Michael Graves

This author has written 1380 articles

Skype’s New SILK Wideband Codec Set Free

skype_logoThe release a couple of months back of the Skype v4.o client for Windows was noteworthy as the introduction of their in-house developed SILK codec. Earlier today during an eComm 2009 presentation Jonathan Christensen, Skype GM Audio & Video, announced that SILK was being released under a royalty free license.

SILK was notable as being capable of narrowband (8KHz), wide band (16KHz) and super-wideband (24KHz) sample rates. Skype claims the codec dynamically adapts both sample rate and bitrate in response to variable network quality. They have published a PDF with a very general overiew of codec performance expressed in terms of bitrates, CPU requirements and MOS scores.

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Toward A Community Developed IP Phone

A few days ago on the Asterisk Users Mailing List Tzafrir Cohen of Xorcom fame started an interesting thread about the possibility of a community developed IP Phone.

A common wisdom here is that one should use a proper hardware phone rather that an extra software on the user’s PC. Why is that such a big issue?

One thing that bothers me with the current crop of hardware SIP phones is that they are hopelessly proprietary.

So what would it take to build a fully-adaptable phone?

I am 100% behind the assertion that most users want a hard phone on their desk. Soft phones, even good ones, seem to be exclusively the domain of those who travel and vertical niches like call centers.

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Comcast Business Class Internet Access Installed

The deed is done. We now have Comcast Business Class internet instead of their consumer offering. This is in addition to our realiable old Covad DSL.

The tech finally arrived about four hours late. Prior to that Comcast actually called to tell me that he was going to miss the 11am – 2pm window for the installation. That was nice.

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The Karl-ification of My Home Office Broadband

The great thing about the weekly VUC calls is that there’s just so much to learn from the various participants. I sometimes struggle to know if I prefer when we have formal guests vs those weeks when we just ramble aimlessly through the seemingly endless universe of VoIP geek minutia.

comcast256Here’s a case in point, some weeks ago VUC regular Karl Fife indicated that he had Comcast Business Class internet service…to his home. This got me thinking. When we added the cable modem about a year and half ago we just ordered it through Comcast’s normal consumer channel. That seemed simple enough. It’s how we had the similar service from Time-Warner Cable long, long ago. I simply never occurred to me that we could go through the business services office.

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