Graves on SOHO Technology

One common misconception that keeps coming up is the assertion that the higher quality audio available through the use of wideband telephony (aka HDVoice) requires more bandwidth on the network. This is simply not true.

The terminology gets confusing for some folks. On the one hand we’re talking about frequency response of the audio channel being much greater, 50 Hz to >7 KHz for most wideband codecs, as compared to 300 Hz to 3.4KHz for the reference standard G.711. All that extra information has to go somewhere, right?

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Some time ago in a informal VUC post-call session Karl Fife brought up Magic Jack as a topic of discussion. He felt at the time that they were very possibly doomed to failure by their business model. I doubt that this is the case, and laid forth the logic of my belief. Well, earlier a recent thread over at BroadbandReports.com hinted at support for my theory.

It helps to start out understanding Magic Jack and their business model. Simply put, you pay $40 in the first year to establish an account and get the Magic Jack device. Thereafter you can make calls over your broadband by plugging a traditional phone into the MJ dongle, and the dongle into your PC.

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This past week I had the pleasure of attending The HD Communication Summit hosted by Jeff Pulver in New York City. The summit was a one day event intended to rally a number of players in the telecom world around moving beyond the PSTN with the rollout of wideband telephony services.

The event was the first of its kind, and drew a group of over 100 attendees most of whom were telecom industry insiders. For me it was exciting and enlightening to be in the presence of such a group of knowledgeable people.

The day was marked by a number of presentations from various parties and a handful of panels. There’s simply too much to convey in a single post so I’ll start with some of my more general impressions of the issues discussed.

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One project that I’m am about to start is moving from my m0n0wall router to a new one build around pfsense. The motivation for the project is the integration of our Comcast Business Class internet service into the rest of the household. At present there are two separate networks, with only a few devices enjoying the high speed cable service. The pfsense system will be configured for dual WAN, accessing both the cable service and Covad DSL circuit.

My existing m0n0wall runs on an old Soekris Net4801. In service for many years, it has been extremely reliable. If m0n0wall does what you need I have no hesitation in recommending the software. Support from the user community is tremendous as well.

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In the post-roll after last weeks VUC call with Michael Iedema of Askozia Project I took a little time to join the call using the PhonerLite soft phone. I didn’t tell people right away, but some later commented that I sounded like I was back to narrowband (G.711) During the formal portion of the call I was on the bridge using Eyebeam in wideband (G.722)

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VoIP Supply’s Garrett Smith has an interesting post the other day. Actually, we can cross reference a couple of posts to follow his line of thinking. Firstly, he offers some advice on selecting an analog gateway in a post titled, “Four Keys To A Successful Voip Gateway Purchase.” It’s a good basic overview on VoIP gateways for the beginner.

I’ve made my thoughts on gateway/ATA devices well known in the past (here, here and here). I see them as relics of a prior era of VoIP, and to be avoided if at all possible. However, some people feel that they are truly necessary. Whatever floats your boat.

A little later on over at VoIP Supply’s VoIP Insider Blog Garrett poses the question, “Where Are The Open Source VoIP Gateways?” That is a fine question and one the deserves an answer. It also needs to be broken down a bit to get to a clear answer.

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The trend toward wideband telephony continues unabated. Earlier this week I learned that Aastra’s recent v2.5 firmware release for their SIP phones has added support for a variety of wideband codecs. Aastra phones have long been a favorite, their 480i CT being a cordless solution that I used for about a year.

In a move to rationalize their newer series of phones and certain older models, the 480i was redesignated as model 9480i CT. It appears that this new firmware is applicable to their entire range of SIP phones. It’s not clear if my older 480i CT will benefit much from the upgrade.

I still have that 480i so at some point I will try this new firmware. It will be interesting to see to what extent the hardware is capable of leveraging quality possible with the wideband codecs. I’ll also perform some basic G.722 interoperability testing against with Eyebeam, Gigaset and Polycom phones.

Over at Telephony Online Danny Briere has a good piece of opinion about the Verizon Wireless HUB. The opinions expressed are a close match to my initial impression of both the device and the associated service. It just smells of classic Verizon-style over-control, with a side order of under-delivery of capabilities.

Frankly, I like what OpenPeak has done with the hardware. Less is known about the software, but it looks like it has tremendous potential. It could truly be an “iPhone for Home.”

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Last Friday my trusty HP 8510p laptop developed a serious problem. The connection between the LCD and the motherboard went bad rendering the display useless. The system is only about 16 months old so it’s not quite time to replace it, at least according to my employer.

Thankfully I bought a 3 year extended warranty so HP is going to take care of the trouble. Monday I spent half an hour on the phone with HP support getting the case logged and ordering a return shipping box. Initially they didn’t have the extended warranty on file, but I had the receipt to prove it. The system was ordered from their SMB Depot so all the records are email, which I could immediately produce as proof.

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Things are starting to ramp up prior to next weeks HDComms Conference in NYC. Audio Codes is presenting a webinar entitled “HD VoIP: The Next Sound Barrier” on the topic this coming Thursday, May 14th at 9am EDT. This presentation is to be given jointly by Alan Percy,  Director of Market Development at Audio Codes and Jeff Pulver. Registration appears to be open to all interested parties.

The webinar is hosted by Webex which supports direct VoIP conferencing for attendees. I wonder if that aspect of the service is wideband? Or perhaps supports dialup via SIP URI? Their FAQ is unclear about the details.

Sadly, I will not be able to attend this particular presentation, although I did sit in on what I expect is a similar webinar series that Audio Codes gave last November. Hopefully it will be recorded so that I can give it a look while traveling on Friday.