Report of the meeting of the SC-03-12 Working Group on Forensic Audio, held online, 2021-05-13.
SC-03-12 chair Marisa Dery called the meeting to order.
The report of the previous meeting, held online 2020-10-06, was approved as written.
The agenda was approved as written.
In attendence were Richard Cabot, Marisa T. Dery, Nadja Wallaszkovitz, Anthony Kuzub, Gordon Reid, John Schilberg, Dagmar Boss, Truls Birkeland, John Hansen, Cesar Lamschtein, Keith McElveen, Philip Harrison, David Marks.
AES-X253 Standard for Audio Collection Guidelines in a Field/Unknown Location
The group discussed the draft at length. John Hansen clarified the intention of the paper which should be a “cheat sheet” which includes a comment section for the engineer/interviewer. It is not intended to be for forensic examiners but for people in the field, such as police officers, field officers etc.
There was general agreement that it should be a simple checklist /documentation that is not too long, where the most important basic information is at the top, followed by the graphic of the room and scenario boxes, then space for documentation that will help examiners but not vital as to overwhelm a novice or a field officer in need of a quick recording. The general consensus is that it be a Basic Recommendation and not a Best Practices document.
There was discussion on why the word “should” is appropriate for most sections of the document and about the importance of the Emotional state of the interviewee and why it is important to also add health status (cold, depression, etc.) and physical characteristics such as if they are missing teeth.
Many suggestions were made for changes and additions:
A simple checklist similar to MAT form for recording an event should be added.
The abstract needs to be revised.
Add metadata about the recording device. Get input from SC-03-07.
Store metadata in the Broadcast Wave file for Chain of Custody documentation.
A graphic of the room would include placement and proximity to microphone.
The language and dialect should be documented if possible.
It is important to find out what the interviewee is emotionally attached to so as to have him/her/they speak in a natural tone; this may be added in the section where there are drawings (re: Annex B (Informative) - Possible Known-Text Phrases for the Subject, p.10)
It would be helpful to have a field recording person assist with the document.
The use of Google Docs for comments was proposed. This discussion will continue at the next meeting.
The Chair will circulate a poll to determine the day and time for regular future meetings.
Liaisons
No new liaison information.
New projects
No new projects were proposed.
New business
No new business was raised.
The next meeting will be scheduled in conjunction with the AES 151st Convention, to be held either face-to-face or online in October 2021.
