Videoconferencing technologies have been making their way into courtrooms since the 1990s, reducing costs and improving the efficiencies of a range of judicial processes. The latest generation of these systems adds a new wrinkle literally. New high-definition systems from providers such as Cisco (www.cisco.com), Polycom (www.polycom.com), and others add a depth of visual detail that humanizes this increasingly common form of courtroom communication.
“When you’re talking about being able to judge the demeanor of a witness,” says Boyd Patterson, former chief magistrate judge of Dallas County criminal district courts, now a business development manager at Cisco. “The quality of the image actually matters a great deal. HD communicates non-verbal cues better than anything we’ve seen before.”
