iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

With the release of the new Olympus DS-7000 and DS-3500 digital dictaphones in Australia and around the world recently one of the most common questions we get from people and businesses upgrading is “will the new digital voice recorders work with older transcription kits”? mainly the Olympus AS-5000 kit but also the older AS-4000 digital transcription kit.

As always the answer is yes and no. There are some minor points to consider depending on which transcription kits you plan to use with your Olympus DS-7000 if you don’t have the latest Olympus transcription kit the AS-7000.

Using the Olympus DS-7000 with Olympus AS-5000 DSS Player Pro R5 Transcription Module

The AS-5000 transcription kit running DSS Player Pro R5 is fully compatible with all the audio files that the DS-7000 and DS-3500 produce, which are .ds2 (DSS Pro) by default, .dss (DSS) and .wma except if you encrypt your .ds2 audio files with 256bit encryption. The AS-5000 kit is unable to decrypt 256bit and can only decrypt 128bit encrypted .ds2 audio files.

If you currently do not encrypt your audio files then the DS-7000 will be fully compatible with the AS-5000 transcription kit. If you do encrypt, your options are to simply encrypt in 128bit mode or purchase the upgrade to the AS-5000 DSS Player Pro R5 software using the AS-7004 which will convert your DSS Player Pro R5 transcription module to ODMS (Olympus Dictation Management System) R6 Transcription module. The AS-7004 upgrade is AU$59 incl. GST in Australia, you will require one per install.

Using the Olympus DS-7000 with Olympus AS-4000 DSS Player Pro R4 Transcription Module

Using the Olympus DS-7000 or DS-3500 with the much older AS-4000 digital transcription kit running DSS Player Pro R4 software you will have very similar issues to those who purchased the Olympus DS-5000 digital dictaphones over the last couple of years. The AS-4000 kit is unable to play back .ds2 (DSS Pro) audio files so with the DS-7000/DS-3500 like the DS-5000/DS-3400 you will need to set your digital dictaphone to either run in classic mode (which sets the dictaphone to record by default in .dss instead of .ds2) or convert your audio from .ds2 to .dss prior to sending to your typist using your ODMS R6 dictation module software supplied with the DS-7000 and DS-3500.

In a first of its kind Olympus Imaging in Australia held a product launch at swanky Woolwich eatery Deckhouse today in Sydney. Spoiled only by the torrential rain, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge seen in the murky distance stood several Olympus branded pedestals covered in magician black velvet hiding what was about to be announced.

Olympus Audio Pro dealers from around the country had gathered to listen to Olympus Imaging Managing Director Marc Radatt present his spiel starting with the history of Olympus, building thru to the imaging range and culminating with the announcement we audio people had gathered for … the new Olympus DS-7000 digital dictaphone.

More

This post is only applicable in Australia. Here is a freebie from Olympus, take it while you can as these things are rare. From 1st march 2012 until 31st May 2012 if you buy an Olympus DS-5000/AS-5000 bundle then you are eligible for a free gift. The bundle is available from us for $999 incl. GST delivered.

Why bundle? Well many people looking to upgrade from analogue tape to digital will generally purchase both a transcription kit and a voice recorder in one go. If you have been thinking of moving to digital dictation now would be a great time especially as you can pick up a free digital camera or free WS series voice recorder as a part of your bundle. More

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Another example of digital voice being put to a great use is at a website I recently stumbled upon called LibriVox.org – I was on the hunt for audio books for my children when Google pointed me to this resource. Simple concept, they tend to be the best ones, which is take public domain books and have volunteers from around the world record themselves reading them. In turn producing a huge catalog of free audiobooks for the world to enjoy. This is a fantastic initiative, not just because my children get to listen to some classics but for the great many people who for some reason or another can’t or don’t want to read.

LibriVox was started back in 2005 by a man called Hugh McGuire and since then has amassed a few select sidekicks to help with web design, audio book cataloging and the day to day running of LibriVox. Add to that the legion of  volunteers worldwide the LibriVox catalog has grown and grown very fast. More

Slowly but surely the Mac version of DSS Player is coming up to speed against its more mature Windows counterpart – called DSS Player v7 Plus on Mac and DSS Player Pro v5 Dictation Module on Windows. However the Mac DSS software is still lacking a couple of keys features that Windows users enjoy, one key feature is auto email of dictation audio files. Most Mac users will simply puff out their chests as they huff that they are quite capable of sending an email without software doing it for them, still it is a handy feature, especially if you have multiple audio files, and a feature that people often ask about and look for.

I was prompted to write this blog post as a couple of hits recently had people looking at how you actually send an audio file from DSS Player v7 Plus, this is when I noticed that it is not entirely obvious in the software – there is no email button or file option. In true Mac fashion emailing a file or files is intuitive – you simply drag and drop from DSS Player Pro into your mail client or into your browser if you use Gmail via the web interface, that’s it. If you are one of those people who like to select the file from disk the quickest way to locate your dictation file and folder is to double tap (or right click if you have set this) on the audio file name in the right window pain in DSS Player Plus, select Property then expand out the File Path to open a Finder window showing your file location. All of these are covered below in detail: More

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

With all the hoo-haa surrounding the Julia Gillard vs Kevin Rudd showdown in Parliament recently I have found myself glued to the TV and twitterstream (in particular the fantastic work by @latikambourke) for news and updates on the goings on in Canberra. One thing I find myself doing when a press conference is on or a politician is hijacked as they leave Canberra Airport is watching the press pack thrust various microphones and digital voice recorders in the face of said pollies.

More

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I had the pleasure of taking a phone call the other day from someone who works for an organisation thats uses digital voice recorders in their day to day business life. Nothing remarkable about that, there are a huge number of businesses that do the same this one however caught my attention. It was a call from Eastern Palliative Care who are located in Victoria, Australia and their service is one that I thought needed some recognition and support.

I don’t know much about nursing or the health system, I am rarely at my doctors and the closest I come to anything medical is on a Saturday night when Greys Anatomy is on the TV. Recently though I was briefly exposed to Palliative care and the remarkable people who work in this area of nursing as a very close relative passed away from cancer. Palliative care is given to terminally ill patients to help relieve and prevent their suffering in their last days or weeks. Not a subject most like to discuss but all of us are affected at some point in time.

One of the many services provided by Eastern Palliative Care is called a client biography. This service allows the patient to tell their life story in their own words all of which are recorded on a digital voice recorder. A trained volunteer biographer records the interviews which is later transcribed and given to the family of the patient. The patient often gets great satisfaction from talking about their life, their adventures, maybe some family secrets and often tributes to relatives and friends.

For me and my family we did not have enough time to record our close relative’s thoughts and stories as they passed away too quickly, we did have a voice recorder on hand however we never got the chance to use it. Recording a voice we could have treasured for years to come.

We help to support Eastern Palliative care with free recording and transcription advice as well as at cost Olympus digital voice recorders. Great work Eastern and others like you.

The voice recorders we have suggested and have provided to Eastern Palliative are the Olympus WS series digital voice recorders. We have already shipped some WS-750M recorders and hope to supply some of the newer WS-812 recorders when they are released in Australia March/April 2012.

In my last blog post I talked about some new innovative technology that Olympus have built into to their new range of WS series digital voice recorders which was announced in early January 2012 and on display on the Olympus stand at CES 2012 in San Francisco.

In this post we will look a little closer at the new three digital voice recorders (WS-811, WS-812 and WS-813), see how they are different from the models they will replace (WS-650S/WS-750M/WS-760M) and speculate on when we might see these in Australia. Gone finally is the trailing letter on the model of the recorders that we have seen for so many years where S used to denote Stereo and M was for music, now simply the series, WS, and the model number.

New Olympus WS Series Digital Voice Recorders

• Olympus WS-811 – 2Gb
• Olympus WS-812 – 4Gb
• Olympus WS-813 - 8Gb

More