If you haven’t heard by now ipDTL is the latest technology that allows clients to listen in on sessions in ISDN-like quality. Every single voice that we have spoken to that has tested it says that the sound is fantastic and they will continue to use it.
This is the third instalment of our three part series on ipDTL. You can ready part 1 and part 2 for some other perspectives.
Now we welcome Rory Auskerry, a British voice actor who has tested the application and writes a post exclusively for Voice Over Herald.
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One of the biggest ongoing expenses associated with a home voiceover studio is the addition of ISDN facilities. Even a second hand codec can cost thousands, instillation and line rental is expensive and if you decide to move you’ll have to pay for it to be installed all over again in your new studio.
Fortunately it looks as if that a new service called ipDTL from a company called In:Quality might have a pleasantly simple solution at a much more cost effective price.
The company, which won the Technical Innovation award at the UK Radio Festival in 2013, has been setup by a former BBC colleague of mine, Kevin Leach.
Kevin explained how it works: “At the movement the focus is on reliability and user-friendliness but there is an extensive list of features which we are looking to add in the coming weeks.”
“Soon users will be able to connect to anyone else who has a paid login by searching for their user name. You’ll also be able to login to create new accounts and make password and account changes yourself.”
To get up and running with ipDTL all you need is a reliable broadband internet connection and the Google Chrome browser at both ends, a pair of headphones and you’re studio microphone. Head over to www.ipdtl.com/vo and sign up for an account.
This video – in which I make a fleeting appearance – goes through the connection process step-by-step:
To test the service for myself I connected up with Kevy Parr, a friend and fellow voiceover based in Scotland, and we chatted for over twenty minutes. We both have fibre optic broadband which helped ensure that the Internet connection and audio quality was faultless for the duration of our conversation. Having said that, I have spoken to several other voiceover artists with much slower Internet connections who have also had great results with ipDTL. According to the developers, an upload speed of 0.3mb is enough for the service to work.
To demonstrate the quality of the audio here’s a clip of my conversation with Kevy. I’ve cut my recording of him with his recording of me so you hear both our voices via ipDTL:
For £99 / $160 a year you can sign up for a voiceover account giving you a 128 kbps connection. Cheaper ‘standard quality’ logins are available for radio stations, contributors and podcasters. You’ll find all the details here: (http://www.inqualitymedia.com/ipdtl/)
The demonstrable audio quality of ipDTL coupled with the lack of need for costly extra equipment and the affordable prices for using the service will surely make ipDTL a serious contender for replacing ISDN in the coming years. Why not sign up for a month at www.ipdtl.com/vo and give it a try for yourself?
