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Sighthound Redactor API Overview

Sighthound Redactor is an application for the redaction of sensitive information in videos and images. It contains state of the art computer vision algorithms for face, vehicle, and speech detection along with object tracking to greatly reduce the amount of operator interaction required to complete redaction tasks. Redactor offers an API that developers can use to add video redaction to their workflows and applications. The API is only available in Redactor Server, not Redactor Desktop.

Quick Start

  • Contact sales@sighthound.com to obtain a Redactor API serial number
  • Install Redactor Server (Windows or Docker)
  • Complete the initial configuration (authentication and licensing)
  • Add the required environment variable REDACTOR_API_ENABLE=1 to the host instance, and review the list of optional variables below to see if any others are desired (restart recommended)

System Requirements

Sighthound Redactor has been optimized to efficiently scale in a multicore environment. For best performance, particularly when working with long videos or those that contain many objects, an 8+ core system and at least 2GB of memory per core are recommended. We may recommend certain upgrades if there are concurrent users or for certain workflow considerations. Please reach out to one of our experts at support@sighthound.com for guidance.

OS: Linux/Docker or Windows
CPU: 16+ cores. Intel i7, i9, or Xeon (12th gen or newer) or comparable AMD
RAM: 32GB+
HD: SSD with sufficient capacity to store your videos
GPU: NVIDIA GPU w/ 16GB+ RAM and Compute Capability >= 5.0
For help with installing NVIDIA drivers, see our NVIDIA Driver Installation Guide.
Note: Redactor does not yet support acceleration on NVIDIA’s new Blackwell GPUs (e.g., 5070). Tasks will run in CPU mode instead. Support is in development and will be available soon.
Browser: Recent version of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari

Virtual Machine Support

Running Sighthound Redactor in a virtual machine (VM) is supported. To ensure compatibility, VMs must be configured to use a single CPU socket. You can assign multiple cores to this single socket to meet performance needs, in line with the general system requirements.

For step-by-step instructions on configuring this in popular virtualization platforms, see our VM CPU Socket Configuration Guide.

Environment Variables

  • REDACTOR_API_ENABLE - Required to enable the Redactor API if set to '1'. Ensure you're licensed for API use. (default: '0')
  • REDACTOR_API_LOCALFS - Allows Redactor API to load/save videos on the local filesystem or network using paths such as file:///example/linux/path/video.mp4 or file:///C:/example/windows/path/, if set to 1. (default: '0')
  • REDACTOR_API_OP_MAX_RUNNING - How many API operations to run in parallel. (default: '4')
  • REDACTOR_API_OP_QUEUE_LIMIT - How many API operations to queue if the system is busy. (default: '1024')
  • REDACTOR_API_OP_QUEUE_SYNC - Queue synchronous API operations (if set to '1'). (default: '0')
  • REDACTOR_API_TOKEN - If specified, all client API calls will require an Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN} header.
  • REDACTOR_LOG_LEVEL - Produces more or less log information (debug|info|warn|error). (default: 'info')

Supported Media Containers and Codecs

Containers: MP4, TS, AVI, MKV, MOV, and MPG

Video: h264, mpeg-4, VP8, VP9, mpeg1video, mpeg2video, msvideo1

Audio: AAC, MP1, MP2, MP3, PCM

Supported Image Formats

apng, bmp, gif, jp2, jpeg, jpg, png