Motorola has announced its latest body cam, designed for public safety agencies. The V700 uses mobile broadband to connect to the Aware cloud platform and transmit real-time field intelligence.
Body cameras are commonly worn by police officers, doormen, and even those looking to feel safe on a jog. We keep a list of the best body cameras for each situation, but Motorola's V700 is part of a range that targets large-scale use with command-and-control needs – police forces, for example.
"In public safety, outcomes often hinge on an agency’s ability to surface the critical insights necessary to make better, faster decisions,” said Mahesh Saptharishi, Motorola Solutions executive VP and CTO. “The V700’s connectivity to our wider technology ecosystem - from radios and in-car video to command center software - offers an agency unprecedented understanding of an officer’s situation so they can direct the resources needed to be successful in that moment.”
In practice, that means that an officer can pull a gun from their holster and a Holster Aware Bluetooth sensor will trigger recording. If an officer falls or is unresponsive, the V700 will record "giving incident manages immediate awareness" (though Motorola didn't say if the system highlighted their predicament in any way).
Motorola also claims they have a patent on "Record-After-the-Fact" tech meaning, presumably, that the camera is always recording a loop to memory even before you hit record. Similar tech is used on products like the Ring doorbell – perhaps a patent battle is in the offing?
The V700 LTE is on sale now in the United States, and offers 1080P video at up to 30fps, with dual microphones and noise canceling. Motorola says the field-swappable battery will last for up to 14 hours of recording. The rugged device is IP67 and even the battery contacts are even 'self-wiping' to make swapping batteries easier in the dust.
The camera has a 130˚ horizontal field of view, fisheye de-warp, and can capture in down-to 0.1 lux. Features in the 7oz (197g) device include GPS, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi, gyro motion detection, and 128GB storage.
A mono LCD menu at the top of the device allows the user to tag events after recording, but, of course, the real management is designed to be done with the iOS/Android app or CommandCentral.
If you're interested in it, you can contact Motorola for a demo, though for smaller teams or lone wolves our best bodycam guide might be more useful.
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