History: Interview rooms are what actually put Didier Denver in business. In 1997 the  director at the now defunct Wilbur Rodgers Center was having issues with her observation room. Now it is 1997, all we have is VHS and the infancy of CCD cameras, box cameras, no domes. The problem? Horrible audio. No excuse for it. I took a good look at an otherwise  ignored need for quality audio and video monitoring. Child Advocacy centers, Social Services, and eventually law enforcement.

She spread my name around and we installed all over the state.  I can’t tell you how many piezo microphones we have thrown away since.

Initially there was this notion that you shouldn’t spend as much on your microphone as your camera.

We use a high quality Audio Technica conferencing microphone and a high gain preamplifier with self normalizing level, meaning you can hear a watch tick if it’s alone in the room. In the beginning we would time/date stamp it and send it to a couple VCRs. That evolved into DVD recorders. The challenge was always to keep it simple as case workers came and went from the all the different advocacy centers.

Our cameras did not move or require power up/down. Same for the mic. We had one close up camera, a glass top table and a wide angle camera up in the corner we would P-I-P (picture in picture) up in the corner. This was a direct result of law enforcement needing to account for random noises that were occurring off camera. Bottom line is you could walk in put in a DVD, hit record and leave with it after the interview was over. Our two biggest problems were finalizing the disc and who changed the monitor off line input? Many social services only need the wide angle for overall room observation (family visits). Many advocacy centers only need the close up for one on one interviews with children (audio is huge here). The police need both. The police or the social services people can have hard drive back up, as only employees have access to the rooms. Child Advocacy centers have independent case workers coming and going so accessing a hard drive can be a problem, as can the subpoenaing of the original hard drive or computer.

Currently: There are numerous companies where they have taken a video input card and written their software to do what any basic DVR (digital video recorder) will do, record real time (30 frames per second) audio and video on to a hard drive and store it as it’s own file. Allow you to burn it to DVD or stream it to another location. Most of these systems are pretty awesome. Most of these systems cost a pretty penny. I still believe the key to the system is the audio quality. The cameras can move or not, easily controlled with the DVR. The DVR can also be used for overall security of the building in addition to recording interviews, as they come in 4, 8 and 16 input configurations’. They start at a few hundred dollars and go up according to hard drive size and inputs. The key here is all the flash and self promotion that goes with the windows based system.

Is it getting you a better interview for the extra money spent? I say it all the time “it’s your money” and “It’s only money”. If you’ve got it flaunt it. If you don’t give us a call and we will help you arrive at a solution that gets you the highest quality audio and video recorded and archived the way you need it and we will do it in a most cost effective manner. Some people will still prefer to walk out with a DVD when the interview is over. We still do that too. We can assemble a kit with all the components and basic instructions for you to do your own installation. Just give us a call and we can discuss it.

Installed rooms: Beginning with the Wilbur Rogers center, Denver Child Advocacy, Denver P.D., Denver Gang Unit, Adams County Social Services, Boulder County Social Services, Pikes Peak Child Advocacy, Platte Valley Children’s Alliance, Douglas County Sheriffs Office, Teller County Sheriffs, Park County Sheriffs, Arvada Child Advocacy, Grand County Social Services, Women’s Crisis Family Outreach, Sungate Child Advocacy, Summit County, Western Slope Center for Children, Arvada Police, Jefferson County D.A., I.C.E., Aurora Community College Ambulance training, University of Colorado Health Center, A Kids Place, Cortez Child Advocacy, Chaffee County, Capstone Scottsbluff, and more. These are the ones where I still have cards. Many have learned to evolve their systems without us, many got hold of some money and went high dollar, many forgot we were alive as personnel changed, and many still look to us for direction and support. Bottom line is we have been doing this longer than anybody and we understand what you are trying to accomplish. We also understand what you go through to garner funds. Please consider us for you interview/observation room needs.