No Jitter: No HDVoice Either!
While I recently lamented the last UC Strategies podcast woefully narrowband presentation, in the interest of fairness I must today point out that they are not alone in this. Today the latest No Jitter Podcast, hosted by Guy Clinch, published an interview with Andrew Prokop of Arrow S3. It suffers a similar lack of lack of regard for HDVoice.
Mr Prokop’s SIP Adventures blog has proven interesting, so I thought the podcast worth a listen. Sadly, while the host is presented full bandwidth, as might be expected from a local recording, the guest is presented in narrowband. Given that the subject matter is WebRTC I think that this is more than a little anachronistic. WebRTC-based services are in fact a very easy way to enjoy wideband audio for the purposes of producing a podcast.
Dragging the podcast in my trusty editor I find it to the a definitive example of full-band audio vs narrowband. The file is sampled at 44.1 kHz, so the top of the vertical axis is 22 kHz. The guests audio is a good quality PSTN call, but even that is quite a contrast from the host. This contrast is very jarring to the listener.
As to the content of Mr Prokop’s commentary on WebRTC and SIP, I’m not sure that I agree with all that he offered. He seems to harbor some serious doubts about the future of WebRTC, a technology that is only 2-3 years from its inception. I wonder how far SIP had progressed just that long after its initial creation?
There are people making use of WebRTC right now. It might not have swept the traditional telecom world yet, but it’s impact is being felt in many quarters. Were that not the case there’d be little reason to be discussing it in such a podcast.
P.S. – I grow weary of pointing out how the telecom press are not typically “dog fooding” their industries’ own better technologies in the production of podcasts. If anyone would like some guidance on how to grow beyond narrowband telephony for the specific purposes of podcasting, please get in touch. As co-producer of the VoIP Users Conference for the past few years I certainly have some experience in how it’s done. It’s getting easier all the time.
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I would not call them doubts. I am simply pointing out that there are problems that need to be addressed. Every new technology needs time to take root, but it’s never a good thing to ignore the big issues and pretend that they don’t exist. If you read the many WebRTC posts on my blog, you will find that I have taken a lot of time to explore what it can and cannot do. So, when I express a “doubt,” it more me saying “this is worthwhile, but it needs to get better.” There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?
Not at all. Doubt may be the wrong word. In the end it’s just a matter of perspective. For example, including SDP in the specification was seen as a step forward by some, but a burdensome complexity by others. It makes for a more complete specification, but at a price.
It’s tough when the new tech has broad implications. WebRTC goes way beyond traditional telecom. It’s taking some time to get the larger realm of web developers to embrace the potential.