Recently, SV25 audio retention was enhanced from 30 to 90 days of storage. This update affected all SV25 sensors and was applied automatically. |
With the new audio recording capability, customers can enable up to 90 days of audio recording on their SV25s and can easily review, save and download audio clips directly from Verkada Command. Audio recording pairs natively with the other sensor readings on the SV25 as well as Verkada cameras and other devices, giving important context into your environment.
With audio recording, SV25 customers will be able to protect, monitor, and manage their environments across a range of use cases including:
Adding audio context and verification to noise and motion alerts
As a tool to comply with state regulations that require audio recording in specific school settings.
Audio Recording
We recognize that organizations and their admins want visibility and control over which devices make use of audio recording. To help address this need, we have implemented the following steps and processes to help ensure that audio recording is deployed in a way that respects individual privacy:
All audio recording capabilities will be disabled by default on all SV25 units. This means that no SV25 will record audio out of the box.
To enable audio recording, an Organization Admin will need to enable the feature within Command. Only Organization Admins can enable the feature, and in order to enable it, Admins must review and accept a set of Terms and Conditions from within the Privacy and Security page within Command.
Once the Terms and Conditions have been accepted, Admins still need to enable audio on a per-device level - this ensures that audio recording is enabled only on an as-needed basis.
Admins can also choose between “live only audio”, meaning no audio is recorded whatsoever, or “live and recorded audio,” meaning 90 days of audio is recorded on the device and is available in Verkada Command.
There is also a ‘kill switch’ available at the Organization level. This switch allows Organization Admins to disable audio recording on all sensors with the flip of a switch. The control also deletes any audio already recorded on any SV25 device.
The data ownership, responsibility, and authorization for the use of audio recording is at the sole discretion of the customer.
Customers should also note that audio recordings are stored on the device, not in the cloud, and can be downloaded from the device through Command when needed for investigations.
Enabling Audio Per Device
Note: These options will only be available if the org-level permissions and T&Cs have been set.
Under the SV25 settings menu or when multiple SV25s are selected for bulk editing, you will see the Audio tab with the option to enable Live Audio and Recorded Audio.
In order to have recorded audio work you must also have live audio enabled.
Once these settings are confirmed the device will refresh and sensor readings will be unavailable for about 10 seconds. The device is always expected to refresh if either of these settings is changed.
The device will now have an Audio pill at the bottom of the list of enabled sensors. If only the live audio is enabled you will only see the option to view live audio and not historical. If recorded audio is also enabled then you will be able to see the same navigation scrubber you are familiar with from other sensor readings.
Audio will show a waveform based on the detected noise level picked up from the noise level sensor which is not capable of audio recording alone. Because of this, it is possible to see a waveform that reflects the noise level of the environment despite audio recording being turned off or a recorded segment being missing or unavailable.
You are able to listen to historic audio by scrubbing to that time window and selecting it like any other sensor reading. The audio will play from that moment. The Verkada Command tab must remain active on your browser for audio to continue playing for both historic and live. Switching to another tab will stop your audio playback.
Downloading Audio
Downloading an audio segment is very different from a camera archive, as the requested portion of audio is never stored on the cloud but rather only emailed to you. This means that deleting the email containing the past audio archives will mean that the archive is lost forever.
To download a segment of audio you will need to click the download icon on the audio service bar.
From here you will be greeted by a familiar time selection download prompt. Define the span of time and press Download to have a copy of that clip sent to your email. For security reasons, the download button does not allow the direct file to be downloaded.
Erasing Audio
If for any reason you desire to erase your recorded audio or disable the feature, this can be done by setting either the live or historical option to disabled from the SV25s device menu.
Once that setting is saved the device will delete the available audio. There will not be a confirmation prompt informing you that the action will delete the device's audio data.