The record stays in the court, and stays as it was made
SmartRM is built on three commitments: the court decides where the record lives, each person reaches only what their role needs, and anyone can prove a recording hasn’t been changed.
On site, or in the cloud
Run every part on the court’s own computers, speech-to-text and the Assistant included, with no internet connection needed. Or host the hub and speech-to-text in the cloud, reached only over HTTPS.
Only what each role needs
Rights come from the person’s role. Court reporters reach a courtroom only around their assignment; transcribers only the recordings of their open orders.
Proof, not promises
Recordings are fingerprinted, every change is recorded with who, when and why, and the audit log is chained so nothing can be quietly altered.
Prove the record hasn’t been changed
- Each recording is fingerprinted once it is finished: its audio and video files and its case details, tags, seals, sidebars and attachments.
- Each later change made in SmartRM, such as a tag corrected or a part sealed, is added with who made it, when and why.
- Verify, on the Playback page and the Playback List, checks it all and reports anything changed any other way.
- The audit log is chained so no entry can be changed or removed unnoticed. Verify Log checks it.
- Every export has a certificate and a checksum list, so a court can check the copy with ordinary tools.
- Certified transcripts are kept exactly as certified, with a SHA-256 fingerprint.
A digital fingerprint is a short code worked out from every bit of a recording. Change even a moment of the audio, or a single tag, and the code no longer matches, so the change shows.
Sealed parts are silenced at the source
Sealing needs the person’s own password and the site seal password, and produces an access key that is shown once. The hub itself silences sealed audio: not just hidden on the screen, but silent in playback and in every copy, with its transcript and tags hidden.
Listening needs the right to listen to sealed parts and the key, and the part reseals when playback closes. A key opened is tied to the person’s own sign-in and never appears in a web address. Unsealing needs the key and the site seal password. All of it is in the audit log.
Secure by the way it’s built
Sign in with court accounts
SmartRM connects to the court’s sign-in service: Microsoft Entra ID, AD FS for Active Directory, or another OpenID Connect service. Only people already added in SmartRM can sign in, and passwords can be limited to administrators.
Careful with passwords
Five wrong passwords lock an account for five minutes. People are signed out after 12 hours without use. The sign-in page never gives away which usernames exist.
Courtrooms only connect out
Each courtroom PC connects out to the hub over HTTPS and accepts nothing from outside, so remote sites need no open ports. A courtroom PC that trusts the court’s own certificate pins that one certificate.
Paired, pinned realtime
A reporter pairs their Realtime Sender with a one-time code and checks the hub’s certificate fingerprint once. After that, their sign-in only ever goes to that hub. Too many wrong codes from one place block it for a while.
Nightly backups that check themselves
The whole database, every finished recording (checked against its fingerprint) and reporters’ files, into a folder court IT chooses. Each backup keeps the audit log’s latest entry outside the hub, so a rewritten log would show.
Problem reports stay in the court
Report a Problem never includes passwords or what was typed, and a report goes to nobody until court IT chooses who receives them, because a report can hold case details.
Caption codes need no account, are never stored in plain form or written to logs, and end on schedule or when someone presses End. Off the record, sealed parts and sidebars never appear in captions.
Payees’ taxpayer and bank numbers and W-9s are encrypted. Billing staff see only the last four digits, and every full view is in the audit log.
SmartRM has had a security code review, and its fixes are in the current version.
Questions from your security team?
We’re glad to walk court IT and security staff through how SmartRM handles the record.