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Dictation
Manufacturers of portable recording
devices can be sniffy about dictation
apps for smartphones. Ivor Rotering,
a consultant at Grundig Business
Systems, is typical.When asked about
the drawbacks of apps he reels off a
long list of reasons why you might
want to use a dedicated recording
device instead.
These include more sophisticated
workflow features; 128 or 256 bit AES
encryption to protect recordings (now
offered as an option with the DSSPro
audio codec used by Grundig, Olympus
and Philips); high quality audio for better
performance with speech processing
software like Dragon Naturally Speaking;
and the ability to edit recordings by
deleting excerpts or inserting new content.
“Most smartphone apps are purely
capable of recording audio with
backwards, forwards and play controls:
they are quite crude still,” he said. “Lack
of workflow integration is a big issue and
in some environments it’s not possible
to add external devices to your systems
if the firm is vulnerable to viruses and
hacking.”
He adds that for the majority of
users who still use tape-based recorders
Dictation apps for the Blackberry or iPhone may not have the professional
features of a digital dictation device but they are an increasingly popular
option for mobile workers nonetheless.
Smart dictation
migration to a digital recorder with
familiar controls is the obvious next step.
“The markets where recording devices are
mainly used are traditional. For such users
it’s a big step from analogue to digital, let
alone from analogue to a smartphone,”
he said.
Making the leap
Yet there are plenty of examples of
businesses that have made that leap,
often at the same time as moving to a
hosted service.Winkworth Exeter, for
instance, recently started using BigHand
Small Business Edition hosted digital
dictation software in conjunction with
BigHand for iPhone, as director Simon
Scott-Nelson explains.
“BigHand Small Business
Edition ensures that we get new
properties to market as quickly
as possible.Whilst visiting a new
property authors can dictate
details via their iPhone and
instantly submit the recording to
support staff. The details are typed
up by the time they get back to
the office ready for approval.”
Previously agents either made
written records or dictated onto
tape, which created backlogs
and delays as nothing could be
done with them until they were
delivered to the office.
“Our office-based support
staff now receive a steady and
visible flow of dictations to type
up, rather than being handed a
full tape at the end of the day.
We can title dictations, so it is instantly
clear which property a dictation relates
to. BigHand has reduced the time it takes
to get a property on the market and the
amount of paper records we
have to keep in the office. It
has realised huge efficiency
gains for us,” Scott-Nelson
said.
Another advantage of using
smartphones is that it reduces
deployment costs by making
use of equipment mobile
workers already use.
Hybrid solution
Last summer, Grundig Business Systems
partially addressed this issue with the
launch of the first portable dictation
device with a built-in Bluetooth module.
The Digta 7 Premium BT allows users to
send dictation wirelessly by Bluetooth
to a Blackberry (or Bluetooth-enabled
PC) for automatic, secure transfer
via Grundig’s Dictation Blue app. This
combination allows users to submit
recordings as soon as they are made
but it still requires a second device to
transmit the file.
At the launch of the Digta 7
Premium BT, GBS managing director
Roland Hollstein said: “Our clients have
repeatedly told us they prefer ‘dictating’
with a professional dictation device,
as opposed to ‘recording’ with purely
smartphone-based tools. The Digta 7
Premium BT allows users to continue
to dictate as they are used to, while
taking advantage of their smartphone as
the dictation file transmission method,
further decreasing the transcription
processing turnaround time.With this
device, our customers get to benefit
from the excellent ergonomical design
and sound quality of professional
dictation devices, while enjoying the
great flexibility of being able to send their
dictations to their assistant any time,
from anywhere.”
Another supplier of digital dictation
devices has followed the example of
dictation workflow specialists Winscribe,
BigHand and me2me and launched its
own iPhone and Blackberry apps. Part
of the Philips SpeechExec Enterprise
Suite, the Philips Recorder for iPhone
and the Speech Exec Digital Recorder for
Blackberry allow smartphone users to
upload recordings to a web server via a
3G or WiFi connection for distribution by
email or transfer to a network folder.
Ultimately, the proliferation of
compatible recording options is to the
benefit of both mobile and office-based
workers as it enables them to choose
the optimum device for each application:
sometimes that will be an iPhone app
and at other times it will be a dedicated
dictation microphone or digital recorder.
As Georgina Pavelin, Marketing
Product Specialist, Audio Consumer at
Olympus, said: “I liken dictation apps
to the camera on a phone. It’s fine for
day-to-day use, but if you are going on
holiday you take a dedicated camera. A
smartphone is fine for brief notes but if
doing intensive dictation you would need
a dedicated unit.”
www.binfo.co.uk
magazine
28
Philips has
launched its own
dictation app for
the iPhone
Half-way house: Grundig’s
Bluetooth-enabled Digta 7 Premium BT