EcTownUSA is a Authorized Reseller for SoniClear. The SoniClear GOV is included FREE after July 1, 2006. Customers who purchase a COMPLETE Chamber Organizer with Community On Display, and FREE domain name services for their members will be provided with the SoniClear GOV system free.
SoniClear MeetingPro products are designed for recording government and business meetings. Using your existing Windows laptop or desktop computer, SoniClear digitally records the audio of your meetings, while automating the process of taking meeting minutes.
Streamline Process of Taking Minutes
SoniClear increases the efficiency of people who take notes at meetings. The meeting agenda can be entered into the program, along with predefined notes. As the meeting progresses, a single click will enter agenda items and notes. Edit notes during the meeting or later. Notes can then be exported to create official meeting minutes.
Capture Information Accurately
By recording the actual audio of the meeting, you will have a permanent record of what was said. By clicking on agenda items and notes entered during recording, specific sections of the meeting can be accessed directly. This feature can be used to assist in creating minutes of the meeting, and for detailed review of information and action items.
Share Meeting Information
Meetings recorded in SoniClear can easily be shared with staff, elected officials, and the public, as required. By making specific portions of the meeting directly accessible, SoniClear ensures that all the people involved in making decisions are informed throughout the process. Having an exact recording of what was said that is easily accessible reduces problems with inaccurate reporting of the meeting. Decision making can proceed based on accurate and complete understanding by all parties of the issues presented at the meeting.
Discover the Power of MeetingPro
Try out SoniClear MeetingPro for yourself and experience the power of recording meeting information in this new way. Install the SoniClear Evaluation and follow these simple instructions.
Evaluation Instructions
Install SoniClear Evaluation software, and start the program. It is best to experiment with the software in a test situation before recording your first meeting. This will allow you to be familiar with the operation of the software, and have the microphone and record level set up correctly.
The default source of audio is from your sound card microphone. If your computer has a built-in microphone (typical for laptops) the program will record automatically from it. Otherwise, plug a computer-compatible microphone into the mic-in jack of the sound card.
If you are using some other sound source (such as a USB microphone or line-in from a microphone preamplifier) you will need to review the documentation instructions (see Help/SoniClear Help in the program, or the SoniClear Online Documentation).
Before the meeting or lecture starts, create a new file for recording. Click the New button, enter a file name, select Meeting as the recording type, click OK.
This will display "Ready to Record" in the status window, along with the length of time that you can record (based on the amount of free space on your disk drive). The program is now ready to record.
When the meeting or lecture officially starts, click the red Record button. The first time using the program you will probably need to adjust the record volume. If you are using the standard sound card microphone or line-in source, you simply adjust the "level" slider. The best level is when the record meter registers generally in the middle of the range. Too low or too high of a meter reading will result in poor audio quality. Try to find a record volume setting that prevents people speaking close to the microphone from being too loud, while still picking up more distant speakers. This is a general setting to get the overall range of pickup for the recording. SoniClear will adjust the volume automatically for louder and softer voices when recording the audio to disk.
While recording with SoniClear, you can use your computer to do other things, such as run PowerPoint presentations or type notes in a word processor. SoniClear will continue to run in the background.
When the meeting is over, click the Stop button. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to stop recording. Recording will actually stop when you click Yes.
You can review the audio by clicking the Play button. If you do not hear anything, be sure the audio to your speakers is on. This can be adjusted by clicking on the speaker icon in the lower right corner of the computer screen.
The audio is recorded into a standard format "WAV" file. SoniClear automatically enhances the WAV file with VoiceBoost processing, while you speak. There are no additional processing steps to do or commands that you need to make. SoniClear will produce the best quality sound possible, given the original quality of the audio that is being sent into the computer. A number of factors can affect the sound. The quality of the microphone is the most important point. In addition, sound cards vary widely in their quality, in terms of noise level and distortion. Refer to our notes about microphones on the Microphone Support Page. Suggestions on how to get the best quality sound are also included in the program documentation (SoniClear Online Documentation), and on the Troubleshooting Support Page.
Once you have completed your recording, you manage it like any other file on your computer. You can share the WAV file with others, by copying it to a local area network disk drive, or burning it to a CDROM.
You can also convert it to MP3 format. From the File pulldown menu, select Export to MP3. Enter a file name and location (or accept the default choice). Then click Encode. This will produce a low bitrate MP3 file that has good audio quality for voice, while being easily transferred through dial-up modem connections.
The MP3 file exported from SoniClear can be used in several ways. You can burn it to a CDROM and it can play back on almost all new audio CD players (which now support MP3 computer file playback). It can be transferred to MP3 players for portable playback. The MP3 file can also be posted to your website for people to download and listen on their computers. MP3 files can be played back on virtually any computer system (including Macintosh and Unix systems).