The Future of ISDN Voice Over Recording

The Future of Remote Recording
ISDN or IP

When first introduced in the mid 90‘s, ISDN was truly ground breaking technology; providing remote voice quality recording over high-speed telephone lines. ISDN quickly replaced satellite uplinks and revolutionized the commercial production industry by offering a world of voices to every market.  At Audio Concepts we have been patching in voices and collaborating with studios via ISDN since 1997. Today it’s almost as simple as placing a phone call.

But is ISDN here to stay?

Two trends are working to challenge ISDN’s dominance.
1) The telephone industry’s reluctance to install new ISDN service.
2) IP solutions are becoming more reliable as faster broadband speeds become commonplace.

With the delay of new ISDN service, production facilities have had to explore alternatives. Fortunately, broadband internet is providing a reasonable solution and each year brings new competition and improved service. At Audio Concepts we are currently testing IP solutions from Source Connect and ip/DTL. For now, Source Connect has a slight advantage due to its larger installed user base worldwide.

In addition, we are excited to be a beta test site for Source Connect Now,  an IP service that offers remote recording as well as conferencing. This is a great resource for clients, writers, producers, and account team members that can't always attend sessions. We also see the potential of Source Connect Now replacing the standard land-line based analog phone patch.  The record quality is more than sufficient for most non-broadcast applications such as audio newsletters and podcasts. Participants only need an up to date version of Google Chrome and a decent broadband connection.

So what’s the future of remote recording?  From the research and testing we have done, ISDN still provides the highest level of performance making it the top end remote production network. Eventually, IP will replace ISDN but for now we believe ISDN is still the most reliable.
Stay Tuned!

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