iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

Olympus Imaging who this year took over the distribution of Olympus voice products in Australia have recently allocated Gold and Platinum status to a select few Olympus resellers Australia wide. This restricts the number of resellers able to sell the Pro range of digital dictation and transcription products and software; the DS-5000, DS-3400 recorders and the AS-5000 transcription kit and AS-5002 transcription module software. We at Dictate Australia are proud to have become a Gold Olympus partner.

What does this mean this to the resellers. Well not much has changed for most of us, we are required to keep a healthy stock of all Pro line recorders and we are all required to be trained in the Pro recorders and software, all of which we already are. We also have more direct access to our own personal Olympus representative who can assist us and you in making sure you get the right solution for your business. Your business could be a one person shop with outsourced transcription or a large hospital or legal practice with offices around the country, both Dictate Australia and Olympus will be there to help you plan for your needs.

As we are based on the NSW Central Coast, our office is in Erina, we are able to offer demo’s of the Olympus products in our office, just call to arrange a time. If you are in Sydney we can arrange to come to you for a demo and a chat, of course this is all obligation free and there is no hard sell (I am personally not a fan of hard sell as I will buy anything if subjected to it – I currently own several time shares in Spain and frequently change my phone/internet/gas/electric provider when they come knocking at my door ), this is just an opportunity for you to have a hands on look and feel and a chat about how the recorders and transcription kits work.

As we are a national reseller for Olympus those of you outside Sydney don’t lose out either. We are available as always by phone for advice and information at any time, if you have a question about any aspect of dictation or transcription just give us a call. We can also support you remotely using our direct connect support software can connect to your PC or Mac and help you with any issues. We run both Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac in the office.

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Olympus Voice Australia have just issued another new wholesale price list to its Australian resellers confirming three more discontinued voice recorders, a huge price cut for one popular recorder and the official launch of the new WS series recorders earlier than expected.

Discontinued: In the digital note taker range the very pricey but sheek WS-331M finally gets the chop along with the very popular WS-210S, which of course had to happen just as I wrote a huge review on the recorder! Also removed from the product range is the J300 analogue micro cassette dictaphone.

Price Cuts: The J500 analogue micro cassette dictaphone has been dropped to the same price as the axed J300 and is RRP $149.00 incl. GST now. But of note is a huge price cut for the WS-110 digital note taker dropping from RRP $355.00 incl. GST to only RRP $195.00 incl. GST

Launched: As reported in my last blog post “Olympus Australia Revamp Entire WS Series Range Of Digital Voice Recorders” the new replacement WS series digital note takers are now officially launched in Australia and their pricing has been confirmed.

• WS-450S (replaces the WS-210S) – RRP $295.00 incl. GST
• WS-550M (replaces the WS-311M) – RRP $395.00 incl. GST
• WS-560M (replaces the WS-321M & WS-331M) – RRP $495.00 incl. GST

The release of these new recorders came a week earlier than expected.

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This week we took delivery of the new Philips 880 Digital Voice Tracer. Philips have really made an effort with this new range of digital voice tracers which also include the 860 and 880 models, we finally see Mac compatibility which is a smart move by Philips. Gone is the need to install software in order to retrieve audio from the recorder as was the case in the old voice tracer range, these new models are all simple plug and play. Olympus have for sometime been the only descent Mac compatible digital voice recorders around and with the boom in Mac sales it makes good business sense at Philips to recognise this fast growing, tech savvy user base.

Philips DVT Digital Voice Tracers are Windows, Mac & Linux Compatible

In the box I am impressed by the number of goodies. Along with the recorder and the mandatory instruction manual in 752 languages comes a neck strap (handy), batteries so you are ready to go (essential), USB connecting cable (long so no messing around the back of your PC or notebook), stereo headset (nice touch) and a very nice stereo lapel mic, usually an optional extra for most voice recorder manufacturers.

Philips Digital Voice Tracer - DVT - 880 - LFH0880

The recorder itself is lightweight with the batteries in and about the size of a Nokia chocolate bar mobile phone. There is a sticker right over the built in speaker on the front of the unit which is stuck with that special glue, you know the kind that leaves half the sticker attached as you peel it off. Tad annoying.

Powering up the recorder the display is backlight blue so looks good but the display is big and clear. Flicking through the menus isn’t as intuitive as it could be and some initial manual referencing is required to work out things like changing the recording mode and mic sensitivity.

USB plug and play is a breeze on Winows, Mac and also Linux, the device is simply a USB drive so audio is easily accessed via the voice folders where they are stored.

This is recorder has a PCM mode for better than CD quality recording. In our office testing we did find the audio pickup at close range to be excellent like all recorders however it did seem to struggle a little with voices at the end of a large boardroom table. We did the same distance test with an Olympus WS-210S and the picked up clearer audio from a distance that the 880.

Some will like the ability to play music (mp3 and wma) on the recorder and to listen to the radio. I still find this a bit of a gimic in a voice recorder so we didn’t test these functions although I am sure it playes back music as well as any other USB music player. The ability to record FM radio will also appeal to some.

Summing up, the 880 is a good, cheap voice recorder for close range meetings (max 4 or 5 people) and for single speakers. It is very easy to get the audio off of the recorder no matter what platform you use.

Pros:

• Well priced entry level PCM recorder.
• Easy to use.
• Fast easy transfer of files on all platforms – Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Can be USB powered conserving battery life.
• Firmware is user upgradeable giving the end user access to bug fixes and improvements as they are released from Philips.

Cons:

• Poor audio pickup around larger number of speakers, i.e. large boardroom table.
• Navigating the menus could be simpler.

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A casual chat with Olympus Australia today revealed that their middle dictaphone in their current product range, the DS-3300 has been put to rest and is no more, it has ceased to be.

For the eager Olympus price watchers out there, which is probably just me, you would have noticed that in their price changes on 1st February 2009 Olympus set the RRP of the DS-3300 to the same as the DS-2300, this was to run out their remaining stock.

This now leaves only two digital dictaphones in the current Olympus voice range, the low end DS-2300 and the top end, new design with new software DS-5000 & DS-5000iD models.

My suspicion is that the DS-2300’s days are also now numbered. We have already seen the DS-2400 on the Olympus America website for some time now, as soon as that arrives in Australia we will see the end of the DS-2300 and it’s accompanying AS-2300 digital transcription kit. When in 2009 will that be? No specific date as yet but our guess would be within the next three months so Q2 2009.

Also discontinued was the VN-3100PC, no tears shed over that decision. It was not one of my favourite voice recorders. We are still waiting patiently for the new VN-3500PC and VN-5500PC note takers to appear.

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