Let’s recap. ISDN is dying.
IP-based technologies are scrabbling to fill the void ISDN will leave behind.
Top contenders in this space are:
- ipDTL
- Source-Connect NOW
- SoundStreak
- Skype
Another possibility that hasn’t done much with their patented technology is ConnectionOpen.
That’s about it.
Just yesterday ipDTL upped the ante by offering enhanced features, and a form of “free” subscription. See Lance Blair’s excellent blog on this, as well as ipDTL’s own release. Rebekah Wilson of Source-Connect NOW is hinting at a free version of their software, but so far, no official announcement.
But hold your horses folks! Also in yesterday’s email was information from a source that’s been relatively silent for a long time: Audio TX…also a UK company (like ipDTL).
AudioTX has long been a player in the ISDN space. Their product relies on the paired copper wires of the traditional ISDN connection, but there’s no “box”…no codec, except in software form. The advantage to AudioTX was, and has always been, the reduced price compared to a Musicam or Telos codec purchase.
I jumped on AudioTX when I first had ISDN installed. It was different. All the heavy lifting in the audio transaction is handled by the computer and a terminal adaptor, instead of the codec box. I found it quirky, and not terribly reliable, but that might’ve been my unfamiliarity with ISDN, AND their software. It seemed to me, too much depended on the speed and capability of the computer. I kept getting questions from producers like: “…what kind of codec do you have again…?”
Eventually I went to a Telos box. But even back then 3-4 years ago, part of the AudioTX software package was an IP connection. The AudioTX people didn’t talk much about it, but the functionality was there.
Well…now they’re talking about it. Even touting it! Apparently they’ve noticed the marketplace shake-up lately.
They call it STL-IP. From the website: Transmit and receive up to 24bit, 96kHz broadcast quality audio: single- or bi-directional, stereo or mono, Linear (uncompressed) or using a variety of built-in professional quality compression algorithms including MPEG Layer 2, Layer 3, near-lossless J.41 and DAT12, ADPCM, G.722 and MPEG4 AAC, AAC Low-Delay and HE-AAC v2 with the optional AAC Coding Pack for Stereo audio from just 14kbps! and APTx, OPUS and Lossless FLAC.
Unless it’s a whole new regime of management over at AudioTX, I can tell you that this team has excellent engineering and customer service relations (sometimes one-and-the same person). I have not communicated with them lately, but I appreciate their competitiveness in entering the market with a (hopefully) robust offering.
I DID get this email from Mo Dutta, their head of Sales:
A quick note to tell you about the new Live Record Option we’ve just launched for AudioTX Communicator.
- During a live session, this allows you to also record the audio direct to a file.
- You can record in full linear, uncompressed audio quality (a .WAV file)
- Or as an MP3 at any bitrate – all the way up to 320kbps.
- You can choose to record the audio being sent, the audio being received or both.
- And if both, choose whether to record sent and record audio in separate files or mixed into one.
If you’re a voice-over artist using Communicator for an ISDN session or a phone patch, now you can record a perfect digital quality, uncompressed copy of the audio direct to a file at the same time and then edit, upload or email it for your clients either as the primary audio delivery or as a value added service. Or you can record as an MP3 file at any bitrate right up to 320kbps if you prefer.
As a producer/production studio you make your workflow simpler, better, cleaner by recording the session audio direct to a file as you go and without needing any additional equipment.
For interviews and interviewees, the Live Record Option offers a simple, clever way to record the interview easily and at the highest quality.
Reporters can record their live reports and interviews to their local PC for later use, editing, archive or to upload a full quality uncompressed version later.
You can purchase the new option and upgrade immediately online at:
http://www.audiotx.com/record_option_existing.html
And, whilst you are thinking about upgrades, remember that we also offer the APTx Codec pack option adding both Standard and Enhanced APTx coding to AudioTX Communicator!
Is anybody using AudioTX still? Can you add anything to this conversation?
CourVO
