Do you Know What a Voice Over Is?
There are lots and lots of voice overs that everyone hears each and every day. They fill the airwaves with the messages that make our modern world go around.
A voice-over artist is an actor or actress who uses their voice talent in order to give a voice to a cartoon character or to be utilized in a commercial to name a few. The voice over can be spoken by someone who the audience will see or by a specialist voice actor someone who the audience usually does NOT see. There are many different ways to use a voice over. These can be used in building character, creative influences in cinema, education, or in advertising and marketing.
One of the most common ways to use vocalization is in animated films and television. For instance, animated characters (like the kids from the show ‘South Park’) are animated. They need voice-over artists in order to give them personalities and bring the show to life. There are times where well movie stars are used as the voice actors, such as Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz, who played key rolls in the ‘Shrek’ movies, or, it is a specialized voice actor, not a screen-actor who voices the characters. Obviously, using an actor’s voice is critical to building the animated character and bringing them to life.
In other instances, there are no animated characters, but the need for off screen narration is still there. A voice-over can be used to create an ironic counterpoint, or to make a statement in the movie. This is the creative element. It can be a character narrating, or miss-matched voices narrating and the narration does not match the actors on screen. This creates a sense of chaos and lends to the movies’ originality, such as the film ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, where this technique is used.
Moving away from use in films, voice-overs can also be used for educational or descriptive purposes. Our television news is broadcast with video clips and commentary by the reporters, who are describing and explaining the significance of the
clips being shown. Sports broadcasts also have spoken comments, especially when cast over the radio. There are also narrations that are used as commentary by a historian or critic, possibly even production personnel about when a new movie or DVD will be released.
Sometimes, instead of just commentary or news production, voices are also used for advertising and marketing purposes. We do not see the actor that is speaking in the advertisement, but we hear it on televison, radio, in stores and shopping malls, to name a few places. Voice-overs were primarily used on radio, but since the advent of the TV, this practice has crossed over into TV as well.
Some prominent and iconic voice-over artists are Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Hal Douglas, & James Earl Jones. These artists and the utilization of their voice over talents are ubiquitous in many different facets of our modern world. It is not just for show business. It can be used creatively and commercially, and almost everyone come into contact with it on a regular basis.
Vonage, Verizon and Free Enterprise – Part 1
Vonage is a company that is the leading provider of broadband telephone services with over 2.2 million subscribers as of December 31, 2006. The company was formed in 2000 and had its IPO last year. “[They] offer feature-rich and cost effective communication services that offer users an experience similar to traditional telephone services” (www.vonage.com). Vonage Holding Corp. may file for bankruptcy due to litigation against them. A federal court in Virginia ruled that the company had infringed on Verizon patents and postponed an injuction on new customers.
The patent in question is the popular VOIP (Voice of Over Internet Protocol) that goes under other names such as IP Telephony, Internet Telephony, Broadband Telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice Over Broadband (www.wikipedia.com). This is advanced technology that routes the voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. It allows you to make calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line (www.fcc.gov/voip).
This technology may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) that is responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military (www.wikipedia.com). It was established in 1958 in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik in 1957, with a mission of keeping the US’s military technology ahead of its enemies.
The basic concept of a patent is to allow the CREATOR of inventions that contain new ideas to keep others from making commercial use of the ideas without the creator’s permission (Elias & Stim, 2004, 226). Therefore, why are Verizon and possibly Sprint/Nextel suing Vonage yet their R&D departments did not invent the VOIP? VOIP is a viable technology and obtaining the exclusive rights to a viable technology is unethical.
In his article, Should Ethics Play a Special Role in Patent Law,’ Frank Washko states that companies are increasingly acquiring patent rights with the sole intention of bringing infringement suits against competitor companies who are working in that technology area. He reiterates that the patent “holding company,” in our case; Verizon, that neither engages in manufacturing nor research uses the patent solely as a weapon of litigation. Vonage is a threat to Verizon because they offer online calling as a cheap alternative to traditional telephone carriers even though
Ip Softphone Scraping Increases Call Efficiency
As remote IP Soft Phones become more common and more popular, one feature stands out as a user favorite. Scraping. Scraping is the ability to highlight a telephone number on your computer or laptop screen, whether it appears on the web, a document, or in a program, right click on the highlighted number, and have the telephone number dialed automatically for you automatically!
Traditionally, the IP Softphone has been viewed as a very limited application. Send one home loaded on a laptop for the office worker who needs to work from home a day or two here and there, and they can stay connected to the office. While remote, they maintain all the features of the main office telephone system without the pain or cost of lugging an IP telephone handset back and forth to the office. Remote workers can even have line appearance on the telephone system, so office coworkers know when and if they are available.
The problem has always been how inefficient IP Softphones are at dialing outbound calls. Who wants to have to point and click their mouse at an onscreen dial pad to dial out a 10 digit number? It was so inconvenient, that the calls just didn’t get made. Depending on the industry, if the calls weren’t being made, then work just wasn’t getting done. If the work isn’t getting done, then all of the benefits of remote working go out the window.
Enter the IP Softphone with scraping capability. Remote users can now dial outbound calls from their laptop or PC via IP Softphone using only their mouse to highlight the desired number to call. Simply right click on the desired number (With most Softphone applications), and the Softphone will dial and connect you to your number!
The application has been so successful and easy to use that remote workers now prefer the IP Softphone over the more traditional IP handset. Instead of pointing and clicking to dial a number, a quick swipe of the computer mouse now has you connected! In addition, you can operate on a simple soft VPN connection back to the office vs. the more expensive recommended router and static IP address connection for IP handsets.
Some call centers that previously deployed traditional handsets with headsets now only deploy IP Softphones and headsets connected to their computers. While working from a database for their outbound calls, the system either dials the numbers for them, or they are able to highlight the desired numbers and dial. For inbound operations, a simple click of the mouse answers the call, so no handset is really needed. All other features normally associated with the traditional handset are also available on the IP Softphone, so all employees retain the ability to transfer, hold, conference, send calls to voicemail, record calls, etc. The cost of IP Softphones compared to traditional handsets is dramatically different, so for the right applications, not only are they more efficient, they are more cost effective.
Sales applications are booming. Certain fields make tremendous use of the internet as a powerful prospecting tool. Imagine the efficiency of click and dial vs. looking back and forth at the number you are researching while changing screens, pointing and clicking, etc, in order to complete your call. Whether you are calling from a database, document, or via the internet, a tremendous amount of additional calls can now be made via Softphone. Check with you telecommunications professional to see if IP Softphone applications are a fit for your business.
How to make it in voice overs – Part 1
Firstly, it is very hard to get into voice work today without the tools to market yourself and work in the voice over business. It used to be that a good voice over agent, a car and having the pipes (your distinctive and winning voice) to do them was all a talent would need. But the game has all changed. The voice over industry has always seemed to be one governed by a clique or niche. When you are hot, you are hot and work a lot. A small group of players doing a large pool of work available. But there are steps to succeed in the voice over industry during this revolutionary digital media age.
The Check list:
1. Your agent (if you have one) will market you as a voice talent. (Note: Some agents are wary of listing strictly voice talent due to the explosion of home studios and talent stealing clients!)
2. You have a demo (Demos can be created by renting a studio for an hour and reading copy… these studios can charge $100 – $300+ for making a GREAT demo!)
3. You have a link to your demo on your own web page or resume page. Great way for clients to sample your work while checking out your list of credits.
4. You can receive audition notices and scripts via fax/email. (Check out a service like Voice123.com – It costs $300/year but will send loads of audition notices for you to record and send to prospective clients, if you get a job…you can be paid immediately!)
5. You have a suitable home studio to record demos and auditions (which include a professional microphone and digital audio software to edit your work, transfer files via MP3 and a fast modem – cable, DSL or ISDN line). Home studios can be constructed for a few hundred dollars or a few thousand (or more) depending on available space and budget.
6. You should have a good working relationship with most of the recording studios and producers in your area. The more work you get usually comes from return work you do for your clients.
7. Your demo should represent your best work. If your demo is NOT selling your talents, invest in a new one.
8. Join AFTRA, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists. This union governs most recorded voice work and puts you in line for residuals and benefits.
A voice over career is a rewarding career. But it can be hard to get your proverbial foot in the door. Take voice over classes from a reputable school or radio/TV/film department at a college, it helps. Talk to others in the industry and see how they are faring and what steps they are using to market their talents. You can do it. because voice over work for TV, radio, films will be around for a long time to come.
How to Choose the Best VoIP
There are hundreds of choices to choose from in the internet telephone market, and every person has different telephone needs. So how do you know which VoIP is right for you? I will break down the varying needs of the internet phone consumer, and provide the best VoIP service for that need.
For the average consumer, whose needs mostly involve local calling with the occasional call to relatives or friends in other states, the main choice is Vonage. Vonage is inexpensive, stable, and reliable. Vonage’s unlimited calling plan is $24.99 a month, and allows for unlimited calls in the USA, Canada, and much of western Europe.
For a customer who needs to make a lot of outbound international calls, it often depends upon the destination. If you call a variety of international countries, you may want to consider Packet8, whose “Freedom International” allows for free calls to non-mobile and non-premium numbers in 40 nations.
For a customer who expects to receive a lot of inbound international calls, you would most likely want to look at Lingo VoIP from Primus Telecommunications. Lingo offers phone numbers in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Spain, and the UK. This allows you to get a local number for whoever is going to call you. This means the phone call will count as a local call! The savings for both you and your callers will be enormous.
For someone who only makes a few phone calls a month to international locales, SunRocket may be the option. SunRocket’s inexpensive price of $199 a year, or about $17 a month, has with it a $3 allowance for international calls. SunRocket’s international call pricing is also famous for it’s “SunRocket SunSpots”, 41 countries which can be called for only $0.03 a minute, which include China, Australia, France, Austria, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Malaysia, and others. With that $3 monthly allowance, you could call those countries for 100 minutes for free every month.
And finally, for the penny pincher, there is ViaTalk. ViaTalk has literally the most inexpensive VoIP service around. Priced at $15.95 with two months free, it just doesn’t get cheaper. However, SunRocket is only a $1 a month more, and may be worth the upgrade. Or the options Lingo and Packet8 have may intrigue you. Or the large in-network and big-name value of Vonage might be just what you need.
Whatever your choice, there is a internet phone company specifically tailored for your needs. Make sure to compare the services and figure out which works internet phone service works best for you.
Is Voip Really Worth It? Part 4
Reliability Rules
Despite technological advances, migrating to IP telephony is not a move to be taken lightly. Performance lags that would go unnoticed on a data network can significantly degrade IP voice quality. Bill Erdman, director of product management in Cisco’s Enterprise Voice and Video Business Unit, says that the onus falls on IT departments to keep their networks in top working condition.
“You need to run a tight ship in the IT organization,” Erdman emphasizes. “[IT departments] have to have a consistent policy on how they will prioritize applications and telephony.”
In fact, the lack of traffic prioritization on the public Internet is a key reason why IP telephony exists primarily within private networks. IT organizations can deploy equipment and software to ensure a satisfactory level of service on their managed networks, but no such capability exists on the Internet.
Camp believes that IP coverage and service quality on public networks is too spotty for businesses to tolerate. “If I’ve got six offices and they are all on Sprint’s backbone and Sprint will offer 50- or 60-millisecond delivery, then okay,” he says. “But if you pass from AT&T to UUNet to Genuity, all bets are off.”
Despite these problems, an emerging standard known as multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) promises to deliver high-quality voice capability over the public Internet. In essence, MPLS lets systems create virtual switches over the network, creating a stable pathway that eliminates delay.
The sticking point, says Camp, is that support for MPLS must be designed into Internet routers. “From a technical perspective, MPLS sounds like a wonderful solution. From a reality perspective, how many routers have to be replaced to make this [system] fairly ubiquitous?”
That is not to say that you can’t make IP telephony work for you on the PSTN. Using advanced equipment and software, an employee working in Atlanta can call a vendor in Seattle and have that call routed through a corporate gateway in Bellevue, Washington. A coast-to-coast connection becomes a local call.
Cray’s Stephens says that his company is saving $1000 to $2000 per month by routing calls from the Wisconsin office through Cray’s Mendota Heights, Minnesota, facility. Not only are interoffice calls handled by the wide area network, but calls made to other companies in the Twin Cities region hop off the WAN and become local calls as well.
Camp also urges companies to carefully consider equipment choices. “Think about a call to 911,” he says. “Okay, I’ve got an IP address. How does that tie into the 911 database so the emergency crews can find us? How do you do caller ID if it’s gatewayed through an IP network?”
Future Proof
While the reality of making end-to-end IP-based calls over the Internet remains years removed, businesses can achieve big gains by converging phone networks with managed local and wide area networks. Access to advanced features, intuitive user and management interfaces, and the ability to use the corporate WAN to bypass the PSTN combine to make IP telephony a compelling option. Factor in the considerable cost savings of maintaining a single network and network staff, and the math for IP telephony seems to add up.
“We sold the system to our executives on the futures,” says Cray’s Stephens. “The potential is so big…that if you’re thinking about a PBX upgrade you really need to think about this.”
More articles and solutions on VoIP. Go here: http://www.simplyusedphones.com/voip.html
All Entre Oftware Yriad Of Oles And Esponsibilities
Modern day call centres strive for superior customer service with matching efficiency at competitive costs. When this mission is supported by an effective management and control framework, the contact centre is likely to forge ahead towards impressive growth rates and enjoy a loyal and growing clientele.
To achieve high quality services and enviable growth rates, call centres have to depend heavily on specialised software such as call centre management software, predictive diallers, soft phone diallers, VoIP call control, etc.
But these software tools can be expensive and different kinds of software are intended to suit different kinds of processes and turnover magnitudes. So how do you decide which one would suit your operations best?
Deciding on the best call centre software solution
Start by analysing your current message/call turnover and other functions. This analysis will throw up the following facts:
Number of service requests per day, and per month.
Channels through which a particular request is being made. In other words, which are the major media for the service requests, whether they are coming via phone, Internet, email, SMS etc.
What is the primary nature of calls? Whether they are for after-sales service or for telemarketing or whether they are inbound or outbound.
Number of agents handling the calls and whether there are multiple locations involved.
Are there any parameters to judge agents performance? If yes, what are they and how effective are they in accurately measuring the performance.
The type of phone system being used and the suitability of the same for your type of operations.
After you have analysed the different aspects of your call centre, match your requirements, budget and IT infrastructure with the features, benefits and cost of the call centre software products such as predictive diallers, softphone diallers, VoIP call controllers. This will enable you to buy the right one.
Once a particular software suite is purchased and implemented, the call centre management needs to understand how the software can help them in various tasks, especially in monitoring and assessment. Here is how it can be done:
How does the call centre software help the management tackle different issues?
Since call centre operations involve so many agents and so many different channels of customer-agent interaction, such as emails, web, voice calls etc., it is imperative that there is a high level of integration and monitoring.
Call centre software suites which come loaded with features such as, softphone diallers, VoIP call control, call centre monitoring software, call centre scheduling software etc. are of great help to the management to run its operations smoothly and maintain a high, yet discreet, level of monitoring and assessment.
These technologies, in general, enable the call centre managers to do the following:
1. Manage various call centre tasks and functions better, as these software solutions give them a complete overview of the various processes.
2. Meet deadlines – call centre monitoring software affords the managers to schedule and assign various tasks as per the requirement and the recourses available.
3. Meet the performance criteria as chalked out in their SLA (service level agreement) – call centre monitoring software will give a clear picture of agents performance by providing key performance indicators.
4. With advanced call centre software, managers can analyse call distribution and trends as they relate to various demographics and even seasons. They are thus able to offer optimum solutions to the client.
5. Accurately forecast the future performance based on the past performance indicators as provided by call centre management software. This software even suggests ways to improve upon the past performance and helps implementing the solutions.
