From: Andrzej Styrcz <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Tandberg, Teleste Newsletter To: [log in to unmask] Hallo LLTI members! Greetings from snowy Finland! If I may I would like to thank all the people who have recently contributed to the interesting discussion on the Tandberg experiences and especially those who were so generous in their comments about Tandberg. It goes without saying that we would like all our customers (both teachers and students) to be happy and satisfied and we are trying all the time to improve both the customer relations as well as the products quality and service. We appreciate all the comments about our developments. However, it does hurt to hear that whatever we seem to do produces such a negative feedback as recently posted by Mr Scott Smith. First, a total criticism of the Tandberg technology, documentation and prices (Jan 25th), then a refusal of Divace with a "nice try t(!)eleste" statement(Jan 27th). I wonder what kind of a terrible experience with Tandberg could have caused such negative opinions? I would very much like to take the opportunity of going to TESOL 2000 in Vancouver and invite Mr Smith to our stand in order to understand and clarify the situation. As to Divace, let me explain one thing here as it seems to be confusing to many. Divace, being one of the very first virtual recorders to replace analog lab recorder, is, in its concept a RECORDER and not just a player. It is a mistake to compare it to other media players. We are not in the same game here and our target has never been to make Divace the player, RealAudio, Media player, ATI, Winamp, Sonic or other players are. Divace is a very powerful language learning tool with two tracks (one for playback of the master file and the other for student's voice input recording)and lots of other "language learning" related features (AACC, text synchronisation, bookmarks, recap etc.) Therefore to say that ATI player gives you the same options as Divace is groundless, to say the least. Unless one is looking only for playback features. Then, again, why should one need Divace? One more thing that has also been raised in some messages. Tandberg developments (except for multimedia lab teacher-control software and hardware) ARE NOT proprietary. Even though, in most LLTI postings Tandberg is perceived as a manufacturer of IS10, IS11 or Prisma labs, our recent developments are software concepts utilising generic, widely adopted technologies (eg. MS Windows-compatible) and serve the needs of learning environments other than language labs. DIVACE, for example, plays back all basic file formats from avi, wav, mpeg or mp3 to qt and RealMedia (ra, rm) to mention just a few. Resource and management software LIBRARY PILOT, authoring software PARTNER TOOLS or IMPERATA - application for activity control in computer labs - all conform to standard PC technologies. Thank you for your attention. Andrzej Styrcz Marketing Manager Teleste Educational Ltd. tel.+358 2 2166569 Kaurakatu 46 fax.+358 2 2166527 20741 Turku e-mail: [log in to unmask] Finland http://edu.teleste.fi http://www.divace.com