The Digital Strobe, an innovative, digital video endoscopy/stroboscopy system introduced by Kay at the 1998 AAO-HNSF Convention, sets a new standard for image quality and convenience in recording examinations.

According to Robert McClurkin, director of marketing, "Kay’s new Digital Strobe joins the Basic Stroboscopy System and the Computer-Integrated (VCR) System to provide a complete family of endoscopy/stroboscopy systems suited to any budget or performance demands."

With the Digital Strobe, patient exams are recorded directly to the computer storage media. The resulting image quality is outstanding, and far superior to previous generation recording technology that relied on SVHS videotape recorders.

Digitizing the video examination provides other benefits as well. Examinations can be located and viewed in seconds without the need to rewind or fast forward to the start of the exam. And, unlike videotape, the recorded images never degrade. Moreover, two exams can be loaded and played side by side, greatly facilitating comparison. Additionally, different segments of the same exam can be compared in this fashion.

The Digital Strobe includes all of the capabilities needed for capturing still and moving images: light source (constant halogen or flashing xenon), camera, recording system, microphone, and printer. Once captured, the images can be formatted with text as a report in Microsoft Word.

Audio, be it patient audio or examiner comments, and video are captured together. To ensure precise color accuracy and fast setup, the computer system downloads the optimized stored camera settings for each endoscope.

The broadcast-quality, video capture hardware of the Digital Strobe results in accurate motion representation and true color. For example, the color red—problematic in video representations, yet critical to the assessment of inflammation during an endoscopy procedure—is displayed accurately on the Digital Strobe.

Another important benefit of the Digital Strobe is that key system controls, including recording, are foot-operated. This foot control of light source, camera, and video record and pause, as well as the convenience of onscreen display of information, allows the clinician to perform examinations unaided by staff.

Cornut, Guy and Marc Bouchaye. Assessing Dysphonia: The Role of Videostroboscopy, 3Ears Company, Ltd., Stockholm, 1999.

This interactive text (some 250 pages) and five videocassettes (more than five hours of narrated footage) are comprised of more than 120 clinical cases and cover an encyclopedic range of vocal pathologies ranging from purely functional disorders to lesions requiring microsurgical intervention. Additionally, special chapters are devoted to childhood dysphonia, vocal problems experienced by singers, and the use of videostroboscopy in therapeutic follow-up. The final section provides a self-assessment test, consisting of 20 cases that clinicians can use to test their knowledge. Otolaryngologists, speech pathologists, and phoniatricians will find their stroboscopic assessment skills enhanced by this impressive video textbook, hailed by one reviewer in the book’s Foreword as a "chef d’oeuvre—a masterwork". Kay’s stroboscopy system was used to examine most of the patients in these videos. To order, contact 3Ears Company, P.O. Box 34, 193 21 Sigtuna, Sweden (Fax number: 46 8 592 512 70).

Schutte, Harm K., et al. "Measurement of Formant Frequencies and Bandwidths in Singing", Journal of Voice, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 290-296. 1995.

Singers make adjustments in their vocal tract configuration to enhance acoustic output (sometimes referred to as formant tuning). The precise effect of a formant on an approaching (or retreating) harmonic, as the latter varies in frequency during actual singing, is difficult to isolate. In this study, variations in the amplitude of radiated sound components, as well as supraglottal and subglottal (esophageal) pressures accompanying the vibrato-related sweep of voice harmonics, were used as a basis for estimating the center frequencies and bandwidths of the first and second formants. Kay’s Computerized Speech Lab (CSL) was used for the acoustic analysis in this study.

Sullivan, Paula and Arthur M. Guilford. Swallowing Intervention in Oncology, Singular Publishing Group, Inc., San Diego, 1999.

Cancer of the head and neck, brain, and upper aerodigestive tract, often has numerous adverse effects on swallowing, speech, respiratory, and hearing systems. Successful management and rehabilitation of this population require cross-disciplinary collaboration and expertise. This book includes contributions from oncology experts from multi-specialty fields. It is unique in that it provides in-depth clinical explanations and treatment strategies specific to this patient population. Speech-language pathologists, physicians, nurses, dieticians, social workers, and other clinicians who work in this area will be rewarded by the wealth of information provided in this book.

Q. The color printer we use with our videostroboscopy system (CP 700) contains film and paper, but they run out at different times. Please explain the best way to handle this.

A. The CP 700 is used both on the Computer-Integrated (VCR) Stroboscopy System and the Swallowing Workstation. If the printer fails to print, always check the status of the indicators on the printer’s front panel. Typically, when you are unable to print, the LED (green light) below "Sheet" is lit, which is an indication you are out of film. However, as you noted, there is usually paper remaining on the roll after the film runs out. The reason for the "extra" paper is that longer print sizes can be made (using a different film cartridge) for other applications. For stroboscopy and swallowing print sizes, the film runs out before the paper. You should regard the film and the roll of paper as a set; when you replace the film, also replace the paper.

Q. We are planning to use the Swallowing Workstation in a new fluoroscopy suite that is being added in the radiology department. Do we need to configure the workstation for this new fluoro unit?

A. Yes, particularly if you plan on recording fluoroscopic and physiologic data acquired concurrently with the Swallowing Signals Lab (e.g., for manofluoroscopy studies). Each fluoroscopy system has its own unique scan rate which is very close to, but often not exactly, 60 Hz (50 Hz for the European PAL video format). You need to have the scan rate (e.g., 59.9882 Hz) entered into software templates for each fluoroscopy system you use to ensure that the data are precisely time-aligned. Kay product specialists make this measurement on-site when installing the Swallowing Workstation; templates are made for each fluoro unit and are named accordingly (e.g., Manofluoro, Room 3). If you are not correlating video and physiologic data (and do not plan to), this level of precision is not critical for the scan rate (i.e., use the default setting).

Q. What is the best method for comparing amplitude measurements on patients between sessions?

With Kay's line of acoustic instrumentation, the most practical method for making absolute amplitude measurements is to use the CSL software option, Voice Range Profile, Model 4326. Relative amplitude measurements can be made using the core software program provided with CSL or Multi-Speech; the Visi-Pitch II also provides this feature. However, to make absolute dB measurements, the Voice Range Profile program coupled with precision-calibrated CSL hardware is required. Additionally, Kay’s boom style microphone (with fixed mouth-to-microphone distance) is needed.

The CSL 4300B hardware was designed with an automatic gain control loop. When enabled using the Voice Range Profile software, the vernier (knob) controlling CH 1 level input is temporarily disabled and the input level setting is controlled dynamically by the CSL, based on the input signal. This allows the system to track amplitude levels over a very wide dynamic range (e.g., even for singers whose amplitude ranges far exceed those of normal speakers). Sound cards and other hardware without calibrated input levels cannot reliably perform this task. Also, their range is typically limited to about 40-50 dB.

The Voice Range Profile is a two-dimensional plot of an individual’s amplitude range as a function of total fundamental frequency range. Clinicians interested in obtaining absolute amplitudes (using sustained phonation) can simply use a patient’s modal speaking frequency and ask the patient to produce the loudest sound possible or to begin with a comfortable level and crescendo to the loudest level possible. Absolute amplitude levels at each sustained fundamental frequency are reported in dB (SPL).

Kay is pleased to announce the addition of a new CSL, Model 4100, to its family of acoustic analysis products, Visi-Pitch II; Multi-Speech; and CSL, Model 4300B. Developed to address the demanding needs of speech professionals, the 4100 is versatile, sophisticated, and very easy to use. "The 4100 is a lower cost, slightly less powerful version of the 4300B," explains Stephen Crump, sales manager. It uses new software, written for Windows 98/NT and new hardware to provide lightning fast operation with a wide range of features for speech professionals.

The CSL 4100 includes comprehensive displays for analysis including waveform, spectrum, LPC, spectrogram, cepstrum, more than 20 voice parameters, pitch, palatogram, motor speech protocols and measurements, audio/video synchronization, digital filtering, and formant values (graphic and numeric). Many real-time displays are also available, including programs for pitch, amplitude, formant, spectrum, and spectrographic analyses.

The 4100 system includes complete signal conditioning, an external module that isolates analog microphone signals from computer noise, an assortment of sampling rates, autocalibration, proper preamplifiers, and available DSP processors to ensure accurate acquisition. It allows professionals to focus on the task, not the system. Unlike some systems built around generic sound cards (designed primarily for sound output), CSL offers input signal-to-noise ratios typically 20-30 dB superior to such cards. The 4100 is perfect for customers who do not require the DC coupling, 4-channel input, DAF, or Voice Range Profile available on the 4300B.

CSL is the gold standard system for clinical use because it offers the advantages of a complete system approach and the extensive software designed for clinical requirements. All program modules are designed with report generators so that graphical, numerical, and comment information can be quickly and easily presented.

According to Crump, the sophisticated CSL software represents over 20,000 hours of programming effort that are reflected in the broad range of application areas to which the instrument can be applied (e.g., software tailored to specific disorders [such as voice or motor speech], real-time modules for therapy targeting specific behaviors, powerful analysis tools and databases for acoustic phoneticians, innovative displays for singing pedagogy, and even applications designed for acoustic forensics and law enforcement). In addition to the core CSL software, the currently available (Windows-based) add-on modules and databases include: Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP), Real-Time Spectrogram, Video Phonetics, Real-Time Pitch, Motor Speech Profile, Sona-Match, Phonetics Database, Palatometer Database, and Disordered Voice Database. Other add-ons are in development.

Please look for Kay products on display at the following conferences, workshops, and congresses.

Accent Reduction Workshop Offered

Kay is pleased to announce that a new training workshop, Accent Reduction Via Acoustic Analysis, has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, at Kay’s corporate headquarters in Lincoln Park, New Jersey.

This one-day workshop is designed for intermediate-level instruction for ESL teachers, lab instructors, clinicians (speech-language pathologists), and other professionals who teach ESL and accent reduction. Its primary objective is to familiarize participants with the acoustic analysis instrumentation applied to accent reduction. Both lecture and hands-on exercises will be used to demonstrate how acoustic analysis can be incorporated into ESL and accent reduction teaching methods.

The workshop will be led by Dr. Garry Molholt, associate professor of English and MATESL, director of the ESL program at West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania. Dr. Molholt has used acoustic analysis instrumentation in his ESL/accent reduction work for more than 15 years.

The course format will feature a general introduction to acoustic analysis relevant to language teaching. Participants will then be given an opportunity to analyze their own patterns so that they are able to see how each of the analysis features work. The workshop will present examples and explanations of patterns of accent using CD-ROM files developed by Dr. Molholt, and case studies featuring the Visi-Pitch II and the new curriculum workbook, Accent Reduction Via Acoustic Analysis, written by Dr. Molholt.

The registration fee for the workshop is $150. This fee includes workshop materials, refreshments, and lunch. The workshop will be limited to 24 participants.

For further information and to register, please contact Jan Findura, Monday through Thursday, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., at 1-800-289-5297 (in USA and Canada only) or (973) 628-6200, Ext. 162, or by fax at (973) 628-6363.