Technology advantages

With Red Box you benefit from technology that stands apart – and not simply by being different. Our approach side-steps the limitations of traditional voice recording systems to give you the most streamlined and efficient solutions possible.

Frame-based recording

Red Box’s voice-recording engine – the result of four years’ R&D – is the ideal platform for the ever-growing variety of IP- and data-based technologies, as well as traditional TDM-based audio.

‘Frame-based’ recording uses a unique method to manage systems and data that optimises throughput of data and the resilience of recordings. The process packetises calls, splitting all active calls across the voice recorder into a single frame file. Each audio packet has its own header and footer information, so that audio can be linked together on replay.

The recording engine minimises hardware use by having only one file open at any time and writing consistent file sizes to the hard disk. This means that the processor, hard disk drive and any attached archive devices have very little work. Certainly, the hard disk will never need to be defragmented. As a result, the system is extremely scalable – up to 500 VoIP channels in one voice recorder. The engine also helps extend the life of moving parts due to the low access frequency and intensity. You simply benefit from optimised recording that’s maintenance-free and always at maximum performance.

Taking scalability further, frame-based recording can process any type of data, with unlimited throughput and exceptional capacity. It’s specifically designed to cope with IP data and the associated massive throughput and intensity, through two additional technology differences:

Fully integrated embedded database

The Red Box recorder architecture uses an embedded database. This is invisible to system users and requires no administration or management. It’s simply there to store and track call-related information. In the process, it optimises performance and minimises system overheads. The database is adaptive and supports unlimited backwards compatibility. As a result, the solution can deliver customised integrations.

This database offers several benefits:

No administration, licensing or maintenance
All data CTI, call data and audio records are stored within the core database. They are stored securely with the audio for replay, giving full replay of any data item from any suitable media (such as online, DVD, TAPE, NAS)
No additional databases to install, support, manage, back up or synchronise – one database manages it all
No additional database servers – ever. This gives a small installation footprint, reducing cost, heat and maintenance

Fully resilient, the database contains data stored as part of the audio recordings. It can be reconstructed automatically at any time by the system from any set of stored voice recordings. This enables damaged systems to be restored or any authorised system to replay back-up calls
Fast access and no restrictions on the volume of data recorded or stored with a call. The database has been tested to many petabytes
No licensing or documentation issues – as an embedded component of the recorder, there is no overhead for IT to manage
Simplicity – the solution delivers an architecture with advanced functionality and leading edge technology that makes it easy to use, administer and support

Built-in resilience

Each frame is only open for a few seconds, so the system is very resilient to power outage, and therefore data loss or corruption. Any system will normally lose open files when power is disconnected; on other recording systems that could be 30 minutes of conversation over many channels, resulting in hours of lost data. With Red Box, only the currently open frame file (seconds of audio across the system) are at risk, with all but the last few seconds of every conversation retrievable up to the point of power outage.

The system uses the same method to archive recordings. This again has several benefits. Because data frames are all referenced, cross-referenced and embedded with all associated data, all online, nearline or offline recordings contain the same data. In addition, if there is any data corruption in the stored media, all other data can be recovered, limiting loss to the corrupted segments. The costly process of sending media away for recovery is generally avoided.

The Red Box recording engine is robust, self-managing, resilient and simple. It’s therefore perfect for users and system managers alike.