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Give the gift of family stories using Evoca Call Recorder for Skype

December 22, 2011 in Facebook, Social Networking, Storytelling, Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Hearing Grandma Maria’s stories about growing up on a farm. Nephew Marco’s first words. Uncle Fritz’s recollections about his life in the circus. Capturing and sharing their voices for posterity in a digital audio recording: Priceless.

Evoca offers its easy-to-use Evoca Call Recorder for Skype to capture, share, and archive family stories, oral histories, and special events as MP3 recordings. Skype call recording with Evoca is accomplished “in the cloud” with no downloads or updates required. It is like StoryCorps inside your phone or computer, without having to wait for a van to show up in your town every few years or have family members in the same place to record and preserve their stories.

Evoca enables its subscribers to easily record family stories using Skype or any type of phone, share the audio recordings via email for listening or downloading, save them in a private online album for convenient playback, or post to family and genealogy websites, blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter. Recording the audio stream of Skype video calls is another handy Evoca feature. Family members anywhere in the world can playback recordings from any mobile smartphone, tablet or computer. Burning a CD to send to non-technical family members is simple to do.

Evoca subscribers can interview family members between continents, across countries, or around the table. They also can invite family members to record their own voices using any of these three methods: 1 – Phone or Skype – subscriber registers up to 30 phone numbers or 30 Skype accounts of family members, so their recordings will be saved to the subscriber’s account; 2 – Recording by phone using a dedicated “family storytelling hotline” with an Evoca Local or Toll-Free Plan; 3 – Recording their voices using Evoca’s online recorder on a family website or blog.

Another quick gift idea is to give an Evoca Pro subscription to journalists, writers or bloggers to record their own voice, interviews and conference calls. As She Writes member Monique Fields said, “Every writer in the world should have an Evoca subscription!” The Evoca team agrees. A Free Trial subscription is available before upgrading to a Pro, Local or Paid Plan.

 

Stonehill College Spanish language instructor uses mobile recording

October 27, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Education, Facebook, Humanities, International, Interviews, Language, Testimonials, Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Sister Tania Santander Atauchi combines her Spanish language skills and cultural expertise about Spanish-speaking countries to educate her students at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She expands her students’ educational experience “into the cloud” by enabling them to record their language-and-culture assignments simply by using their mobile phones to record from any location.

Students can record, listen, and re-record. Their audio assignments are saved online as MP3 recordings. Sister Tania emails the recordings, with feedback, to the students, who can listen, download, embed in their own websites or blogs, or even post to Facebook or Twitter to share their accomplishments. Their instructor easily registered the students’ mobile phone numbers to instantly save and store the recordings in her password-protected Evoca account, one of several recording management methods available with Evoca for Educators.

When the Evoca team learned that Sister Tania was applying Evoca is exactly one of the uses for which it was built, we wanted to hear more about her background, her work inside and outside of the classroom, and the faith and devotion she brings to her students. Listen to Sister Tania’s own words.

 

Read more

Simple English News streams audio on iPhones, iPads and Androids

July 29, 2011 in Blog, Business, Education, Facebook, Humanities, International, Interviews, Journalists, Language, Skype, Social Networking, Twitter by msharpe  |  No Comments

Simple English News [SEN] publishes interesting English language news articles with audio recordings to help ESL [English-as-a-Second Language] learners around the world to read English, listen to the pronunciation, and practice it.

Using Evoca’s universal Evoca smart audio player, a listener can playback audio recordings with any smartphones or tablets – including iPhones, iPads, Androids, and BlackBerrys, and any computer. The Evoca smart player automatically detects the listener’s browser type and streams the right audio player – Flash for Androids and other devices or HTML5 for Apple devices. Three other player widget types are available: Flash, iFrame, and HTML5.

Simple English News Founder Sam Margolis launched the website to make the news accessible to people learning English. Sam operates his global website from his new home country of Hungary with this mission: “Simple English News hopes to be what it says it is. Our desire is to make the news more understandable for those who are learning English.”  Margolis is a journalist, language educator, and former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the small city of Papa, Hungary, where he taught English to high school students. His articles have appeared in The Independent, The International Herald Tribune, Wired Magazine, United Press International, The Globe and Mail, and other publications.

Listen to a Skype interview with Sam Margolis about how his career led to founding and growing Simple English News. Spread the word about how to learn English by posting Sam’s interview to your website, blog with the Evoca smart player and Post to Facebook profile or fan page and Post to Twitter features.

Record audio stream of Skype video calls

July 12, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Facebook, Interviews, Journalists, Language, Skype, Social Networking, the Best Of Evoca..., Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Evoca makes it easy to instantly record the audio stream of Skype video calls. You can record and retrieve as the host or participant.

Capture the audio during Skype video interviews and conference calls using your computer or Skype smartphone or tablet apps and securely save and store recordings in your online Evoca account.

Email recordings to other call participants or colleagues, post to  any website, blog, Facebook or Twitter, or keep private. Playback on any computer, smartphone, or tablet. Evoca’s web service creates and streams MP3 recordings online “in the cloud”, so no software downloads are required.

Skype video calls to another person are free. Skype video conference calls with 3 to 10 people requires Skype Premium plan sign up following a 7-day free trial.

Access the full news release here.

How to record audio for Skype video calls

After an easy one-time set up, you can record the audio stream again and again with one click. Read more

How to post voice recordings to Twitter

March 1, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Social Networking, Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Here is how to post voice recordings to Twitter using Evoca. Sign up for an Evoca Express subscription — free trial, Pro, or with a dedicated Local or Toll-free number and see how easy it is to record and post to Twitter.

You can set up the Twitter update feature after you sign up for your Evoca subscription. You can review each recording before posting or automatically [great for audio-blogging during a trip]. It is all self-service. Settings can be changed at any time.

Cradle of Prayer offers audio listening online using Evoca

April 14, 2010 in General Announcements, Music, Religion, Social Networking, the Best Of Evoca..., Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

The Cradle of Prayer is intent on sharing the traditional Anglican service beyond the walls of All Saints Anglican Church in Mills River, North Carolina. To achieve the goal of being a 21st century online resource for hope, comfort, and compassion, they turned to Evoca, a leading global audio web services provider. Evoca is making podcasting of prayers, scripture readings, and music very easy for members of religious groups.

Cradle of Prayer offers free MP3 listening and downloads of prayers and soothing classic hymns and songs. Evoca supports playback of daily services and weekly collections. Listeners can email single recordings or entire albums to others. Other religious and spiritual organizations podcast sermons and prayer chains using Evoca. While the Cradle of Prayer sends their website visitors directly to the Cradle of Prayer Evoca account, here are two examples of the players that any Evoca subscriber can embed in their web pages:

  • A standard single recording player with a viral share button for posting by visitors to their own web pages, blogs, Facebook, and more, using Evoca’s auto-generated embed code:

  • A customized playlist player displaying images for each recording and including a viral share button. It was created using the Evoca player wizard that generated its embed code:

Stacy Stephens, a co-founder and soprano, opens each service as cantor with a seasonal verse of a hymn, followed by the reading of the prayers and Psalms by co-founder Reverend Paul Blankinship. Anyone can also subscribe to the site to get new recording updates via RSS feeds.

“Evoca makes it easy for listeners of all ages to benefit from our services, which include scripture readings and music. After recording, our cantor simply uploads to our Evoca account, “ said Cathy Rodgers, webmaster of Cradle of Prayer and principal of 7 Waves Marketing. “We then offer our listeners a link to the recordings from our website to listen or download. We have people of all ages who come to our site every day.”

“Cradle of Prayer is an excellent example of how anyone can offer audio listening and downloads right from their Evoca account,” added Murem Sharpe, Evoca CEO. “This fits with Evoca’s mission to make it easy for subscribers — from beginners to experts — to share valuable audio content online.”

About Evoca
Evoca is a leading global voice-to-web services provider that enables businesses, organizations and individuals to easily record interviews, testimonials, opinions, stories, and language lessons using any phone, Skype™, and any computer mic. Evoca subscribers post viral audio widgets on their websites that can share recordings on Facebook, Twitter, websites, and blogs. Evoca Express is available online as a free trial, Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscription. Large organizations, other web services, and telecommunications partners also can license Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media, enterprise-grade platform delivered through a flexible interface.

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder. Any Evoca Express subscriber can receive the Evoca Express webinar training schedule by emailing: customerservice@evoca.com.

How to use Evoca audio recordings in a PowerPoint presentation

February 9, 2010 in "How-To" posts, General Announcements, Media, Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

By now you know we are big fans of TJ Walker, expert on media and presentation training and CEO of Media Training Worldwide and blogger at TJWalker.com.

Many Evoca subscribers embed audio recordings within their PowerPoint presentations, either as a link to the web page with an embedded Flash player (provided by Evoca – standard or customized by you) or from their Evoca Express account. Evoca streams the audio playback from our servers. Player widgets can be for a single recording or playlist.

So we are always on the lookout for good advice about using technology in presentations, especially to incorporate voice recordings that bring PowerPoint slides to life. For example, you can let your own customers or supporters record a testimonial  to enliven a success story or case study. Real people’s voices bring credibility to your assertion that your product or service is the best in the market.

With his permission to publish, here are TJ’s:

Ten rules to follow when you are using technology in a presentation

1.    Assume the worst.
2.    Practice using the technology, that includes the laptop, microphone, projector, speaker, microphone, laser and anything that you are going to use in front of people you should practice in advance.
3.    Practice in the same environment as you will be giving your final presentation, i.e., if you are presenting to 400 people in a conference hall using a big projector, then practice in that hall or one similar. Don’t simply practice on your laptop in a hotel room because it’s easy to do anything with your laptop in a hotel room and this will give you a false sense of confidence.
4.    When microphones [and speakers] break and computers freeze, don’t panic and don’t complain. If there is a tech person around, calmly mention that your microphone is no longer working and ask for help. If you computer freezes, calmly restart it without drawing attention to your problems.
5.    Have a plan B. If your PowerPoint stops working, just be ready to talk to people using nothing more than your paper notes.
6.   Test all technology either right before you speak (if possible) or during the largest break of the day (breakfast, lunch or dinner) preceding your presentation so that you can make sure you know how everything works.
7.    If you get lots of feedback from a microphone, just stop talking and step back. This solves most problems right away.
8.   Never, ever try to learn any piece of technology in front of people. Every laptop keyboard is slightly different; every remote control is different. It’s really tough to learn anything new when you have the tension associated with being in front of people and they are staring at you.
9.    If you are going to use PowerPoint with video clips [and/or audio clips] and use a microphone, give yourself an extra hour to rehearse in the room where you will be presenting—because there are a million things that can go wrong.
10.    Never forget, the presentation is about the ideas you have to help, inform, inspire and educate you audience, the presentation is not about your technology.

About Evoca

Evoca (http://www.evoca.com/) is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express is available as a free 30-day trial, Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscriptions. It provides voice recording and online digital content distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated local and toll-free telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Evoca’s Twitter audio update feature, TweeVoca, enables posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also share recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can license, Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder. Any Evoca Express subscriber can receive the Evoca Express webinar training schedule by emailing: customerservice@evoca.com.

Using Storytelling in Public Speaking Has Audience Appeal

January 13, 2010 in "How-To" posts, Blog, General Announcements, Social Networking, Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

TJ Walker, friend of Evoca and one of the one of the leading authorities on media and presentation training in the world, shares his insights about the power of using stories in your presentations. His message: dialog makes your message genuine. Even if you’re not a born public speaker or joke-teller, the humor and emotion of a true story can put a smile on the faces of your audience members or an “uh huh” of understanding and connection.

Here is TJ’s sound advice, excerpted from his recent blog article:

Most of us use dialogue quite naturally when we are telling our friends and families interesting stores about what happened in our day. Many great humorous stories are told in a dialogue format. But the first thing most business presenters do is to strip the dialogue out of presentations because they think it is somehow not “professional” or “businesslike.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course it is possible to say things that are unprofessional during a presentation, but that is a function of what you are saying, not because you said it in an interesting manner.

When you tell a story using dialogue, several positive things occur all at once:

  1. By introducing another character, you make your story more interesting.
  2. Speaking in dialogue takes you away from the position of a God-like narrator from above and puts you down on the ground in a non-abstract position for your audience.
  3. When you say the words that someone else said to you, you change the tone of your voice. This makes you less monotonous to listen to.
  4. When you insert dialog, you naturally pause in-between characters. This pausing makes you sound more conversational and more interesting.
  5. With dialog, you might even slightly mimic the other person’s tone of voice, thus providing more sound variety for your audience.
  6. By using dialog, you are by definition, making your presentation more conversational, less abstract, and therefore easier to follow for your audience.
  7. By using dialog, you are necessarily slowing down the delivery of new facts to your audience, thus giving them a chance to catch up and absorb your most important points.

Of course it is possible to give a good presentation without using stores with dialog, but you are making it much harder on yourself if you try. All great speakers sprinkle dialogue throughout their presentations, no matter how complex, difficult or technical the subject matter. All lousy, boring speakers studiously avoid the use of dialogue.

Thank you, TJ for your permission to share your words of wisdom!

Here are a few more ideas from the Evoca team:

  • Share your recorded presentation online on your website, blog, and Facebook page using Evoca’s viral Flash player widgets. Use the copy/paste code we auto-generate for you.  If you record your final “live” presentation, you can upload the recording to your Evoca account and then embed the Flash player widget exactly where you want it to appear. Just like this:
  • “Tweet” the recording to your Twitter account using Evoca’s handy TweeVoca feature that enables you to “click and post” Twitter audio updates.

You can get More Insights from TJ Walker & Jess Todtfeld at http://www.tjwalker.com and www.SpeakingInsider.com.

TJ’s article – Media Training Worldwide  – Copyright 2010

Evoca LLC – Copyright 2010

Evoca launches global phone recording service to capture family stories during the holidays and year-round

December 18, 2009 in "How-To" posts, Blog, General Announcements, International, Interviews, Media, Releases, Social Networking, the Best Of Evoca..., Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Inspired by the annual “National Day of Listening” sponsored by StoryCorps and National Public Radio, Evoca makes family storytelling and recording a daily event during the holidays and year-round.

Using 21st century Internet and phone technologies Evoca launched “Every Day of Listening” to enable family members who are getting together at Grandma’s house or even across the ocean from each other to record using any phone, Skype, and a computer mic. With a shared Evoca account, creating a family audio memory album is possible whether family members can get together in person or not.

Getting underway is easy. The family “organizer” signs up online for an Evoca Express Pro subscription and registers up to 30 phone numbers of the family members who can call to record stories, memories, and humor. For family members located in different countries or any Skype users, 30 Skype accounts can also be registered. The organizer can sign up for a free trial subscription to practice. Then any family member with a registered phone number or Skype account simply dials any Evoca public phone number, hears the cheerful Evoca greeting: “Welcome to Evoca. Record after the beep and hang up when you’re done”, talks, and hangs up. The recording is instantly stored in the family account as an MP3 recording. Recording a Skype call starts by clicking on the Evoca Skype Call Recorder contact in your Skype account. Since Evoca is a web service, no software downloads or updates are required.

J’miah Nabawi, national award-winning storyteller, teaching and performing artist, and Evoca’s Artist-in-Residence offered, “Everyone has a story to tell. With Evoca, precious stories of family members, especially our elders, can be captured, shared, and saved for future generations.” He added, “We applaud StoryCorps and National Public Radio for encouraging the telling and sharing of family members’ stories. We are thrilled that Evoca makes it possible for anyone, anywhere to share their stories, short or long, simply by picking up their phone. They also can include singing, music, and laughter for their loved ones to hear.”

Two family members can easily record together with one of them asking questions and the other giving the answers. StoryCorps calls them “interview partners” and offers a terrific “Great Questions” guide. Evoca provides step by step instructions about how to record an interview by phone or Skype. The family can even record a group of people in “conference call” style using Evoca’s phone or Skype features. Evoca also provides its subscribers with a Browser Mic, an in-browser Flash recorder, which can also be embedded in a family genealogy website or blog to collect voice recordings using any computer mic.

The recordings can be kept private, emailed to family members, downloaded to a CD to mail to Grandma, or posted to family and genealogy websites, blogs, and social networking profiles such as Facebook. RSS feeds can alert family members to new recordings that they can add to their  Tunes, iPhones and iPods. Transcriptions are available through Evoca’s online transcription service.

About Evoca

Evoca is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express (www.evoca.com) is available as a Free 30-day trial, Pro, Local, and Toll-free subscription. It provides voice recording and online digital content distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Organizations of any size can easily integrate and customize Evoca features into their online properties, marketing programs, education and language training courses, and customer-facing operations. Evoca launched its Twitter audio update application, TweeVoca to enable posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also “share” recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can also benefit from Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder. Any Evoca Express subscriber can receive the Evoca Express training schedule by emailing: customerservice@evoca.com.

©2009 Evoca LLC. All rights reserved.  All copyrights and trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective owners.

Posting and sharing iPhone 3G Voice Memos and iTunes recordings made easy by Evoca

December 4, 2009 in General Announcements, Media, Social Networking, the Best Of Evoca..., Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Evoca (www.evoca.com) has expanded its voice recording services to instantly convert Apple-supported AAC, MP4, and AIFF audio file formats to MP3 recordings for easy posting online, sharing with customers, audiences, and supporters, and emailing to professional and personal contacts. This increase in services directly benefits users of Apple products and services.

For example, Evoca Express subscribers with an iPhone 3G can create a voice recording, known as a Voice Memo, let it auto-synch to iTunes™, and then upload the Voice Memo from iTunes to their Evoca Express account. Evoca already supports MP3 file upload and WAV upload conversion to MP3 files.

Apple suggests ”Capture a thought, a memo, a meeting, or any audio recording with Voice Memos”. The Evoca team adds: “Then share your Voice Memo online with your customers, audiences, or supporters using Evoca’s Flash player widgets, email, or bookmarking.”

Users of Apple products and services who also subscribe to Evoca Express have many choices for posting and sharing recordings from their Evoca Express account: post online in an audio player widget provided by Evoca; share the widget with their website visitors to post in their own social profiles, blogs, or websites; email recordings to colleagues, followers, students, and friends; download recordings to their computer, burn a CD, or archive it online. Recordings stored on an iPod™ can also be auto-synched to iTunes and instantly converted by Evoca to MP3 recordings upon upload to their Evoca account. In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), protected WMA files in iTunes cannot be converted.

To experience the benefits first-hand, iPhone, iPod, and iTunes users can sign up for a Free 30-day trial or an Evoca Express Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscription starting at $4.95 per month. As a web service, no software downloads are required. Subscribers can also create voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and browser mic. Current Evoca Express subscribers get this service expansion at no additional cost.

An audio file format is a file format for storing audio data on a computer system or other digital devices such as smart phones, iPods, and MP3 players. The file formats mentioned above are summarized as follows:

  • MP3: The file format extension is .mp3. Evoca converts WAV files and Apple-supported formats AAC, M4A, and AIFF to MP3 format and then stores and streams these MP3 files per the subscriber’s decision to share a recording or keep it for private use. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players. A 32 bit 44,100 Hz MP3 recording is stored at 32 bit 44,100 Hz. When Evoca detects a new file’s existing sample rate, the audio gets up-sampled to the next 11,025 Hz if it is not already an interval of 11,025 Hz.
  • WAV: Windows Audio Format. File format extension is .wav. Short for Waveform, it is a format used on Windows systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio. Since uncompressed WAV files are quite large in size, as file sharing over the Internet has become popular, the WAV format has declined in popularity. It was developed jointly by Microsoft™ and IBM™. Evoca converts WAV to MP3 files upon upload and also in its Phone-to-Web voice recording process.
  • AAC: Advanced Audio Coding. File format extension is .aac. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC is best known for being the default audio format for Apple’s iPhone, iPod and iTunes, and is also the standard iTunes Store audio format.
  • M4A: File format extension is .m4a.  M4A stands for MPEG 4 Audio. An M4A file always contains only MPEG 4 Audio. Apple Computer started using and popularizing the M4A file extension to denote the file was an unprotected (non digital rights management) MPEG 4 Audio file.
  • AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format. File format extension is .aiff or .aif. Created by Apple, it is used for audio and video applications. Like any non-compressed format, it uses much more disk space than MP3.

About Evoca

Evoca is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express (www.evoca.com) is available as a Free 30-day trial, Pro, Local, and Toll-free subscription. It provides voice recording and online digital content distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Organizations of any size can easily integrate and customize Evoca features into their online properties, marketing programs, education and language training courses, and customer-facing operations. Evoca launched its Twitter audio update application, TweeVoca to enable posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also “share” recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can also benefit from Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder.