How many Call Recordings can I store
- Nathaniel Halbrooks
The most Frequently Asked Question
How many Call Recordings can I store on my PBX? Or better, How can I calculate how much disk a Call Recording (Audio File) consumes on my PBX?
This is something we've been asked many times, and even if there is not a straightforward answer, we will give you some indications on how to calculate these numbers approximately.
On a practical test, we can learn about numbers and try to give a forecast on the space consumed on the system disk.
The tool we used
The tool used to analyze the size of the files and create a table with the predictions about their growth is mediainfo.
Some Data
One call recording with 20 seconds duration and G711 codec compression, takes up 320 KiB of disk space
20-seconds-G711
Format : Wave
File size : 320 KiB
Duration : 20 s 480 ms
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 128 kb/s
Audio
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 20 s 480 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 320 KiB (100%) |
Similarly a second Call Recording with 1 min duration and G711, takes up 950 KiB of disk space
60-seconds-G711
Format : Wave
File size : 951 KiB
Duration : 1 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 128 kb/s
Audio
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 1 min 0 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 951 KiB (100%) |
Third Call with 30 sec duration and G729 encoding, takes up 30 KiB of disk space
30-seconds-G729
General
Count : 331
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : General
Kind of stream : General
Stream identifier : 0
File name extension : internal-6100-4004-20210118-193708-1610995028.622.g729
File name : internal-6100-4004-20210118-193708-1610995028.622
File extension : g729
File size : 30480
File size : 29.8 KiB
File size : 30 KiB
File size : 30 KiB
File size : 29.8 KiB
File size : 29.77 KiB
Stream size : 30480
Stream size : 29.8 KiB (100%)
Stream size : 30 KiB
Stream size : 30 KiB
Stream size : 29.8 KiB
Stream size : 29.77 KiB
Stream size : 29.8 KiB (100%)
Proportion of this stream : 1.00000
File last modification date : UTC 2021-01-18 18:37:41
File last modification date (local) : 2021-01-18 19:37:41 |
The Results
According to the gathered informations, we can create a table which give us an idea of what is the load of Call Recordings on our system disk:
| 20 secs | 30 secs | 60 secs |
|---|---|---|---|
G711 | 320 KiB | 480 KiB | 950 KiB |
G729 | 20 KiB | 30 KiB | 60 KiB |
=> We can say approximately (almost affirm) 1 Minute of Call Recording
G711 encoded is worth 1 MiB of disk space
G729 encoded is worth 60 KiB
=> 1000 mins of Call Recording are worth of 16 hours and half
1 GiB of disk space id G711 encoded
60 MiB of disk space if G729 encoded
IMPORTANT: You can Change Call Recording Format in Module / Advanced Settings / Call Recording Format but be aware that not all PBX modules work well with g729, you may lose the ability to play back the recording in the browser in some places!!! Also, many media players lack the ability to natively handle the g729 file format.