In the past, 30 years ago, I use tapes to record audio. Now, everything is changed, and the digital era brought us new devices.

What is a Voice Logger?

A voice logger is an instrument used to record audio from radios, telephones, and other infectious devices and store that information in a computer’s hard drive or any removable media. There are generally two modes used for recording, and they are vox mode and non-vox mode. Vox Mode is the mode where the voice is activated, and the non-vox method is that mode where recording is done continuously.

Voice logger is a system that call centers and other businesses generally use. It may also be used for emergency services. These records are kept safely and are used by security organizations and sometimes private firms too. The legality of these recordings may sometimes become a question. 

 Voice logger is one of those devices that is used by officials as well as businesses too. The companies may use voice logger for improving their customer services. The features that are being provided keep things in mind about business. The updated version of voice loggers has advanced features, flexible, and is easy to use. These quick enhancement increases the productivity for the company and helps to attain customer satisfaction. 

 History of Voice Logger

 The voice loggers have become significantly updated these days, but early in the 1990s, the voice logger recorded the audio using a codec and stored it in a digital tape. With changing times, the voice loggers also change, and now the recorded calls are stored in a file or a hard drive. 

Below is an example of the installation of a voice logger:

The first and original voice logging device was made or developed by Magnasync in 1950. It soon gained popularity, and by 1953, Magnasync Corporation sold about 300 voice loggers to the United States Air Force. Over the year, the loggers were manufactured by Arcane Logger, ASC, Comverse, Cybertech, Dictaphone, etc. By the passing of the years, there have been many changes in this field, and the master vendor of the loggers includes ASC, Exam, Red Box, etc. 

 The Types of Voice Loggers

1)   Analog Tape – It is the oldest model and was recorded by catching and storing the reel. The cassettes or microcassette is a part of these recorders. 

2)   Digital Tape – These are some of the most used or standard recorders used today. They store and also have detailed metadata relating to calls or others. 

3)   Software Only Systems – These system recorders are all software running. It may record the audio on hardware. This type of software usually records a single line at once and is limited in features than others. 

Uses of Voice Logging 

 There are not one but many uses of voice logging. Some of them are discussed –

1)   Financial Institutions Such as Banks – Many banks worldwide have made call recording permanent. Stocking broking firms are also asked to do the same. The tapes provide quick access to voice files if any dispute occurs, saving a lot of time. 

2)   Call Centres – Voice logging is also used by call centers to check customer services and the agent’s behavior on the call. This also helps these centers to improve their services and solve the queries of the customer quickly. 

3)   Business Enterprises – As discussed above, businesses also use voice logging. It may be used in a real estate firm or by some media house. It helps the companies keep the records of all the calls and quickly check for queries. 

4)   By Tourism, Hotels, Railways, etc. – This helps record all the calls, such as railways, they record the information related to reservations. Voice logging adds efficiency to work and increases the effectiveness of the staff. 

5)   Health Care Sectors such as Hospitals, Clinic, and Pharmacy – Voice Logging help hospitals or pharmacy record verbal prescriptions. This allows the staff to save the patient’s inquiries on the phone. 

6)   Educational Institutions – Educational Institutions such as schools and colleges keep records of all the details made on the call. Recording may help these institutions to have feedback. It also provides a bridge for improving the conversation or communications between the customers and their staff.

Multi-channel voice logger
There are compact multi-channel voice logging recorders with built-in displays and simple navigation keys in the market, such as Total Recall from Omnicron. Omnicron is a voice logger dealer. Usually, a Multi-channel voice logger has 4, 8, 12, and 16 channel packages. They include Remote Recall PC software, Serial cable—2 meters – RJ45 to DB9-F, Power Cord, Manual, 12 Month Limited Warranty.

Oscilloscope definition

An oscilloscope is a laboratory device that is used to display and analyze waveforms of electronic signals. The effect of the signal voltage is drawn in the shape of a graph. An oscilloscope can display Alternating Current(AC) and Direct Current(DC). The frequency should be as low as 1 hertz(Hz) or in several megahertz(MHz). There is also another type of oscilloscope known as the High-End Oscilloscope. These oscilloscopes can display the signal frequencies of up to a hundred gigahertz(GHz).

Oscilloscope Effect
The Oscilloscope Effect represents when the oscilloscope draws a graph of the instantaneous signal voltage as a function of time. Using this effect, researchers can read and analyze the waveform of electronic signals.

The display of the oscilloscope is divided into two parts, i.e., Horizontal Divisions and Vertical Divisions. The horizontal scale displays time from left to right while the instant voltage appears on the vertical scale. The positive value of the voltage on the vertical scale goes upwards while the negative goes downward.

The oldest model of the oscilloscope is still used in some labs and is known as Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope. The image is produced by focusing the electron beam: the modern or electronically built oscilloscope copy the CRT’s action by a liquid crystal display.

On an oscilloscope, roll mode or telescope mode displays acquired waveform data without waiting for the complete waveform record.

The measurements in any of the oscilloscope is measured in per seconds(s/div), milliseconds per division(ms/div), microseconds per division(s/div), and nanoseconds per division(ns/div) on the horizontal sweep whereas the vertical deflection is measured in volts per division(V/div), millivolts per division(mV/div) and microvolts per division(?V/div). All the oscilloscopes have horizontal sweep and vertical deflection adjustments.

A new sort of digital device is now available that is known as a high-end oscilloscope. Since they are digital devices, they can connect to computers and can use their display. These machines now no longer scan beam for generating images of the waveform. The basic principle of this device also remains the same as traditional. The digital oscilloscopes have software embedded in them that controls the sweep rate and vertical deflections. Apart from this, some other features include storing waveforms for future references and displaying several waveforms, analyses, etc. 

Sizes of the Oscilloscope

The modern and most commonly used oscilloscope is lightweight and can be easily carried by a single person. The laboratory used oscilloscopes that have vacuum tubes are bench-top devices or mounted on dedicated carts. The oscilloscopes that are used for special occasions are rack-mounted or have permanent mounting. 

Some types of Oscilloscope

1) Dual-Beam Oscilloscope – The dual beams are the oscilloscopes that can display the two signals. A particular CRT generates and deflects two separate rays. There is also some disadvantage of this oscilloscope, i.e., it cannot be switched quickly between the traces and could not catch the two events. 

2) Analog Storage Oscilloscope – Analog scopes have extra features, such as they have trace storage. They use the direct-view storage CRTs. 

3) Mixed Signals Oscilloscope – They generally have two kinds of input, i.e., a small number of analog channels and many analog channels. It has a unique feature to time-correlate analog and digital channels. In a Mixed-Signal Oscilloscope, the trigger can be easily set on both the analog and digital channels.

4) PC Based Oscilloscope – They are digital oscilloscope and rely on PC for display and control. It can connect with the USB or LAN to separate PC or Laptop. 

Other Instruments 

Many instruments are used in technical fields and are oscilloscope having inputs, calibration controls, displays, etc. They are specialized and optimized for a particular purpose. The fine example of such oscilloscopes includes waveform monitors for reporting video levels and medical devices such as electrocardiograms. 

 They are also used in different industries, and each has a vital role in that field. The oscilloscope is the device that has its value, and that cannot be ignored. Even in the automobile industry, an ignition analyzer shows the spark waveforms for every cylinder.

The process of developing backup systems to secure data in a virtual location during an unprecedented event of a disaster is referred to as Virtual Disaster Recovery. It’s a strategic approach to developing a system that supports the DR Virtualization of servers and saves the server data in a VM independent of the physical hardware at any location.

The requirement of physical servers at the primary site is different from the secondary site.

How does virtualization help data protection and disaster recovery?
Virtualization help data protection and greatly simplifies disaster recovery because it does not require rebuilding a physical server environment. Virtualization consolidates the entire server environment, all systems, workstations into a single virtual machine. Any computer system can be virtualized, such as data storage, workstations, networks, and applications.

What are the benefits of Virtual Disaster Recovery?

The physical server and handling of information require effort and consistent expenditure for maintenance. The virtualization of data on physical servers makes it easier, fast, and efficient to systemize information.

Virtualization makes recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives feasible and quicker. Often, in disasters like floods, earthquakes, and fires, the data becomes susceptible to loss in physical zones. The virtualization of the data makes it possible to reach any information irrespective of the physical location.

Installing VM’s is a very complicated task; once installed, organizations need guidelines for strict sprawling. The larger companies with many employees have loose communication skills. Rigorous knowledge of DR is necessary to maintain the system in place. Strict guidelines must be set to deploy VM technology.

Building and testing Virtual Disaster recovery

Virtual infrastructures are highly complex, and recovery from them during an unplanned event is necessary for a DR plan.

A virtual disaster recovery plan is very similar to the conventional DR plan. Some critical points for virtualization are:

1. Analyze the system and document essential information.
2. Get the DR plan approved by the management.
3. Write down the steps for recovery.
4. Identify RPO’s and RTO’s.
5. Check the project and assign roles.

Once you are done sketching the plan, make sure the staff knows what they have to do in an actual unplanned incident.

The organization’s virtual disaster recovery plan should be reviewed and updated at a different period to keep it relevant in case of a change in the environment. The physical and virtual system requires evaluation regularly. It’s an essential practice for the business community.

How is Virtual Disaster Recovery different from Physical Disaster Recovery?

Virtual Disaster Recovery is simple and includes only simple clicks. The standard practice involves checking RTO’s and RPO’s. The traditional data recovery process is complex; on the other hand, virtual data recovery is a few clicks.

Recovery in the virtual world is more accessible than in the physical world. Creating DR in a virtual setup is more manageable and does not affect overall productivity.

Experts recommend keeping sensitive data offline or printed. However, the providers always equip with safety against cyberattacks, ransomware, and taping of sensitive information.

Future Prospects of the Virtual Disaster Recovery

1. Ransomware is a significant threat to businesses nowadays. Organizations are utilizing explicit techniques to avoid losses. The point-in-time copies feature aggressively brings back the data just before the attack.
2. Instant Recovery – The backup snapshot of the VM runs continuously on the backup storage. It’s an important technique to reduce RTO’s.
3. Hyperconvergence – Fusing storage, virtualization, and computing is a highly trendy strategy to protect losses from suspicious stealing and ransomware.

Every day enhancing technologies and new vendors like Rubrik and Cohesity are taking charge and pushing possibilities to another level.

Prominent Data Vendors offering disaster recovery and virtual backup

1. Nakivo Backup and replication for AWS compute cloud, VM-ware, Microsoft Hyper-V.
2. Acronis Disaster Recovery solutions.
3. Solarwinds backup
4. Zerto’s flagship Virtual Replication
5. Veeam software protects VM’s and has multiple solutions for physical and virtual data storage-recovery.