Time Indexing Audio System

The Time Indexing Audio System is an application that extents the TIX Core to provide direct access to parts of an audio stream from a specific point within the stream. By having a configurable start time and duration the audio is accessed without needing to split the audio stream into many small sections.

The configurable times can be specified as offsets into the audio, such as from 1 minute from the start, for a duration of 20 seconds. Alternatively, times can be specified absolutely, such as 10:30 on the 1st November 2004, for a duration of 3 minutes 30 seconds.

The Time Indexing Audio System is suitable for many applications, including the following business sectors:

• music download, for use by record labels or music libraries to allow users to hear part of a track
• telephone call playback, for use by call centres to replay telephone conversations for training or validation purposes
• trading room verification, in order to confirm that the volume and value of a trade undertaken, matches that expressed between the client and the dealer

The audio retrieved from the TIX Audio System can be delivered to the end-user in various ways. These include:

• directly to an audio player, such as iTunes, XMMS, or Windows Media Player
• via an embedded web-based player, such as a Flash player or a Java Applet player
• using a network protocol, such as RTP

The extentions to the TIX core that constitute the TIX audio system are flexible enough so that they can be part of a bespoke application or can be made as part of an existing application.

When Time Indexing is to be added to an existing application, TIX audio can use the existing audio files, but add the indexing separately. Using this approach, TIX does not interfere with the existing application, but co-exists with it, allowing the existing data to be utilized more effectively.

For ease of integration into applications, the TIX Audio system is written in Java, so taht it is totally portable to any platform. It can be used in standalone applications, be part of J2EE application, or embedded in a web-based application.