xovox xpand

Out With the Old, In With the New

We build the bridge between your old voice recordings and your new call recording platform or archive. If you don't have a new system, we can provide one.
problem

Getting Repopulated

You've just spent months specifying, procuring, and installing your new recording platform or corporate digital archive. You may be upgrading your obsolete system and are already using our XTRACT service to retrieve the old data. Or perhaps there is an new corporate initiative to store all of your digital assets (including recordings) into an enterprise archive.

But how do you get your data in there? Many platforms offer a detailed document explaining acceptable file formats, audio compressions, metadata formats, and network/storage protocols. You have millions (or billions) of files, and they all need to be prepared for import. The process needs to be done exhaustively and accurately, with no files lost or unaccounted for.
Solution

Convert. Upload. Replay.

XOVOX can help prepare your voice recordings and corresponding metadata for import into any system with a documented ingestion mechanism, and even into some systems without any published spec.

We call it XPAND. It allows you to preserve your legacy data by making it available in your new environment, whether it be a new recorder or audio repository or digital archive. 

See our roster of supported targets for XPAND. For audio, we can convert to most open formats, typically WAV files with G.711 compression (supports mono and stereo). For metadata, we can convert to CSV, XML, JSON, SQL, or any text format. And we can upload directly to AWS S3, Azure Blob, or any RESTful mechanism.

How It Works

  • XPAND prepares audio and metadata for ingestion into modern voice recorders such as Verint WFO, ASC Neo, Red Box Quantify, or any platform with an import specification for audio files (e.g. WAV w/ G.711 compression) and metadata (e.g CSV, XML.
  • XPAND can also format data to be imported into search & replay audio archive products such as Wilmac Continuity Replay, Bloomberg Vault, Veritas Hubstor, or litigation review platforms. The conversion can be performed to conform with internal security policies and comply with applicable government regulations.
  • XOVOX guarantees the quality of the conversion and can provide a legal attestation of accuracy.
Case Study

Universal Access for Various Formats

One of the largest life insurance companies in the world teamed up with XOVOX to develop a faster way to access customer data trapped in legacy telephone recordings.
FAQ

XPAND FAQ

We are flexible and will work with you to find the best method that comfortably fits your security specifications.

In many cases, an XPAND project will process output data generated by our XTRACT service. Thus, we will likely already have the access we need to do the work.

Otherwise: we can do the work on virtual machines in the cloud, or VMs in your IT environment (you will need to provide remote access), or you can simply ship us the data on a portable hard drive.

Our primary goal is to convert recordings to an audio file format which is guaranteed to replay on any modern computing platform (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android).

A key deciding factor is what you plan to do with your extracted audio. Is it solely to satisfyyour retention rules or to resolve an occasional customer support issue (in which case you probably want to minimize storage space)? Or will you run speech analytics software in order to perform speech-to-text conversion or gauge customer satisfaction (in which case you want to maximize audio quality)?

If minimizing storage is your goal, then we recommend WAV files with GSM 06.10 compression. If maximum audio quality is your priority, then we recommend WAV files with G.711 compression (which also supports stereo). Other file formats and compressions are also available on request.

Our default metadata format is tab-delimited UTF-8 text. But with our XPAND service, we can convert to any text format. Depending on the expected destination for the extracted audio, this might be XML (for subsequent import into ASC), CSV (for import into Verint), TXT (for import into Red Box), or even Excel (for smaller jobs). As long as you can provide a spec, we can usually convert into it.

Check out our list of supported metadata target formats. Even if your format is not on our list, we can probably generate it if you provide the spec.

XPAND pricing is based on the total volume of recordings processed.

Depending on how many and often you need to access the recordings, you have several possible options:

  • In the simplest case, we can store the call catalogs in Excel sheets with hyperlinks to the audio. Then, you can search the Excel for the call of interest and click to replay. This works well for small collections (less than 2 million recordings).

  • Alternatively, we can deliver the audio on a portable hard drive with file folders arranged by year, month, and day. We can also name the actual WAV files to contain the timestamp and agent name, Then, you can simply browse to the folder for the date of interest and listen to the WAV files until you find the right one. This basic method can work well if you only retrieve recordings infrequently (perhaps a few times per month or less).

  • Alternatively, we can provide Continuity Replay software (from our business partner, Wilmac). Continuity Replay provides a browser-based multiuser interface for easy search and replay of your audio.

OTHER SERVICES
TESTIMONIALS

Triumph and Testament

XOVOX’s unique services are often game-changing for our clients. See what they have to say in their own words.

We identified and met with 3 potential service providers then evaluated their proposed solutions. XOVOX’s presentation was professional and clearly defined our requirements along with the desired outcome. Andy and his team communicated with the Bulldog team throughout the project then delivered the project exactly as they promised. XOVOX has deep expertise in audio conversion and was a great partner.

– Sharon Miller, President & CEO, Bulldog Consulting Services

XOVOX helped us meet our state’s requirements for documenting and retaining government proceedings. From the start, we were confident we had picked the right company to do this job. Their knowledge, thoroughness and professionalism were great. And we will call on them again.

– Aly Jabrocki, MLIS, CA
Director and State Archivist, Colorado State Archives