The shift to hybrid courtroom technology

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in order to proceed with judicial activities whilst also adhering to current social distancing guidelines, courtrooms worldwide are undergoing rapid change.

WolfVision Cynap and Visualizer technology solutions are supporting new and upgraded hybrid courtroom setups in many installations, helping to enable simultaneous in-person and remote participation in court proceedings.

Our systems are rapid to deploy, cost-effective, secure, and easy-to-use, and they offer a customisable range of functionality for controlled presentation of evidence, together with built-in video conferencing, streaming, wireless screen sharing, recording and annotation capability.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the legal community to make massive changes in the way justice is delivered in courtrooms. Digital transformation was already well underway pre-pandemic, but necessarily there has been an acceleration in the usage of modern technology to support hybrid courtroom environments.

Post Covid-19, the move towards hybrid courtrooms will continue. Hearings, arraignments, and trials have already in many cases been adapted to enable social distancing, and where appropriate, remote court attendance. Even assuming a vaccine will shortly be widely available, it will still be important for attendees to feel safe when required to attend a courtroom in-person. Live room-to-room streaming or streaming to iPads for social distancing will continue to be important, as will streaming directly to YouTube or other platforms for maintaining public accessibility.

With a backlog of cases waiting for trial, remote technologies will continue to be used to help deliver time efficiencies and cost savings, not least by improving availability – everybody is more easily available via Zoom! The primary consideration is still how to continue innovate using remote technology, but at the same time preserving the essentials of the justice system, which was previously entirely dependent on in-person proceedings.

Technology-based presentation of evidence using a Cynap or Visualizer system simplifies the process and enables both in-person and remote court attendees to view materials on-screen, avoiding any interruptions to proceedings.
 

Cynap is an all-in-one wireless presentation and collaboration system. It offers app-free, dongle-free BYOD wireless screen mirroring, together with built-in Zoom, Teams, WebRTC web conferencing, recording, plus room-to-room streaming in a single appliance. It integrates easily with courtroom infrastructure, and it has proved to be invaluable in helping facilitate the re-opening of many courtrooms following closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cynap is being installed in Delaware County, Indiana courtrooms in USA, and in many others worldwide, where its powerful easy-to-use functionality can enable proper social distancing and facilitate the incorporation of touchless BYOD for hygienic presentation of evidence using court attendees’ own laptops, smartphones, or tablets. For on-screen presentation of evidence, Cynap helps to provide a consistent user experience for both in-person and remote court participants.

Cynap supports hybrid courtroom setups where some court participants may be attending remotely, at the same time as allowing in-person attendees such as attorneys, witnesses etc. to share content wirelessly on-screen directly from their own mobile devices, eliminating the need to touch any installed in-room equipment.

Even jury trials have been brought back, with social distancing maintained either by using Cynap to stream on-screen content to additional rooms, or streaming material directly to iPad. In many cases a defendant does not need to appear in-person, but can attend remotely from home or prison, whilst still benefiting from a consistent courtroom experience.