Annotations · Last updated 2026-08-07

Notes, audio, and custom overlays

The overlays on this page are your own marks on a case. You add them to a recording. Stingray does not decode them out of the data. They are notes on the timeline, audio in sync with the playhead, extra fields on a vessel's dialog, and custom hull silhouettes. Decode rules need VDR data, but these overlays do not. They work on any recording, and each one saves with the project.

1. Timeline notes

A note is a piece of text on a vessel at a moment in time, with a duration. When the playhead is inside that window, the note shows in the vessel's floating dialog. A note with the text “hard-a-starboard ordered” thus appears at the exact time of the order. To add a note at the playhead, open the vessel's Notes & Audiotab. You can also use the “Add note” item on the vessel's card. Then drag the edges of the note to set the window.

For bulk work, Stingray gives you a CSV round-trip. An example of bulk work is a transcript of a whole VHF exchange. Download a template, or your current notes, from the Notes tab. Fill in the CSV in a spreadsheet. Then import it again:

vessel	start	duration_s	text
EVER GIVEN	2021-03-23 07:42:00	30	Hard-a-starboard ordered
353136000	2021-03-23 07:40:15	—	Grounding contact

A dash shows a field that is blank. A note with no duration_s takes the 5 s default.

vessel is the name of the vessel or its MMSI. Both values round-trip correctly. The MMSI is unambiguous.
start is the start time of the note, in UTC as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.
duration_s is the time that the note stays on screen, in seconds. A blank value gives the 5 s default. Stingray keeps the duration between 1 s and 24 h.
text is the note itself. A row with blank text is a template stub. Stingray skips these rows, so an untouched template imports as nothing.

Import replaces all notes

An import replaces the notes of every vessel at once. The CSV is the full annotation set, not an addition to it. A confirmation shows the counts first. It also flags notes that fall outside the span of the recording. Thus a partial CSV cannot remove the other notes without your approval.

2. Synced audio

Attach an audio file, for example a bridge VDR audio channel or a VHF recording. The clip plays in sync when you scrub and when you play the timeline. You hear the bridge while you watch the tracks. Attach clips per vessel from the same Notes & Audio tab. Drag a clip to align its start with the timeline. Audio needs a saved project, because Stingray stores the audio bytes with the project.

MP3, M4A/AAC, and WAV play in every browser. OGG and WebM play in Chrome and Firefox, but not in Safari. Stingray always keeps the original bytes, so the file is never lost. Only the playback depends on the browser.

The audible window: 0.5× to 2×

Audio plays only between 0.5× and 2× timeline speed. Outside that range, for example at a 10× fly-through or a frame-by-frame crawl, Stingray mutes the clip. It does not shift the pitch into noise. Audio at a different speed is not evidence of anything, so Stingray stays silent. The clip still shows on the lane, but you do not hear it.

3. Custom info-dialog rows

In addition to the standard AIS fields, you can add your own rows to a vessel's floating dialog. Add them from the Style tab of the vessel. A row is either a fixed fact or a value that changes with time:

A static fact is a constant label and value, for example Owner / Maersk Line, or Case ref / C-2021-014. Stingray shows it when the dialog is open.
A timed series is a value that changes across the recording. Stingray reads it at the playhead. Examples are a rudder-angle trace, a watertight-door state, and an engine order. A continuous series is numeric, and Stingray interpolates between the samples. A discrete series step-holds the last value until the next sample.

You import these rows as a per-vessel CSV:

label	time	value	mode
Owner	—	Maersk Line	—
Rudder	2021-03-23 07:40:00	-12.5	`continuous`
Rudder	2021-03-23 07:40:30	-20	`continuous`
Door 3 (WT)	2021-03-23 07:41:00	Closed	`discrete`

A dash shows a field that is empty. A static fact has no time and no mode.

label is the name of the row. Rows that share a label merge into one series.
time is blank for a static fact. A series sample has a UTC time.
value is the text or the number that Stingray shows.
mode is necessary on a timed row. Its value is continuous or discrete. A static row has a blank mode.

The download contains a worked example: one static fact, one discrete series, and one continuous series. The example shows you the correct shape. Its values are blank, so an untouched template imports as nothing.

4. Custom vessel shapes

By default, Stingray draws the hull of a vessel from a small set of built-in silhouettes. It selects the silhouette by ship type. You can also use your own outline, for example a specific hull outline, or a shape that makes the vessel of interest easy to see. Import it into the Shape Gallery on the Style tab as a Rhino .3dm outline. Then assign the shape to a single vessel, or to a whole type category. Custom shapes save with the project, like everything else on this page.