Audio redaction

How to selectively redact audio in video and/or audio files.

There are two ways to selectively redact audio in Secure Redact:

  1. Audio-to-text transcription - generate a transcription from audio in video or an audio file to easily select words or phrases to redact.

  2. Audio ranges - listen to your video and use the Toolbar’s Redact audio button to create audio ranges that mute the video or audio file. These will appear in the Timeline’s Audio row as orange track bars.

How to use Audio-to-text transcription

  1. When uploading the video, select Transcript under Options.

  2. Once the video is Ready for review, click on it in your app Homepage to open it up for editing.

  3. On the right-hand side, under Inspector, click Transcript to open the automatically generated transcription.

  4. The transcription shows all conversation said throughout the video or audio file, alongside a timestamp of when they were said. Hover on the seconds to play that particular phrase.

  5. Use the Search function at the top of the transcription to find a particular word/phrase throughout the transcript (e.g. a name, an address or other forms of PII).

  6. Then click RA to redact all instances in which the particular word appears throughout the video or audio file.

  7. You can also select words or whole phrases within the transcript to redact or unredact them. Once selected, either click the + sign to redact or the - sign to unredact them.

  8. All selected words and phrases are added as audio ranges within the Audio row in the Timeline. You can also follow the Audio ranges workflow (outlined below) whilst the transcription is open.

How to select an audio range for redaction

  1. Pause the video at the point in time where you need to begin the selected range.

  2. Click Redact audio in the Toolbar.

    • Keyboard shortcut: G

  3. The video will begin to play. An orange bar will simultaneously be created in the Audio row.

  4. Click Redact audio in the Toolbar again to stop the selected range.

  5. To adjust the range’s start and end time, simply drag the sides of the new orange bar in the Audio row to make it longer or shorter.

  6. To delete the range entirely, simply click the orange bar and then click Delete in the Toolbar.

    • Keyboard shortcut: backspace

  7. To add another range, repeat this process.

How to review your redacted audio ranges

  1. Once you have created all your audio ranges you can review them in line with the video.

  2. Click Review redacted audio in the Audio row of the Timeline.

    • Keyboard shortcut: R

  3. This will invert the audio, so that whilst you watch the video, you will only hear the selected audio ranges and the rest of the video will be mute.

    • This is extremely useful for ensuring that all parts of the audio that you need are fully selected for redaction.

  4. To watch the video as normal (i.e. with your selected ranges muted and the rest of the video’s audio heard), simply Click Review redacted audio again.

  5. Once you have finished editing your video, you can redact the video with all the audio ranges redacted, no audio redaction or redacting all the audio, choosing if it is muted or replaced with a beep.