Q: Can I use Olympus Dictaphones with Philips SpeechLive? A: YES !

In the digital dictation world there are really only two camps, you are either Olympus or Philips. We often find brand loyalty, both have been in the digital voice space for years, but people like to stick with what they know.

But, Philips Dictation have been innovating and have focussed their business model on using the Australian cloud for secure dictation transport and processing via a solution called Philips SpeechLive. This has been peaking the interest of both camps but a comment we hear often is “we have invested heavily in Olympus and can’t throw that investment away“. You don’t have to, here is why:

The .ds2 DSS Pro Audio Format

This is the standard for digital confidential dictation and is commonly used for medical and legal dictation amongst others. The .ds2 (DSS Pro) audio format is proprietary, it was created by Grundig, Philips and Olympus. Meaning, they all can encrypt, decrypt and playback that audio format.

So if you are holding an Olympus DS-5000, DS-7000, DS-9000 or DS-9500 (even a DS-4000, we still see these in operation) they all create .dss or .ds2 audio so can be used with Philips SpeechLive.

Don’t I have to buy and install Philips software?

No, you just need a Philps SpeechLive subscription (contact us for a free, fully configured, 30 day trial for up to 10 users). You can continue to use the Olympus ODMS Dictation Module software if you like, in fact using the free Philips SpeechLive Upload Client you don’t even need ODMS anymore. So if you have an older unsupported version of ODMS, rather than upgrade you can switch to Philips SpeechLive.

As a SpeechLive Author (the person who dictates) you can download the free Philips SpeechLive Upload Client from the Philips Speech Live portal:

 

Once installed locally on your PC you can then connect the Philips SpeechLive Uploader to your logged-in Philips Speech Live account. You then configure the tool so that when you USB connect your dictaphone, your dictation audio will automatically be collected and uploaded to Philips SpeechLive ready for your typist or for you to push to Voice Recognition, Philips cloud-based automated speech recognition service.

Philips SpeechLive Upload Client – Basic Settings

Select to auto-upload dictation when you USB connect your digital dictaphone. We also recommend that you select to automatically remove dictations which have been uploaded.

Philips SpeechLive Upload Client – Advanced Settings

 

The advanced settings define where to collect the audio from. In our example we have selected the F: drive and a folder called DSS_FLDD. This happens to be folder D on an Olympus DS-9500 dictaphone, we have chosen to upload the audio directly from the USB connected dictaphone.

If you have ODMS Dictation Module installed you can continue to auto-download audio to the Dictation Trays when you connect the dictaphone. You would just need to select the folder on the local computer (or shared network drive) where you store that audio. By default, on your local drive, the audio is downloaded to folders under:

 

The Default Author tab in the Philips SpeechLive Upload client is for typists so that they can define audio and where it goes, not required for an Author.

Connection code is the link between the locally installed Philips SpeechLive Upload Client and your Philips SpeechLive Account. To get your code, login to Philips SpeechLive tap the Gear icon and select “Automatic Upload”, as shown in our short video at the top of this post. You can then find your Authorisation Code to enter into the Philips SpeechLive Upload Client:

Now you are set. Next time you dictate on your Olympus digital dictaphone and then USB connect your digital voice recorder the Philips SpeechLive Upload Client will kick in, collect your audio and send it to Philips SpeechLive ready to be processed by your typist.