<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Options > Recording settings

The Recording Settings page can be reached from the Options menu by administrators.

 

Audio file encoding: By default, audio files are stored using the GSM compression. It provides a good balance between sound quality and disk space requirements. For higher sound quality, it is possible to choose the G.711 codec instead. Audio files made with the GSM or G.711 codec can be played back on almost all PCs. For VoIP recordings, it is also possible to store data in G.711 stereo format. The local and remote side are then split in separate channels.

MP3 encoding settings: These options can be used to change the quality settings of the MP3 encoder.

- Encoding quality: General quality setting of the MP3 encoder. The higher the quality setting used, the higher the computational cost the MP3 encoding will be.

- Encoding mode: Two encoding modes are available, CBR (constant bitrate) and VBR (variable bitrate). MP3 files encoded with a constant bitrate are generally better supported by MP3 players and will have a predictable file size. But it may also result in file sizes that are higher. MP3 files encoded in VBR mode will have varying bitrates throughout a recording depending on the encoded audio. This can result in a better audio quality to file size ratio. But the file size becomes unpredictable and some MP3 players do not handle VBR as well as CBR.

- Bitrate: CBR only. A higher bitrate can result in higher audio quality, but at the cost of larger file sizes.

- Variable bitrate quality: VBR only. Increasing this value will result in a higher average bitrate. This can improve audio quality, but at the cost of larger file sizes.

 

Addresses to record: By default, Apresa will record calls from all connected VoIP phones. With this option, you can specify which VoIP phones should be recorded. Please note that the maximum number of simultaneously recorded calls is limited by the number of licensed channels. Phones that must be recorded can be specified using IP addresses, IP address ranges (CIDR notation), IP names, and MAC addresses. MAC addresses should be in the format: 11:22:33:44:55:66 or in the format: 11-22-33-44-55-66.

Alternatively, a PCAP filter can be specified directly (external documentation). If the PCAP filter is invalid, then no filter is applied.

 

SIP Filter: The following options are available:

- No filter: All SIP calls are recorded (unless disable by another feature). This is the default.

- Only record calls that match the filter: When this option is chosen, the SIP name or SIP id (telephone number) of the initiator and receiver of each VoIP call is checked if it is equal to one of the items in the filter. If neither the sender nor the receiver is found in the SIP filter, the VoIP call is not recorded. When editing the filter list, click Generate to use the list of user phones as starting point. If you would want this to happen automatically, see the option "All user phones" below.

- Only record calls that do not match the filter: This means that calls involving telephone numbers in the list, are not recorded.

- All user phones: Only SIP calls involving telephones of users will be recorded. When a change is made to the user list, this is automatically reflected in the SIP Filter in real-time without restarting.

Note: When the SIP filter is enabled, calls for which the protocol is not recognized, will not be recorded. This is similar to when the option "Only record RTP in calls" is enabled.

 

SIP Filter Incoming call: Incoming SIP calls are recorded only when they are allowed by this filter and the main SIP filter.

SIP Filter Outgoing call: Outgoing SIP calls are recorded only when they are allowed by this filter and the main SIP filter.

The same options are available as for the main SIP filter. These two SIP filters (in/out) are currently only available for the Default recording engine, not for Snip.

 

Telephone number filter: There are three separate telephone number filters, for H.323 based protocols, for other VoIP non-SIP protocols, and for ISDN PRI. These filters can be used to limit recording to specific local telephone numbers, or to exclude specific local telephone numbers from recording.

 

Instead of specifying telephone numbers one by one, it is possible to specify a range of numbers to be recorded. For example to record all numbers in the range from 3914100 to 3914199, specify: 3914100 - 3914199. The required format for number ranges is: First number space - space last number. The first and last number must have the same number of digits.

Alternatively, it is also possible use the * star sign at the front or at the end (not in the middle), to match with any number of characters at the front or end of the telephone number. For example, +33* will match any phone number that starts with +33, and another example, *1020 will match any phone number that ends on 1020.

 

Duplication: The purpose of this setting is to allow tenants to have a private copy of a recording, when a call is recorded between two tenants of the same system. The duplicated recording will have local and remote swapped, as follows:

 

 

The duplication feature has these options:

•Off: Duplication is not performed.

•All: Duplication is applied to all recordings.

•Only that match the filter: A recording will be duplicated if both parties of the call (local and remote) are in the list.

•Calls between tenants: Duplicate only when tenants call each other. This is the recommended setting to use.

 

The two recordings are treated in the system as separate calls. Actions such as delete on demand, are applied to the recordings separately, so it could be one is deleted, while the other continues. The duplicated recordings require extra channel licenses, and use additional processing power and storage capacity. Duplication is only available for VoIP.

 

CSTA Telephone numbers: This option is applicable only if CSTA is enabled in the System settings, CSTA Type. The listed telephones are monitored using CSTA, to detect when a new call starts, and to detect the call details of the call. If CSTA Active mode is on, a conference call is setup to the recorder. If there is a SIP filter, the monitored telephone numbers should also be part of the SIP filter, to let the calls be recorded. This setting is applied to the recording engine with a delay of about 15 seconds.

 

For each monitored CSTA phone, additional parameters can be specified, separated by a semicolon (;). The required format is:

Telephone number to monitor;IP address;Alternative telephone number

- The telephone number to monitor must always be specified.

- The IP address parameter is only relevant in CSTA Passive (Internal) mode.

- The alternative telephone number needs to be specified if the communicated telephone number in CSTA events or during the SIP conference call is different from the telephone number to monitor. For example, it might be that the monitored telephone number is 2040, while the alternative telephone number is +43308572040.

 

CSTA VDN Telephone numbers: If VDN’s are used, for instance in call center environments, you can specify them here. For accurate resolving of the external number it is necessary that all the VDN’s between the external number and the answering device are specified. This setting is only applicable for Avaya DMCC.

 
CSTA Called Telephone numbers: Only applicable to Mitel Mx-One. Only calls that have a matching called phone number that match the filter, are recorded using CSTA (active).

 

Recording on demand: This setting is applied after the previous filters have been applied. If this setting is off, the software will function unmodified as usual. If this setting is set to All, then all VoIP calls are recorded only on request. If the setting is set to "Only that match the filter", then the calls with the specified telephone numbers are recorded only on request. If a call is recorded only on request, this means it is initially not recorded, but it will be recorded, when the command to start recording is given. Initially, it will be listed in the active call list, but not recorded. Recording can be started from the Apresa Client or with a recognized Dial code (dial code action start and stop). If the setting is set to "Defined at the user level", then when editing a user, recording on demand can be enabled or disabled for that user.

Note: For Analog and Digital TDM, there is a line-based setting in the Card settings.

 

Delete on demand: When enabled, a recording can be stopped and erased by using dial code actions. This feature can be enabled for all, or only for a set or range of telephone numbers, or defined at the user level. To specify a line number of card recording, use a hash sign followed by the channel number, for example #5.

 

Silence on demand: When enabled, a part of the recording can be silenced by using dial code actions or using Apresa Client. Silencing also stops the screen recording (if any). For VoIP, a list of phone numbers can be specified for which silencing is available. For card recording (TDM, Analog, ISDN), it is either on or off for all.

 

Audio detection: When enabled, VoIP calls will be recorded only once the audio level is above the specified threshold. The recording is stopped when the audio level falls below the threshold and this continues for the amount of time specified in the silence time-out setting. Recording can be started and stopped multiple times during a call. This setting does not apply to non-VoIP calls.

 

Side of the call to record: By default, both parties of a call are recorded. Select Local caller, to record only what the local party has said, excluding what the remote party said. This can be used when no permission has been obtained from the remote party to be recorded. For VoIP, a local party has an IP address that is local based on the settings (see System settings, VoIP tab, Local IP Addresses). Currently, this settings applies only to VoIP calls.

 

Record remote side on demand: When enabled, the remote side will initially not be recorded. Only after a command to do so will the remote side be recorded. This option can be applied to all calls, or only that match the filter (phone numbers), or do not match the filter. This option will only have an effect if the remote side may be recorded based on the rest of the configuration. This option restricts and does not add to what is recorded. Currently, this option is only available for VoIP. Currently the command to record the remote side is only possible through dial codes.

 

Record incoming/outgoing/local calls: Before using these options, make sure the direction is correctly detected by Apresa, by checking in the Call Listing. See also the Local IP Addresses setting in the System settings, VoIP tab.

 

Do not mark calls as internal: This option only applies to non-VoIP protocols. If enabled, calls are marked as incoming or outgoing, but never as internal.

 

Do not store calls with missing telephone number: When this option is enabled, calls that lack a remote number will not be stored and not be included in the call listing.

 

Store on demand: When enabled, no calls will be stored, except those that are marked to be stored using a dial code action (See: Dial code actions), Apresa PC Client, the web client, or the API. This global setting can be overruled on a per-user basis.

Extra time to request to keep a recording: Normally, when store on demand is on, and a call finishes, its recording is deleted if no request to keep the recording has been received. This option allows time after the call has finished to request that a recording is stored (using PC or web client or API). Recordings that do not receive in time a request to be stored, will be deleted after the specified number of minutes, or when a new call is recorded with the same Local ID. Apresa PC Client supports this feature in version 4.1.0 and higher. It needs be restarted after enabling this option.

 

Minimal recording duration: Recorded calls that are shorter than the specified duration, will be discarded.

 

Call monitoring: If this option is enabled, active calls can be listened to by users who have the "Playback active calls" permission. Calls can be monitored and listened to on the Active calls page, or using the Apresa Call Monitoring software PC software. The audio is near real-time and usually has a delay in the range of a few seconds or less.

 

When you click the Apply button, the settings are applied immediately if possible. Otherwise, the system will ask for your permission to restart the recording component, in order to apply the new settings. Restarting the recording component will usually have the effect of losing the recording of currently active calls.