Organization recorder and newsroom dashboard guide
Understand recorder activity, review submissions, interpret analytics and evidence signals, and manage an organization recorder from the Budapest.fm dashboard.
Use your organization recorder from invitation to editorial decision
This guide explains the Budapest.fm Voice dashboard provided to organizations such as newsrooms, community projects, and selected partners. It covers the public recorder, the private submission workspace, analytics, evidence signals, downloads, transcripts, supporting photos, and editorial workflow.
Last reviewed: 10 August 2026.
The numbers are activity totals, not audience identities. An open is a recorder page load. The same person can create more than one open by returning or refreshing, and your own tests are included.
The complete workflow
The recorder does not publish a contribution automatically. A newsroom or organization reviews every submission privately and decides what to keep, follow up on, archive, or use.
Move around the organization account
Dashboard
See recorder status, recent opens, total submissions, access details, approved websites, and the public recorder link.
Submission workspace
Search, filter, open, listen to, download, transcribe, verify, and organize incoming recordings.
Analytics & recorder
Understand the recorder journey, evidence coverage, review distribution, approved websites, embed code, and CSV export.
Dashboard
The dashboard is the starting point for each organization recorder.
| Section | What it means | Where to go next |
|---|---|---|
| Active | The public recorder is available to contributors. | Open the public recorder to test the contributor experience. |
| Recorder opens | Recorder page loads during the last 30 days. Opens are not unique people. Reloads, repeat visits, embedded views, direct-link visits, and your own tests can all add opens. | Open Analytics & recorder for the complete journey from open to submission. |
| Submissions | Recordings that Budapest.fm has received and stored successfully. The dashboard shows an all-time total across workflow states. | Open Submission workspace to review the actual recordings. |
| Partner or organization access | The access arrangement and its displayed validity date. A complimentary partner account does not require payment. | Contact Budapest.fm before the displayed date if the arrangement needs to be extended or changed. |
| Approved websites | Websites allowed to place this recorder inside an iframe. This does not prevent the direct public-recorder link from being shared elsewhere. | Open Analytics & recorder to copy the approved embed code. |
| Open public recorder | The contributor-facing page people use to make a recording. | Share this URL or test it in a private browser window. |
Recorder opens answer how many times the recorder loaded, not how many different people visited. Budapest.fm does not use this number as a unique-person count.
Public recorder experience
Open the recorder
The contributor reads the organization-specific invitation and presses Record. Microphone permission is requested only after that action.
Record and stop
The contributor records a first-hand account, stops, and can play it back or record again.
Complete the review form
After recording, the review form appears. Depending on the recorder configuration, it can request a name, private follow-up email, location, and supporting photos.
Attach supporting photos
When photos are enabled, Add supporting photos appears after the recording is stopped. Up to three JPEG, PNG, or WebP images can accompany the submission.
Confirm consent and send
The contributor confirms the displayed consent statements and sends the recording. A completion page confirms when Budapest.fm has stored it successfully.
There is no visitor-facing language selector in the recorder. When more than one transcription language is configured, that setting controls internal transcription handling rather than adding a language question to the public form.
Submission workspace
The submission workspace is a private newsroom-style inbox. It uses a compact list so 10, 20, 50, or more submissions remain manageable. Up to 20 results appear on a page, with pagination for additional results.
Summary numbers
| Number | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Needs review | Submissions still in the new or review queue. |
| Transcript ready | Submissions with transcript text available for reading and export. |
| Contact supplied | Submissions whose contributor provided a follow-up email. |
| Location or photos | Submissions containing at least one of those supporting-evidence types. |
Find the right submission
- Search names, email addresses, source websites, private notes, and transcript text.
- Filter by verification state.
- Switch between Needs review, Kept, Archived, and All submissions.
- Use the compact list to compare contributor, recorder, date, duration, language, workflow state, evidence completeness, transcript availability, and contact availability.
- Select Open submission for the focused detail workspace.
Work inside a submission
Audio and transcript
Play the private recording, deliberately download the original audio, request or retry transcription, copy transcript text, or download a TXT transcript.
Evidence and editorial review
Review consent, contact, source, location, photos, transcript status, device context, verification state, priority, and private notes.
Audio and transcript
The player is for private review. The separate Download audio action is the intentional download path. If a transcript is not ready, the workspace can show a request or retry action. Requesting transcription can start a processing job, so use it only when the recording needs text review.
Supporting photos appear in the detail workspace with private preview and download controls. Contributor contact information is visible only to the organization that owns the recorder.
Workflow actions
- Move to review returns an item to active editorial consideration.
- Keep marks material the team wants to retain.
- Archive removes material from the active queue without deleting the editorial record.
- Verification state records whether the contribution is unreviewed, being checked, corroborated, disputed, or otherwise classified by the team.
- Priority helps the team decide what to review first.
- Private notes retain context, questions, follow-up work, and the reasoning behind a decision.
No workflow status proves that a claim is true, and no submission becomes public automatically.
Evidence and authenticity signals
The displayed fraction, such as 1/6 or 5/6, measures evidence completeness. It is not an authenticity score and must not be treated as one.
| Signal | What it tells the reviewer | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Consent captured | The recorder stored the contributor's consent record and time. | That every statement in the recording is accurate. |
| Follow-up email supplied | The newsroom has a way to contact the contributor. | That the address belongs to the claimed person. |
| Submission source | The approved website or direct recorder link through which the form was opened. | That the source website verified the claim. |
| Location supplied | The place entered by the contributor. | That the device or contributor was physically there. |
| Supporting photos | Images were attached to the submission. | That the images are original, current, or unedited. |
| Transcript available | Text is available for faster review and search. | That automated transcription is error-free. |
| Device context | General browser and operating-system context used to record. | A verified identity. |
| Repeated privacy-safe network signature | More than one submission shares a one-way, privacy-safe network pattern and may need duplication review. | The contributor's IP address or complete browsing history. |
Authenticity signals help an editor decide what to verify next. They do not determine whether a claim is true. Corroborate important claims independently before publication.
Analytics and recorder
Headline analytics
| Metric | Calculation and time period |
|---|---|
| Recorder opens | Public recorder page loads during the last 30 days. Not unique visitors. |
| Submissions | All server-confirmed submissions stored for the organization. All time. |
| Completion rate | Server-confirmed submissions divided by recorder opens during the last 30 days. |
| Recorded minutes | Combined duration of stored submissions. All time. |
Recorder journey
The journey helps identify where contributors stop:
- Opened: the recorder loaded.
- Started recording: the contributor pressed Record and recording began.
- Finished recording: the contributor stopped and reached review.
- Submitted: Budapest.fm stored the completed submission successfully.
Because these are anonymous interaction totals, the stages are useful for conversion patterns rather than individual tracking.
Submission health and evidence coverage
Submission health summarizes new, kept, archived, and transcribed material. Evidence coverage shows how many submissions include consent, contact, location, photos, transcript text, or a repeated privacy-safe signature. Review distribution groups the collection by verification state, detected transcript language, and submission source.
Embed and export
- Copy embed code provides the iframe and automatic-height script for approved websites.
- Approved websites lists the domains allowed to frame the recorder.
- Export CSV downloads a newsroom-oriented spreadsheet containing submission metadata, workflow fields, transcript text when available, evidence counts, and private notes.
Email notifications
When notification email is configured, a successfully stored submission triggers a message with the subject New voice recording for Organization name. The message links the recipient back to the private submission workspace. Email notification is a prompt to review; the submission remains safely stored in the workspace even if an email provider delays or filters the message.
Recommended newsroom routine
Check Needs review
Open the submission workspace and start with high-priority new items.
Listen before deciding
Review the original audio, then use the transcript to locate important passages quickly.
Assess evidence completeness
Check consent, contact, source, location, photos, transcript, and repeated-signature warnings. Treat missing evidence as a follow-up prompt rather than an automatic rejection.
Verify important claims independently
Contact the contributor when appropriate, inspect supporting material, and corroborate the account with independent reporting.
Record the decision
Set verification state and priority, add private notes, then keep, continue reviewing, or archive the submission.
Frequently asked questions
Why did opens increase when no new submission arrived?
An open records a page load, not a completed recording. People can open the page without recording, return later, refresh it, or leave during the process. Your own testing also adds opens.
Why is the photo option missing from the first screen?
Photo attachment appears after the contributor stops recording and reaches the review form. It is available only on recorders configured to accept supporting photos.
Why is there no language selector?
Configured language options control transcription handling. They do not create a public language question in the recorder.
Does a high evidence-completeness number mean the recording is genuine?
No. It means more supporting fields are present. Editors still need to verify the contributor, media, location, timeline, and claims.
Will a submission disappear if the notification email is missed?
No. A successfully stored submission remains in the private workspace. Email is an additional notification channel, not the storage system.