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Types of Call Recorder
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Which type of Telephone Conversation Recorder should you choose?
Once you have decided that you need to record your telephone conversations, you need to decide which type of media you wish to record your calls onto. This naturally depends upon your requirements.
Recording Media
For short conversations or where the recording device is only needed infrequently,
a simple cassette, MP3 or dictaphone based recorder can be used. Some media-
Some recording devices store telephone conversations to the PC by using the microphone
input of the sound card. This package usually consists of some hardware and software
for the PC. This solution provides far greater storage capability, easy to find recordings
and the ability to e-
Manual vs Automatic
With each of the types of conversation recorders described above you must also decide between devices that record automatically and those that record manually. The manual recording devices are suitable for intermittent recordings and can be started and stopped by the user. The automatic devices start either when the handset is lifted or when there is speech activity on the telephone line. Note that some recording devices offer both manual and automatic recording features.
Automatic Level Control (ALC)
Professional quality conversation recorders will have ALC built in which ensures that both the callers and the operators voice are of similar volume and quality when playing back the recordings. Lower cost devices tend to use the ALC of the PC sound card or the tape recorder to equalise the levels, which is not as effective in ensuring recording quality.
Multiple lines
When recording telephone conversations in a business, this can be done either at the telephone end using the handset, or at the telephone line end. Often the solution demands the ability to record multiple telephone lines. If this is only for 2 or 4 lines, then simple telephone based devices are available that will provide this feature and cost between £1000 and £2000.
If a large number of lines need to be recorded, then sophisticated PC based systems are available to provide this. Depending on the number of lines, costs of these systems can go from £5000 upwards.
An alternative to the expense of such a system is the use of multiple ‘single line’ units. Aside from the obvious advantage of costing less, an added benefit is the ability to increase the size of the system one line at a time as the company grows, without needing to replace entire systems.
To find out more about recorders with these different features, please click on the button below:
