As part of their US product launch Gigaset Communications are importing their DE380IPR SIP desk phone. At first glance this seems like a relatively unremarkable lower-end desk phone. However, it does support the G.722 wideband codec.
I had a quick look at the device in May at the HDComms Summit. It’s looks like a decent little phone, possibly comparable to the lower-end Polycom IP320/330s.
Thilo Salmon, CEO of SIPGate, was our guest on the VUC call on June 4th. Until then I had only passing awareness of the company, primarily as a result of speaking with some associates in the UK and Germany who have used the service for years. I signed up for an account just to give it a whirl. Further, I was more than a little intrigued when Mr Salmon said that the service has some support for wideband calling using G.722.
| This article was originally posted in June 2009, before Gizmo5 was purchased by Google. |
Last week I suggested Skype as an easy way to get started with wideband VoIP. Michael Robertson’s Gizmo5 is a great alternative to Skype.
Whereas Skype is a relatively closed network using proprietary protocols and codecs, Gizmo5 is based on SIP, a global open standard. A Gizmo5 account can be used from the Gizmo5 soft phone client or any SIP compliant device. That means that the myriad of SIP phones (hardware & software varieties) can be used with Gizmo5.
Steven Perich recently posted an excellent article on his blog entitled, "How to make your phone calls sound better!" It's a concise explanation of wideband telephony, described in very easy-to-understand terms for a non-technical audience. It's well written, amusing and…
Sorell Slaymaker of Unified IT Systems he penned an interesting post over at CMPs No Jitter blog. The post starts out as follows:
After architecting a 50,000+ seat IP Telephony system and seeing it through rollout, this is what I would recommend to do different.
Wow! That’s huge. Got my attention right away! He goes on to give a list of brief but really meaningful points about various considerations in any significant telephony installation.
Not long ago telecom writer and blogger Doug Mohney issued forth a Tweet asking:
“Anyone out there using HD calling (G.722) on a daily basis?”
I’ve not met Doug, although I sat a few seats down from him much of the day at last month’s HD Communications Summit. I’ve read his work at various places including FierceVoIP. Doug truly knows telecom.
What his tweet brought to mind is the simple fact that many people might be interested in making use of wideband voice, but not know where to start. I use wideband voice, in one form or another, literally every day. If you’re a technical sort it’s not that difficult. For the non-technical it can be a minefield. So I thought I should offer some suggestions based upon my own SOHO experience.