Voice logging, also called telephone recording, is an appropriate procedure of systematical audio recording, generally conducted in business communication. As a rule, business radio channels and telephone lines are subject to recording. For business entities it is a method to reduce failures, make client service better, improve safety and keep records. Voice logging means the same as phone recording or telephone recording. However, this term includes recording VoIP conversation and the radio. In a call processing center the terms call logging and agent monitoring are usually used. The term “logging” originates from the log of audio files and calls that is formed when each record is conducted.
The initial voice logging system was created as a big analog tape recorder. It traces its roots to 1950 when Magnasync Corporation designed this recorder. 300 voice loggers were sold by Magnasync to the U.S. Air Force in 1953. The first digital voice logging systems were designed and decreased to a large PC size in the 1980s. Dictaphone, Eventide, and Eyretel developed and produced the initial computerized systems. Mercom Systems released Audiolog which was the first Windows-based voice logging system in 1996. This company was merged by Verint in July 2006.
Nowadays, there are three types of voice loggers. The analog tape system refers to the first type. There is a number of business entities that currently use quite old model which is a reel to reel tape in order to record numerous phone lines. They also put micro-cassette or individual cassette tape recorders into each individual phone. Generally, analog tape is more costly to keep it in working order and not very handy to search in comparison with digital systems.
Digital systems enjoy the greatest popularity nowadays. These systems comprise a proprietary box of hardware that has to be put into the phone system or appropriate hardware that connects up to a PC in a PCI slot or by means of a USB cable. There is a range of systems that enable the users to remotely monitor phone recordings by means of desktop screen shot and quality reporting system.
Software only systems may run on all types of software on industry-standard servers. They also may use hardware, for example, a sound card on a PC, in order to monitor and record phone calls. Some of these systems refer to easy single-user systems. They usually need a user in order to just install the software on the PC. Single-user systems use simple adapter in order to hook up the PC to a telephone. But this software is generally not able to record more than a single line at once. Also, it doesn’t have much features. Business-class monitoring and recording systems allow all business entities, from small to large, to deploy centralized call monitoring and recording which they need for IP telephony systems.
Currently, systems have different complicated specifications. It depends on the area of use. There are systems that enable the owners to listen to live conversations and make records from any remote location in a local network or the Internet accessible. Systems are easy to use and give an access to voice messages, however they also have a variety of signal detection functions, including different radio codes (Ex: CCIR Tone5), dialled keys (DTMF), Fax demodulation and Caller ID.
