Given that I still have the Plantronics Savi Go headset in my home office I felt that at least theoretically the Voyager Pro UC presented me with more opportunities for mobile applications. After all, the Savi Go is a Class 1 Bluetooth device with a one hundred foot range that covers my workspace completely. The Savi Go sounds good and I like the convertible wearing options. In general, I didn’t feel that I needed something better for office-bound activities.
Nonetheless, most people will buy one headset for use both in the home office and with their mobile phone. Thus I felt it only appropriate to explore the use of the Voyager Pro UC around my home office.
As mentioned in part 1, the Voyager Pro UC is a Class 2 Bluetooth device, so expect twelve to twenty feet of cordless range from the Bluetooth host. As a practical matter this has proven adequate, although there have been moments when a little more range would have been handy.
For example, I definitely can’t make it to the coffee machine while on a call hosted from my desktop. The altar of the Java Juice dispenser is about thirty feet from my desk, with two walls in the path. Should I wander that far afield the call audio gets choppy until the headset reports “PC disconnected.” This is a minor inconvenience compared to the advantage of being able to use the headset with both computers and mobile phones.
Like the Savi Go, the Voyager Pro UC features what Plantronics calls “multi-point connectivity”. In my home office I tried the headset with a total of five different Bluetooth hosts. It can be simultaneously paired with several Bluetooth devices. In my case that means my desktop PC, my cell phone and occasionally a laptop or the Gigaset SL78H cordless handset. Should I decide to answer or make a call on any of those devices the Voyager Pro UC is able to handle the call if the device is in range.
Incidentally, the Gigaset SL78H handset doesn’t support wideband over Bluetooth, but that’s nothing to do with the Voyager Pro UC…it’s a known limitation of the Bluetooth implementation in the SL78H.
Plantronics includes a CD with the Voyager Pro UC. That disc includes driver and management software for the BUA200 USB Bluetooth interface. I started by installing this software to my Windows desktop. I could see that there are settings to adapt the headset for use with various enterprise UC clients and soft phones.
I also found a menu (shown above) where the headset could be forced into wideband or narrowband audio modes. It defaulted to wideband mode, so I presumed that all was working correctly.
The few times that I initially tried using the Voyager Pro UC with soft phones was during VUC calls. As these calls can run long it makes sense to use a headset so that I can keep working. I typically use the ZipDX issued release of Eyebeam, v1.5 to join VUC calls. It’s known to be G.722 capable and something of a reference for me.
When I first tried using the Voyager Pro UC on a VUC call I was positive that I was hearing wideband audio coming from the conference bridge. However, there was some question as to whether I was sending wideband audio. The call leg was clearly in G.722, so the call path was wideband, but my voice…such as it is…didn’t seem to be in wideband. Puzzled about this occurrence, I went back to using the Savi Go headset that day. Eventually the incident faded from memory.
However, in November friend and VUC sponsor David Frankel of ZipDX contacted me to ask if I had positively confirmed the wideband capabilities of the Voyager Pro UC. He had purchased a one and found he was unable to pass wideband audio using the BUA200 Bluetooth dongle.
The BUA200 Bluetooth dongle is the very same interface that came with the Savi Go. Since the Savi Go was confirmed by my own measurements as wideband capable, I expected that the Voyager Pro UC would be similarly capable. I honestly hadn’t given it a second thought.
In the light of David’s experience I made a few test recordings to verify the performance of the Voyager Pro UC using various different Bluetooth interfaces. Using the built-in BT radios in my laptop (HP8510p) & netbook (HP5102) I confirmed frequency response appropriate for G.722 based wideband calling.
I also tried a Kensington BT dongle that I had on-hand, which also successfully passed wideband audio. Given these successful experiments I was surprised to confirm David’s finding. When used with the BUA200 Bluetooth dongle the Voyager Pro UC did not actually pass wideband audio.
Further, the setting in the management application that allows the headset to be forced into either wideband or narrowband mode didn’t seem to have any impact. Once I had proof positive of this situation I opened trouble ticket with Plantronics support. I send them audio samples, screen shots of the menu settings and a description of my experiments.
Over a period of a couple of weeks I exchanged some email with their support team. They gave me a few settings to try, but none of them worked to overcome the issue. They reported that they would need to investigate further…so I waited further advice about a solution.
Keeping the tale in timeline order, my next little experiment with the Voyager Pro UC was when I attended a meeting in Las Vegas early in January. Dan Berninger had invited me to a gathering of what might have once been called the HDConnect steering group, to coincide with the fact that most of these people were gathering for CES.
At that evening’s meeting Tony Stankus of Gigaset Communications had setup one of their new DX800A desk phones, which include Bluetooth capability. Since the DX800A was registered to the ZipDX conference servers I was able to quickly pair it with the Voyager Pro UC and positively confirm that the DX800A supports wideband over it’s Bluetooth radio.
As encouraging as that was I was still unable to make use of the headset in wideband mode with my desktop. I was occasionally posting to Twitter about my use of the headset, including this wideband trouble. Eventually, someone from Plantronics UK organization advised that I would need to get the Voyager Pro UC v2 in order to find a solution.
Tipped off as to the availability of a new model I reached out to Plantronics US who was able to arrange an exchange for this newer version of the headset.
The Voyager Pro UC v2 came packaged in a manner similar to the earlier version. However, there are two notable changes:
- Unlike the first package I received, the Voyager Pro UC v2 does not include the BUA200 Bluetooth dongle. Instead, it includes a new model of USB dongle. When connected to my PC the Plantronics software reports this dongle as the BT300. The BT300 is about half the size of the older BUA200.
- Instead of the simple nylon carrying case they provide a nice little faux leather holster with a belt clip. This is a very welcome enhancement to the package. It makes it very convenient to carry the headset with you, even providing a little pocket to securely hold the tiny BT300 dongle.
If you happen to have the Voyager Pro UC v1 and would still like one of the little leather holsters I’ve found that they are available for around $10 from Amazon.com.
While I don’t have access to the enterprise class UC clients from Avaya, Microsoft, IBM or their ilk, I did make use of the Voyager Pro UC v2 with various desktop SIP clients from Counterpath, LifeSize, Skype and Vidyo. It seemed to work well with all of them.
As to the performance of the new model headset, it is exactly as I had hoped. To prove this point I made a short test recording. The recording itself are not much to hear. Since I have been suffering a cold the past few days it’s not even especially indicative of my voice. That said, plot of energy vs frequency visually highlights at least the wideband capabilities of the headset.
My first test recording was made recording directing into Cool Edit Pro using the BT300 USB dongle. This recording was made using a sample rate of 48 KHz, so the vertical axis of the display extends to the related Nyquist frequency, 24 KHz. Audio content is clearly visible up to 8KHz.
Here’s another view of the same recording, but resampled to 16 KHz so that the vertical axis is easier to read.
You might expect better high frequency response, but it seems that the headset rolls off the high-end beyond 8 KHz. This is in fact by design. TIA specification TIA-920 stipulates that “wideband” in the context of telephony means 16 KHz sampling, so the microphone output should be rolled off beyond 6.8 KHz to prevent harmful aliasing artifacts.
One can argue the merits of TIA-920, a standard defined in December 2002, in the light of more recent developments in IP telephony. Many newer codecs like CELT, Siren14, Siren22, G.719, SILK & OPUS can pass greater high frequency detail. However, given it’s application focus, adherence to the existing industry standards is the responsible approach for Plantronics to take.
Since the top-end of the headset output was designed around assumptions of a 16 KHz sample rate I did not commit further time to experimenting with recording the use of G.719, Siren22, SILK, etc.
As to the matter of two hardware versions of the device, my understanding is that the Voyager Pro UC v2 has entirely replaced the earlier version. However, as of this writing both versions remain available in the sales channel. If wideband performance matters to you be certain that you are ordering the newer hardware version.
There is in fact an even newer version of the Voyager Pro headset available, which is known as the Voyager Pro+. This model, introduced at CES2011 adds some extended functions to the headset, including voice command capability based upon integration with Plantronics’ Vocalyst service.
Don’t be alarmed if your find the various version of the Voyager Pro confusing. You’re not alone in this regard. Looking into Plantronics online user forum I found a nice thread comparing the functionality of the various models. One user even prepared a handy table, including models numbers, which I am happy to include here.
Restating my finding, and contrary to the chart, the Voyager Pro UC v1 with the BUA-200 is not able to pass wideband audio to PC based soft phones & UC clients when using the BUA-200. As that model will eventually be flushed from the current sales channels the distinction between v1 and v2 hardware will soon be moot.
In conclusion, I remain pretty happy with the Voyager Pro UC. If you want a great Bluetooth headset for use with your cell phone the Voyager Pro is a top contender. It sounds good, has good noise reduction, good battery life and is very comfortable to wear. It’s also sensibly priced, commonly available at popular retailers for around $60.
If your requirements extend to using the headset with desktop soft phones or UC clients then the Voyager Pro UC is a reasonable choice. It builds upon the strengths of the Voyager Pro, adding wideband capability. The fact that you can use the same headset in both applications is certainly handy.
You probably won’t find the Voyager Pro UC in stores, but it’s available from online retailers for around $140. While it may not have the cordless range of the Savi Go, it’s much better suited to the mobile application, making it perhaps a better value overall.