UK - The University of Sheffield has invested in a substantial number of Marantz PMD670 professional recorders, which are being used in the ground-breaking speech therapy unit, the Philippa Cottam Communication Clinic in the Department of Human Communication Sciences. The Teaching and Research Communication Clinic is actively engaged in the treatment of, and research into, children and adults with speech problems. These include both adult stroke victims and children with facial deformities such as cleft palate.

The Clinic's professionals are now using PMD670 solid state audio recorders from Marantz Professional to record meetings and therapy sessions with their clients. These high-quality recording devices are compact and portable, yet extremely simple for non-expert users to operate. The unit can record audio in a variety of data formats, including .WAV and MP3, and a computer I/O connection (USB) allows it to be easily and directly linked to a computer for file transfer.

"It's critically important to our work to be able to capture precise details of speech, so we wanted to have the highest quality recorders available," explains Jose Garcia, the clinic's senior AV and computing technician. "These Marantz devices give us precision recording, and the audio information is already formatted so it can be transferred directly into our computers, where we use our own software to analyse the data and prescribe treatment."

Before purchasing 11 PMD670s from Nick Hayes at London-based Inquit Audio, the Communication Clinic was using DAT recorders. "The Marantz devices are a major improvement; solid state recorders like these have no moving parts, they really are the ideal tools for our work," says Garcia.

The recorders feature non-stop record with seven hours of battery life, a menu-driven remote operation, and an EDL marking system for creating new files on-the-fly during the recording for easy file selection during playback. Designed with compatibility for MP3, MP2, BWF, WAV formats, the PMD670 boasts an impressive 40 assignable quality settings as well as a FAT32 File Allocation Table for future multi-gig file capability. A table-top portable model, the PMD670 features a computer I/O connection that allows it to be easily linked for easy file transfer.

(Lee Baldock)


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