111111
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`1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
`USOO7852994Bl
`
`(12) United States Patent
`Blair et al.
`
`(10) Patent No.:
`(45) Date of Patent:
`
`US 7,852,994 Bl
`Dec. 14,2010
`
`(54) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RECORDING
`AUDIO
`
`(75)
`
`Inventors: Christopher D. Blair, South Chailey
`(GB); Richard Laurence Heap,
`Chiswich London (GB); Robert John
`Barnes, Watford (GB)
`
`(73) Assignee: Verint Americas Inc., Roswell, GA
`(US)
`
`( * ) Notice:
`
`Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
`patent is extended or adjusted under 35
`U.S.c. 154(b) by 1292 days.
`
`(21) Appl. No.: 11/395,498
`
`(22) Filed:
`
`Mar. 31, 2006
`
`(51)
`
`Int. Cl.
`(2006.01)
`H04M J/64
`(52) U.S. Cl. ............... 379/88.17; 370/401; 379/215.01;
`455/232.1; 455/411; 455/416; 455/456.1;
`709/220
`(58) Field of Classification Search ......... 370/352-356,
`370/401; 379/67.1-87,88.01-88.28,93.01,
`379/100.05,101.01,133-134,215.01; 3811104;
`386/95; 463/40; 700/94; 455/232.1,411,
`455/416,456.1; 709/220
`See application file for complete search history.
`
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`
`(Continued)
`
`Primary Examiner-Gerald Gauthier
`(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Lawrence A. Aaronson, P.c.
`
`(56)
`
`References Cited
`
`(57)
`
`ABSTRACT
`
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`Systems and methods for recording audio are provided. In
`this regard, an representative method comprises: receiving
`audio information corresponding to an audio communica(cid:173)
`tion; receiving parameter information corresponding to a
`mauner in which the audio communication is to be provided
`to a user in audible form; providing the audio information and
`the parameter information in the form of Internet Protocol
`(IP) packets; and recording the audio information and the
`parameter information provided by the IP packets.
`
`23 Claims, 4 Drawing Sheets
`
`RECEIVE AUDIO INFORMATION CORRESPONDING TO AN AUDIO
`COMMUNICATION
`
`RECEIVE PARAMETER INFORMATION CORRESPONDING TO A
`MANNER IN WHICH THE AUDIO COMMUNICATION IS TO BE
`PROVIDED TO A USER IN AUDIBLE FORM
`
`PROVIDE THE AUDIO INFORMATION AND THE PARAMETER
`INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF IP PACKETS
`
`RECORD THE AUDIO INFORMATION AND THE PARAMETER
`INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE IP PACKETS
`
`10
`
`12
`
`14
`
`16
`
`CallCopy
`1101-1
`
`

`

`US 7,852,994 Bl
`Page 2
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
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`

`US 7,852,994 Bl
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`
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`14, 1999.
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`DevHead, Jul. 9, 1999.
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`vision, PRNews Wire, Jan. 11, 1999.
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`Reuters. Will TV Take Over Your PC?, PC World Online.
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`Ross. Broadcasters Use TV Signals to Send Data, PC World Oct.
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`1999.
`* cited by examiner
`
`CallCopy
`1101-4
`
`

`

`u.s. Patent
`
`Dec. 14,2010
`
`Sheet 1 of 4
`
`US 7,852,994 Bl
`
`RECEIVE AUDIO INFORMATION CORRESPONDING TO AN AUDIO L/
`
`10
`
`COMMUNICATION
`
`RECEIVE PARAMETER INFORMATION CORRESPONDING TO A L/
`
`MANNER IN WHICH THE AUDIO COMMUNICATION IS TO BE
`PROVIDED TO A USER IN AUDIBLE FORM
`
`1 2
`
`PROVIDE THE AUDIO INFORMATION AND THE PARAMETER L/
`
`1 4
`
`INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF IP PACKETS
`
`RECORD THE AUDIO INFORMATION AND THE PARAMETER L/
`
`1 6
`
`INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE IP PACKETS
`
`FIG. 1
`
`CallCopy
`1101-5
`
`

`

`~ = """'"
`
`\C
`\c
`N
`tit
`00
`-....l
`rJl
`d
`
`o .... ...
`N
`.....
`rFJ =(cid:173)
`
`('D
`('D
`
`N o .... o
`~ ...
`~ ....
`c ('D
`
`~ = ~
`
`~
`~
`~
`•
`7Jl
`~
`
`FIG. 2
`
`SPKR
`
`MIC
`
`HANDSET
`
`SPKR
`
`118
`
`MIC
`
`116
`
`122
`
`HANDSET
`
`114
`
`SPKR
`
`MIC
`
`HANDSET
`
`112
`
`DEVICE
`
`DISTRIBUTION
`
`130
`
`SYSTEM
`
`RECORDING
`
`110
`
`DEVICE
`
`DISTRIBUTION
`
`107
`
`106
`
`128
`
`102
`
`TAP
`
`104
`
`CENTRAL EQUIPMENT
`
`INPUTS
`AUDIO
`
`120
`
`105
`
`108
`
`DEVICE
`
`DISTRIBUTION
`
`"----'
`100
`
`CallCopy
`1101-6
`
`

`

`u.s. Patent
`
`Dec. 14,2010
`
`Sheet 3 of 4
`
`US 7,852,994 Bl
`
`150
`~ AUDIO AND
`PARAMETER
`INFORMATION
`
`AUDIO AND
`PARAMETER
`INFORMATION
`
`PRIMARY RECORDER
`
`STANDBY RECORDER
`
`BUFFER
`156
`
`BUFFER
`160
`
`LONG-TERM STORAGE
`158
`
`LONG-TERM STORAGE
`162
`
`200
`~
`
`PROCESSOR
`202
`
`FIG. 3
`
`I
`
`I
`
`MEMORY
`BUFFER MEMORY 204
`
`LONG-TERM MEMORY 206
`OIS 214
`
`FAULT-TOLERANT
`RECORDING SYSTEM 220
`
`I
`
`I
`
`~ 212
`
`USER
`INTERFACE
`208
`
`COMM 1/0
`21Q
`
`FIG.4
`
`CallCopy
`1101-7
`
`

`

`u.s. Patent
`
`Dec. 14,2010
`
`Sheet 4 of 4
`
`US 7,852,994 Bl
`
`250
`
`252
`
`256
`
`258
`
`RECEIVE AUDIO INFORMATION AND PARAMETER INFORMATION
`
`TEMPORARILY STORE THE AUDIO INFORMATION AND THE
`PARAMETER INFORMATION
`
`NO
`
`YES
`
`DISCARD THE TEMPORARILY STORED INFORMATION
`
`COMMIT THE TEMPORARILY STORED INFORMATION TO LONG(cid:173)
`TERM STORAGE
`
`FIG. 5
`
`CallCopy
`1101-8
`
`

`

`US 7,852,994 Bl
`
`1
`SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RECORDING
`AUDIO
`
`BACKGROUND
`
`2
`device at a time the audio communication was being provided
`to the user in audible form; and providing the audio informa(cid:173)
`tion and the parameter information in the form of Internet
`Protocol (IP) packets.
`Other systems, methods, features and/or advantages of this
`disclosure will be or may become apparent to one with skill in
`the art upon examination of the following drawings and
`detailed description. It is intended that all such additional
`systems, methods, features and/or advantages be included
`10 within this description and be within the scope of the present
`disclosure.
`
`A telephony system, such as used in a trading room, sup(cid:173)
`ports a range of equipment. By way of example, at each
`trader's desk of a trading room, such equipment can include
`up to four telephony handsets, up to 32 loudspeaker channels,
`and up to two microphones. Unfortunately, disputes can arise
`in a trading room due to over-hearing and/or mis-hearing of
`communications provided by such equipment. The availabil-
`ity and quality of recordings of such communications, there(cid:173)
`fore, can be critical to resolving these disputes.
`In a compliance-recording environment, it can be impera- 15
`tive that everything that could have been heard, and therefore
`acted upon, is recorded. This can include recording speech
`that was not originally intended for the handset/microphone
`from which the speech was heard. For instance, recording
`should be able to accommodate a situation in which a trader 20
`hears "buy" and acts on that communication even though the
`communication was being shouted into another handset.
`Conventionally, the stringent recording requirements of a
`compliance-recording environment have produced recording
`systems that are deliberately over-sensitive. As a result, such 25
`systems tend to record low level audio such as background
`noise, in addition to the communications of interest. This, in
`turn, tends to require uunecessarily large amounts of data
`storage. Correspondingly, it can be difficult to locate a par(cid:173)
`ticular communication of interest among the numerous 30
`recorded communications.
`Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry
`to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.
`
`SUMMARY
`
`35
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION
`
`Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood
`with reference to the following drawings. The components in
`the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead
`being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the
`present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference
`numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the sev(cid:173)
`eral views. While several embodiments are described in con(cid:173)
`nection with these drawings, there is no intent to limit the
`disclosure to the embodiment or embodiments disclosed
`herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives,
`modifications, and equivalents.
`FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (or method
`steps) that can be performed by an exemplary embodiment of
`a system for recording audio.
`FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary
`embodiment of a system for recording audio.
`FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodi(cid:173)
`ment of a recording system.
`FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary
`embodiment of a recording system.
`FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary steps that can
`be performed by a recording system, such as the recording
`system of FIG. 4.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION
`
`Systems and methods for recording audio are provided. In
`this regard, an exemplary embodiment of such a method
`comprises: receiving audio information corresponding to an
`audio communication; receiving parameter information cor- 40
`responding to a manner in which the audio communication is
`to be provided to a user in audible form; providing the audio
`information and the parameter information in the form of
`Internet Protocol (IP) packets; and recording the audio infor(cid:173)
`mation and the parameter information provided by the IP 45
`packets.
`An exemplary embodiment of a system for recording audio
`comprises a communication tap. The communication tap is
`operative to receive audio information corresponding to an
`audio communication and to receive parameter information 50
`corresponding to a marmer in which the audio communica(cid:173)
`tion is to be provided to a user in audible form. The commu(cid:173)
`nication tap is further operative to provide the audio informa(cid:173)
`tion and the parameter information in the form of Internet
`Protocol (IP) packets.
`Computer-readable media also are provided. In this regard,
`an exemplary embodiment of a computer-readable medium
`includes a computer program that comprises computer-ex(cid:173)
`ecutable instructions for performing the computer-imple(cid:173)
`mented steps of: receiving audio information corresponding 60
`to an audio communication; receiving parameter information
`corresponding to a marmer in which the audio communica(cid:173)
`tion is to be provided to a user in audible form, the parameter
`information comprising information corresponding to an
`identification of a communication device used to provide the 65
`audio communication to the user in audible form and an
`indication of volume control settings of the communication
`
`As will be described here with reference to several exem(cid:173)
`plary embodiments, systems and methods for recording audio
`are provided. In the exemplary embodiments that will be
`described, each is implemented in the context of a compli(cid:173)
`ance-recording environment of a trading room, in which trad(cid:173)
`ers use a telephony system to facilitate trading. However,
`there is no intention to limit the invention to this particular
`type of environment, except as may be expressly set forth in
`the accompanying claims. Similarly, although much of this
`disclosure pertains to the recording of audio, the invention is
`not limited to the recording of audio, as video and other types
`of data also may be recorded in some embodiments.
`In this regard, some embodiments can potentially provide
`one or more perceived advantages over conventional commu-
`55 nication systems. By way of example, at least some embodi(cid:173)
`ments permit the use of compression algorithms, such as
`G729 (and Annex B silence suppression), under the input
`conditions for which those compression algorithms were
`designed. Thus, significant disk storage capacity can be saved
`without risking audio quality. Additionally, higher quality
`recordings can be provided, e.g., no audio input should be
`able to mask out another input as can be the case with systems
`that exclusively utilize mixed audio channels.
`At least some embodiments allow reconstruction of audio
`at levels that would have been heard at a trader's desk, i.e., in
`accordance with the volume control settings that the trader
`applied at the time of recording. In this manner, audio corre-
`
`CallCopy
`1101-9
`
`

`

`US 7,852,994 Bl
`
`25
`
`3
`sponding closely to the audio that was actually heard by the
`trader can be confinned. Additionally, reconstruction of audio
`levels on each input to a mixed speaker can be provided
`regardless of the volume settings in effect at a trader's desk at
`the time. In these embodiments, someone replaying the
`recorded audio can hear everything that the trader could or
`should have heard had the volume controls at the desk been
`set differently. At least some embodiments make use of dis(cid:173)
`tributed call detail infonnation, which allows for scalability,
`fault tolerance and sub-second time-stamping.
`With respect to recording, at least some embodiments pro(cid:173)
`vide for parallel handling of the audio from the point where it
`leaves the trading room telephony system to the point where
`it is stored on multiple media. By way of example, a recording
`system can be used for recording the audio at two recorders, 15
`which may be collocated or separated, thereby potentially
`eliminating the need for a secondary archival process to copy
`the data to a secure location.
`Another aspect utilized in at least some embodiments per(cid:173)
`tains to the handling of audio sources when multiple charmels
`of the trading room telephony sy