Vine Player Overview
Vine players are audio book players from Solar Grove Solutions. They come with inbuilt rechargeable battery that can be charged by connecting it to electricity plug. They can also be charged by simply putting them in direct sun-light making it very useful in low resource regions where electricity supply is not available. Vine player is designed to read audio books. It remembers last played position of the book and also supports bookmarks.
Vine players have several models. These can be grouped into two categories:
- Simple players with navigation only to next or previous chapter. These players have open internal memory. Content can be copied on them using standard USB cable. Vine C1 and Vine C2 players are in this category. They can be referred to as “simple Vine players”.
- Enhanced players that support navigation based on chapters and sub-headings. These players have complex folder structure. Their internal memory is locked. A special cable and application is required to create or copy content on them. Users cannot add or delete content on the internal memory. Once an organisation prepares and copies books on the player, it becomes an audio book on which users are not able to make any changes. Vine player models E1, E2 and S2 players are in this category. They can be referred to as “Enhanced Vine players”.
Vine Player features
- Solar powered accessible audio player
- Bookshelf function
- Sleep timer
- Audio bookmarking
- Audible user feedback for all functions
- Intuitive navigation keypad with raised buttons
- MicroSD card reader for expanded memory
- 8GB internal memory: Up to 1,6001 hours of tamperproof content
- Stereo high-fidelity, CD-quality capable when audio is recorded to highest technical standards
- Onboard speaker for personal or small group listening
- 3.5mm audio port for earbuds, headphones, a Bluetooth transmitter, or an external speaker to boosts audio levels for larger group listening
- Charge the internal Li-Ion battery via solar panel, computer, or power supply
- Connect to a computer to load audio files via USB port using the included data cable.
- Enhanced water resistance
- Durable, shock-resistant body
- Size: 10.67 x 5.84 x 1.02cm (4.2 x 2.3 x 0.4″) / 62.37g (2.2 oz)
- External reset button
Vine players do not have any Text-To-Speech capability. Which means that audio has to be pre-recorded to listen to a book on Vine player. You cannot read any digital text on these players. However, with advancements in Text-To-Speech technology any digital text in most common languages can be converted into an audio book and then transferred to Vine players for listening.
Most audio books available from libraries for persons with print disabilities are prepared as DAISY Audio books. Vine players cannot play DAISY audio books directly. But you can convert DAISY audio books into a folder structure compatible with Vine player. All audio books available from online libraries such as ABC Global Books Service from Accessible Books Consortium are also in DAISY Audio format and they can be converted to a file set suitable for playback on Vine players.
The conversion of DAISY books to formats suitable for playback on Vine players is described in the below articles:
- Preparing DAISY book for playback on simple vine Players
- Preparing DAISY book for enhanced vine players