[0] Dictaphone Launches Freedom FT for Fault-Tolerant/High-Availability Performance.

Business Editors

STRATFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 2001

Recording system's distributed components virtually eliminate downtime

for recording applications in financial and trading applications

Dictaphone Corporation has launched Freedom FT, an advanced, fault-tolerant, digital recording system designed to virtually eliminate downtime for crucial communications recording operations at financial institutions and trading floors.

Freedom FT's unique "High Availability" design assures virtually uninterrupted uptime--expected downtime is estimated at 5.26 minutes per year--an unprecedented performance in the call recording industry.

"With conventional recording systems, the failure of a single component--CPU, hard drive, controller, power supply or archive device--tends to bring the whole system down," said Berni Breen, vice president and general manager for Dictaphone's Communications Recording Systems (CRS) division. "Freedom FT's design offers distributed components that virtually eliminate the possibility of single-point failure."

If one of the Freedom FT recorders fails, for example, it can be removed and replaced by a spare recorder without powering down the system. Competitive systems must be taken offline for component replacement and repairs. "Near-100-percent uptime is critical in financial applications," Breen said. "A call not recorded while a system component is under repair can mean millions of dollars to a financial services company or a trader. Freedom FT dramatically reduces that risk."

The Freedom FT system offers users the ability to determine the degree of fault tolerance appropriate to their environment. The system can be custom-designed with tandem components, archive redundancy and recorder redundancy, according to a wide range of variables.

Because call recordings can be archived to any network-attached storage device at user-specified schedules, recordings are available even if recording or telecom components aren't functioning. That access is unavailable in competitive products that archive calls to internal DVD or DAT drives.

In another important advance, Freedom FT has three load-sharing power supplies, which provide the system with steady power and assure that if one supply fails, another will carry the power load of up to 28 recorders.

About Freedom(TM)

Freedom FT is one of several products built on Dictaphone's basic Freedom platform. Freedom is a network appliance recording system that provides easy access and storage of voice information with built-in protection against technological obsolescence. Using Freedom, financial organizations can store voice recordings on any network-attached storage device, and can use a different storage device in the future without making their current recording system obsolete. Additionally, Freedom's plug-in telecommunications interfaces and operating system-independent architecture mean it can be easily adapted should a customer upgrade its phone system, operating system, or network.

Freedom also provides more ways to access and share voice recordings than conventional recording systems. Its network-ready design and standard audio file format make voice files accessible over any LAN/WAN, Internet or intranet system, using any multi-media PC. In addition, compressed .wav file recordings can be delivered via e-mail, a faster and more cost-effective way to share information than traditional methods of copying and shipping tapes.

Freedom has been a runaway success since its launch in the fall of 1999. Since the product's introduction, the company has sold over 7,000 Freedom recorders, which are installed at some 3,500 individual customer locations around the world. Revenues from Freedom sales have totalled over $40 million to date, making it the most successful new product in Dictaphone's history.

About Dictaphone CRS

A division of Dictaphone Corporation, the Dictaphone Communications Recording Systems (CRS) group is a leading provider of communications recording and quality monitoring systems for financial services, public safety and contact centers, with over 18,000 installed customers worldwide. Based on service revenue, Dictaphone is the leading vendor in the call recording industry, according to independent call center industry analyst Datamonitor. Dictaphone CRS' principal product is the Freedom network appliance recording system. Dictaphone Corporation, with headquarters in Stratford, CT, has over a century of experience in voice technology. For more information on Freedom, Freedom FT and Dictaphone, visit http://www.dictaphone.com.

The foregoing projections are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ from the estimates provided. The company undertakes no duty to update such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, those disclosed previously and from time to time in any of the company's public filings. In addition, readers are cautioned that forward looking statements include known and unknown risks, such as the uncertainties associated with Chapter 11 filings in the United States and the risk that newly introduced products may contain undetected errors or defects or otherwise not perform as anticipated.

All product names or trademarks referenced herein are trademarks of their respective owners.