Yearly Archives: 2014

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.

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Opus Codec Appears in Broadcast STL System

Intraplex-IP-Link-100-and-200-angle-transparentToday’s news dump included an article on GatesAir, now a freestanding entity, it was once the transmission division of what was then known as Harris Broadcast. The company makes radio and TV transmitters, as well as related equipment, which includes studio-to-transmitter (aka STL) links. According to the Broadcast Beat article they have sold and installed one of their Intraplex IP STLs to WRLY-LP, a low power radio station in Raleigh, NC.

A broadcaster with a transmitter that is not located right at their main building (not co-sited) needs an extremely reliable means of sending their broadcast signal from the studio to the transmitter location. They also need some way to get some transmitter telemetry back from the remote location so that they can monitor the health of the transmitter. Their on-air presence via the transmitter is, after all, their bread and butter.

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UC Strategies: If Not You, Then Who Will Use HDVoice?

podcast microphoneIt’s Q4-2014 and HDVoice is now largely passé. On that basis one might think that it’s use should become evident, especially amongst the telecom cognoscenti. So I was surprised to hear the most recent UC Strategies podcast entitled, “Connecting the Circuit.” This podcast,  a discussion of a new UC service called “Circuit”, was derived from a conference call of leading telecom experts.

Sadly, with the exception of a little music at the beginning, the recording exemplifies the finest narrowband audio traditions of the last century. This is, to my mind, a disappointment. It boggles the mind to think that some of the leading thinkers about UC, are not themselves taking advantage of one of its core features…HDVoice.

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Some Guidance On Headsets

Passport_21_OTH_3_QTR_RightA couple of weeks ago, over at the Broadband Reports forum on VoIP Tech, there was a question posed about selecting the best low cost microphone for VoIP applications. This is a topic that I’ve considered at length. It has much in common with my background in recording and broadcasting. On that basis I weighed in with some opinion. As I my way, I probably provided a longer answer than anyone anticipated, or even wanted. After re-reading it a few times I thought it worth sharing here as well.

The original question:

I realize many problems people experience are due to a lousy mic that isn’t noise canceling or picks up sounds from a anywhere in the room. There are many ways to improve this. I like the idea of a pickup pattern that is very isolated in front of the mic and within a finite range so I don’t have to wear the mic but maybe this is asking too much. If the mic only picks up sounds very close to it, wearing it can sure avoid a lot of problems. Don’t know if firewire or USB3 is better than USB2 or if its better to run the mic directly into your mic input of your motherboard or audio card or something else. Latency is not our friend! VOIP is so sensitive to extraneous noise so this needs to be addressed and is dependent on the ambient noise of the user. Any recommendations? Few of us work in a soundproof office.

As a long-time and vocal proponent of headsets for office use this is right in my wheelhouse. For example…. https://www.mgraves.org/2011/07/can-you-hear-me-now-headset-vs-speakerphone-in-the-home-office/

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