Graves On SOHO Technology

LifeSize Passport Now Supports Video Calling Skype Users

In a most interesting press release LifeSize has announced support for video calling to/from Skype user from the LifeSize Passport end-point. The new capability is projected for release in the coming v4.8 software. It will be interesting it give this a try.

It happens that I have a Passport in my home office at the moment. It was acquired earlier this year in the process of my failed attempt to entice LifeSize to join a VUC call using their video conference bridge. In my office the Passport is connected to a Sony 26” Bravia HDTV via HDMI. The camera connects to the Passport device via a Firewire cable.

The Passport is a small device. It’s small enough to be portable. I’m told that some people carry it around as they travel, using it over hotel broadband. The camera includes a built-in microphone array. The video quality presented is quite good, especially in light of the rather modest cost of the device.

When The Wifi Blows: Experience At NAB 2011

April 16, 2011
Michael Graves
Broadband, Gigaset, infrastructure, networking, Skype, VoIP, Wideband

The past week or so my attention was wholly consumed by the annual convention of the National Association of Broadcasters. Held in Las Vegas each April the NAB exhibition is the major event in the year of a broadcast equipment maker. This was my 18th NAB, which makes the more a test of stamina than anything else.

Happily, the show was for my employer a considerable success. Attendance has returned to reasonable levels. It seems that broadcasters are feeling better about their existence. Globally broadcasters are starting to move forward with long stalled projects. New channels will be launched and existing services enhanced. It all bodes well for the manufacturing sector of the industry, presuming that manufacturers have toughed out the recent slow period and continued to develop products that improve the operating efficiency of customers.

For our company the one major annoyance of NAB 2011 was the complete failure of wifi on the show floor. From the last day of setup to the close of the event wifi was essentially useless. This was not a huge problem, but a considerable inconvenience. In our case it meant that the many sales and executive staff present could only access email via a wired network connection.

Covad & AT&T: The Odd Couple Of DSL Make Good

April 6, 2011
Michael Graves
Broadband, DSL

DSL-Providers My belief is that since your home office network is your network, and under your control, it should actually be more reliable than the network that your office-bound associates a) enjoy or b) suffer. If you operate from a home office on anything more than an occasional basis I think that you should give some serious consideration to maintaining redundant sources of IP connectivity. This is especially true if you rely upon VoIP for your office phones, as we have here for many years.

Redundant IP connectivity can be achieved in a variety of different ways, each with advantages and disadvantages. Performance and price vary widely depending upon the access methods available in your area. For us the best solution has been to use Comcast Business Class cable as our primary internet access, with backup provided by a dry loop DSL circuit from Covad.

It’s important that your two sources of connectivity are different modes of connection, in our case cable & DSL. We could bond a couple of DSL lines and achieve higher speeds, but we’d be susceptible to a single mistake with a backhoe taking out both of our circuits.

I’ve walked down the street, examined the lines and know that the copper goes south down the street while the coax cable goes another direction. No one silly mistake will take them both down.

A Ramble In Search Of A Topic: Podcasts, NAB, Convergence of Broadcast & IP Comms

April 5, 2011
Michael Graves
VoIP

three-podcasts At this very moment I face a bit of a problem. What to write about? I have a lengthy list of ideas, notes and incomplete drafts. Oddly enough, none have any appeal at this very moment. Yet here I sit, on board a Jet Blue flight from Houston to New York…which is typically prime time for wordsmithing without distraction.

When I travel I tend to listen to podcasts. Often I’ll catch up on VUC calls that I’ve missed. Today I have a couple of episodes of Escape Pod and CBC Radio’s Spark on my phone. All three are favorites and well worth your time to give them a listen.

Like it not, my work is somewhat seasonal. This time of year we are consumed by the reality of the National Association of Broadcasters Annual Convention & Exposition, aka NAB 2011. NAB opens a week from today. Much of the coming weekend I will spend helping to get our booth ready for the show.

A Tale Of Wonky Wifi Part 5: Another Transition

Open Mesh OM-1P Wireless Access Point When last we left our intrepid hero he had suffered nine months of unreliable Wifi wound the home and home office. After trying a major brand name SMB class 802.11N type, which was utterly disappointing. At the end of part 4 in our saga we had just completed the installation of a pair of Open Mesh OM-1P 802.11G type MESH APs. Beyond that the entire project went quiet.

In this case that long quiet stretch is “a good thing*.” The OM-1Ps were in service for over a year. I had one in the house in the forward portion of the property and a second in the office at the rear. Two were required to provide adequate coverage.

The OM-1Ps were not perfect. They were only 802.11B/G, so lacking some of the features of newer N-type APs. Also, they didn’t support WPA2 encryption, which would have been my preference. Still, they worked well enough that I left them in service.

After about eight months the OM-1P in the house started to become unreliable. After resetting it a few times I simply powered it down permanently. That meant that wifi coverage on the front porch was sketchy to unusable.

New Gear: The Viewsonic gTablet

March 28, 2011
Michael Graves
mobile, Work 2.0

Last week Woot.com offered the 10.1” Viewsonic gTablet for the very attractive price of $279. Being enamored of my Android 2.2 powered G2 phone I found the offer too good to pass up. I ordered one for myself.

I’ve ordered a few things from Woot.com previously, based upon that experience I didn’t expect the goods to arrive too quickly. However, I was pleasantly surprised when it arrive Saturday afternoon.

From a perspective of pure hardware specifications the gTablet is amongst the first of a new generation of Tegra2-based Android tablets. The 1 GHz dual-core processor certainly feels peppy. The gTablet’s multi-media capabilities seem impressive. It plays movies, even 1080p HD movies, quite well.