Practical answers before you monitor a hearing.

What does Discovery Beta cover?

Discovery Beta checks supported U.S. House and Senate committee schedules and applies the rules you configure. It can suggest a hearing for confirmation or schedule it automatically within your limits. Official calendars and public media can change or appear late, so keep manual coverage as a fallback for critical proceedings while the beta is validated.

How do speaker names work?

After speaker separation, Legislative Signal compares hearing-specific roster names with transcript evidence. It uses the best defensible match as the speaker name and keeps genuinely ambiguous identities generic. Analysts can correct a name from the hearing record when needed.

What sources work unattended?

Paste the official public government event or player page. Legislative Signal looks for its public HLS, DASH, audio, or video stream and supports common government meeting systems and public embedded players. Sources requiring a login, registration, DRM, or access-control bypass are not supported.

Does my computer need to stay on?

No. A scheduled unattended hearing runs on Legislative Signal cloud systems. Your browser can be closed and nobody needs to remain logged in. Only captured media time uses your monitoring allowance; waiting for a late broadcast does not.

What about YouTube and recordings?

YouTube currently uses Monitor now in desktop Chrome or Edge. You explicitly choose the source tab and enable Share tab audio. The attended workflow also remains useful for recordings and unusual public players.

Can I schedule from mobile?

Yes, a scheduled unattended hearing does not depend on your device. Attended browser-tab capture still requires desktop Chrome or Edge. Saved records and reports can be reviewed on modern browsers and mobile devices.

Does it identify speakers automatically?

Yes. Scheduled hearings receive an additional speaker-processing pass after monitoring. Saved records use the best defensible name automatically, keep ambiguous passages generic, and provide a Change name control for corrections.

What happens without a watchlist?

You can still create a transcript and brief. The product warns you first because no client or issue mentions will be flagged.

Are summaries grounded?

Brief statements cite readable timestamps linked to the official source. Watchlist mentions use deterministic matching rather than an AI judgment.

How do early partner trials work?

Join the waitlist with your coverage workflow. We review requests individually and, when there is a fit, approve a trial duration, analyst-seat allowance, and monitoring-hour allocation. No card is required. The clock begins only when the first hearing actually starts monitoring, not when the account is created or a future hearing is scheduled.

What consumes monitored hours?

Only captured audio time. Waiting for an early or late public broadcast does not count. Briefs, archive search, and exports do not consume separate credits.

How long are trial records searchable?

Early partner trials currently include a 30-day archive window unless a different retention period is agreed for the evaluation.