Computers play an integral part in everyone’s lives today – professionally and personally. In the past three decades, computing devices have evolved from an intriguing novelty reserved for those with large pocketbooks to a vital component for businesses of every size, across all industries. The aviation industry utilizes computers for everything from monitoring weather conditions to recording cockpit conversations and tracking airships. Voice recording solutions have been interwoven into air traffic management for many years. In 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration contracted with Israel-based NICE System to upgrade equipment designed to enable the agency to “compile multi-media incident information including voice, photos, flight plans and other information all in one place,” for the first time in the agency’s history.
With the announcement last year that the FAA plans to upgrade legacy systems in 2021, this is a good time to look forward to other changes we can expect.
While voice recording solutions have been an integral part of incident reconstruction for a long time, technology continues to improve, enabling faster file retrieval and sharing among agencies. The new FAA system is expected to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency. Innovative solutions are expected to facilitate responding to Freedom of Information Requests quicker with capabilities that include “legally approved” editing, splicing and masking techniques and both voice-to-text and audio-to-text functionality that reduces transcription processing times.
One of the primary goals is to shift data storage away from paper-based solutions toward web-based data warehouses that support both WAN and LAN access. Another improvement involves integrating advanced audio capabilities to improve recording quality. With the upgrades, the aviation industry will be able to efficiently capture audio and text conversations consistently and accurately from telecom equipment, radio, mobile devices, landlines, cloud-based text and chat networks and other communication tools.
Computing experts say in the next few years we will see fewer isolated networks as the aviation industry moves toward a fully integrated globally connect network functioning as one machine.
Legacy systems with limited channel capacity should be upgraded to meet growing demand for speed and accuracy. In the future, all air traffic control centers and airport facilities will still use voice recording solutions to support incident investigations and training, but they will have access to enhanced technology that reduces physical storage footprints and risks associated with computer failure during a crisis event as more facilities install equipment with ample headspace to allow drop-in repairs without disrupting recording activity.
If your aerospace organization is looking for a cost-effective solution to upgrade your existing voice and text capturing network, ATIS Digital offers state-of-the-art VoIP, RoIP, Digital Analog, and other voice recording solutions that are scalable, intuitive and reliable. The time to prepare for the future, is now. Call 1-866-871-5390 to schedule a meeting with an aviation communication expert to discuss options today.
