Graves On SOHO Technology

Verizon Hub: A Work In Progress

February 18, 2009
Michael Graves
Telco, VoIP

I decided to have a look a what Verizon Wireless has to say about their fancy new Hub home phone. A stated previously, I’m an enthusiast and early adopter, so I could be compelled to change wireless carriers if the Hub was really something special. In fact, I want something like this in my home, that is, if it can deliver upon even half of the promise that I envision.

So I cruised on over to their web site and read all there was to read. Saw all there was to see.

Nerd Vittles Asks “Why Wait For An Asterisk to Skype Gateway?”

February 17, 2009
Michael Graves
Asterisk, VoIP

Ward Mundy over at Nerd Vittles has a great post describing how to build your own Asterisk-to-Skype gateway using the readily available SIP-To-Sis software. They note that this is the core of the recently launched Gizmo5 OpenSky service. If you…

Initial Success With Eyebeam 1.5.19.4 Build 51814

February 15, 2009
Michael Graves
VoIP

counterpath1 A short while ago I was informed that Counterpath had issued a new release of their Eyebeam soft phone for Windows. This release, v1.5.19.4 Build 51814 available from their support forum, was supposed to address the interoperability issues I encountered last fall when passing G.722 calls between Eyebeam and a Polycom hard phone.

I downloaded the program and took it with me on a business trip the following week. Upon initial installation I found that the program overwrote the version that I had been issued by ZipDX. I suppose this makes sense as both were in the v1.5 branch. However, the license key that ZipDX had provided would not enable the new release. I contacted Counterpath and they very quickly provided me a license key to enable the new release.

A Talk In The Clouds: Asterisk on EC2

February 14, 2009
Michael Graves
Asterisk, Computing, VoIP

Over the past year there has been a building of interest in running Asterisk on cloud infrastructure such as Amazon's EC2. Here's a compilation of sources on the topic: Ronald Lewis' blog The ResVoip Project Voxilla's VoIP In The Cloud:…

Polycom SoundPoint IP 550 / IP 650 Reviewed

February 13, 2009
Michael Graves
VoIP

Originally published at www.smallnetbuilder.com on August 13, 2008

When I was asked several months ago about reviewing a pair of new Polycom desk phones, I simply could not believe my good fortune. It was a little like being asked if I’d like to have a Tesla roadster for a few weeks. But of course my good man! Where do I sign?

A Strange Brew: VoIP/Telephony Crossed With Surround Sound

February 9, 2009
Michael Graves
Audio, VoIP

(this started as a quick comment on my Facebook page, but I’m moving it here so that people outside of FaceBook can join in)

With apologies to the McKenzie brothers. There appears to be an odd cross between two of my passions in the works. As I get more into the daily use of wideband telephony I wonder if there’s a potential to leverage some surround sound techniques to take conferencing to a new level?

It couldn’t be the puritanical kind of approach used in music recording. It would be more a matter of using surround panning to position participants in an synthetic soundfield. I wonder if this has been done to any degree elsewhere?