Earlier this month, Aculab released the latest version of its host media processing software, Prosody S. The anticipated upgrade to Aculab’s popular HMP software was specifically designed to minimize the problems that are normally associated with IP telephony, offering developers greater flexibility with a new range of functions.

 

According to the company’s release, the upgrade of Prosody S is able to run up 360 half duplex channels, 180 full duplex channels, and 300 conference parties in any sub-group combination with all the necessary speech processing functions on the same server as the host application.

 

Mike Matthews, Head of Product Marketing at Aculab was available to answer some questions in regards to Aculab’s latest development in HMP technology. Matthews manages product lifecycles and customer feedback, and is responsible for the positioning of new products. He also manages the link between customers and Aculab's R&D, oversees Aculab's product roadmap, and supports the company's global sales force.

 

 

We expect two distinct customer profiles – the first is looking for maximum cost efficiency in small scale enterprise deployments and to help here, Aculab offers customers the choice to license any channel count they wish, right down to a single channel. Our second target profile operates services in the public network and prefers to use an integrated solution that can be ‘racked and stacked’.

 

 

Conferencing requirements range from just a few people chatting together through to broadcast style conferences, whereby a CEO announces the end of year bonus to all staff who call in to hear the news. In addition, when a larger conference is held it becomes important to identify ‘who said what’ and the Prosody S conferencing active speaker detection feature enables this – an essential function if a transcript of the conference is being made. The flexibility of the conferencing functions for the application developer sets Prosody S apart from other products.

 

 

This is version 2.0 of the product – Aculab released version 1.0 in the autumn of 2004 and has made some minor customer requested enhancements in versions 1.1 and 1.2 prior to this major new 2.0 release.

 

 

When a communications system has been installed and commissioned the supplier would benefit greatly by not having to attend site to effect changes. If a Prosody S-based system requires a few additional channels, say to handle more incoming callers via an auto-attendant, then an updated licence key with extra channels can be applied to the – still working – system to implement this. The change may be conducted by the supplier, without attending site, via a remote link to their system.

 

 

Prosody S is a key part of our Prosody media processing resources family where much of the functionality and algorithm code is common between the hardware and software variants. This, combined with other Aculab products, allows us to meet the demands of both the high density and low density requirements of our customers.

 

 

The product has sold steadily since its introduction and interest has increased over time. One such customer Capricode, has developed a solution for Cisco, based on its Nextinfo toolkit and Prosody S host based media processing software. They chose to base the system on Prosody S as there is no hardware involved, meaning easier and cheaper integration for the end user, enabling costs of the system to be kept down. It has been configured for English, Swedish and Finnish; user selectable. Moreover, it can support any language, enabling Cisco to roll out the system anywhere in the world.

 

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To read the full case study on Capricode, visit Prosody S Crosses the Finnish Line.

 

For more information on Prosody S, visit Aculab on the Web.