Q: How does someone access the Orator Pro Digital Dictation System? Can a user access the system locally without using external telephone lines?

A: Access to Orator Pro Digital Dictation System is done by dialing into the system through telephone lines; however, local users do not need external telephone lines. The Orator Pro system is sold as a computer with dictation capabilities. The computer has phone jacks in the back of the computer for each port of the system. Telephone lines are plugged into these phone jacks. If a user is local to the system, he/she may run a telephone line through a little box called a telephone line simulator ($74) to keep from paying the phone company for an external line each month. A user may then dial into the system from any touch tone phone. The system will prompt the user to enter a four digit code. Depending on the code, the user is granted access either as a dictator or a transcriptionist. Dictators may then control the functions (record, pause, rewind, complete, etc.) with the keypad of the telephone. Transcriptionists may also access with any touch tone phone, however, they will probably want to use a special phone with a foot pedal (called a transcribe station or a C-phone) that will allow them to control the dictation (play, pause, rewind, fast forward) without taking their hands off the keyboard.

Q: What is the storage capacity of the Orator Pro Digital Dictation System?

A: The storage capacity of the Orator system is dependent upon the size of the system hard drive. Since Bytescribe continually uses new hardware and components, the hard drives often increase in capacity. A 20 GB hard drive is capable of storing up to 1800 hours of dictation.

Q: When a transcriptionist completes a file from the Orator Pro dictation system, is it immediately deleted from the system or does it remain on the system for a period of time?

A: When a file is completed by a transcriptionist, the file is marked as completed but remains on the system. Files are then purged automatically by the system after the number of days specified in the configuration settings. This may be 10 days or 300 days or any other length of time. Any file on the system may can be reassigned to a transcriptionist.

Q: In what order are the dictation files on the Orator Pro system accessed by a transcriptionist? 

A: Dictators have the ability to save dictation files as "stat" or priority dictation or as normal dictation. They also have the ability to save dictation under particular job types. When a transcriptionist accesses the Orator Pro system, she is able to access dictation by job type. The dictation files then come to the transcriptionist in the following order: first "stat" or priority work, and then on a first in, first out basis. The transcriptionist is also able to select other job types at any time.

Q: Can the Internet be used to eliminate long distance charges that would be incurred by transcriptionists dialing into the system from different cities?

A: Yes. There are many options for transferring files via the Internet, but described here is the general principle. All dictated reports are stored on the Orator Pro digital dictation system as individual voice files. These files may be converted and compressed to smaller files that are suitable for Internet transfer. They are then copied or uploaded to a web server. A transcriptionist (that has access to the Internet) may go that web site and download these files. Once the transcriptionist has downloaded the files to her computer, she may use a foot pedal and software to play and control these files (play, pause, rewind and fast forward). The software we offer is the WavPlayer that plays all standard wav files formats as well as TrueSpeech files and is controlled with a foot pedal.

Q: Does the Orator Pro Digital Dictation System have the capability of re-recording from other dictation systems. 

A: Yes. The Orator Pro system has the capability of re-recording from other systems that use the touch tone method of data access (i.e. Dictaphone, PC-Dart, etc.). If a system can be accessed from a normal touch tone phone, the Orator will be able to re-record from that system. A simple script is written that tells the system what sequence of tones to send to allow re-recording.