The Digital Speech Standard (DSS & DSS Pro)

This article explains what the Digital Speech Standard is.

 

What is Digital Speech Standard (DSS file format)?

“Digital Speech Standard” (DSS) was originally developed by Grundig back in 1994.

Olympus, Grundig and Philips went on to form the International Voice Association (IVA)

The DSS format was then improved based on the original codec and published fully in 1997, this was jointly developed and introduced by the IVA over the course of the decade.

The DSS format answers the need for high-quality, speech and professional dictation solutions by utilizing a high compression rate which makes files that use the DSS format easy to manage in the workflow system.

The DSS & DS2 file formats are widely used on a range of digital dictation devices due to the basic recording functionality which they provide, this includes the ability to record audio in outstanding quality, audio playback, rewinding and more. They even allowed the user to record in overwrite mode and insert mode which essentially made the format ideal for dictating. 

The recorded dictations are compressed into such small file sizes which allows for the files to be easy managed by the user. The high compression rate ensures the file size is miniscule which in turn allows for fast transferring / copying of the files. This then means there is less network traffic and a reduced requirement for storage capacity.

 

Digital Speech Standard Pro (DS2 file format)

The “Digital Speech Standard Pro” (DS2) file format is a further development of the DSS format, it utilizes the same file compression technology however the DS2 also provides a key feature; Encryption. 

File encryption is provided at 128-/256-bit AES, this allows the dictation files the user creates to be protected, which is important for confidential dictation data.

The DS2 format also supports better sound quality which in turn improves the speech recognition results.

 

Utilizing the file formats in the workflow environment

In order to utilise the full workflow functionality of DSS/DS2, a highly-efficient workflow management software is the key. Professional software allows DSS/DS2 files to be played back and processed efficiently. All-in-one workflow management solutions support comprehensive utilisation of the diverse functionality and features of digital dictation technology.

Here you can visualise the various file formats and the file sizes in MB for the same audio clip. You can see how the compression rate of the Digital Speech Standard creates such a small file in comparison to other common audio file formats.

FIle Size Comparison 1

 

File extensions

The Digital Speech Standard can be identified within a computer system by the file extension ‘.dss’. 

Similarly, the Digital Speech Standard Pro format can be identified by the file extension ‘.ds2’ 

 

 


 

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