courtrooms simultaneously and make annotations.

The concept of the stand-alone recording system solution is:

In each courtroom, a digital court recording system will be installed. They are

connected through LAN to the archive device (TAS1 or TAS2 depending of

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court volume). A typist, who is employed staff of the court, turns on the

recording and with the help of a One-Click software puts the time bookmarks

which correspond to events of the hearing. The typist can make the required

notes or annotations. After the end of the hearing the recording is stopped by

the typist. It means that after the end of the hearing, there is a record and a short

protocol of the hearing. If it is required the record can be transcribed partially

or fully by the trained employee. The record and the report will be temporary

saved on PC Recording Workstation (located in the courtroom), burned onto

CD-DVDs and then copied on archive device located in the server-room (TAS1

or TAS2).

This solution has the following advantages:

The court recording system provides not only the recording, but the

fully legitimate minutes of the hearing.

The creation of the minutes is automated with the help of a special

editor with application of unified and customizable templates of court

hearings

There is no need to hire extra staff to:

a) Create minutes

b) Control the records in the control room.

If LAN is accidently broken, the records and minutes are always

temporary stored on the recording computer in the courtroom and will

be transferred to the archive device after the LAN is recovered.

If the microphone cable in the courtroom is broken, it is much easier to

replace/repair it, as its length is only 10-15 meters.

Comparing all mentioned characteristics of both solutions and having in mind

the organization and structure of Macedonian judicial system, the most

adequate solution is the stand – alone recording system.

Stand-alone digital audio recording system consists of the following

components:

32

7.1. DARS Hardware Components in the Courtroom

The hardware components should be with high quality standards from brand-

name manufacturers4. Naturally, each component can vary in quality, features,

and price.

a. Microphones – Each courtroom needs five microphones (one for the judge,

one at the witness stand, two at each table for attorneys and one for the

translator), strategically placed to meet the needs of a given courtroom . High

quality microphones are critical in order to meet the need for complete and

clear recordings in court. Since microphones are critical part of the audio

equipment, they must be condenser and with super-cardioid pattern. A super-

cardioid microphone is similar to a hyper-cardioid, except there is more front

pickup and less rear pickup. These patterns are commonly used as vocal or

speech microphones, since they are good at rejecting sounds from other

directions.

Microphones should come with table stand.

b. Headphones and foot pedal – For each typist, in each court room for

playback purposes there is need for professional headphones and foot pedal.

Recording dictation as an audio file for later transcription is an alternative to

the classic short-hand or long-hand recording of what is being said.

Advantages include both speed and accuracy, as the actual spoken word can

be reviewed over and over again as it is rendered into a document. After

opening of word processing program, headphones and foot pedal should be

connected. Foot pedal must be configured to transcription software. For easy

connections, foot pedals should come with USB jack.

c. A-V mixer – The microphones are plugged into the mixer. The mixer

determines how many inputs (e.g., microphones) can be accommodated and

therefore, how many “tracks” can be recorded (from 4 to 12). Some vendors

use off-the-shelf mixers from well-known manufacturers. Others develop

their own mixers, usually through a partnership with a well-known

manufacturer. 4 HP, Dell, IBM, Samsung, Lexmark, LG, Kenwood, RAM, M-Audio, Behringer, etc.

http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=13572

33

d. Computer, monitor, sound card and printer – The mixer is plugged into a

courtroom PC. This is typically industry standard equipment with a certain

level of processor power, hard disc, high quality sound card and black and

white laser printer.

The audio card has to be with professional quality in order the collection of

audio streams from microphones to be on the highest possible level.

e. Recording storage media – In most courtroom systems, one copy of the

recording of the courtroom hearings goes onto the PC hard drive. It could also

be directed to an external hard drive in the courtroom or someplace else in the

court, to a network drive, or to both of them. Court personnel will be able to

download/backup the recordings to a CD/DVD at the end of each day or

week. This can be avoided by backing up recordings to a central network

storage unit.

f. PC access control device – provides strong anti-piracy and IP protected

solution.

The device prevents unauthorized use of software, protects software

copyrights and intellectual property.

7.2. DARS management software

This is a key component of the system. The software is typically installed on

the courtroom PC into which the audio mixer is plugged.

The audio management software provides a visual indicator for each

microphone or recording track – allowing support staff to know that each one

is active (on). It also allows courtroom staff to conduct effective “confidence

monitoring” to ensure that the session is actually being recorded and saved on

the system. The software also allows staff to set security parameters (e.g., to

seal a recording), save recordings, and enter log notes or annotations (e.g.,

case number and title, start and end of hearing, and names of persons

speaking at any given point).

Clicking on a particular log note will take the listener to that point on the

recording.

34

The DARS management software also plays an important role in determining

how many tracks the DARS can record. As indicated earlier, most courts use

DARS record on at least four tracks. As the technology has improved and

became more affordable, courts appear to be moving toward DART systems

that record on six to eight tracks (one track for each microphone in the

courtroom). We believe that the best solution will be recording each

microphone to a separate track. Each track can be isolated during playback –

by muting all other tracks – to reduce or eliminate background noise, which

enhances the ability to hear voices clearly when producing a transcript.

Some DART software vendors also emphasize their ability to design a DART

system that facilitates the monitoring of multiple courtrooms from a single

central monitoring room.

7.3. Centralized hardware/storage for implementing DARS countrywide

If the technical and financial condition allows implementation of DARS

countrywide, it would be administratively easier and more reliable to manage

the backup and archiving of digital recordings from a central location.

Therefore, there would have to be high capacity media storage devices in a

central location. Depending on the type of the chosen recording system, some

of the counties with larger caseloads might require an additional leased line to

transport the digital recordings to the central backup location each night or

weekends.

If this is not an option to have high speed leased lines, then local (in-court)

archiving solution should be implemented as backup to the DARS from each

courtroom, as it will be described later in this document.

35

8. Definition of appropriate technical support for the system

IT - DARS support, on-site and help desk support

Digital Audio Recording System is comprised from hardware and software

parts. Due to the complexity of the software, as well as sensitivity of the

purpose of the equipment, it must be foreseen support for the software and

hardware solution implemented in the courtrooms.

During the period of 5 years (lifecycle of the hardware equipment) it is

strongly suggested to have following technical support in place:

- Yearly preventive maintenance program

- Help Desk Support and on-site support

- Software and Hardware support contract

Yearly Preventive maintenance program

In a preventive maintenance during the first year of installation should be included

- Training for the staff:

Operators: Complete training for usage of the DARS including basic

training for digital audio recording technology. Those trainings must

include overview of audio recording hardware elements of the system,

powering/safe shut downing of the OS and hardware components, starting

of the management software, using of the management software

(recording, playback, etc), generation and printing of minutes, copying

and distributing the audio records.

Participants (users) of the DARS: Training must include powering/safe

shut downing of the OS and hardware components, starting of the

management software, basic knowledge of the management system,

search and playback of the audio records.

- One on-site visit of basic/appellate courts in a three months period,

checking for the integrity of the hardware installation (cables,

microphones, audio and Ethernet connectors, checking the integrity of the

36

recorded audio files and databases, and checking the procedures for

backup of the audio recordings.

For the first year of preventive maintenance, supplier should offer these services free

of charge. After that the IT staff of Macedonian courts should overtake the

responsibility of preventive maintenance.

Help Desk Support

The supplier of the system should be obliged to offer help desk support. Help desk

support should include the following:

1. Phone support available from Monday through Friday 8.30 a.m. to 16.30

excluding the national holidays

2. E-mail support available from Monday through Friday 8.30 a.m. to 16.30


3. On-site support available from Monday through Friday 8.30 a.m. to 16.30


For successful help desk support, the supplier has to provide dedicated telephone

number for customer care, expert staff on the help desk, as well as e-mail for

contacts. During the warranty period, help desk should work during the working

hours.

Software and Hardware support contract

During the warranty period, the supplier has to provide the following services

(support package):

37

Type of services that should be included in the support package:

i. Recording Service Request and questions to Help Desk

Customer Care should be available during working time . User could

open case (service request - SR) through telephone or e-mail.

After opening of SR and checking of all data, and defining priority,

responsible expert will start detection of the problem and problem solving

in the time frame defined by SLA.

ii. Remote Troubleshooting

This service understands solving problems without on-site visit and it is

defined through the following set of services:

Telephone support and detection of customer problems,

Communication with vendor producer and finding

temporary/permanent solution for problem solving,

Assistance in implementation of temporary/permanent solution

without on-site visit,

Fault analysis and alarm messages.

It is necessary user to obtain access to its network through Internet.

If the problem solving is escalated to the vendor, technical personnel of

the vendor should start problem solving through remote technical support.

iii. On-site support

On-site support understands expert visit of the user location in defined

time frame according to the priority, for priority of service requests P1

and P2.

Include the following set of services:

on-site detection and analysis of the problem on user demand

38

application of temporary/permanent solution on-site for priority

P1

iv. Spare parts

This service includes replacement of HW faulty parts, but not accessories.

Spare parts could be at user site or supplier warehouse or in the

warehouse of HW producer.

v. Software Update & Upgrade

These services include new SW releases in the already installed software

package to the user. New SW version could be available through CD or

FTP service.

In this service should not be included installation of software on network

devices.

vi. SLA Parameters

Parameters Response

time Recovery time

Closing time of service

request (closing of the

problem) Priority

P1 High 4 hours 2 working days ≤ 15 working days

P2 Low 8 working

hours 7 working days ≤ 30 working days

All defined times are related to locations in Skopje. For all other sites it

should be added 1 hour on 100km for all defined times.

After the expiration of the warranty of the system for digital audio recording, the end

user should have a contract for hardware and software support (support package).

39

9. Role of the person responsible for the system Court Room Manager - CRM

In addition to individual judge or judicial council, plaintiff, defender and

witness, in each hearing mandatory participates the typist, as assistant to the judge.

This person is educated in basic computer operations.

Based on the current obligations in the court room, as well as new obligations for

managing Digital Audio Recording System, it is advisable to have more technically

educated persons for successful operations of the system. In case that there are no

possibilities for new personnel for this activities, then the current employee - typist,

should perform all necessary activities. It is mandatory that those employees attend

technical training for the usage of new equipment and software, and new court

procedures regarding preparation of transcript of the hearings.

The person responsible to operate with the DARS will be the CRM and the minimum

duties and skills that the CRM will have are the following:

a) Know courtroom procedures, legal and other technical vocabulary

b) Hearing Court Recording and Monitoring

Powering up ( turning ON the power in the following order UPS, PC

system unit, monitor)

System Login

Check microphones connection to audio switching device (mixer).

Program Start

Operation mode selection

Entering main information on case/hearing (number of hearing, date

of hearing, name of hearing, serial number of CD on which the

recording will be done, list of participants, etc.)

Audio recording control (start and stop of court recording)

Register main events/actions that take place and participants

Audio monitoring

Entering annotations, marks, timestamps etc.

40

c) Hearing recording playback

Hearing selection

Listening of the hearing (directly from PC, network device or CD)

Producing court’s template

Making minutes based on template and playback

d) Additional program setting

Foot pedal configuration

Keyboard hotkeys configuration

e) Instructing defenders and litigants

to speak into microphones and identify themselves,

stop conversations or other extraneous noise that might interfere

with an accurate recording, and

ask the judge to recess the hearings when necessary, in order to

adjust or repair the recording system.

f) Court Reporting

Preparation of court minutes

Saving of court minutes

Attach the recorded audio file accompanied with the written log to

the case e-file into ACCMIS

Saving hearing cases into the hard disk, network resource

Print-out the hearing session log and copy the recorded audio file

onto CDs, one for each involved parties.

41

10. Audio Archiving system for the use by courts in Macedonia

If the judicial branch moves toward implementation of DARS countrywide, it

would be administratively easier and more cost effective to manage the backup and

archiving of digital recordings from a central location. Therefore, there would have to

be high capacity media storage devices in a central location. Depending on the type

of the recording system and software solution, for the basic courts there is a

requirement of an additional capacity of leased line/ADSL line, to transport the

digital recordings to the central backup location each night or weekend.

Such solution is easily upgradable, and in line with IT recommendations for

archiving of huge volume of data and as such represent secure back-up/archiving

solution. If in some case, data from the PC hard disk cannot be restored, then hearing

data from centralized networking storage device will be retrieved as redundant data.

A prerequisite for implementation of such solution is high speed and reliable

connections from countrywide local courts to one centralized location.

If there is no possibility to extend capacity of the lines to the central location, then

there are two other possible solutions:

- Recording daily hearings on CD/DVD

- Recording hearings on storage devices on local LAN

The second option could be realized through recording on back-up database PC with

high capacity hard disks, or installation of network storage devices locally for the

basic courts with large number of hearings.

With such system of archiving, all audio recordings of hearings in Macedonian

courts will be redundant, recorded on local PC which is used during the hearing, and

recorded on network storage device or CD, depending of the applied solution.

Thus, daily hearings recorded on CD/DVD-s should be kept in water and fire proofed

safe. In the case of disaster and failure of local PC HDD, network PC HDD or the

system, all records will be safe and easily recovered.

The UPS will protect the system from power outage and over voltage.

42

11. Impact of the system on staffing, physical space, technical environment and budget

As previously described, new staff for IT maintenance is not necessary, since

annual hardware and software support should be proposed. Concerning that stand-

alone recording system is proposed in the feasibility study, for successful operation

with the system, well trained staff is required. Taking into consideration that the

existing typists have basic computer knowledge, there are no necessities of any

additional personnel, but all the typists have to go through special trainings (Basic

training for Digital Audio Recording Technology, Training for managing software

for DAR and Court procedures).

The stand-alone system for Digital Audio Recording is PC based, and thus does

not require additional physical space (PC + monitor + microphones at the desk of

participants of the hearing + Audio Mixer).

During the site visits has been found that all courtrooms are technically

equipped with LAN network, power sockets and PC and printer used for ACCMIS.

In two courts, Skopje appellate and basic court Resen exist very old electrical

installations and it should be replaced. Also, it should be considered replacement of

part of power supply installation in basic court Kumanovo. There is no uninterrupted

power supply (UPS) in all the courtrooms in the country. For that reason, small UPS

systems per each courtroom should be included in the technical solution.

Uninterrupted power supplies are critical for continuous recording of hearings.

There would be ongoing costs associated with Post-Warranty maintaining a

DARS (Digital Audio Recording System), including:

(a) Annual software support updates and upgrades fees,

(b) Annual on-site and help desk support,

(c) Annual contributions to a fund for the periodic replacement of equipment about

every five years.

(d) Annual hardware support

43

Annual software support and upgrade Post-Warranty fees should include:

- Integration of upgraded DARS with ACCMIS or other software already

integrated with DARS, but not integration of upgraded ACCMIS or some

new software with current version of DARS.

- Technical problem analysis

- Installation assistance

- Best practices

Usually, annual software support and upgrade fees have been settled on the level of

10- 15 % from the software cost.

If there is new software version of ACCMIS (or any other software) and integration

should be done with DARS, then it represents separate case.

Annual on-site and help desk support

Customer Care should be available during working hours of the courts. User could

open service request through telephone or e-mail.

After opening of SR and checking of all data, and defining priority, responsible

expert should start detection of the problem and problem solving in the time frame

defined by SLA.

Annual contributions to a fund for the periodic replacement of equipment about

every five years

Since amortization rate for the hardware for DARS is 20% (equipment should

be replaced in 5 years), annually 20% from hardware value should be calculated as a

cost.

Annual Hardware support contract should include:

- Replacement of faulty hardware

- Technical problem assistance

44

- Installation

- Keeping spare parts

Total annual cost should include:

- 20% from HW cost

- 10-15% from software cost

- Cost for help desk and on – site support

- Cost for HW support contract

Software, Hardware and Help Desk support could be integrated in one service

support contract.

In the first year, after technical acceptance, the user should receive free of

charge the following services:

- Software update and upgrades,

- Fault HW replacement

- Preventive maintenance

- Help Desk support during working hours

45

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

DARS Qty Unit (VAT excluded)

Total (VAT excluded)

1 PC Recording Workstation 201 $ 1.380,00 $ 277.380,00

2 Monitor 201 $ 159,00 $ 31.959,00 3 UPS 201 $ 134,00 $ 26.934,00 4 Printer 201 $ 200,00 $ 40.200,00 5 Acoustic system 201 $ 20,00 $ 4.020,00 6 Headphones 201 $ 37,00 $ 7.437,00 7 Foot pedal 201 $ 47,00 $ 9.447,00

8 Microphone preamplifier (Mixer) 201 $ 280,00 $ 56.280,00

9 Multichannel soundcard 201 $ 199,00 $ 39.999,00

10 Wired microphone 1005 $ 40,00 $ 40.200,00

11 Microphone table stand 1005 $ 24,00 $ 24.120,00

12 USB dongle for Software 201 $ 55.00 $ 11,055.00

13 Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Edition; 201 $ 399,00 $ 80.199,00

14 Antivirus License with 1yr Support; 201 $ 23,00 $ 4.623,00

15 DART software 201 $ 2.790,00 $ 560.790,00 16 TAS type 1 24 $ 3.490,00 $ 83.760,00 17 TAS type 2 7 $ 13.900,00 $ 97.300,00 18 LAN equipment 32 $ 300,00 $ 9.600,00 19 Power cable (10m) 203 $ 21,00 $ 4.263,00 20 Structured Cable

System (SCS) 1 $ 13.013,00 $ 13.013,00 21 Documentation 1 $ 300,00 $ 300,00 22 Training IT and staff 1 $ 9.000,00 $ 9.000,00 23 Installation 1 $ 75.000,00 $ 75.000,00

Total for the DART solution:

$ 1,506,879.00

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12. Project schedule

PHASES AND TIME SCHEDULE OF THE INSTALLATION PROCESS

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Preparation of technical solution

w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3 w3

Delivery of equipment and software


Infrastructure Cabling w4 w4 w4 w4 w4 w4 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w5 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6 w6

Installation of the DARS, w7 w7 w7 w7 w7 w7 w8 w8 w8 w8 w8 w8 w8 w9 w9 w9 w9 w10 w10 w10 w10 w11 w11 w11 w11 w11 w11 w10 w10 w10 w10

Configuration, testing and putting into operation


Staff training W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 w14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14 W14

Technical acceptance W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W15 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16 W16

13. Requirements for the procurement of a system for Digital Audio Recording

13.1. General requirements

Current technology allows a court to create a digital record of court hearings. Those

records must be stored in a manner consistent with records management standards and

be available for duplication, distribution, or other use by the court or by other relevant

institutions. The same record reduced to a paper transcript must be similarly available

for duplication, distribution or other use by the court or other relevant institutions. The

digital court recording system must be a special software and hardware solution to

provide objective registration of court hearings. The audio recordings and minutes of the

court hearings saved to digital media and protected from unauthorized modifications via

modern digital technologies has to be considered as an objective.

The court recording system provides not only the recording, but the fully legitimate

report of the hearing. The creation of this kind of report is automated with the help of a

special editor with application of unified and customizable templates of court hearings.

The result of the digital court recording system operation is to obtain a court record

which incorporates 3 outputs:

1. The case data (data about membership of hearing, case name, case number, serial number of media on which the recording will be made, name of each action/proceeding and notes),

2. Audio recording, and

3. Minutes of hearings

13.2. Main Requirements for the Digital Court Recording System

1. Integration with the automated court case management information system

(ACCMIS).

48

Data exchange between the digital court recording system and ACCMIS about date,

venue and time of hearing, case type and its number, participants and their procedural

positions, is required.

2. Automation of the standard operations of the typist.

3. Provision of audio recording, registration of court hearings and all major points

of consideration of a case.

4. The digital court recording system is required to allow simultaneous connection

of up to 8 microphones.

5. The digital court recording system should have the possibility of upgrade to

support digital video recording.

6. The digital court recording system must have the possibility of upgrade to record

an undercover witness questioning.

7. The recorded hearing has to be saved as a digital data on a hard drive, removable

media (CD, DVD, flash drive etc.) or network resource and has to be played

back on any multimedia computer without special5 software installation.

8. Provision of operative replication of required quantity of legitimate copies of the

electronic document on removable media (CD, DVD, flash drive etc.) for

granting to natural persons and legal entities. The legitimacy is provided by

digital signature. The system must use standard removable media (CD/DVD)

which in return reduces the costs for courts. No special format for removable

media is required for duplicating and archiving all records.

9. Provision of formation of minutes of hearings on the basis of application of

standard cases templates, both during the hearing and later if needed.

10. A special editor for automation of formation of minutes of hearings during the

court hearing is required in the digital court recording system. The editor needs

to have embedded templates of hearings, where all hearings in accordance with

the legislation and the list of court participants have to be specified to simplify

the process of court record creation.

11. Provision of centralized update and operative editing of standard cases templates

by user.

12. Provision of intelligibility of speech at recording of court hearings.

5 Different audio standard formats (WAV, MP3, etc.) should be supported

49

13. Provision of reliable protection of audio recording results from inevitable losses

during the hearing, due to hardware and software failures and from

unauthorized accidental or deliberate modification or deletion of records.

14. Provision of creation, storage and editing of minutes of hearings as a single

electronic document.

15. Provision of access to authorized users to saved documents.

16. Exclusion of the opportunity of unauthorized access to the data recorded on

hard drives is required.

17. Support of the Macedonian language in the program interface and in the created

documents.

18. Easy and user-friendly interface.

19. Timestamps setup in the actions log during the recording by foot pedal.

20. Playback control by foot pedal.

21. Easy system configuration and operation.

13.3. Hardware Requirements

Audio recording hardware is required to provide the following possibilities

during the hearing:

1. Simultaneous sound recording from up to 8 microphones on 4

independent channels.

2. Application of specialized multichannel microphone preamplifier (mixer)

with support of dynamic or condensing microphones with phantom

power supply.

3. Provision of all microphones mixing to one channel and noise level

control of each microphone.

4. Width digitization not less than 16 bits per channel.

5. Frequency digitization not less than 22050 Hz per channel.

6. Provision of redundant recording equipment to ensure that recording of

court hearings is not delayed or interrupted due to hardware and/or

network failures.

7. Provision of an efficient and effective archiving system

50

8. Wiring and cables within the courtroom have to be secured from

damaging.

13.4. Software requirements

13.4.1 Required General Software

1. For audio recording workstation is required the following software to be

installed:

Microsoft Windows ХР Professional SP3 OS or Windows Vista

Professional.

2. For user’s workplace (it can be combined with audio recording

workstation):

Microsoft Windows ХР Professional SP3 OS or Windows Vista

Professional

Microsoft Office 2007 (optional).

13.4.2 Requirements for Digital Court Recording Software

Integrity of registration of court hearings and all major points of

consideration of a case has to be provided by effective and ergonomic user

interface with advanced annotation tools, both in the recording mode and in

the playback mode.

51

13.4.2.1 Requirements for Digital Court Recording Software in the Recording Mode

1. Multichannel digital audio recording (simultaneously 4 independent

audio channels).

2. Display of levels of signals, operating mode, current state of each

recording channel.

3. Automated minutes creation during recording session or in post

processing mode based on unified and extendable templates.

4. High quality sound assurance, sufficient for performance of any kinds of

voice identification (recognition of a timbre of a voice).

5. Direct monitoring of recording.

13.4.2.2 Requirements for Digital Court Recording Software in the Playback Mode

1. Simultaneous synchronous playback of all recorded channels (by default)

or any of their combination by choice, switch of listening to all/only

selected channel(s) by a single mouse click.

2. Playback speed variation (speech speed slowdown) without pitch

affecting.

3. Synchronous display of corresponding court proceeding, participant and

annotation (or transcription) of performance at audio playback with

accuracy not worse than 1 second. (Playback with delay not longer than 1

second)

4. Registration of time of court hearings with the accuracy not worse than 1

second.

52

5. Smooth positioning in minutes of hearings to any location by playback

slider and separately by hearings and participants presentations.

6. Visualization of multichannel phonogram for comfortable positioning.

7. Intelligent multichannel automatic level control to provide alignment of

levels for loud and low voices of participants.

8. Automatic noises filter with voice component isolation.

9. Multiband equalizer.

10. Adjustment of a level of a signal of each recorded channel at

reproduction.

11. Exclusion of dynamic distortions and losses of audio signal at recording,

i.e. all required sound processing has to be performed at the playback

stage, including automatic level control, multiband equalizer, band and

rejecter filters for clean-up from noises.

12. Playback control by foot pedal.

13. Automation of standard operations, i.e. during creation of minutes of

hearings the majority of needed operations has to be fulfilled by a single

mouse click or keystroke within the single main window.

13.4.2.3 Requirements for Digital Court Recording Software Data Reliability

Protection reliability of the audio recording results during the hearing from

inevitable losses, due to hardware and software failures has to be achieved

by taking the following measures:

1. Redundant solution is required to enhance failsafe operations.

2. Mirroring of hard disks for full duplication of recorded data.

3. Automatic data recovery after failure.

53

4. Operative monitoring over hardware and software operability during

recording with the help of watchdog, equipped with alarm system

(malfunction detection time is not more than 3 seconds) by means of

program indicators of channels state and hardware indicators of

operability of microphones and microphone preamplifier (mixer).

5. Operative monitoring over the state of audio paths during recording

(direct control), which can be turned on/off at any moment.

6. Automatic disk space reservation during recording.

7. Audio recording results protection from unauthorized accidental or

deliberate modification or deletion has to be achieved by taking the

following measures:

Audio and recording workstation has to be launched as Windows-

service under its account and the created audio files have to be

available in read-only mode for this user, which excludes their

deletion or modification.

Audio and recording equipment has to be protected from

unauthorized disconnections, i.e. the microphones without switches

have to be used, secure XLR connectors have to be used to connect

microphones to microphone preamplifier. The microphone

preamplifier has to be connected by one cable with clutches to the

sound card.

Settings of recording levels and recording channels selection have to

be protected from unauthorized modification by user.

13.4.2.4 Requirements for Duplication of Electronic Document Copies

Operative duplication of the required quantity of legitimate copies of

minutes on removable media for provision to natural persons and legal

entities has to be achieved by taking the following measures:

54

1. Provision of formation of "brief" minutes of hearings during the hearing

in order to have a possibility to distribute copies of court record

immediately after the end of the hearing.

2. Provision of recording of the legitimate court record to removable media

(CD-R, СD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW) or external network resource. The

court record is able to contain the minutes of hearings, audio recording of

the hearing and transcription of the hearing. The recording has to be

conducted directly from the program interface.

3. Provision of legitimacy of court record on removable media by means of

digital electronic signature.

4. Provision of court hearings duplication and archiving on standard media

(CD/DVD) with application of Windows built in CD recording feature

(without installation of additional licensed CD/DVD recording software).

5. Provision of display of minutes of hearings, transcription and playback of

audio recording of the hearing recorded on a removable media on any

multimedia PC without installation of additional software (i.e. user is not

required to have administrative rights or additional software to work with

the document in any standard Windows configurations).

6. Provision of recording on already recorded removable media, wherein the

protection of previously recorded information from re-recording failures

has to be provided.

13.4.3 Requirements for Setup and Operation of the System

1. Simplicity and reliability of equipment connection, i.e. correct connection

of microphones provided by the construction of microphone preamplifier

(mixer) and corresponding univocal labeling of microphone connectors

and application of secure connectors with clutches.

55

2. Automatic equipment setup, i.e. fully automatic setup of audio recording

channels provided for standard configurations, including the setup of

recording levels.

3. Automatic generation of diagnostic reports by means of special utility to

provide the technical support service via e-mail or on removable media.

4. Audit of audio recording process with registration of failures with their

causes specification, also system status monitoring (disk activity, CPU

load etc.).

13.5 Additional Requirements and Specifications

1. All the goods shall be brand new, unused and confirm to the latest design

and quality standards. The description and technical specifications stated

against the items listed shall be fixed and not changeable except the cases

when the goods with better parameters are proposed.

2. All the bids shall meet the description and technical specifications

requirements set for the specific item. In case one of the items does not

meet the description and the technical requirements the bid will be

considered as non-responsive and will be rejected.

3. The bidder must submit all the catalogs or illustrated pictures of the

proposed items with the bid, as well as any technical documentation

describing the goods.

13.6 Warranty and Documentation

The system software proposed must have warranty for 24 months and

equipment for 12 months if otherwise not stated. The warranty is not

applied to the connectors and cabling.

All manuals and instructions should be in Macedonian and English languages.

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14. Technical Specification for the procurement of a system for Digital Audio Recording

Equipment that should be implemented in each courtroom (per courtroom)

№ Item Description Qty Recording Workstation

1. PC Recording Workstation

Case: Convertible Minitower Chipset: Intel Q57 Express supporting Intel® Core™ processor with vPro™ technology or equivalent from other manufacturer Processor: like Intel Core i5660 Processor 3.33 GHz, 4M total cache; 2 cores/4 threads Intel® Core™ processor with vPro™ technology or equivalent from other manufacturer RAM: 4GB PC3-10600 DDR3 HDD: 2x 500GB Hard Disk Drive 7,200 rpm, 16MB cache, 3.0 GB/s, 3.5” drive hardware RAID controller Audio System: integrated DVD+/-RW LAN: 10/100/1000 Mbit I/O Slots: (3) PCI, (1) PCI Express x1 (half-length), (2) PCI Express x16, Keyboard: PS/2 or USB standard keyboard, Mouse: optical, USB, two-button with scroll, ergonomic design, Mouse: PS/2 or USB 2-Button Optical Scroll Mouse, Windows XP Professional Warranty: 36 months

1

2. Monitor

Size: 19", widescreen Type: LCD display Resolution: min. 1440 x 900 Response Time: < = 5 ms Image Brightness: > = 300 cd/m2 Image Contrast Ratio min: DC 8000:1 (1000:1) (Typ.) H-View Angle: min 170 degree V-View Angle: min 160 degree Signal Input Connector: 15pin D-SUB, DVI-D Stand Function: Height Adjustable, Pivot, Swivel, Tilt TCO'03 Compliant

1

3. UPS Line Interactive 1000 VA UPS with AVR for computers Warranty: 24 months 1

57

№ Item Description Qty

4. Printer

A4 laser b/w Printing speed: min. 28 A4 pages per minutes First page print: max. 7 sec. Resolution: min 1200 x 1200 dpi Emulation: PCL6, PostScript 3 Paper input capacity: min. 300 sheets from min. 2 sources Paper output capacity: 250 sheets RAM: min 32MB Interface: USB 2.0 Warranty: 24 months

1

5. Acoustic system

Type: Active speakers, two-way Rated output: min 2x10W Frequency range: 20 - 20000 Hz Controls: volume, tone Socket 3,5mm for Headset

1

6. Headphones

Type: Closed Headphones Frequency range: 30 - 20000 Hz Impedance: 32 Ohm Sensitivity: 90 dB/mW Harmonic distortion: <0,5% at 1 kHz Cable: Straight, single entry, 2,4m Connectors: 3,5mm stereo jack with 6,3 mm adapter

1

7. Foot pedal

Button: 1 button, non-click Body: Metal, black-painted Pressing surface: Ribbed rubber PC Interface: USB 1.1 / USB 2.0 Cable: Straight, single entry, 1,5 m Connectors: USB Type A

1

8. Microphone preamplifier (Mixer)

Number of inputs: 8 Mic input, balanced and filtered Outputs: 4 line unbalanced output channels; headset adjustable; line output for public address system Frequency response: 20 Hz – 10000 Hz Input level: 20 mV at 0 dB Output level: 2 V at 0 dB Gain: min. 30 dB Signal/noise ratio: min. 60 dB Harmonic distortions : 0,1 % at 1 kHz Connectors: Input: XLR, output: DB latched Mixing console: Single output adjustable on every channel Phantom power: min. 24 V

1

58

№ Item Description Qty

9. Multichannel soundcard

Number of inputs: 4 Line input, unbalanced and filtered Output: 1 line unbalanced output Frequency response: 20 Hz – 20000 Hz Input level: 2 V at 0 dB Output level: 2 V at 0 dB Signal/noise ratio: Min. 70 dB Harmonic distortions : 0,1 % at 1 kHz Connectors: Input: DB latched, output: DB latched PC Interface: PCI 2.1

1

10. Wired microphone with table stand

Type: Condenser Polar feature: Hypercardioid Frequency response: 60 Hz – 14000 Hz Signal / noise ratio: min. 65 dB Sensitivity: min. 15 mV/Pa (-35 dBV) Impedance: ≤ 600 ohm Power supply: DC Phantom Power 11-52 V Signaling: activity LED indicator Connectors: Output: XLR Table stand with XLR-3 socket

5

11. USB dongle for Software USB Access control security device 1

12. Software

Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Edition; 1

13. Software Antivirus License with 1yr Support;

1

14. Software

DART SOFTWARE Solution as per software

requirements in 13.4.2

1

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Options for storage devices per Court *For Courts with more than 10 Courtrooms TAS type 2 is chosen, and for Courts with less than 10 Courtrooms TAS type 1 is chosen

15. TAS type 1 ( All basic and appellate courts not mentioned in table 17)

Database Server for Backup

Processor: min Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 (2.00 GHz, 4MB L3 Cache, 80W, DDR3-800) or equivalent from other manufacturer Memory: min 2 GB (1 x 2GB) PC3-10600E UB Advanced ECC memory Min Twelve (12) DIMM slots Network Controller: PCI Express Gigabit Server Adapter Storage Controller: Smart Array P410 controller w/ Zero Memory cache Raid Controller (RAID 0,1, 0+1) 2x 1TB 3G SAS 7.2K rpm 3.5-inch Dual Port Internal Disk Bays: 8 Internal SAS storage capacity of up to 16.0TB (8 x 2TB 3.5" SAS drives) SATA DVD RW Optical Drive I/O Slot Types: 1 x PCI Express Gen 1 x8, 2 x PCI Express Gen 2 x8, 1 x PCI Express Gen 2 x16, 1 x PCI 32-bit/33MHz 3.3V Power Supply: 460W (70% efficiency) Antivirus License with 1yr Support; Keyboard: PS/2 or USB standard Windows keyboard Mouse: USB 2-Button Optical Scroll Mouse Warranty: 36 months

1

Monitor

Size: 19", widescreen Type: LCD display Resolution: min. 1440 x 900 Response Time: < = 5 ms Image Brightness: 300 cd/m2 Image Contrast Ratio: DC 8000:1 (1000:1) (Typ.) H-View Angle: min 170 degree V-View Angle: min 160 degree Signal Input Connector: 15pin D-SUB, DVI-D Stand Function: Height Adjustable, Pivot, Swivel, Tilt TCO'03 Compliant

1

UPS Line Interactive 1000 VA UPS with AVR for computers Warranty: 24 months 1

60

16. TAS type 2 (Basic courts: Skopje 1, Skopje 2, Kumanovo, Bitola, Ohrid, Strumica,

Prilep)

Main Characteristics

Support for at least 60 HDD’s or more Support for SAS and SATA Hard drives Hot plug option for replacement of disks or any other component without interruption Fully redundant architecture (no single point of failure) Dial-Home and Dial-In diagnostics To support the following connectivity options: NAS (CIFS+NFS), iSCSI, Native FC 4gbps host ports Support for at least 2 x nodes/blades Independent manageability of NAS, SAN, iSCSI and storage connectivity. Must present true block disk access, not contained in a file system. Must be able to use native Microsoft management tools, technologies and integration points, including the management of Windows Quotas. Must efficiently compress and de-duplicate data in the array to reduce the file system capacity requirements Must support Automated Volume Management Must have file-migration API to enable information lifecycle management via transparent, automated, policy-based archiving. Must provide flexible multi-protocol locking for NFS and CIFS files Must allow separation of client and administrative access Created Snap data should not be contained in the primary file system At least the following OS’s must be supported: Windows, Red Hat, VMware

1

Storage Controllers/Processors

2 x Storage Controllers/Processor’s to be included

Cache memory

At least 2 GB cache memory (1 GB per controller/processor) or more

Host Ports

Minimum 4 x 1GB Ethernet ports for CIFS and iSCSI connection to be included Minimum 4 x 4gbps FC host ports for FC SAN Connection to be included The following protocols should be enabled (NAS-CIFS) and iSCSI-SAN NAS-NFS and FC-SAN should be available for future enablement/upgrade

61

Non-Disruptive Migrations

Storage must includes the possibility to transparently moves volumes from one pool to another which resides on different RAID levels or drive types without needing to bring the application down.

Storage capacity

6 x 1TB 7.2 rpm SATA drives configured in RAID5 1 x 1TB 7.2 rpm SATA drive configured as a hot spare

Raid Levels

The following vRAID/RAID Levels must be supported: Raid 1, 5 and 6

Multipath software

Host software for Multipath, failover and load-balancing for unlimited number of servers to be included

Business Continuity

The offered storage system must include the possibility for creating snaps on the file systems and iSCSI LUN’s

Disaster Recovery

As an option for future upgrades, the offered storage must support the possibility for asynchronous replication on large distances.

Array Based Virtual/Thin Provisioning

Storage system must include the possibility for Virtual/Thin Provisioning which will allow LUNs presented to hosts to appear larger than their actual physical capacity and for over subscription.

File retention

As an option for future upgrade the storage system must support the possibility for File-Level Retention through disk based WORM. File-Level Retention should protect locked files against both user and Administrator actions and satisfy the requirements of regulatory bodies such as the SEC.

Warranty At least 3 years hardware / 1 year software warranty and maintenance.

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LAN equipment per Court *Note: Only in Basic Court Skopje 2, two switches are needed.

17. Network equipment

Ethernet switch

Features 24 x 10/100 RJ-45 ports up to 200 Mbps of throughput

per port

2 x 10/100/1000 RJ-45 Gigabit uplink ports with two

shared SFP ports (combo ports)

Switching capacity 8.8 Gbps non-blocking

MAC table size -8000

Ports: Auto medium dependent interface (MDI) and MDI

crossover (MDI-X)

Simplified QoS management using 802.1p, IPv4/v6

Differentiated Services (DiffServ)/DSCP traffic

prioritization specifications

Web browser configuration and management

Port security – MAC-based filtering

802.1X port access authentication

Management access control

IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree and PortFast

Multicast and broadcast storm control

Port mirroring

Rack-mountable

1

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Additional equipment for all Courts (basic and appellate)

Details per courtroom described in separate table

1. Powering equipment

Power cable

power AC cable with length 10m, with 5 socket 203 pcs.

2. Structured Cable System (SCS)

Microphone cable

Flexible XLR Cable(m) 10790

Ethernet cable

UTP cat.5e, meters (m) 2010

Duct Plastic , meters (m) 8000 3. Documentation

Documentation

Hard copy (printed) and electronic copy (CD) 1

feasibility study for implementation of digital audio

Documents