In the month or two since I posted my review of the Gigaset A580IP SIP/DECT phones I’ve been contacted a number of times by people struggling with configuring the phone for their chosen ITSP. In most cases it’s a simple matter of the people not being familiar with some of the terminology common to SIP service providers, and being able to map the terms use by their ITSP to the menus on the Gigaset web admin portal.
We do love our Squeezeboxen. In fact, we love ’em enough that we have four of the little beasties scattered around here. They are at the core of our strategy for “whole house audio.”
The strategy is simple, nothing fancy or even built-in. In each room where we like to listen to music or internet radio we have a Squeezebox3 and a pair of self-powered monitor speakers. When we entertain a crowd, we sync up the whole shebang so that we have music throughout the property but independent control of volume in each room.
Yes, it’s true, I’ve been a little distracted. Recently a lot of my focus has been work related, as I’ve been on a project in Baltimore the past two weeks. During the time I’ve been staying at a Doubletree near Johns Hopkins University. It’s a quiet place with a good restaurant, including a nice wine list.
Sadly, cellular service in the area is spotty. I’ve had no T-Mobile coverage in my room. That leaves me relying upon VoIP over the hotel Wifi or my Sprint Mifi. Happily, those have been decent options.
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A big thank you to Dave Zatz for pointing out that Verizon Wireless today decided to discontinue the HUB. This product has been very interesting to watch as it represents a fundamental rethinking of the “home phone” and could have changed the industry for the better.
But as is typical of Verizon Wireless, they’ve managed to kill the goose before the golden egg could emerge. Actually, that’s not a fair characterization of the project. They sealed its fate with their typically heavy-handed need to for cash & control. They held the goose so tight that it could never breathe, much less lay an egg.
As Dave points out, the device and its associated service was simply priced beyond the reach of its appeal.
Ok, this is me diving into the deep-end of something that very possibly literally no-one in the world cares about. That’s just so typical of me. Actually, I know that a few people are starting to clue in about this because I’ve heard it come up here and there in conversation, most recently at the Sept 15th HDComms event in NYC.
This post is actually the third in a series. In the first (Pink Floyd: The Making Of Money & Directionality) I took a quick look at pop music recording practices and specifically the practice of recording things “close-mic’d” the adding ambience through synthetic means. In the second in the series (Codecs, Wideband & Stereo: A Conversation At Amoocon) I followed a conversation in the hallway at AMOOCON 2009, noting aspects of the discussion pertaining to “stereo” or the conveyance of directionality.
Once we get beyond PSTN audio quality, when wideband is accepted as normal, then “dimensional” or “immersive” audio becomes a new frontier for exploration in telephony. In fact, in some limited ways we’re already doing this in larger video conference room & telepresence suites.