Aculab
Aculab is a privately held, UK-based limited company that was founded in 1978. It is a designer, developer and manufacturer specialising in enabling technology for telephony and communication products that are used in fixed line PSTN, wireless and VoIP networks. Aculab's products are sold worldwide through its direct sales organisation and also via a network of distributors and resellers. Aculab's international headquarters and R&D facilities are located in Milton Keynes, UK, with important branch offices in Norwood, Massachusetts, USA and Munich, Germany.
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Founder | Alan Pound |
| Headquarters | Milton Keynes, United Kingdom |
| Website | www.aculab.com |
Brief company history
In 1978, Aculab was a design consultancy involved in the music industry. Soon after the first microprocessors were introduced, it began to design and manufacture intelligent interfaces and controllers for computer peripherals. In 1988, Aculab turned to building analogue speech processing solutions for a number of clients, such as British Telecom.
It was in 1991 that Aculab began to ship the first E1 interface cards for the UK and German markets. These PC ISA form factor cards enabled PC-based speech processing products to be connected to digital PSTN networks. The expansion of its product capabilities to include the physical interfaces and telecommunications protocols (ISDN, CAS and SS7) needed to reach a broader, worldwide market, helped to establish Aculab as one of the pioneers of the computer telephony industry.[1]
Later, in 1997, Aculab introduced its own ISA speech processing board, the first of its portfolio of DSP-based voice boards. And it was in 1998 that Aculab introduced a PCI product, the first combined trunk card and voice board – Prosody PCI. It was novel for its time, delivering up to 240 speech channels and 4 E1/T1 trunk interfaces on a single card at a time when the standard was 24 to 30 channels.[1] A Prosody cPCI (CompactPCI) version followed in 2000.
During 1993, Aculab introduced Groomer, a protocol converter that enabled interconnection between disparate telephone networks running incompatible protocols. In 2002, this product was relaunched as GroomerII, a signalling and media gateway that can be used for connection between equipment and applications deployed in TDM and IP networks.
In 2003, Aculab introduced Prosody S, a host media processing (HMP) alternative to DSP-based voice boards, for IP-only solutions.[2]
The ApplianX range of gateways was launched by Aculab in 2007.[3]
Aculab Cloud was launched in 2011 and is a cloud-based telephony service platform. It allows a wide range of voice applications to be built using high level APIs in general purpose programming languages such as Java, C# and Python.
Products
The Prosody product range includes Prosody X DSP boards and Prosody S HMP software. These are enabling technologies for developing a variety of voice, fax and signalling products. Aculab's portfolio of signalling and media gateways includes GroomerII and the ApplianX range.
Prosody X
These DSP-based media processing boards offer a range of functions and technologies including VoIP, SIP, fax, conferencing, and narrow and wideband (HD Voice) codecs. They also offer optional E1/T1 interfaces with CAS, ISDN and SS7 signalling and protocol support. Prosody X variants can also be used with Aculab's protocol stacks to connect to SS7 networks for ISUP and non-call related TCAP signalling applications.
Prosody S
Prosody S is an IP-based, software-only host media processing (HMP) product that offers a range of media server technologies, including VoIP, SIP, T.38 fax, conferencing, and narrow and wideband (HD Voice) codecs, under a software licence.
GroomerII
GroomerII is a signalling and media gateway, primarily intended for the service provider market. The gateway enables interworking between SIP-based networks, applications and entities, and legacy, TDM-based networks and PBXs running CAS, ISDN or SS7 (C7) protocols.
ApplianX
The ApplianX IP Gateway is a ‘plug and play’ gateway for interoperability between SIP-based networks and entities, TDM-based PBXs and the PSTN. The gateway includes SIP, QSIG and DPNSS interworking functionality, with extensive Supplementary Services support, which capability addresses the gateway needs of the PBX/IP-PBX enterprise network market in the UK (with DPNSS) and elsewhere (with QSIG).[4]
Aculab Cloud
Aculab Cloud is a telephony platform-as-a-service that presents the user with Java, Python, C# (.NET), and RESTful APIs, enabling interactive voice, fax and messaging applications to be written in high-level, general purpose programming languages. Developers can use Aculab Cloud to add telephony functions to their business applications or create telephony services or applications such as: IVR; conferencing; voicemail; broadcast fax; voice messaging services; PBXs; predictive diallers; and more
Aculab Rapide
Aculab Rapide is a telephony media resource server, presenting a range of programmable, software-based telephony resources, in a 1U platform, for the rapid application development of telecommunications solutions. It presents simple telephony APIs, written in high-level, general-purpose programming languages – MS.NET (C#, C++, VB, F#), Python and Java. [5]
References
- 1 2 Pulver, Jeff (December 2006). "VON Pioneers". VON Magazine pp 14-18. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
- ↑ http://www.speechtechmag.com/Articles/News/Industry-News/Aculab-Announces-Development-of-Host-Media-Processing-Resource--30273.aspx
- ↑ "Aculab Launches Applian - Press Release". Speech Technology Magazine. March 20, 2007. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
- ↑ Viscusi, Stefania (September 15, 2008). "Aculab Brings Hope to Enterprises with the ApplianX DPNSS-to-Q.SIG Gateway". TMC website VoIP Developer Channel. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
- ↑ http://blog.tadsummit.com/2014/10/10/introducing-aculab/