How do I find out
what format
my client
needs?
There are many different
telephony computer systems and many different
telephony file formats out there.
And
if you don’t provide the right file format for your client’s system
it’ll sound like the snow on an old TV set.
Just
like there are different types of
.wav
files (mono, stereo, 48K, 44.1K, 16bit, 24bit….) and different
types of .
mp3
files (128K, 256, 96K…) there are different types of telephony
audio files.
Now,
don’t panic!
You
cannot, and you SHOULD not have to guess as to the correct format
the client needs.
It
is the client’s responsibility to tell you what they need.
So
what do you do?
When a client says he needs a telephony
file format you need to ask 3 questions:
- What’s
the format or sound family?
- What’s
the bit depth/sound type?
- What’s
the sampling rate?
If they don’t know the
answer, you tell them that they can find that
information in one of the following ways:
- by
contacting their vendor,
- by
contacting their IT person or
- by
actually looking at the instruction book that came with the system!
Again,
unless you know (and tell us) right file type, it just won’t play.
So,
let’s say a client says: “I need a .vox file?”
What’s the format or Sound
family?
The
format is “.vox” – 9 times out of 10 that will be a Dialogic .vox
file so you can at least pretty much go with that assumption.
What’s the bit depth/sound
type?
Is
it ADPCM or Mu-Law (also pronounced simply “U-Law” – comes from the
Greek)
ADPCM
is always 4bit. Mu-Law is always 8bit
What’s the sampling rate?
6000
Hz (6K), 8000 Hz (8K)? Another rate?
With
Dialogic for example the 2 most common are:
4bit
6K ADPCM and 8bit 8K Mu-Law
But
the bottom line is that with so many formats out there, you can
never assume anything.
Just ask your client, and
then tell us.
