Recording/Logging with Internet access?

[plectron25]

I am looking for software that will do the following. Yes, I have read through months of postings here, and have tried assorted products listed in the "Recording Software and Tips" wiki. I have been using various software based scanner control programs for over ten years, but hope to see more of these programs making use of the Internet's remote access possibilities. We have multiple repeaters and standalone simplex channels using many PL/DPLs across our various school locations that we would like to log usage on, but with a public school budget we really can't spend a lot to do this.

Features desired:

-Reliably monitor a small number channels- under 20, using a radio scanner that costs under $500.
-Run on an off the shelf PC or Macintosh.
-Log each instance of channel activity with the channel number, audio clip, time/date of clip, PL/DPL (CTCSS/DCS) in use. (it would seem that PL/DPL logging can be tricky depending on the particular scanner model and what the communications limitations are between the computer and scanner, particularly if you have multiple PL/DPL on a single channel and also want to lock out some of them...)
-Allow for both local and remote (via IP) playback of the recorded clips. Web based client preferred, but application based client is acceptable.
-Allow streaming audio delivery to multiple remote listeners via IP with text tags, frequency, signal strength, etc...
-Be able to listen to recorded material either in order for a single channel or group of channels, or chronologically through multiple channels through an event.
-Is affordable: under $200 not including the scanner(s), computer. "Affordable" is a relative term of course.
-Trunked system monitoring is not critical, but would be a plus.

I am probably missing some of the features while testing, but what I have observed so far with a sampling of the programs suggested in these forums:

-Scancat-Gold SE logs the audio clips individually, but does not have the IP access or PL/DPL features that I could find. It would seem feasible to log the audio clips to a directory that you could then share via HTTP using Windows IIS.

-The ARC products look interesting, but the IP and audio recording features push the price above what our budget allows.

-Scannerbase 246T Audio Recorder looks interesting for the recording end, but the IP access features are not within the scope of this software.

-Win500 looks like it has many of the features I am trying to find, but I don't own a GRE PSR500/600 to test with. I was able to listen to the starrsoft server using the client, but the VLC and WM player did not connect; perhaps too many users online. I was not able to find samples of what the audio logging/recording features look like though.

-Various Signal Intelligence products (such as Spectrum Commander IX) do the scanning, logging time and PL/DPL, audio recording. The lower priced Scanstar products don't include the IP access capabilities as far as I can tell from testing. If I had a much larger budget it looks like Signal Intelligence would support the solutions I am looking for.

-Proscan 1.7 Build 2 allows users to monitor and record locally and over the Internet, but the audio recordings do not include "per clip" time stamping. If this software could link the history file entries with the actual audio it would have pretty much everything I am looking for. Remote playback from the server with sorting/selection abilities would complete the list. So far this program proves to be reliable and well written, and is quite cost effective for a product that allows multiple streaming connections and recording.

Obviously there are ways to do much of this with a combination of and RDP connection and some of the packages that I have tried, but I have found the audio quality through RDP, etc... to be less than optimal, and I prefer to minimize the number of ports open for access to the monitoring PC from the Internet. All of the features I describe are possible- they are found in the various packages evaluated. The trick is finding all of them rolled into a single package!

Suggestions for other software to consider? Am I the only user who is looking for this sort of functionality?

 

[SCPD]

-Reliably monitor a small number channels- under 20, using a radio scanner that costs under $500.

At that price, you can purchase a radio to scan that many channels. You can record only one conversation at a time. If two or more conversations overlap - you will miss the other conversations.

-Is affordable: under $200 not including the scanner(s), computer.

You can find commercial logging recorder systems to do this - hardware included - in the $20,000 price range.

Try leveraging your existing infrastructure with this distributed recording approach. Each school location likely has a base radio on campus. Place a computer with single-channel recording software behind the base radio at each school location. If the channel is a shared repeater that the school owns/controls - tap the audio at the repeater - if possible. You may find an existing computer serving other purposes, already present and in good proximity to the radio(s) - and with room to spare in terms of performance.

Providing a means to playback audio from multiple locations becomes your challenge - but not an insurmountable one. You can either pull audio from each location on demand or gather the multiple sources into a central server. The cool thing is your distributed system will have a degree of reliability that the commercial recording systems can't touch.

Still having trouble finding the right software? Pose your challenge to the high school kids - they may surprise you.

 

[plectron25]

Thanks for the suggestions- yes, we can hook up a printer and tape recorder to the newer repeaters, but the old Motorola R100 for instance does not make that an easy option.

We really don't mind if some overlapping activity is missed- the scanner based solutions should be fine. I just have not found one that does audio recording with date/time linked events AND has Internet access for streaming and playback.