What’s New in Redactor V6

Organizations handling sensitive video, image, and audio content face increasing pressure to comply with strict privacy laws like GDPR, FOIA, and CCPA while maintaining efficiency in their workflows.

Trusted by law enforcement, legal teams, enterprises, and government agencies, Sighthound Redactor uses AI-powered automation to detect and redact heads, faces, license plates, vehicles, and other sensitive data—quickly and accurately.

Redactor V6 brings a major leap forward in AI-driven video, image, and audio redaction, designed to make privacy compliance easier, more efficient, and more accurate. Built on Sighthound’s cutting-edge computer vision models, this release introduces faster processing, enhanced detection accuracy, and powerful automation to streamline workflows for enterprises, law enforcement, and organizations handling sensitive data.

Let’s explore what’s new in Redactor V6 and how it can transform your redaction process.

Key Features of Redactor V6

1. Advanced Head Detection

One of the most significant improvements in Redactor V6 is the shift from face detection to full-head detection. While previous versions focused solely on identifying facial features, V6 expands detection to entire heads, including the back of the head, hair, and ears. This ensures more comprehensive anonymization, reducing the risk of identification through non-facial features like tattoos or unique hairstyles.

• More privacy protection
• Fewer false positives
• Higher detection accuracy in crowded environments

Pro Tip: For best results, use footage with at least 720p resolution. Extreme angles or heavily obscured subjects might still need a quick manual touch-up.

2. AI Model Upgraded to Gen7

The heart of Redactor V6 lies in its powerful Gen7 AI models, which improve:

• Processing speed by 2x for faster redaction workflows
• 30% higher accuracy in detecting faces, heads, and objects
• Lower false positives, reducing manual intervention

With these enhancements, large-scale redaction projects become significantly faster with more reliable detection, making Redactor V6 a must-have for organizations processing high volumes of video evidence and surveillance footage.

3. Audio-only Redaction

For the first time, Redactor supports standalone audio redaction, allowing users to mute, bleep, or remove speech and sensitive information in audio files (without needing video) like MP3, WAV, and AAC. Audio-only redaction, enables users to redact sensitive speech in recorded interviews, phone calls, or legal depositions.

• Transcribe speech in real time
• Auto-detect and redact specific keywords or names
• Choose between muting, beeping, or scrambling voices

This feature is particularly useful for law enforcement agencies, legal teams, and compliance departments, ensuring that sensitive conversations remain confidential while retaining context.

Pro Tip: Use the API to automate audio redaction for bulk files—ideal for call centers handling thousands of recordings.

4. Folder Management

We understand that managing large-scale redaction projects can be overwhelming. That’s why Redactor V6 introduces smart organization features:

• Folders & Categorization – Organize redaction projects into folders for better team collaboration.
• Smart Search – Instantly find videos by case number, file name, or metadata.
• Bulk Redaction – Select multiple files, apply AI detection, and process in batches—saving hours of work.

Users can now organize redacted media files into folders, making project management more efficient. Which means it will help users categorize, search, and retrieve files faster.

Pro Tip: Assign descriptive metadata (e.g., project name, date) during upload to make searching even faster.

5. New Keyboard Shortcuts with Improved UI

Redactor V6 introduces new keyboard shortcuts to make manual redaction faster and more intuitive:

1. A/D -> move frame-by-frame
2. S -> apply (static) redaction edits instantly
3. W -> cycle redaction objects
4. Delete -> remove the selected redaction instantly
5. F1 -> quick reference guide for all shortcuts

Why It Matters

• Faster Editing for Large Projects: Reduce clicks and speed up workflow for manual reviewers.
• More Control Over Redaction Objects: New shortcuts for cycling, selecting, and deleting redaction objects.

Pro Tip: Hold Shift+A/D to jump 1-second increments for quick reviews.

6. Improved Performance

Processing 4K videos or large batches of files can strain even the most powerful systems. V6 delivers 25% faster processing for 4K videos and introduces GPU fallback mode (REDACTOR_GPU_IGNORE=1) for older systems.

Why It Matters

• Scalability: Redact hours of footage overnight, even on older systems.
• Reliability: Ensure smooth operation on incompatible hardware.

Pro Tip: For optimal performance, use NVIDIA RTX 3090 GPU or higher.

7. Enhanced API Automations

For organizations seeking full automation, Redactor V6 introduces powerful API-driven workflows. Now, video files can be automatically redacted before human review, reducing manual workload and expediting compliance processes.

• Auto-ingest videos for redaction, meaning videos can be auto-processed the moment they enter the system.
• Process redactions in bulk with minimal user input
• Integrate seamlessly into existing enterprise systems
• Non-authorized personnel see only the redacted version.

With real-time processing, organizations can automate redaction at scale, making compliance with privacy laws more efficient than ever.

8. Other Improvements You'll Love in V6

• More Reliable Video Imports: Improved logging tools help diagnose failed imports faster.
• Better API Support for Developers: New integrations make automation easier.
• Stronger Compliance Measures: Improved SSL/TLS handling for cloud security.

‍Why Upgrade to Redactor V6?

‍If you’re using Redactor V5 or an older version, upgrading to V6 is a no-brainer. Here’s how V6 compares to V5:

• More accurate and faster redactions
• Improved privacy protection with head detection
• New audio-only redaction feature
• Full automation with API integrations
• Better workflow organization and faster manual editing

Try the new Redactor for Free

‍With these powerful new features, Redactor V6 is one of the most advanced AI-powered redaction software available, offering:

• Faster Processing → AI-driven detection makes batch redaction workflows seamless.

• More Accurate Redaction → Improved privacy protection with head detection

• Expanded Capabilities → Now supports audio-only redaction and folder-based organization.

• Enterprise-Ready API → Full automation with API integrations. Improved debugging & cloud integration support.

Try now for free, or book a demo to learn how Redactor can empower your organization.

‍Next read: See how easy it is to redact with Sighthound Redactor by checking out the best practices for video redaction to support privacy and data compliance requirements.

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