← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-6519 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-6519
Expected annual
$822K
One-time setup
$1.1M
Annual recurring
$700K
Personnel
10
One-time startup (lab, kits, storage, contingency reserves) is roughly $1.08M. Annual baseline operations (staff, storage/IT, travel, basic legal/PR readiness, maintenance and consumables) are estimated at $700k/year, driven mainly by staff wages and legal/PR/IT costs.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.1M
Legal And Pr Contingency Fund $500K
[#11, #12, #19] Seed contingency fund for emergency legal settlements, large-scale PR/advertising buys, and rapid multi-jurisdictional response in the event of major exposure.
Equipment $222K
[#2, #3, #4, #15] Forensic DAW and calibrated monitors, A/D converters and reference recorders (#2); purchase of ~10 portable RF/audio kits (#3); encrypted on-site server hardware (#4); access-control hardware for evidence vaults (#15).
Facilities $120K
[#2, #8, #9] Acoustic treatment and small buildout for a secure forensic audio lab; initial outreach pilot setup and potential small chapel/room shielding pilot costs.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $100K
[#13] Pilot study / initial controlled experiments, ethics approvals, venue/stipends and initial lab consumables for research program setup.
Rights Holder Licensing Contingency $100K
[#6, #11] One-time contingency reserve for rights-holder negotiations, emergency licensing or takedown fees per high-profile track/incident.
It Security Hardening $30K
[#16] Initial network hardening, SIEM deployment, C2 detection appliances and first pentest remediation.
Archival Setup $10K
[#18] Initial catalogue/index creation, metadata setup and cold-storage preparation for long-term archival preservation.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $700K/yr
Staff Wages $360K/yr
[#1, #15] Salaries, benefits and on-call premiums for the Spectrometry & Spectremetry core team (audio analysts, field agents, section lead, admin) and dedicated security guard wages.
Cover Story And Legal $60K/yr
[#11, #12] Routine legal liaison, on-call counsel and PR/misinformation readiness baseline; emergency campaigns are funded from contingency.
It Security $60K/yr
[#16] Ongoing SIEM, audits, pentests and IT security staffing/contractor costs to prevent leaks of recordings and containment plans.
Logistics And Transport $50K/yr
[#7] Vehicle use, air travel, lodging, per diem and equipment shipping for field responses to incidents.
Digital Storage Operational $30K/yr
[#4] Power, bandwidth, tape rotation/maintenance and off-site replication operational costs for encrypted servers and backups.
Outreach Management $30K/yr
[#8] Annual management of funeral-home/cemetery cooperation agreements and training program maintenance.
Broadcast Monitoring $25K/yr
[#5] Subscription to commercial broadcast/stream monitoring and audio fingerprinting services (regional baseline coverage).
Forensic Transcription $25K/yr
[#14] Transcription, translation and testimony processing for recorded incidents.
Facilities Maintenance $12K/yr
[#2, #15, #18] Ongoing maintenance for acoustically treated lab space, evidence vault environment control, and small archival facility upkeep.
Administrative Overhead $12K/yr
[#20] Program management, procurement processing and internal auditing partial-FTE costs.
Supplies And Consumables $10K/yr
[#17] Batteries, SD cards, cables, PPE, calibration services and small replacement items.
Witness Management $10K/yr
[#10] Counseling, temporary lodging and occasional amnestic/medical observation costs aggregated across expected incidents.
Equipment Software Maintenance $8K/yr
[#2] Annual maintenance and license fees for spectral analysis software and DAW plugins.
Portable Kits Maintenance $5K/yr
[#3] Consumables, repairs and battery replacement for field-deployable RF/audio kits.
Evidence Licensing $3K/yr
[#6] Routine purchases and licensing of commercial tracks for forensic comparison and controlled testing.
Research And Monitoring $0/yr
[#13] No sustained large-scale research program budgeted in baseline; pilot covered as one-time. (Recurring research programs would be budgeted separately if escalated.)
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $700K/yr
83.0% probability / year
Normal, uneventful year with routine evidence collection and no major public exposure.
routine testimony collection no media exposure standard field responses
🚨 Minor Incident $850K/yr
15.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline
Localized or regional exposure requiring targeted legal/PR action, travel by an expanded response team and additional licensing/amnestic costs.
regional media pickup small number of public reports rights-holder negotiations
🚨 Major Exposure $5.7M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$5.0M vs baseline
Multi-state or national media exposure requiring large-scale legal settlements, mass PR campaigns, broad amnestic deployment and prolonged remediation.
national media coverage major broadcaster involvement litigation and mass remediation
👥 Personnel 10 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist / Audio Forensic Analyst 2 [#1] Core audio forensic analysts assigned to the Spectrometry & Spectremetry Section.
Field Agent / MTF Agent 2 [#1] Field agents for on-site evidence capture and chain-of-custody operations.
Section Lead / Program Lead 1 [#1] Section lead responsible for operations and coordination.
Administrative Staff 1 [#1] Administrative support for scheduling, procurement and record-keeping.
Security Guard 3 [#15] Dedicated guards (part-time roster totaling multiple individuals) to secure labs, evidence and deployed kits.
Legal Counsel (on-call) 1 [#11] On-call legal liaison for regulatory coordination and rights-holder negotiations.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes are detailed with ranges for every major line item, allowing medium confidence in a bounded estimate; wide ranges for contingency, legal, and exposure-response costs (and the esoteric nature of the phenomenon) prevent a high-confidence rating.
← SCP-6518 ↑ All SCPs SCP-6520 →