Comparison

How does KZWeb compare to other systems?

Kingdom Hall Phone systemKZWeb
Operational Costs Kingdom Hall - Fixed
- High, subscription for each phoneline/listener
- Not bound to specific phone district
- Fixed
- Low, independent of number of listeners
- Not bound to specific district or even geographic region
Connection Costs listeners - Nothing if using a Free-to-Landlines service (subscription fee only)
- Variable: per minute fee

- Nothing if already connected to the Internet (subscription fee only)
- Otherwise: cheapest Internet subscription
- Or: default internet connection that comes with digital telephonie (free)
- Or: dial-up Internet connection (variable costs)

Listening Device - telephone (preferably handsfree)

- PC (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- web radio
- internet tablet
- smartphone
- additional devices may be supported in the future

Usability - Not bound to specific phone district, but possibly higher costs for the listener except with Free-to-Landlines service - Not bound to specific geographical location, even internationally, at low local internet access rates if any
Scalability - 8 listeners maximum per installed system - Limited by bandwidth only. On a regular ADSL line with 1024 kbps upload speed: 20 to 25 listenens.
Flexibility - Maximum of 8 listeners: first come, first served
- Phonenumbers are fixed/known, so anyone can connect anonymously forever once the number is known
- Authorisation for new listeners can be added immediately, even temporarily
- Listeners are not anonymous but known at all times
- Authorisation of alistener can be revoked immediately
Sound Quality - Low, limited to 3kHz by the telephone system - High. MP3 encoding in 32kbps (for support of dial-up connections) is already better than telephone quality. Bitrate can be increased when only using broadband connections for listeners.
Possibility to participate in meeting - built into phone system - via regular or cell phone
Play Audio - via an external player device in the Kingdom Hall sound system - built into the system. Very easy to use.
Recordings - via an external recording device in the Kingdom Hall sound system - digital recordings in MP3 format with a configurable archive (default 1 year)
Connect Kingdom Halls - not possible - built into the system. Very easy to use.