• Use any Laptop or PC to connect to a standard ISDN codec 
• Only standard PC Sound and ISDN cards needed 
• Lowest ever coding delay - shorter than most ISDN codecs! 
• Incredibly high-quality audio transmission 

BUT ALSO The world's first IP audio codec with ADSL, DSL, Cable Modem, IP and ATM 

• Live audio over the Internet using ADSL, DSL, Cable Modem or leased lines 
• Connect across IP networks like Ethernet - link studios or workstations across your organization 
• Or use global ATM networks to deliver live broadcast-quality audio reliably and cost-effectively 

AudioTX ISDN Audio Codec functionality is compatible with all other manufacturers' ISDN codecs which support MPEG 2, MPEG 3, G.722, or G.711 coding. 

Click here for product FAQ.

Sound and ISDN cards - Tested hardware and guidelines:

Communicator is designed to work with ANY PC sound card and any ISDN TA which fully meets the CAPI 2.0 specification.

Use the information in this section, to help guide you in making your choice. 

On this page we have provided information to help you choose the right Audio and ISDN cards to use with Communicator - or check if your existing hardware will work OK. Most of it will! 

You'll also find here lists of both Audio and ISDN cards that we have tested with Communicator and our comments.

We are able to offer for sale a selection of both Audio and ISDN cards - for these cards, a link to the product summary is shown in each table. 

Any comments we make about specific products are drawn from our experience and testing only. We do not make, and you should not draw, any specific judgment (good or bad) or guarantees about a product's quality or functionality other than from the data gathered during our testing. 

Audio Cards 

Communicator will work with almost any Windows compatible sound card that you have installed in your machine. However, some cards will limit the functionality of the program as follows:

• The card must support full-duplex audio - i.e. be able to play and record at the same time... most audio cards do this and you only need to check this for really old models. Check that the card operates at a decent sample rate - 44.1kHz is fine and 48kHz is ideal.     
• The card should be capable of decent quality recording and playback - obviously if you hear a hiss or crackle when you record and or playback audio, or if the sound quality of the card is poor, then this will be reflected in Communicator's performance using that card.     
• Firewire, USB, PCMCIA, PCI and ISA cards are all fine as long as they meet these basic criterion above.     
• We have observed that using certain USB cards and only on some machines, you need to fully boot the PC before plugging in the USB card - this is generally true for the card, rather than being a specific Communicator issue. 

Tested Audio cards:
(Additional product data is provided on the cards that we are able to supply direct (top of list) - click the card name for more. An explanation of our ratings and comments is provided following the table.)

ISDN Cards 

Communicator requires an ISDN card which fully meets the CAPI 2.0 specification. Unfortunately, our testing reveals that not all cards which claim to meet this specification actually do. The following is a list of cards that we have tested and know to work without any problems. If you discover other widely available cards that work reliably, we'd love to hear from you!

In choosing an ISDN card for use in your own country, you should check what 'switch protocol' your ISDN line provider uses. Here are a list with current country indications:

It's easier than it looks - basically, European countries mainly use DSS1 as do most of Asia, Middle East, South America, Australia. In the USA, NI-1 or 5ESS are most often found. The others in the list are rarely used but included for completeness.

• DSS1 Euro-ISDN (Europe, Asia, S. America, Middle East, Australia OnRamp)     
• NI-1 (North America National ISDN1)     
• 5ESS (North America AT&T)     
• 1TR6 (Germany, where not DSS1 - mainly PBX's)     
• INS Net 64 (Japan)     
• VN3 (France, where not DSS1)     
• CTI (Belgium, where not DSS1)     
• TPH 1962 (Australia MicroLink) 

Tested ISDN cards:
(Additional product data is provided on the cards that we are able to supply direct - click the card name for more.)

Network Hardware:

Private & local area networks, ATM, leased lines etc:

There are no specific recommendations on choosing your network hardware. This is because communicator simply uses the networking system on your PC. Any Ethernet, Fast Ethernet or larger scale networking hardware are all fine as long as they are a part of the standard Windows networking or office/broadcast network installed on your PC.

Communicator simply attempts to make a network connection via TCP (the standard IP protocol) to the computer you specify. You can enter this as an IP address directly, or if you specify a name, the program will use the DNS setup on your own PC or network to attempt to resolve the name.

Internet and public networks:

Communicator uses a simple IP connection as above to establish contact with the remote PC - so for most ADSL, DSL or Cable Modem connections running on your PC, all you need to do is supply an IP address to connect to. If you use a proxy server, it needs to be SOCKS compatible and you will need to install a SOCKS proxy client on the PC running Communicator.