Recording Modes for PUMA II Digital Recorders

What is the correct “Recording Mode” for your PUMA II Police Special Digital Recorder?

To help answer that questions we meet with an Audio/Video Forensics lab, and it has come to our attention that some departments are choosing the ”LP” mode for everyday use. This mode will infact give you the largest number of hours of recording time and battery life, it will not and cannot give you the quality of evidence that the PUMA II is capable of producing. In other words, there may come a time when your Forensics Dept. informs you that even though you thought you recorded that confession in that noisy busy situation, your recording quality was so low that filtering for clarity is just not possible.

In order to understand the difference in recording modes and their effect on the end result, it is important to have a basic understanding of SAMPLE RATE. Sample rate is defined as follows;

The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per second (or per other unit) taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal

The greater your sample rate is, the higher quality your recording will be. Optimal quality is VERY important to You and your Forensics Team.

When viewing the following chart, please keep in mind that higher numbers are better for you.

Sampling frequency
HQ mode : 44.1 khz ……… CD quality Recommended
SP mode : 22.0 khz
LP mode : 8.0 khz ……… Very Minimum

Recording Time
HQ mode : 17 hours
SP mode : 33 hours
LP mode : 66 hours

Alkaline Battery Life
HQ mode : Approx. 24 hours
SP mode : Approx. 28 hours
LP mode : Approx. 32 hours

As you can see, when recording in HQ mode vs. LP mode the available hours and of recording and battery life is significantly reduced. However, when choosing a “Recording mode”, you should ask the following question

Why am I recording?
If your answer is… to better protect myself / the dept; this interview will be important evidence, etc. Then you should at least consider recording in HQ or at least SP. If you download your recordings at the end of EVERY shift, decreased recording time will never be a problem.

Please keep this in mind…. "If it’s important enough to record, it’s certainly important enough to record well ", it just might make your case.

Fraternal Order of Police - 59th National Conference and Exposition

Thank you to the all the members of the FOP for stopping by our booth at the 59th National Conference and Exposition in Long Beach this week and discussing their everyday use of digital recorders. PUMA Digital Recorders are the #1 selling digital recorder for law enforcement and we had the opportunity to show many of the attendees the features and benefits of our product. During the show we introduced the new PUMA Basic Management Software which is included with each PUMA Recorder. The PUMA Basic Management Software is the only file management software for audio recordings designed for law enforcement available today.

One of the top news items at the Fraternal Order of Police convention was the appearance Sgt. James Crowley, the white Massachusetts police officer who arrested a black Harvard professor and led to a political firestorm for President Obama. Again calling attention to the events that occurred in Cambridge Massachusetts it is not known if Sgt Crowley used a digital recorder. We feel that thing may have been different if he had a PUMA Digital Recorder. Many of our PUMA users have stated that the use of their PUMA Digital Recorder is a life and career saver as far as complaints go, and in some complaints received letters of commendation for their professional behavior.

Congratulations to Cincinnati for being selected to host the 2013 convention. See you there.

Thank you again to the members of the Fraternal Order of Police for a great show.

PUMA Management Software - Basic Edition

PUMA announces a version of its already popular complete file management system for law enforcement delivered with each PUMA recorder.

PUMA Software Management Software is the only file management software for audio recordings designed for law enforcement available today. The PUMA Basic Edition software offers the power of our full PUMA Management platform modified for a single user.

PUMA Basic gives you the same ability to quickly download recordings to your PC, add file information if needed and store the audio recording securely. With various search options a recording can be quickly retrieved for playback or copy to CD. You’ll quickly become accustomed to the benefits of the PUMA Management System, as the right solution to securely and efficiently manage you audio recordings.

Features:

• Audio recordings are quickly and efficiently transferred from the PUMA II Digital Recorder


• Identify and catalog audio recording by date, time, officer, case number, citation number or subject name


• Copy audio files to CD/DVD for distribution


• Simplified interface for ease-of-use


• With various search options a recording can be quickly retrieved for playback or copy to CD


• Audio files are encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption
  
• Password protected